Gita 18.78 Human excellence and divine omnipotence herald victory

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
verse thank you Gita 18.78 the last verse of the Bhagavad Gita Yatra where the word where is usually a geographical describer of location where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna there will be victory now it is interesting that the Bhagavad Gita concludes with a specific statement but the specific statement is made in a way where there is where there is generic implications so he doesn’t just say that Arjuna that the Sajiya doesn’t say that the Pandavas will be victorious at one level because that is what he effectively means when he is saying the Pandavas will be victorious but that Krishna’s side or Arjuna’s side will be victorious but he doesn’t say that specifically he says where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna there will be victory so naturally when we are in a war and there is a war about to start there is anxiety about who will win the war and just like nowadays if there is great infatuation with cricket then people often ask the question ok who won the match who won the match who is going to win the match what are the predictions often depending on how a particular batsman is batting or how a particular bowler is bowling there are nowadays with cricket also being sports in general associated with betting so there are odds at this stage say there is an India Pakistan match cricket match then the odds that Pakistan will win are 73% the odds that India will win are 27% or something like that but then if an Indian batsman starts batting especially well then the odds also turn so basically when a match is going on there is a lot of anticipation of who will win lot of anticipation about who will win and not just when a match is going on even before the match is going on say for example before a cricket match starts off especially if it is an important cricket match cricket final or something like that then lot of people ask the question ok who is going to win who is going to win what is the prediction for this particular finals they will say that ok our prediction is different experts will claim this is my prediction this is my prediction and then they will give the basis for making their prediction so Sanjay is also before the Kurukshetra war is making this prediction Krishna and Arjuna have been discussing and that discussion is reported as a part of the discussion between Yudhishthira and Sanjay and the Bhagavad Gita began with the question Dharmakshetra Kurukshetra Samavetha Unitsava Mamakaha Pandava Shaiva Kimakurvata Sanjaya so it began with the question that at Dharmakshetra Kurukshetra the righteous place Kimakurvata the two armies assembled for fighting what did they do so just as there is an oblique answer there is also an oblique question the obliqueness of the question is that what did they do what does it mean that how did they decide what they are going to do it’s obviously in a sense they are assembled for fighting so they are going to fight the essential question is did the fight actually take place and who had the better or who had the upper hand and who eventually won so now if an expert makes a prediction this team is going to win or that team is going to win then the predictor has to give some rationale for the prediction why are they saying this team will win or that team will win that rationale has to be given carefully with some substance to it so that substance is being talked about here that the last two lines are the prediction the prophecy and the first two lines are the rationale for the prophecy so let’s see how it works now there is the fact of yatra yogeshwara krishna yatra partha dhanur dhara so where there is krishna and where there is arjuna there will be victory now so we could say yatra yatra is also not just where there is arjuna you could also say wherever there is arjuna and wherever there is krishna there will be victory and if you consider arjuna to be the expert every man you know we all are living beings and by god’s grace we also all have some expertise in some field so some of us may be good at speaking some of us may be good at managing some of us may be good at doing certain other things so we use all these things and move onwards so the point of the prophecy is generic that human excellence and divine omnipotence will bring victory so human excellence is yatra path dhanur dharaha arjuna is the human being he is every man he is you and me he represents that and we all have our fields of excellence and we need to our whatever field of excellence we have whatever gifts we have we are meant to use them wholeheartedly so to the extent we use them wholeheartedly we do our part to the best of our ability to do our part to the best part the best our capability there might be extraordinary obstacles, I mean, insurmountable seeming obstacles that may be there.
But if we stay perseverant, if we stay determined, then we will find that in due course, by Krishna’s grace, the impossible will become possible. So, if we see that happening in the life of Sri Prabhupada, He is one diligent, determined devotee, striving to share Krishna’s message of love with the world. And Krishna is described as Yogeshwara.
He is the lord of mystic power. That means the way he works is different from the way we normal human beings can work or can even conceive of working. Krishna has his own extraordinary ways by which he makes things happen.
And if we just take shelter of Him, if we just seek to harmonize with Him, if we just invoke His grace, if while staying ourselves determined to serve Him, then He can make extraordinary things happen. So, the Bhagavata’s concluding statement is both specific and generic. It is specifically answering with Rashtra’s query, what happened? What happened in the battlefield? Who won? Actually, who is going to win? So, he says that actually the Kauravas are not going to be the winners.
The Pandavas are going to be winners. Where there is Krishna, there is Arjuna, there is going to be victory. It’s a specific answer.
The question is oblique, so the answer is also somewhat oblique. But still, it’s clear enough. Now, along with that, there is also a generic answer over here, generic conclusion of the Gita is that actually we, at our core, are spiritual beings and we need to work at serving the Lord.
That means that we need to diligently, determinately, tirelessly do our part in the scheme of things. When we do our part, so Krishna will take care of His part and what might seem impossible to us at present, might by His inconceivable power not only become possible, but also may become inevitable. That is the faith that we as devotees have in Krishna and that is the faith that we get by understanding the Bhagavad Gita’s conclusion that by the combination of human excellence and divine omnipotence, the impossible becomes possible.