Gita 18.68 The bhakti cure cures more those who share the cure more

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 18.68 Vedam paramam guhyam mad-bhakti shubhidhāsati bhaktiṁ mayi parāṁ kṛtvā mām eva vishyate saṁśaya hāṁ Krishna is speaking here and telling us of the nature in which we can endear himself to him the activity that will most please him so he says vedam paramam guhyam that this most confidential knowledge what is this knowledge? the knowledge of how to of how he loves everyone and how he is endearing and longing that everyone should come to him that why there are various levels of dharma paradharma wherein we devote ourselves to Krishna is supreme and Krishna wants all of us to rise to that level of paradharma to give up all other activities and to simply surrender to him all this knowledge is something which Krishna is providing us in this concluding section of the Gita and Krishna is saying that he does want this knowledge to be shared and if we share it that will please him immensely why? because he is after all the greatest well-wisher of everyone and one who informs everyone about their greatest well-wisher also becomes the greatest well-wisher that means suppose somebody is sick and they tried various doctors and nothing is working and they have resigned themselves to living in pain but suppose somebody comes along and informs them of a doctor who has a therapy to cure them then even though the doctor is the actual curer the person who is delivering the message about the cure also plays a vital role in the cure so similarly for us if we move towards devoting ourselves to our lord and sharing his glory with others disconnection from Krishna is the cause of great distress and if we learn to connect with him and if we help others to connect with him then we bring the greatest auspiciousness in our life and the lives of others so while there are various levels of aparadharma Krishna wants us to rise to paradharma and herein he talks about that level of paradharma when he states that those who share this knowledge so Krishna wants this to be shared among his devotees basically Krishna does not it may not make much sense to share the knowledge of devotion among devotees the word devotee can be used in an expansive sense at one level everyone is potentially a devotee because every soul has the potential to love Krishna simultaneously every soul has their present level of spiritual receptivity and some souls have greater spiritual receptivity than others so those souls who have a greater receptivity those are the souls who are most likely to be benefited by Krishna’s message others may have to go through more experience in life may have to evolve more before they can come to a level of relishing higher happiness and that’s why it’s vital for us to recognize that we cannot on our own move ahead in life towards towards Krishna unless we help others to move towards Krishna of course in principle we can serve Krishna and naturally we can develop our relationship with him but in practice serving Krishna means we serve in a way that is pleasing to him and serving in a way that is pleasing to him means that we serve in a way that helps us to grow in our devotion and to go deeper towards Krishna through that devotional experience through that devotional enrichment through the experience of love and joy that comes by helping others to experience love and joy when we see for ourselves that Krishna is our Lord and Krishna is enabling us to stay connected with him Krishna is giving us access to him and Krishna is giving us the facility by which we can come closer to him by sharing the access with him with others and that creates a profound level of enrichment within us so bhakti is the treasure that grows by the sharing of that treasure it is a medicine that works better on us we help it to work on others because normally if we have a medicine which we are taking ourselves and we want others to take that medicine then if we have only one medicine if we give it to others it may affect our health if we have to get another medicine when the two become independent of each other their getting cured will not necessarily help us to become cured but in the case of bhakti the cure is not physical nor is the medicine physical so the spiritual works in different ways the cure is a cure of consciousness and that cure of consciousness centers on recognizing that Krishna who is our lord is meant for our ultimate benediction Krishna is our lord and he is meant to help us attain him that he wants to help us to attain him and in attaining him the essence is selflessness, service concern for others compassion so when we understand that just by the act of sharing Krishna bhakti with others we are giving others the facility to connect with us and by connecting with us they are connecting with Krishna and even if that connection with us doesn’t continue the connection with Krishna can still continue and because we had the concern for others that made us connect with him that enables us to manifest a higher level of devotion and that itself so that itself helps us grow so Krishna is saying that sharing devotion is a step towards savoring devotion and Krishna says that those who share this message with others for them he provides enrichment for them he provides upliftment he enables them to rise towards the ultimate perfection by granting them pure devotion in this life and by helping them to attain eternal life thereafter in his abode. Thank you