Gita Overview 5 (2.54-3.8)

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna we will continue our discussion on the second chapter and hopefully start the third chapter also a quick recap of what we did we started with the third section of the second chapter we completed the third and the fourth section the third section was the first application of atma jnana that is karma kanda and the second section was 38 to 53 that was the second application of atma jnana that is buddhi yoga and we discussed how the term buddhi yoga externally it means karma yoga internally it means bhakti yoga so now that section concluded with Krishna describing the symptoms of one in samadhi now we will start with a question because Krishna’s description seems to be far removed from the battlefield setting a person who has attained samadhi a person who has got liberated from all good and bad reactions so Arjuna wants to get a practical picture what is the characteristic of this person that is the 54th verse so here again we get another example where the gaunavrtti is essential how does he walk this is not an interview for a fashion show so obviously how does he walk the literal meaning the whole philosophical theme of the narrative going on so Krishna explains that actually bhashyate bhashyate means that which describes like a bhashya there is a shastra and then there is a bhashya so a commentary on a shastra is called as a bhashya and a commentary on a bhashya is called as a tika so a commentary on a commentary so the first level commentary is called a bhashya second level commentary is called as a tika so for example burjan prabhu surrender unto me is a tika prabhupada bhagavata that is the bhasya so now the word bhashya literally means bhaashya te iti bhaashya that which describes the symptoms that we describe the characteristics that is a bhaashya so sitapragyasya ka bhaashya what this means it doesn’t literally mean language what it means is what are is what is this description what are its characteristics ultimately what is language used for language is for description description of people of events of places so in that sense here the word bhaashya refers to the origin original meaning of the word original sense of the word language bhaashya that symptoms so Arjuna is asking four questions and Krishna answers these questions one by one so the immediate verse following this the 55th verse is the answer to ka bhaashya and then kim prabhashek how does he speak that is answer in next two verses 56 57 and 58 to 63 is the next answer kim asit how does he sit so kim prabhashek is simple how does he speak how does he speak means how does he respond to the ups and downs of life what is his verbal response because he sticks in transcendence he sits in sitapragya then if he is fixed in transcendence but still the world is not fixed the world is changing so when a person who is fixed in transcendence interacts with the changing world what is the response of that of that the world elicits from him that is kim prabhashek and then kim asit means how does he sit that means how does he control the senses kim asit and kim rajet means how does he move about how does he engage his senses because he cannot stay forever inactive so that is answered from 64 till the end of the so here in one sense prabhupada that does not translate bhaashya as what is the practise speech or language but you see the whole purport of the prabhupada is about symptoms it’s a sick person has a symptom this is a wealthy person has a symptom similarly the self-realised person also has a symptom so one of the one of our scholarly devotees vidwan gauram who is a very wonderful devotee in mayapur so he was telling me he did several pujas and it also struck me after notice he said sometimes what the prabhupada does is sometimes you will see in the bhagavatam prabhupada will translate a word in a word to word translation in one way and in the actual translation something else and there is no reference to that in the purport purport is something else so actually he is saying that prabhupada gives us three acharyas you know one acharya’s version he will give in the word to word translation, another acharya’s in the verse translation and another acharya’s in the purport so they all said that prabhupada gives maximum mileage in every purport maximum that we can take at our level so in that sense here prabhupada did not use the word he uses literal sanskrit translation kim bhai what is the speech what is the language but then he used the now interestingly here arjuna has introduced a new term sitapragya.
Krishna did not use the word sitapragya. Krishna used the word samadha vachala buddhi sadha yoga morsi sadhamadhi so now in fact the word sitapragya is used by Arjuna in the question and by Krishna as a response in his answers but after this the word sitapragya has not come anywhere else in the bhagavad-gita so actually there are some words which are used in specific context because sitapragya is fixed in intelligence now the word itself does not tell us whether is a bhakta or whether is a jnani or whether is a yogi or is a karma yogi the word doesn’t tell but actually ultimately everybody has to become sitapragya so in that sense this is a generic question answer session now one who is realised by what part he has realised it doesn’t matter but one who is realised what are his symptoms now of course it’s important how can one get those symptoms in the quickest and the easiest way and that Krishna will tell is by bhakti so sitapragya basically means fixed in intelligence and now after describing this Krishna will start his answer so first was his answer to sitapragya se kaabhasha what are his symptoms so two primary characters he described that prajahati yada kamaan gives up jahati is to give up prajahati means to completely give up prajahati yada kamaan material desires one gives up now the word kamaan in a restricted sense means lust in a generic sense it means all material desires so one who proposes in a generic sense it means all material desires sarvan and I have to emphasise it again prajahati is very strong word and sarvan is also again strong word all material desires without exception sarvan partha how can he give it up manogatan they are just produced by the mind and atmanye evatmana tushta tushta means satisfied so now the question may come isn’t tushti also a quality of the mind if he’s giving up all desires then how can he be satisfied he can be nothing practically speaking isn’t it but Krishna has very specific words over here sarvan partha manogatan all desires are born of the mind but beyond the mind is the soul and the soul has its original desires so we cannot give up all desires per se that is the Buddhist philosophy which is incomplete because Buddha had to reject the Vedic literature due to the Vedic literature being misused for animal slaughter and so he did not talk about the positive side of spirituality at all too much in fact Buddha was profoundly ambiguous in most times you know one time somebody came and asked Buddha so this philosophy is very peculiar did I discuss Buddhism earlier so you know they had they accept reincarnation without accepting soul now they okay what reincarnation so that is a great perplexity for them they say actually it is just the karma which goes from one person to another so they accept karma they accept reincarnation but they say actually they give a peculiar example at first the example appears very interesting he says that just as the flame of a candle you know when the candle is about to die the flame is transferred from one candle to another but actually nothing is transferred because the flame itself is not a continuous entity the flame itself is continuously changing so they say actually nothing is transferred now actually one can give examples to say anything you know but this example is used in the Bhagavatam for something else 11th canto I think Uddhav Gita uses this example for what that it says that just as the flame appears to be a continuous entity but it is not continuous it is continuously changing actually the wax is burning and making the flame so like that the material world appears to be continuous but it is continuously changing like the cells in my body are continuously dying and are being replaced so now to observe that something discontinuous is continuous requires some independent observer so Buddhism doesn’t explain who is the observer because so anyway the point I was making here is that Buddhism talks goes halfway halfway that it talks over you have to give up desires so Buddha was asked at one time you know so is the body different from the soul or is the body and the soul the same so Buddha remained silent the first person asked is body and soul same? Buddha remained silent are body and soul different? remained silent what is the answer? person went into frustration there is a primary disciple asked him so why did you not answer this question? Buddha replied it does not have the Adhikara to answer understand is whatever answer I give it will only increase your confusion therefore I have not answered it because ultimately without reading scriptures you cannot understand so another time somebody asked him so are you God? he remained silent he said are you an angel? he remained silent okay are you are you a celestial being? four or five people asked who are you? what are you? Buddha replied I am awake and walked away so Buddhism focus more on practicality Buddha said that don’t bother about the philosophy at least practise some basic sadhachara you come to goodness so Buddhism is often thought of an atheistic religion it is a spiritual religion which does not accept the existence of God does not accept the existence of soul so basically it is not atheistic it is pre-theistic pre-theistic means it creates the foundation of goodness by which people can actually take up to devotion so anyway the point we are discussing here is Krishna is very specific sarvan partha manogatan give up all material desires born of the mind not all desires per se so the Buddhist idea is also quoted in the Pingala pastime you know asahi paramam dukkham virasha paramam sukham that desire is the call of all suffering give up desire will become free from all suffering but Krishna is telling specifically sarvan give up which desire those are born of the mind and because the soul has its natural state of satisfaction either in realisation of one’s own sat-chit-ananda stage or beyond that by realisation of one’s loving eternal connection the all-attractive supreme Lord so that tushti is not the satisfaction of the mind the satisfaction of the mind cannot last for very long Prabhupada will talk about this in a later purport also that materialistic people seem to be very peaceful sometimes but actually their peace is artificial because actually the mind is filled with desire but somehow they are just checking the expression of the desire so that peace is just going to explode sooner or later but a devotee is peaceful because he has given up material desires so here he is saying that the tushti will come how the tushti will come? Atmanya evatmanah tushta. Atmanya evatmanah tushta.
Atmanya evatmanah tushta. Prabhupada says that when the mind thus purified finds satisfaction in the self that means the mind has to always think of something so if you think of the sense objects what happens Prabhupada writes later on in the 17th chapter when he is talking about austerity of the mind he says the more we think of the sense objects the more we become dissatisfied therefore Krishna is telling about how satisfaction is the austerity of the mind so there Prabhupada says so he says take the mind of the sense objects and fix it on the self. Krishna has not yet till now introduced himself that’s why he is not saying fix the mind on me as he will do later.
See in the Bhagavad Gita the progression Arjuna’s attention is on the body. Krishna takes Arjuna’s attention from the body moves it to the soul. Then from the soul he will move it to the Brahman.
From the Brahman he will move it to super soul and from super soul he will move it to Bhagavan. So we will see how this happens as the Bhagavad Gita progresses. Of course Prabhupada translates everything as shifting on Bhagavan only.
We discussed why. That is his compassion. At this stage he is talking about fixing the mind on the self.
So atmanya evatmanah tushta. So even the Yogi what is the happiness for a Jnani? It is just the relief from sensual agitation. Just as we have a very insightful conversation between Ramananda Raya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
He asks what is the greatest suffering? So there he says separation from devotees. There is a similar conversation in Uddhava Gita and Uddhava Gita is primarily at the level of Jnana and Bhakti. So it treats almost like Jnana and Bhakti are equal but Bhakti is superior ultimately.
So there Uddhava asks what is misery? Krishna has a very beautiful answer. He says dukkham kama sukha peksha. Dukkham.
What is dukkham? Kama sukha peksha. The expectation for material happiness is itself misery. And we may not feel that is misery but actually if we see somebody is addicted to drinking.
Now that person he is so miserable because he has to keep drinking. Or sometimes we may not be having so much experience of drunkard but if we are working in a company and then people have tea time. Now the tea doesn’t come on time.
They get so restless. Where is the tea going to come? Where is the tea going to come? So you can see that tea is not actually making them happy. It is making them agitated basically.
So that little gratification that they expect from the tea that increases their dissatisfaction. So dukkham kama sukha peksha for a drunkard. He thinks his attention is leading him to happiness but actually it is leading him to misery.
Some of you can come and sit here also. It has become very crowded there. So kama sukha peksha.
So now what is the happiness for a Jnani? It is just the freedom from misery. But actually hankering is a form of misery actually. Mind is agitated.
I want it, I want it, I want it. Actually the Bhagavad Gita compels it to fire that burn. Dushpoore naana na chahiye.
Now interestingly if you see the ordinary worldly movies, they also realise the suffering. But they just recast the whole idea. They will have songs.
Sawan jo aag lagaye. Now they also understand it is aag. It is burning.
But they think that actually enjoyment is able to remove that burning. But it doesn’t remove. It just temporarily sits and then it blazes forward.
Like fuel to burn fire. So the srishti that is talked about here is at this level for a nishthan karna or a Jnani, it is just the freedom from material desires. Situation and peace.
The mind doesn’t think of self-objects. It is not agitated. It turns to the self and it becomes So it is a profile that defines very simply who is a materialist and who is a spiritualist.
Materialist is one who seeks happiness externally. Spiritualist is one who seeks happiness internally. It is not a matter of designations.
It is not a matter of garb. It is not a matter of rituals. It is where is the pursuit of happiness.
So Krishna is saying when he gives up the pursuit of external happiness and focusses on internal happiness, he is Siddhaprakashya. So this is the primary symptom. Now he will describe in the next two verses how he speaks.
So this is one of the most structured of the Prabhupada’s purports. In this course we will not be able to go through all of the Prabhupada’s purports. But let’s go through this one purport.
Actually Krishna is talking about four points in this purport. In his verse. And Prabhupada takes one by one all the points.
So Prabhupada’s purport starts with talking about Chitrajini Muni. Muni is a speculator. But Chitrajini Muni is one who has given up all speculation.
So sometimes one of the challenges of doing Prabhupada’s purports is that we find that Prabhupada is repeating the same points again and again. So yes, Prabhupada repeats the same points, but they are all in specific contexts. And when we see the context of the application of the points, then we realise that actually it’s very important over here.
So seeing the connections is very important. So in Maharaj’s example, in the appreciation of Prabhupada, that ultimately all music, instead of the seven tunes, Sarva, Gana, Parna, Nisha. Now if somebody doesn’t understand the subtleties of the tunes, why does he repeat the same song again and again and again? But when one has a refined musical taste, then one starts seeing subtle differences.
Oh, this is something like this, this is something like this. So instead of relying on Prabhupada’s purports also, we have to develop a more aesthetic or subtle appreciation. So always seeing the context.
Why is Prabhupada saying this over here? That is the only way we can understand the repetitiousness of Prabhupada’s purport is not redundant. Redundant is unnecessary. They are repetitious.
But the repetition is not unnecessary. The repetition is based on conveying what is told in the context properly. So Prabhupada starts with the word, the word mini means.
And that goes on till he, this is in the middle of the purport, he is called a mini fixed in mind. So that is, that whole section he is describing, the stupidly mini. So almost 10-12 lines describes stupidly mini.
He is saying that this is a person who has given up all speculation. प्रशान्तन्हिशेष मनोरतांतरः This is a very beautiful prayer of Yamacharya in the Sutratna. भवन्तमेवानुचरन्निरंतरः प्रशान्तन्हिशेष मनोरतांतरः कदाहमैकान्तिकनित्यतिंकरः चहरिष्यशामिचनात्रजीवितम् So he says, Bhavantam, my dear lord, Bhavantam, unto you, एवानुचरन्निरंतरः Once I have become a constant devotee of yours, a constant servant of yours, what has happened? भवन्तमेवानुचरन्निरंतरः प्रशान्तन्हिशेष मनोरतांतरः The mind of Yamacharya, always running here and there, has become pacified.
Because now I understand, I don’t have to do anything in life except serve you. Otherwise, I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to do that, the mind remains agitated. And now, does that mean if I don’t have to do anything, my mind has become peaceful? Does that mean the devotee becomes completely unambitious, passive? He says, no, I have an ambition also.
What is that ambition? He says, कदाहं एकान्तिक नित्तकिंकरः प्रहर्षिष्यामि Now, in the knowledge that I am your नित्तकिंकरः, I am your eternal servant, when will I start becoming jubilant in that? प्रहर्षिष्यामि Why jubilant? सनार्थजीवितं That, I have got an heart like you, my dear lord. I have got such a wonderful master. That supreme lord, as Bhaktivedanta Thakur praised that, those lotus feet which are worshipped by Lakshmi, by Brahmaji, by Narada Muni, by Shivji, I have got those lotus feet.
So, that is the practical expression of प्रहर्षिष्यामि, how well the light is in. So, the devotee wants to spread the glories of the lotus feet of the lord. That is his ambition.
It has been an ambition for material desires. So, the first part, Prabhupada is talking about कित्वधी मिली, from a bhakti point of view. Then, Prabhupada starts describing, दुख्षिष्वानिध्विग्रिमन्ह, such a fully Krishna-conscious person, from there onwards, till, are minimised to the lowest.
So, Prabhupada is basically paraphrasing here, तक्तेनु कंद्मान्ससमिक्षमानो, how such a devotee feels that, whatever miseries are coming, he will get disturbed by the miseries. And then, after that, similarly, when he is happy, that sentence, तुरंदे बेट्टस्वानिध्विग्रिमन्ह, तुरंदे बेट्टस्वानिध्विग्रिमन्ह, that is, सुथ्येशु विगतस्प्रुह, one is not elated when there is happiness. And then, till the end of the purpose, Prabhupada is describing, वीत राग भय क्रोध, he is daring and active, and not influenced by attachment or aversion.
That is, वीत राग, and Prabhupada is saying, what is attachment? Then, he is always daring, that refers to भय, and lastly, क्रोध, he is not at all angry when he refers to not successful. And you can see that what Prabhupada is teaching over here, is what Prabhupada himself made. दृख्येश्वानिध्विग्रिमन्ह, we can see so many difficulties he faced when he was trying to preach in India, although 40 years and no results, practically speaking.
But still, Prabhupada kept preaching, and then, even when he got so much success, Prabhupada never rested on his laurels. Prabhupada was actually always expanding, he was doing so much austerity, not elated by happiness, just continuing on. वीतरागवयक्रोध, you see that Prabhupada would not get angry at devotees.
If things were going wrong, he would not be angry at particular devotees. If devotees had personal problems, he was very compassionate. He was always accommodating and encouraging devotees.
So, Prabhupada himself demonstrates this, how this verse is to be lived in our lives. Now, Vishwamitra Tarkhad describes that दृखेशवनदीज़िनमन्ह means that the दुखह and the सुखह will come even to the state of prajna. दुखह and सुखह will come.
Now, what does it mean, दुखह and सुखह will come? In the literal world, there are always things which will go wrong. And there will always be what will be pleasant things will also happen sometimes. So, he says, दुखह and सुखह will come.
But, such a person is not emotionally entangled, emotionally affected by दुखह and सुखह. If it comes, accept it. If misery comes, just tolerate it both ways.
So, now, if this verse is to be seen at the grammar level, so how the Nobel laureate was practising कर्मयोगा, which Krishna described, the perfection of कर्मयोगा is to come to bloom. So, the last verse is 52-53, the last section, समाधः अखलावुद्धिस् बाविवनासिदावुद्धिस् from the jnana section, the perfected perfected कर्म, that is jnana. So, for the jnana, what happens is, he sees, okay, my प्राद्ध कर्म is still remaining.
He just is a spectator to the प्राद्ध कर्म. Let it come and I will not be, I will not respond to it. A Baldevi devotee who is going into Vastu has a very beautiful explanation of this.
He says that, just as when a person is, he says, what happens to the प्राद्ध कर्म of a devotee? All of you know this term प्राद्ध कर्म, isn’t it? So, प्राद्ध कर्म means the manifest sinful reaction. So, the sinful reactions are of four kinds, कूत, बीज, or प्राद्ध, and प्राद्ध. So, कूत is a very very refined stage.
बीज is a seed stage. Or प्राद्ध is, that is about to come. And प्राद्ध has already come.
So, प्राद्ध means the kind of family that we were born in, the kind of whether healthy or sickly body we have, the looks, the intelligence of the body that we have. All this is प्राद्ध कर्म. So, he says, what happens to the प्राद्ध कर्म? For a व्याणि, he has to tolerate his प्राद्ध कर्म.
For a devotee, what happens to his प्राद्ध कर्म? He says, that Krishna holds the प्राद्ध कर्म in abeyance. He keeps it to himself, and he uses the devotee for his mission. And then, when the devotee serves him a lot, so much, that Krishna feels, I am so pleased with this devotee, I can no longer tolerate separation from this devotee.
Then, he takes the प्राद्ध कर्म entirely away, and brings the devotee back. And whatever प्राद्ध कर्म is remaining, he, he says, the pious प्राद्ध कर्म, he gives to the well-wishers of the devotee. And the impious प्राद्ध कर्म, he gives to the enemies of the devotee.
So, well, of course, Vishwanatha Thakur explains slightly differently. He says that actually, the प्राद्ध कर्म is remaining the moment you become a devotee. So, ultimately, you know, for a devotee who is suffering, whether it is प्राद्ध कर्म is there or it is not there, Bhakti Samyak Sindhu says that, प्राद्ध कर्म also goes on for the devotee.
Now, if a devotee gets some suffering, what we know for sure is that the devotee is under the care of the Lord. And whatever suffering is coming is just arranged by the Lord for his spiritual advancement. So, but the दुख्ष is there for a devotee also, but he is not emotionally affected by it.
So, the दुख्ष is there, but he is not affected by it. So, it is a practical example. He says, he is a sanyasi, he is going from house to house.
And if he goes to a particular house, and somebody just stands there and says, you beggar, you parasite, this, this, this. So, he is such a sanyasi, he doesn’t say, you, you block me, you come to my shop, I will curse you to go to hell. He doesn’t do like that.
He says, I will do it in the evening. And if somebody says, you die, you prasadam, up to nine feet. He says, you are so good, God bless you.
He doesn’t do like that. He says, Keshu, we get this. So, basically, the person is unaffected emotionally by what happens.
Now, a devotee may sometimes appreciate prasadam, especially Prabhupada was very particular about prasadam. Why? Because for him, prasadam was a spiritual tool. Like, prasadam is good, the people get attracted.
So, then, for the service of the Lord, Prabhupada was very conscious. But, personally, we see in Prabhupada, actually, back to Godavari India, he had very little money. So, he had to choose a little money, either to purchase paper or to purchase food for breakfast.
So, he would actually purchase paper and he would take that paper, personally carry it or get somebody to carry it if it is too big, to the printing press. And the printing press owner, he would ask, Swami, have you taken breakfast? And Prabhupada did not say anything. He said, Prabhupada has not taken.
Then, he would arrange some breakfast for Prabhupada. So, Prabhupada, now, he was completely detached as far as his own body was concerned. But, when it came to training his devotees in service, he was very particular.
So particular, in fact, that when Prabhupada went to Africa and his devotees brought some food, Prabhupada said, this is dog food. Now, somebody says, it is prasad. How can you call it dog food? But, the spiritual master had to train the devotees in how to cook properly.
So, Prabhupada was particular, but he had to understand the purpose of the spiritual master. So, now, after describing this, how a devotee… So, this was describing the internal effect. Emotionally, is he affected? No, he is not affected.
Now, however we are affected emotionally, it will also come out verbally. So, the verbal expression is described in the next verse. So, neither praising the good nor despising the evil.
And, Prabhupada actually proposed that there is always some disturbance in the material world. And, it may be bad or it may be good. So, what is the good disturbance? Because, even when materially good things happen, they can distract us from our service to Krishna.
So, in that sense, he is fixed on service to Krishna. So, for a devotee, his relationship with Krishna, the remembrance of Krishna, that is like a huge 5 crore rupees. And, material loss is like losing 5 rupees.
Material gain is like gaining 5 rupees. So, yes, it is a loss at some level. For example, he doesn’t know the 5 crore.
This is so big, you know. You lose 5 rupees. I lost 5 rupees.
I gained 5 rupees. Oh, I gained so much. But, for one who is fixed on the 5 crores, whether 5 rupee gain is there, 5 rupee loss is there, it doesn’t matter.
Because, he has got something much higher. So, in that sense, if he can get the 5 crore rupees, but somebody is wanting to give him 5 crores, and he is giving 5 rupees, give him quickly. And, he doesn’t pay attention to the 5 crore only.
So, what is going to happen? This 5 rupee, you may gain it, but that is a distraction from our relationship. So, a devotee is concerned primarily with remembering and serving Krishna. That is like the 5 crore thing.
And, whether materially good or bad, that is both a distraction. Now, Krishna will describe that, how is Kimasita? How does he control his senses? So, Krishna gives many examples from nature. So, this is the first example that we have seen.
Of course, there is another example, Yadate Moha Kalambuddhi. The forest through which the entrance is going. This is the second example.
The third one will be, Apu Ramanvachana Pradesh in the ocean. So, this is an example from nature to illustrate his point. So, he is telling, that now, a tortoise has a very strong shell.
In fact, the shell of a tortoise is so strong, that sometimes a giant elephant, even if it puts its foot, it will not crack. That is why the tortoise is protected. So, like that, he is saying that in this world, there are so many temptations, but he just withdraws the senses.
Anyone is protected. So, how does he illustrate? He just withdraws them inside. Withdraws them inside means, he does not let them interact with the sense objects.
He just withdraws them inside. As devotees, we engage ourselves in Krishna’s service, but when there is no engagement, we can withdraw them back. So, if you are going on the streets, if you are going in a metro, or a local, or a bus, if you look here and there, there is so much agitation that comes up.
You just withdraw and read something, chant something, then you can withdraw the shell of so much agitation. Now, Arjuna says, is just withdrawing the senses the symptom of a self-realised person? Because sometimes a sick person, you have to withdraw the senses. Sometimes a lazy person, you have to withdraw the senses.
So then, Krishna clarified in the next three verses. So, Krishna is very specific about Aahaar. Aahaar means food.
No Aahaar means no food or fasting. So, actually the sense objects are like the Aahaar for the senses. Beautiful forms are the Aahaar for the eyes.
Melodious songs are the Aahaar for the ears. So, Krishna is saying, and somebody gives up that Aahaar. This Aahaar is Subehina.
So, although he gives up that tea, that enjoyment, but the desire remains. So, when a sick person or a lazy person, he is giving up the sense objects, but he has not lost the desire. The desire is still there.
The desire has not gone away. But, one actually becomes detached when one gets a proper translation of Param Drishta as higher taste. Literally, Param is superior or spiritual and Drishta is vision.
So, superior vision. Basically, what it means is, ultimately, one has to experience Krishna. When one experiences Krishna, then there is so much higher happiness available for one.
Then, one says, okay, even if I lose this, it doesn’t matter. So, only when we experience Krishna, then can we become fixed in bhakti. By the intelligence, we can understand this is right and this is wrong, I should not do this, I should do this.
But actually, the mind will keep proposing, come on, do this, keep doing this. But when we experience Krishna, when we taste Krishna consciousness, then what happens is, that we become fixed. So, generally we say, there are three pramanas.
But, Shri Adi Goswami says that among all the pramanas, the ultimate pramana is experience. Once we have experienced something, then there is nothing to refute it. This is quoted in Mukund Maharaj’s book, Miracle on Second Avenue, that’s in the introduction.
Among all forms of knowledge, experience is the highest. And Krishna also hints that it is 9.2. Prataksha Vagamam Dharamyam Sukham Kartam Obeyam. So, Prataksha Vagam, direct experience.
So, yes, we need scriptural knowledge, and scriptural knowledge can swim in our connection. But ultimately, what fixes in bhakti is spiritual experience. So, spiritual experience comes by engaging our senses in devotional service, by serving the Vaishnavas, by doing our sadhana nicely.
So, that spiritual experience is what Krishna is talking about. So, both the sick person and the lazy person lacks spiritual experience. Because they don’t have spiritual experience, they come back again and again to the sense objects.
But, one who has spiritual experience will not come back. Now, as I said, Krishna will describe now in this verse, 59 is like the seed in which he describes 60 and 61 further. So, 60 he describes, one who doesn’t have that experience.
And 61 describes one who gets that experience. So, good question. There are experiences of two kinds.
What Srila Prabhupada is talking about over there is the experience of the futility of material life. The experience of the futility of material life, if somebody has to learn it by experiencing it, then that is no class. Just like if somebody is a drunkard.
And then you say that drinking will not lead to happiness. I want to experience. How will I believe it? You don’t have to dress.
You can see. You don’t have to actually. You can see how people get so much sickness.
They go berserk. They go mad. And they make a mess out of their life just by drinking.
So, material life, if one has to experience to understand it, then it is false. That is low level. But spiritual life, ultimately is about experience.
Now, without experience, if you see Chaitanya Charita Amrit, what are all the past tense? There, Lord Chaitanya has experience of Krishna. You just see a small mountain and you just go over there. And you say, it is very important, that experience.
So, experiences are very important. But, we are not talking about material life here. Prabhupada’s statement is about material life.
Prabhupada is about three figures example. One is beaten and then he learns. But we are talking about spiritual life.
So, of course, experience has to be guided by Shastra. Prabhupada would sometimes, in morning walks, very insightful analysis. One time, there was a morning walk, and Prabhupada asked, why do you consider Krishna to be God? Prabhupada asked all the devotees.
And devotees said, because Bhagavad Gita says so. So what? I don’t believe in Bhagavad Gita. And then, he started thinking, and nobody got the answer.
Prabhupada said, we accept Krishna as God, because when we chant Hare Krishna, we experience ecstasy. And then, Prabhupada went to another part of country, and one of the devotees from here had also gone there. Prabhupada never asked the question.
So, why do you accept Krishna as God? And then everybody is giving different answers. And he says, when will I get the chance? Then he finally said, Prabhupada, we accept Krishna as God, because when we chant Hare Krishna, we experience ecstasy. Your ecstasy is just a hallucination.
That’s completely wrong. Prabhupada said, we accept Krishna as God, because Bhagavad Gita says so. That means, that actually, we just don’t want any experience in Jnani arbitrary way.
That is for scripture, and when we follow the scriptural direction, that gives the experience. So, both have to be there. Prabhupada is emphasising different points.
Somebody has said, I am following Bhagavad Gita, but I am not doing bhakti for Krishna. Somebody is talking about bhakti, but he is not following scriptures. So, both are there.
So, if you see, this is one verse, that if one is doing bhakti without shastra, it is useless. There is another verse, what is that? How does it start? So, he is saying that, if there is no bhakti, mantra, tantra, japa, tapa, all the other experiences are there, but if there is no experience of bhakti, then it is useless. The essence is what? Actually, we have to have scripture and experience both.
Otherwise, we just go around trying every possible experience that anybody can get. Now, we understand what is the valid experience from scripture. And after understanding what is the valid experience, we don’t want to just stay with the highest.
We want to experience that highest experience. So, both are there. So, now Krishna will describe in the 60th verse, you had a question also, good question.
Do desires come from the soul or they come from the mind? The mind is matter, but it is subtle matter. So, subtle matter means, like the mind, as you know, is like a software. The brain and the body is like a hardware.
So, now, when we turn on a computer, sometimes the computer starts some different programmes. It may start work, it may start outlook. So, it starts something like that.
So, the mind, by its software, although it is also non-living, it starts functioning in its own way. So, software is slightly subtler matter than gross matter. So, in that sense, although it is also non-living, but it has some potential for activity, which has been programmed earlier.
So, like that, the mind, by our own past habits and experiences, has certain different tendencies. So, some different programmes start. So, like that, certain default tendencies in the mind come up.
So, as soon as a man sees a woman, the default programme of love starts running. So, like that, certain default programmes are there in the mind, and they start running. So, those desires, the literal desires, in one sense, are not coming from the soul.
They are coming from the default programme of the mind. Now, what the soul does is, yes or no? Yes. The soul accepts.
So, now, the soul’s own desires are not in the picture in you right now. Because the soul is spiritual, and the soul cannot have any material desires. In the original spiritual sense.
Only one of the desires is percussion. But we do have material desires. So, how are the material desires coming? They are coming from the default conditioning of the mind.
So, in that sense, although, that’s why, if we see our scriptures repeatedly, and our asuras also, they read the mind as if it’s moving. The mind is saying like this. Don’t listen to the mind.
The mind is your worst enemy. Now, the whole thing is, the personification of the mind is done to help us understand the very living nature of the danger it poses. Any moment it can pose danger.
It’s not dead in the sense that it is inactive. It’s very active. But that activity, that energy-based activity, we have only provided that energy by our past past desires, past actions.
Is it clear? So, the desires come from the mind. They are from the stored past experiences of the mind. So, now, the next verse describes the jnani who is who has not got that param drstva.
So, now, this verse is describing the jnani who is not already sense gratified. He is actually describing a spiritual seeker. And that’s why, how do we know he is describing a spiritual seeker? He is endeavouring to control the senses.
That’s why it is avipacchitaha. Remember, Krishna used the word avipacchitaha for the karma kandis in 2.42. So, here he is in viprashya. He is discriminating.
He understands this is temporary, this is eternal. And he is also trying to stay away from the temporary. But still, the senses interact.
So, the senses drag away the mind. Now, Prabhupada gives the example of Vishwamitra, of course. And, essentially, just by jnana, if one tries to control the senses, it is very difficult.
Although jnana is only the beginning. So, jnana comes with jnana. Krishna will talk in the Bhagavad Gita 6th chapter.
jnana-vijnana-truptatma. jnana-vijnana-trupti. Prabhupada talks about it in the Purport.
How? A yogi is one who can control his senses according to a plan. This is what I am going to do. This is what I will not do.
Now, how can one do this? This was described, one who cannot control. But how can one control? Krishna describes in the next verse. So, till now, Krishna has been describing at one level, the symptoms of the self-realised person.
But there are also qualities that a sadhaka should try to develop. So, just as the self-realised person naturally withdraws the senses from the sense-objects, the sadhaka can voluntarily withdraw the senses from the sense-objects. In this verse, till now, all the verses are interchangeable.
They can be described as siddha or sadhaka. In this verse, Vishwamitra says that the first part describes the sadhaka and the second part describes the siddha. So, what does sadhaka do? Tani sarvani sanyanya yukta asita.
There are three stages. First is sanyama. Sanyama means control.
There is opposition, but one controls. Like a horse which is going out of control. So, first, one has to have some basic sanyama.
And then, that basic sanyama alone is not enough. Using that sanyama, one has to yukta asita matparaha. Fix the mind on me.
This is the key. The word is asita. Where did the word asita come earlier? Ginn asita.
So, this is the answer to that question. How does it fit? How does it situate the senses? It situates the senses in me. Yukta asita matparaha.
So, first stage is control of the senses. Without some basic control of the senses, you cannot even fix the mind on Krishna. Some basic sense control is required.
So, first is sanyama. Then comes yukta asita. And then, the third stage is vasha.
Vasha means conquer. So, first is control, sanyama. Control, fix, and conquer.
So, it’s a three-stage process that we discuss. So, control and fix is sadhaka stage. And conquer is a siddha stage.
So, at the last stage, you are trying to control and fix the mind on Krishna. And when you do that, eventually, vasha. Vasha means the mind becomes controlled.
So, it’s not at all correct. You are thinking of delivering the sense object. So, that is a very advanced level.
Now, Krishna will continue at the next question and answer starts from 64. So, here he has given the hint. So, again to emphasise the vitality of that yukta asita matparaha, he will draw contrast in the next two verses by describing what happens to one who does not do this fixing the mind on Krishna.
Now, Prabhupada in this partha describes that Mambarish Maharaj, how he fixes the mind on Krishna. And now, very important point, Krishna cheta has to say that this is the first drop of bhakti Krishna has dropped in the Bhagavad Gita. First time Krishna is talking about himself as not just a teacher of sense control, but as the object of the controlled senses.
Till now Krishna has seen, control like this, control like this. So, after controlling, what will he do? Fix them on him. So, Krishna will just drop drops of bhakti like this.
This is 2.61 is one, 3.32 is second drop. And then, full section 4.1 to 15, where Krishna will talk about his glories. And then again in 6th chapter he didn’t talk so much about himself, except for 5.29. And then 6th chapter also, 3-4 verses come.
And from 7th chapter onwards, Krishna starts talking about his glories more and more. But before that also, actually, Krishna wants to take Arjuna on a guided tour of the whole Vedic system in terms of self-realisation and establish the glories of bhakti. But ultimately, Krishna knows bhakti is supreme.
And therefore, what is in his heart comes out of his own bhakti. This is the key of how to control the senses. And this will be what we elaborated on later on.
Now Krishna describes, if one doesn’t control the senses, what happens? Doesn’t fix them on Krishna, now what happens? So, Krishna is here in describing the psychological genesis of fall-down. Genesis means origin. How it originates.
It all begins with contemplation. So, actually, material desires are like a bubble in the mind. A small bubble, when you blow it, it keeps becoming bigger and bigger.
So, all of us have many bubbles in the mind. This desire will make me happy, that desire will make me happy. But, it depends on whether we blow the bubble.
By the way, little desire is often compared to a bubble. Because a bubble can grow very very big, but then, one time it will break. So, actually, material desires, we try to, the anticipation grows bigger and bigger.
As we contemplate on it, the desire, the anticipation grows bigger and bigger. But the actual experience is like the bursting of the bubble. Because when we actually experience it, the enjoyment is so little.
The enjoyment is so temporary at the material level. Because the body’s capacity to enjoy itself is temporary. But the bubble keeps growing bigger and bigger.
It completely occupies our mind. So, the bubble draws air. How does the air flow? What happens when we do contemplation? The contemplation makes this bubble of material desire grow bigger and bigger by three things.
It is past impressions, present perceptions and future imaginations. It’s past impressions. Now, when we see a sense object, what happens is, we have past impressions.
So, the past impressions come, and the present perceptions are there. And, along with that, there are the future imaginations. So, actually, these three things pump air into a bubble.
And the bubble grows more and more and more. Now, somebody who has never any past impressions on me, somebody who has never taken any drugs, for example, you want to take some drugs? What is this? There are no narcotic drugs. There are no past impressions.
They don’t lead to any agitation on me. Of course, everybody has past impressions about lust. It’s not from this life.
It’s from earlier life. But, generally, if we avoid these three things, the present perceptions, we can’t avoid so much. They will come.
But, actually, the present perceptions, only when they are combined either with past impressions or future imaginations, only then does it grow. That’s why Krishna is telling here, not, He is saying, because we cannot avoid the sense objects coming in contact at some level. We cannot avoid seeing.
But, when the present perceptions are combined either with past impressions or future imaginations, then they start growing. Krishna is describing the following. Once we contemplate, it’s nice, I want it.
Immediately, no, it’s not supposed to do this. Who said I can’t do it? Krodha. So, from that, this Krodha Krishna is talking about is not the, is the Krodha, when self-realisation is obstructed.
Obstructed in the sense that, I told you, you cannot do this. So, the Krodha comes. Who said I cannot do it? Krodha comes, actually, who is telling us don’t do this, is telling us for our good.
But, Sammoha comes along. And then, what happens because of Sammoha? Krodha is describing further. So, So, Smriti refers here to Smriti Shastra.
Smriti is not just memory. Yes, it is memory. But, our memory of what we have heard from Guru Swami Shastra.
At our level, our intelligence is contaminated. And that’s why, if you read the Vedanta, it is very interesting that the mind comes from the mode of goodness and intelligence comes from the mode of passion. Normally, we consider intelligence to be higher than the mind.
But, actually, when Krishna is talking over there, he is talking about material intelligence. So, why mind is said to come from the mode of goodness? Because, goodness is connected to intelligence. So, the mind maintains our material existence.
And, intelligence is passion. Passion is its creation. So, intelligence creates new plans for expanding our material existence.
That’s why, material intelligence cannot lead one to freedom from material desires. That’s why, you see, people who are materially also very very intelligent, often they just overpower the material. You know, Einstein, he had, Einstein is considered to be one of the greatest brains.
And, he was certainly very intelligent. But, you know, he had a long affair in his college days. And, then he got married.
And, then he got fed up with his wife. And, he had an affair with his cousin for 20 years. And, then he divorced his wife.
And, then married his cousin. And, his personal life was, in one sense, from the Victorian morality point of view, scandalous. Stephen Hawking is considered to be a very big scientist.
He is practically crippled. But, he had an affair with his caretaker. And, so, the material desires were so… So, material desires were so strong that actually, they, that material intelligence cannot help one to control the senses.
Sometimes, just for the sake of material enjoyment, people may control their senses. That’s like when people want to study for IIT. No, they appear to be more self-controlled than they deserve.
They will give up everything and just focus on studies. But, that is just to get more self-gratification in the future. One cannot give up… One cannot give up self-gratification per se.
Hiranyakashipu gave up such self-gratification. Brahmaji said that, you know, you had an affair with Bhupoji. But, then, after that, he did that kind of self-gratification which even the devatas did not do.
So, Krishna is not talking about that kind of self-serving, temporary, time-binding self-control. He is talking about giving up. Therefore, smriti refers to the scriptures.
When we keep contemplating, what happens is, our memory of the spiritual master’s instructions is lost. When that memory is lost, the buddhi is based on smriti. So, when smriti is lost, buddhi is lost.
And buddhi is at the last frontier. Once the influence is lost, then it falls down. So, thinking, feeling, and willing.
So, thinking and feeling are the thoughts come in the mind and the feelings also come in the mind. Influence is the discriminator. When influence decides to do it, then we fall.
So, buddhi is the last frontier. Guru Goswami says that, in the sadhaka stage, the sadhaka stays on the spiritual platform by his buddhi. The siddha will stay on the spiritual platform by his bhakti.
But we stay on the spiritual platform by our buddhi. The buddhi becomes destroyed and we fall back. So, buddhi nashat pranashyati.
So, now, here Krishna completes the answer. So, how does he sit? Yuktasita matparaha. Yuktasita matparaha.
Now, he is still described as kindracheta. So, that is the next word. ātmavasyair vidheya prasādam adhi gacchati But a person can obtain the complete movement.
So, there is a question of kim vrajet. Here, Krishna uses a similar word, charan. Charan is movement.
So, what does he do over the charan? He regulates them according to scripture. He regulates them So, according to scripture, regulation means that Chakravarthy Parth gives the example that raga and dvesha that somebody in scripture says that one can have sexual relationship only with one’s wife. The nature of the mind is, one will get attracted to other women also.
So, he says no. Vishayan indriyasya ātmavasyair vidheya ātma Vidheya ātma means that one cannot give sense gratification completely, but one regulates sense gratification according to scripture. Our tongue will be attracted to many religious objects.
But I will take only that which is offered to me. So, vidheya ātma. Prabhupada calls this vidheya ātma as regulative principles of freedom.
So, how does it lead to freedom? Actually, devotees may seem to be lacking a lot of energy. You have to wake up at this time, you have to do this, you have to do that. And materialistic people seem to be very free.
But actually, all materialistic people are bound. They are physically free, but they are all mentally bound. Mentally bound means what? Their minds are attached to sense objects.
Now, there was a person, his home is here, his office is here. And there was a bar in between. So, there were two colleagues.
Now, one had never drunk. So, he just passes by. And the person who had drunk once or twice, what happens? When he is passing by the bar, his mind starts going I can go and enjoy.
And even if he passes by, still his mind is there. And if he keeps drinking, what happens? Even when he has reached the office, his mind is still in the bar only. Or even if he has travelled from his home, his mind is still in the bar only.
So, what has happened is, people are bound at the level of the mind. The mind is bound to the sense objects. So, when we talk about bondage and liberation, that is at the level of the mind.
For a sense enjoyer, the mind is bound to the sense objects. And that is why, although they appear free, they are not free. Prabhupada was asked, suppose, Prabhupada was asked whether the man went to the moon or not.
At one time he said, even if they go to the moon, what are they going to do in the moon? They don’t need sleep, they don’t need to sleep. Because they are bound to that. So, that is the ultimate bondage.
We are bound by our body, just fully. That is why Prabhupada often used the word bodily demands. Not just bodily needs, but bodily demands.
The force has to do this. So, a devotee, by sort of restricting himself at the physical level, I’ll do this, I’ll wake up in the morning, I’ll do my chanting, I’ll do my sadhana. What happens is, he becomes free at the mental level.
The mind is no longer attached, bound to the sense objects. And that’s a big relief. It’s a big relief.
The freedom at the level of the mind. So, now, in the next verse, Krishna confuses it with prasad. What is prasad? Prasad is mercy.
That is, this is purity. So, what happens is, we regulate the contact of senses and sense objects, that eventually leads to purity. The mind becomes gradually pure.
So, what is this purity? What is the result of that purity? Krishna describes in the next verse. So, actually, it is, when our mind becomes pure, prasadhe sarva dukkhanam, what is the dukkhan? This dukkhan is rukham kama sukha peksha. That hankering, hankering, hankering, that goes away.
The threefold misery is still there for the devotee. But for that, he is not in the manas. He is disturbed by that.
But the agitation of the senses, that has gone away. And because that agitation has gone away, so, he is joyful. Similarly, he is satisfied.
And, what happens after that? At that time, the intelligence is established. This is a very important point. That, actually, initially, our intelligence is contaminated.
We are going to use our intelligence to control our enjoyment mentality, but we are habituated to enjoy intelligently. But usually, our intelligence is planned to enjoy whenever a devotee comes to know. So, like that.
So, what happens is, at our level, at the initial level, Ramacharya gives a very beautiful analysis over here. He says that, on the path of spiritual advancement, there are four levels. The highest level is the person who has no dormant inclinations also towards sense gratification.
He is completely attracted to Supreme Lord. He is a pure voter. That is the highest level.
All this we will talk about in the 2.69, 2.70, but it is relevant over here. Second level he says is, somebody who has dormant mental inclinations, but the mind overall is peaceful. That means, if there is some great temptation that will come, then the mind will get agitated also.
But normally, the mind will become peaceful. The third he says, the person who has subtle mental agitations, but he can fight them off. He can fight them off.
And the fourth he says, he has gross mental agitations, but he fights them off. A huge mental disturbance has happened, but he fights them off. Commonly, none of them have any sense gratification.
So probably we have not any of the four levels. At least I am not in any of the four levels. But what he is saying is that, actually, the whole facade is the purity of the mind.
So, at sadhaka level, when we start off, the mind may be very agitated. Perhaps the very least, when we take initiation vows, what we do is, we make sure that we don’t let the mental agitation get into physical indulgence. But then gradually, the mental agitation becomes controllable.
It is there, but it becomes controllable. Then the mental agitation almost becomes dormant. Ultimately, it becomes extinct.
It is controllable. See, first is, huge mental agitation is there, but for now we will dismiss it. Second is, it is controllable.
It comes and we just dismiss it. Third is, it is dormant. It is alive, but dormant.
And fourth is, it is extinct. So, now, we can experience some extent. Some of us might have been eating meat earlier.
But now, somebody presents meat to us. We can spit at the thought. We don’t like it.
What happened is, unlike this dormant, it is extinct only. The facade literally offers a higher taste. But some other things have not happened.
So, here he is saying that, पसंचेतस्य आशु बुद्धी पर्यावति श्टते But, only when one’s material desires have completely gone away, then one’s intelligence becomes established. Only then, one has to borrow intelligence from the spiritual master. Our intelligence is companion to our material desires.
Therefore, we cannot take independent decisions in our spiritual life too much. But, because our intelligence itself is corrupted right now, we will often take wrong decisions. So, how it is that, let’s say this here.
Here is the mind. And the mind is dragging us in wrong directions. And intelligence is currently the surrogate of the mind.
So, what we do is, our spiritual intelligence is not yet awakened. So, we borrow intelligence from the spiritual master. And we use it to control the mind.
And eventually, when the mind becomes controlled, then our own spiritual intelligence is awakened. So, even if the spiritual master is not there, we know what to do. That doesn’t happen overnight.
That’s why guidance is important. बुद्धी पर्यावति श्टते He is talking about that stage. When the mind has become conquered more or less, then one’s natural spiritual intelligence becomes awakened.
And then Krishna says, If one doesn’t have this buddhi, either one has to get the buddhi from one’s own awakening, or one gets the buddhi from Hari. If one doesn’t have the buddhi, what will happen? नास्ति बुद्धेर युक्तस्य नचा युक्तस्य भावणा नचा भावणा तहर्शान्तेर अशान्तस्य से तहर्शुखं अशान्तस्य से तहर्शुखं So, without this buddhi, नास्ति बुद्धेर युक्तस्य How does the buddhi come? It comes by युक्तस्य, by being connected with Krishna. By being connected with Krishna, the spiritual master.
Without that connection, we cannot have buddhi, we cannot have control mind, we cannot have peace. So materialistic people, even if they are laughing and cheering and doing all the things, actually their minds are driving them crazy. They are not actually happy.
I once wrote a poem. People say, cheers! They drink and say cheers. So their hearts are filled with fear.
Their minds are pierced by desires. They are on the verge of tears. And they say cheers.
So it is just a show. So their hearts are filled with fear. This may go wrong, that may go wrong.
चिन्ताम परिमेयाम चिन्ता Unlimited चिन्ता is there. Why is the चिन्ता there? कामोत भोग परमा Their minds are pierced by desires. So many desires.
Because of that, they are almost on the verge of tears. But they hide it all and they say cheers. So it is just a material life is characterised by the vain attempt to hide or forget one’s misery.
When one tries to forget the one’s misery, I am not miserable, I am happy. If I cannot forget it, at least I hide it from the world. I am happy, I am happy, everything is alright.
Why? Why people have to do like that? Because it is a matter of the ego. No, I am considered so wealthy, I am considered so powerful, how can I say that I am not happy in life? You are a failure. It is a vain attempt to either forget or hide the misery of life.
We try to forget ourselves or we at least hide it from the world. So, now Krishna is describing this that one has to have the yukta, yukta is connected. If it doesn’t have that, one will fall down.
Let me describe how the fall down happens. In one sense, this verse is similar to 2.16 how the senses are dragged away. But there is a subtle difference over here.
Indriyanam hi charitam Yanganam alladi dhiyate Tadasya harati pradyam Vayurnam vandam rasi Yes. So, Krishna is giving a very beautiful example because actually, when the wind comes along, the boat is helpless. What can the boat do? If somebody is just pushing me, I can hold on to something.
But the boat has nothing to hold on to. The ground is wet, the boat is beneath water and the water in the middle is slipping it away. So, at the material level, when the material desires come, people get swept away.
So, now we can correlate this with the Narvehamadhyam verse. Narvehamadhyam Sulabham sudurlabham Plavamsukalpam gurukarnadharam So, Mayanikulena baspambuna Mavasvateritam Kumarbhavabdhil Vyatraitsaatma So, Krishna says that the human body is like the boat. It is a very Sukalpam, a very good boat.
And who is the Guru? The Guru is the Karnadhar, the captain. Actually, the word Karnadhar means Karnadhar. When he catches the ear and says, it is wrong, don’t do it.
It will be corrected. And then he says that the Mayanikulena baspambuna So, the wind, the Vedic literature are the winds that are favourable. So, basically, when a person is in a boat, catching the right wind is very important.
So, if we read the Vedic scriptures, we catch the wind which will take us towards Krishna. But if we expose ourselves to mundane literature, mundane books, mundane songs, mundane movies, mundane advertisements, then they create the wind in the opposite direction. And that’s why for materialistic people, to even imagine controlling the senses is very difficult.
What to speak of controlling? Actually, the Catholic Church also had celibacy. For centuries, they had celibacy. Now, most protestant churches have given up celibacy.
Because what happened was, when they tried to have celibacy, they could not have churches only. Because the number of priests who were ready to be celibate were very less. So, they couldn’t maintain the celibacy.
So, what they decided was, they can have married churches. But now, the demand has become so much that some of the protestant churches have also allowed homosexual priests. They are openly homosexual, but they are allowing them to be priests.
Not just practitioner Christians, but priests. So, now, Rameshwaroop writes one of his B.T.G. articles, it’s very nice, it’s called How I Was Saved From Being Saved. How I Was Saved From Being Saved.
So, being saved means that, Christians say that when you accept Jesus as your saviour, then you are saved. So, when I was editing the book Journey of Love, there I had read somewhere, you can use the word saved here. Saved is a word which is monopolised and denigrated by Christians.
We should avoid being saved. So, if you look at it in the West, saved, we have had many saviours, we don’t want any more saviours. That is the idea.
Anyway, so they have the idea of being saved. So, he describes how when he was a child, his parents belonged to a Methodist church. Methodist is one branch of the protestant church.
So, they would go for mass. And in the mass, he would have the priest would come. And the priest would say, you look very gentle manly, but very stern.
All of you are sinners. Small children. All of you are sinners.
You hate your parents. You hate your friends. You hate your teachers.
Ultimately, you hate God. And because of that, all of you deserve to go to hell. And if God sends you, he is right in doing so.
But God is so kind. He has come as Jesus to save all of you. All that you have to do is accept him as a saviour.
So, when I heard that he is accused of child abuse, I started remembering, this is abuse, you know. Programming, brainwashing and fighting children like this. So, he says, who wants to be saved? So, then slowly, one by one, everybody would raise their hands.
And they would come and they would have baptism for him in front of all the children. So, he says, I would observe these children. What happened to them after the baptism? So, he says, the drama of the baptism was huge.
But the effect was curiously little. So, for a few days, they were sober. And after that, they just became their normal selves.
And so, then, every day would come, practically all the children were baptised. So, many times I felt that I should also just look at the priest. When are you going to come? I wanted to raise my hand, but I felt that my hand has become like a lid.
I had no power to raise it. So, at one time, I felt like I was above. And I was observing the whole thing.
How this child is being forced to go and do this. And the whole thing is a facade. Then he describes that he was invited to a Christian seminar in Philadelphia.
He is a Philadelphia Ex-Con President. At that time also he was. To give a talk to the Christian monks who were going to become missionaries.
So, they were going to go to India. So, their teacher had also given that. You can get that as an advanced experience of what he had experienced in India.
So, he got him. And then, when he was talking, he started talking about how chanting the names of God. And he told a little bit about chanting.
And he invited all of them. These are the names of God. Please chant.
And he was surprised. Many of them started chanting. At least in a cute way.
Very enthusiastic. So, he realised that these are very sincere people. Very sincere people.
They actually are looking for God. That’s why they are open for it. And then, he did the first part of the class, where he talked about how you can get experience of God by devotion and dedication.
They liked it very much. There was a break. And after the break, he said if you want to actually get experience of God, you have to give up sinful life.
And he talked about four other principles. And as soon as he started talking about four other principles, people started becoming restless. And then, after his talk got over, most of the students went away.
They were all like young people. And when they went away, around half a dozen people came to him. They were asking some questions.
Three of them took out cigarette and started smoking. They were supposed to become priests. And they were smoking.
So, Rangasubbu asked them, casually asked one of them, is it so difficult for you to give up smoking? He said, I was shocked by the reply. And shocked by the vehemence which he gave in the reply. He said, if I could just take a girl out on Saturday night, I wouldn’t have to smoke those damn things.
It is called also we have celibates, but I have never encountered this kind of resentment. So, then he asked about their life. And he said, when I heard about their lifestyle, I felt I cried.
I felt I was being betrayed. He said, they had only classes in the morning and in the evening. And full day they were free.
And in their hostels itself, they had television. In their hostels, there were newspapers. In their hostels, there were magazines.
They also had their own radios, where they could hear all sorts of music. And they were all eating meat. So, he was saying, after you eat meat, after you read magazines, after you watch TV, how can somebody be a celibate? Put in everything to agitate the senses and tell them to control the senses.
This is nothing but torture. It is nothing but torture. So, he said that I should have believed, since they were looking for God.
But I felt they were being betrayed. They are not being shown the way. And some of them, they are going to sink into hypocrisy.
Because with that kind of culture, it is impossible. If one is exposed to material stimuli too much, then it is impossible to control the senses. So, he said, my gratitude to Prabhupada increases all the more.
Prabhupada has not only given us high standards, but he has given us a subculture. There is a materialistic culture outside, but in ISKCON, we have our own subculture, where we have protection. So, for us also, as Brahmachari, life is difficult.
For anyone in Kalyug, as Brahmachari, life is difficult. But we have a very protected culture, where it is much easier than it is without protection. And that’s why, so he said that, these Christians which are thinking that they are saved, but I knew that I was actually saved.
So, that saving was a false saving. It just maintains saving, but there is no actual transformation. So, that’s how I was saved from being saved.
So, you know, as devotees, we have a lot of engagement. Not that we become sick because of our work, but at least enough to keep our minds busy. Then it is, it saves us from the agitation of the mind because of material desires.
So, and also having a very pure environment. And that’s what I felt, although from the material point of view, vada is more austere than chaupati. That means from the mental point of view, it’s much more peaceful.
So, the point here is that, the favourable wind. So, these Christian students, they were offered all the unfavourable winds and then they were told, control your senses. But what is going to happen? What Krishna is telling over here, you know, even if we don’t want it, if we expose ourselves to unfavourable winds, we will be swept away.
Therefore, hearing scripture, studying scripture, that is putting ourselves in the favourable wind. Naturally, it will be directed towards Krishna. So, after describing this unfavourable wind, next verse Krishna describes the necessity.
how does one get exposed to the unfavourable wind? Indriyadami charatam. The question is, what is going on here? Krishna is answering that over here. So, indriyadami charatam.
Indriyadami charan. So, when indriyadami charan, if they start doing jhaya on a sense object, then indriyadami charatam yam mano alludhiyate. When the mind focusses on jhaya to start, then there is fault.
Krishna says, therefore, one should control the senses. That is, he concludes this part of the section in the next verse. So, he is asking about the senses.
Like I said, Krishna is describing both the, not just in terms of the self-realised person, he is also describing the process by which to get there. He is describing both. That is why I was talking, sadhak and siddha both.
So, here Krishna is describing more of the process and one who is unable to follow the process. 2.60 was also like that. One who is not able to follow the process.
So, here he describes. Now, again he describes the necessity for controlling the senses. So, here, the emphasis is what? Krishna has several talks about controlling the senses.
What he says? The emphasis is sarva-saha. In the previous verses, even one of the wandering senses which is focussing on the senses will drag away the mind. Therefore, all the senses need to be controlled.
So, then, if somebody says, this level of sense control, what kind of life is it? If you are completely restrained, there is no happiness. Krishna says, yes, there are two world views. There are two different ways of looking at the world.
If we come to the material world view, to the spiritual world view, even Brahmacharya’s life will appear like torture. 30-40 people living in one room, no house of yours, no privacy, no sense gratification. So, Bhakti Das Maharaj writes here, Brahmacharya and Krishna Maharaj says, there is no privacy, no personal space, no sense gratification, long hours of hard work and pure ecstasy.
So, from the material point of view, how does it look? Pure misery. But, these are the two different world views. That’s why Krishna is saying that the two people will see entirely differently.
That’s why I described this verse. कालिशापश्य कौमुने Generally, day and night refer to the period of activity and inactivity. So, what is day for the self-realised? Night for the materialistic.
For a devotee, the most important part of the day is chanting. He sits and chants. For the materialistic, you sit and do nothing.
Just move your lips. What do you even get by that? Prabhupada writes in the Purpose that the devotee delights in the gradual advancement of spiritual culture. Therefore, the non-devotee is blind to that.
And, the non-devotee, he delights in you know, like when I think, when Raghavananda was departing, in that of the final of the World Cup. So, people were so mad, literally intoxicated. And, he went to America, Raghavananda went to America, that evening was the World Cup final.
So, we know what kind of fever was there at that time. And, you know, after just a few years, few months, now there is, India is losing and everybody is so miserable. You say, what is this? You know, why get so worked up about it? It’s just, you just imagine so much importance of something, which has no importance.
So, that’s why, this is the Anisha Sarva Bhutana. So, Prabhupada, some people are mentally inclined. Now, somebody will say, cricket also requires skill.
Cricket requires practise. Cricket requires hard work. Players not doing hard work, they are working so hard, they have so much discipline.
In Pune, we are having a 25 crore temple. In Pune, they are making a 50 crore museum for Sachin Tendulkar. 50 crore! So, his rise to international glory.
So, they wanted to make it in Mumbai. But, Mumbai, they said, they are not safe. We want a big museum.
So, the government has allocated land much bigger than what is allowed for our temple also. So, what is the big deal about this? Somebody will say, he is also working very hard. He has worked hard because of his character, because of his hard work.
He is attending so much fame and glory. Okay, yes, he has worked hard. But, for what purpose? Ultimately, what is the long term value of anything? Long term, it has no value.
So, yes, there may be talent, there may be culture, there may be discipline, all that is there. So, that is what Prabhupada used the word over there. There are two kinds of people.
Some are materially intelligent and some are spiritually intelligent. So, material life also requires intelligence. But, ultimately, it is foolishness.
Because, nothing is going to be carried at the time of death. Nothing is going to stay on. Somebody becomes a cricketer and then he dies singing of cricket.
And, the same cricket ground where he hit a century, he may become a mosquito on the same cricket ground. And, he may be the cricketer. Maybe some other cricketer who is inspired by that person’s example.
He becomes a cricketer and while running into a field, he crushes this person at the entrance. So, ultimately, what is the use? That is why, material intelligence from a spiritual point of view is absurd. And then, Krishna, after talking about this, this is the difference.
So, actually, bhakti is not just a matter of changing external. We have to change our values. And, if we come to the material values to spiritual life, it is just too difficult.
But, when we adopt the spiritual values, material life appears so strange. Appears quite absurd. So, you see, all of you, we are spending 50 crores for a museum.
So much money, we feel it is a waste. But, there are people who are spending 40 crores for a temple. Why so much waste? So, the values have to change.
Then, only people can understand what is the truth. So, now, Krishna talks this further about how can one come to the level of that sense control. So, he describes, So, here, Krishna is using the example of an ocean.
So, when the river goes into the ocean, the ocean doesn’t overflow. So, what does this mean? He is telling that the spiritualist, by paramdrishtha swanidharpati, by experience of God, should be so full within himself like an ocean, that when material desires come, they do not accept it. So, the desire will be there, but the inclination to fulfil the desire is not there.
It is very interesting. The desire will be there, but the inclination to fulfil the desire is not there. This is the second stage.
So, Chakravarti Pa says something very beautifully. a spiritualist, by his spiritual culture, should lose faith in his material desires. So, lose faith in his material desires.
What does that mean? We already talked about developing faith in Krishna. Because, now, all of us have become devotees. We have become brahmacharis also, most of us.
Now, still, if you go on the streets, the hoardings are still there. On the television, the commercials are still there. Now, we might see the hoardings.
Play this, enjoy this, eat this, purchase this. So, what has happened? The hoardings are still going on, the advertisements are still going on, but we have lost faith in it. This is not going to make me happy.
This is just a falsity. So, the external advertising of maya will go on, but the sadhaka loses faith. So, maya does her internal advertising also, through her mind.
The mind is maya’s internal advertising agent. Keeps advertising. What happens is, the devotee loses faith in his material desires.
So, that’s why, this will be an elaborate subject, I will talk about this in the next chapter, but here, it is mentioned. In the third canto, the analysis of the different elements is given, and one of the components of intelligence is doubt. So, a real person should be able to doubt.
And then, in this paper, it says, doubt what? Doubt the material conception of life. Doubt material enjoyment. Without doubting material enjoyment, our faith in spiritual advancement, spiritual happiness, will not become very strong.
So, both ways. Faith in Krishna, and doubt about maya. So, that’s why, if you see, Prabhupada so often talks about the misery of material existence.
Why? To create, because we want to destroy our personal material existence, but what to say, destroy? You know, we don’t even, sometimes, doubt the material existence that I have brought about, people say, you are being pessimistic. No, it’s not pessimism, it’s realism. It’s not pessimism, it’s realism.
And to say that this world is a happy place, that’s not optimism, that’s stupidism. Because it’s not, you know, if a glass is half-full and inside half-empty, that is pessimism. If a glass is empty, and I say the same, you know, imagine if it’s full, don’t think about it, what are you going to do? So, it is empty, I know it is empty, and then see how you can fill it.
So, like that, I accept that this world is a place of misery, and find out how we can make it happy. So, you know, we are not, if there is any pessimism in the Vedic philosophy, the pessimism is only initial, it is never final. The same Vedic philosophy which is the cause of machajyottam, the same Vedic philosophy which is, what is it? sarvātmā-sapanaṁ parama-vajāyate pūrṇā, pūrṇā amṛtam, complete nectar, chodike ānanda dekhi bhaktiṁ dhāvate, all directions and everything happens.
So, why? Because he is not, he is given the material desire to enjoy serving Krishna. Therefore, here, Prabhupāda says that, the river will keep coming to the ocean, but the ocean is not affected because of its largeness. So, devotees, that way we become internally large, by satisfying Krishna.
So, Krishna’s presence, Krishna’s experience in our heart, when it becomes large, we become internally like an ocean. In the river, it is not affected. And this experience comes especially by our strong sadhana, and strong hearing.
If that is not there, the strong hearing, strong chanting is not there, then our heart is not like an ocean. It is like a puddle. And it is like a puddle, river coming in, and the puddle disappears.
So, similarly, all our spiritual culture, our spiritual determination, all just vanishes completely from the material desires. That is why, we have to make our inner presence ocean-like by inviting Krishna’s presence. Krishna is himself like an ocean.
Krishna is Parama Sagar. So, Krishna takes the same point forward in the next verse. By saying, how the person has to, how should he walk? Charan comes again.
vihāya kāmān yaha sarvān pūmāṁ śaraṭi nispruha nirmamau nirahankāraha prashānti madhya gacchati So, vihāya kāmān yaha sarvān Again, sarvān. pūmāṁ śaraṭi nispruha So, charaṭi has come. sauravī charaṭi, mūḍha rāma, nispruha.
Without any desire. nirmamau nirahankāraha without any possessiveness. prashānti madhya gacchati So, then Krishna says, Krishna hints at the ultimate perfection of life.
This is the first time Krishna will talk about antakaal. This he will elaborate in the 8th chapter afterwards. So, here he talks about how if one stays in this condition at the moment of death, one will attain perfection.
eśā te brāhmaṇi sthitaṁ pārtha naināṁ prāpya vimūyati sthitaḥ syāmanta-kāleti brahma nirvāṇam rishchati into the kingdom of God. So, brahma nirvāṇam. So, nirvāṇam is the word which contains the conception of extinguishing one’s existence.
It’s like, as they say, like a candle, blow it out. All sufferings will be extinguished. But Krishna is not talking about nirvāṇam, he is talking about brahma nirvāṇam.
So, nirvāṇam at this level, cessation of existence at the material level, the beginning of existence at a, or revival of existence at a brahman level. Brahma nirvāṇam rischati. Now, interestingly, Krishna is using the word brahmi.
Brahmi. Brahmi is actually in Sanskrit feminine. Brahman is, the word brahman is actually neuter.
In Sanskrit, there are three genders. There is masculine, feminine and neuter. There are two genders.
So, now, when Bhima Goswami writes his Hainanam, it’s masculine. So, what he does is, he gives spiritual names to everything. So, the masculine gender, he gives the name Narayana Nanda.
The feminine gender, he gives the name Lakshmi Nanda. And the neuter gender, he gives the name Brahman Nanda. So, generally, the brahman is in Sanskrit neuter, but Krishna is using the word brahmi.
So, brahmi is feminine. So, what Ācārya has explained, that this is the heat of Rādhārāṇī. At the external level, it is brahmi.
At the brahman level, Krishna is using the word brahmi. That brahmi sthiti pārtha, situated under the heat of Rādhārāṇī. So, as I said, this whole section can be seen externally as jñāna, and internally as bhakti.
And Prabhupāda explains in the purport that, you know, one can become Krishna conscious one moment, or it may not happen after millions of lives. It’s just a matter of understanding and accepting. So, understanding and accepting.
Now, sattva asyām, if one can still state in this way, antakālepi, at the moment of death also, one will attain perfection. Now, Krishna has completed this section, let me say. So, this section is very practical for sādhakas.
When Gandhi was asked, which is the most important section of the Gita? He was not a vakta in the sense of the normal sense of the word, although he would sing bhakti songs sometimes. But he said, this he found to be the most important section of the Gita. Because he said that, if people learn sense control, then we can have a proper mission, we can have proper administration.
So, this was the way he would recommend all his followers to read again and again and again. Prabhupāda also quotes quite often from this section of verses. nāmi sarvān viśaya āmanu vartante, āpurya mānam.
He quotes all these verses quite often. So, now, as we know, Arjuna’s motivation for asking this question was, what is the symptom of self-realisation? He is thinking, should I fight or not fight? Will this person be fighting or not fighting? So, Krishna has used the word śānti several times. 2.70 he used it, 2.71 he used it, and 2.66 also he used it.
So, śānti madhigacchati. nāsid dṛḍhaṁ ca bhārata-śānti kutahasukam. Krishna is talking about śānti at a deeper level.
Arjuna is thinking of śānti at a practical level. He is saying, therefore, should I fight or not fight? He says, you have attained peace. So, fight the war, there is no question of peace.
Therefore, now he asks his question in the next verse. So, I am going to try to complete the 9 verses of the next chapter. That’s one small section.
Let’s start that off. So, 3rd chapter starts with Arjuna’s question, which comes in two verses. Arjuna, watch.
So, in the next verse also, I will show something on the PowerPoint here. I hope you can see it. yāmi śrīne vākena buddhi-māyā-sīvamī sarve-kanyā-viniścitya yena śravaṇa-dhīyā So, he is saying, we are given equal instruction.
Either I fight or I don’t fight. So, he is saying, it is not really, because Krishna is talking about so many intricate levels. Arjuna, as playing the role of an illusion person, has not gotten all these levels.
Therefore, he is saying, one is fighting and the other is not fighting. Krishna is talking about attaining buddhi. If buddhi is higher, if you have to attain buddhi, then if you consider buddhi, buddhi is associated with inaction.
It is a renunciation. So, if you consider renunciation to be better, then this warfare is bad. Why are you engaging in this warfare? Is it visible to all of you? Arjuna is seeing basically two options.
One is buddhi, which he calls as an activity, which he calls as renunciation, and the other is his activity, fighting. And fighting will be his karma. So, if you think buddhi is better than karma, then why are you asking to fight? So, if I tell you, this is better, this is good and this is not so good, then please do this.
Why are you doing this? Why are you giving So, now, actually Krishna has spoken on four levels. This is a little difficult to see, but vikarma is sinful fighting. Fighting motivated by one’s own material desires, which will lead to suffering.
Krishna has talked about vikarma. Then he has talked about karmakand, karma, karmada and jnana-yoga. Actually, Krishna is not talking about jnana-yoga.
They are in the background, but Arjuna is speaking about vaksin-yoga. So, actually, Krishna has talked about four levels, where Arjuna is seeing only two levels. And Krishna has done a comparative analysis of three levels in 2.49. Keep all abominable work far away.
So, when he is talking about abominable work, he is talking about the second level being bad as compared to third. That is, karmakand is bad as compared to karma-yoga. Doing work with material desires is not good as compared to doing work with attachment as a sense of duty.
So, this is what he has condemned. Second level he has condemned as compared to third. But because Arjuna has not seen these four levels, what he is saying is just these two levels in activity and activity.
So, he is thinking as compared to activity, activity has been condemned. So, he is thinking, why should I fight them? So, these four levels which are there, Arjuna has not understood. So, therefore, Krishna will talk about these four levels in this chapter, more systematically.
I hope this is clear. The fourth level is jnana-yoga, renouncing the world. Krishna will tell, yes, jnana-yoga is higher, but that is not the best for you, because you are not qualified for it.
So, Krishna is talking about four levels out of which Arjuna has conflicted with, combined artificially, four into two. That is why he is not able to understand what is Krishna trying to say. So, you know it is said that when we speak, if you want to write this down, I will read it out loud so it will be clear.
So, vikarma is sinful activity. So, now actually from Arjuna’s point of view fighting is sinful. From Krishna’s point of view, giving up fighting is sinful.
So, even the what is vikarma is also different. What is vikarma is also different. But still, this is one level.
The second level is karma-yoga, karma-kanda. Fight, this is 2.31 Krishna said, hato va prapti svarga, jitva va moksha se mahim. Fight and if you win, you get the earth.
If you lose, you get heaven. And then, third level is, above that is karma-yoga. Fight, because by doing your duty, you will get eternal life.
He talked about it 2.51. You will attain the eternal world. And then, beyond that is jnana-yoga. You renounce the world.
So, these four levels are there and now Krishna will clarify these four levels in the third chapter. The third chapter flow is not exactly linear. So, that’s why sometimes the third chapter is a little difficult to understand.
It is systematic, but the systematic is not linear. I’ll explain that in a few minutes. Is this clear? Any questions about this? No, as I said, Krishna did not explicitly talk about jnana-yoga.
That is the background. Because Arjuna is thinking of renouncing the world. So, that is the idea of jnana.
You acquire knowledge and on the other hand, the world is temporary. Renounce the world. So, in one sense, 2.11 to 13 is sankhya.
That can be correlated with jnana. But Krishna has not recommended any action like that to renounce the world. But originally, Arjuna had those two options.
Bhai Krishna Mopi Haloki. He is thinking that it is better for me to become a beggar. That means renounce the world.
So, the options which are there, there are four. Now, here is the overview of this chapter. We will discuss this more tomorrow.
But this is a quick understanding of this. First, you remember, without these four levels understanding, is it not visible for those of you behind? Maybe then what I will do is, I will talk about this tomorrow only directly. We will draw it, because without that understanding the four levels, the chapter over will be difficult to understand.
So, we will start this chapter and tomorrow we will have it written over here. Then at that time, we will do the chapter overview. In the first section, Krishna will tell Arjuna how karma yoga is better than jnana yoga for you.
So, in these four levels which were there, vikarma, karmakant, karma yoga and jnana yoga. So, although jnana yoga is theoretically higher, practically karma yoga is better for you. That is what we will be describing in the first section.
So, let’s start with 2.3. No, if you see, it is karmakant. Of course, within karma yoga there is sakhana karma yoga and nishkana karma yoga. We will come to that later.
Let’s not split hair right now. Let’s grow hair first. Let’s understand the basics first.
I agree, that is an important discussion. We will come to that. So now, Krishna starts answering by giving a classification.
So now, when Krishna talks about the two levels, 2.39 एशा ते भेदा सांखे बुद्धिर योगे तो इमां शुनो So, I talk about two levels. Karma yogena yogena, jnana yogena, sankhya nama. So, earlier I had mentioned that the word sankhya will be correlated with jnana and yoga will be correlated with karma.
You see that correlation happening over here. So, I talk about these two levels. Now, nishtha here normally means faith.
But Krishna is using the word nishtha in the sense of adhikar. There are two people with two levels of qualification. Actually, ultimately our faith determines our qualification.
How much faith we have will determine how much of Krishna consciousness we can take up. So, in that sense, nishtha as adhikar or qualification of faith is okay. Now, Krishna will describe Now, after talking about these two levels, he will start putting them in a hierarchy.
So, first he says that just by renouncing the world one doesn’t get into perfection. So, there is that popular but misleading mayavadi saying Just take a dandag, naro will become narayan. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will say You are narayan because you have taken sannyas.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will smash that. People will say you are narayan because you are sannyasi. No, jiva is always chitkana, always a particle.
So, Krishna is refuting this idea that just by adopting the externals one develops the internal. If I give up my activity that is not sannyas. Because even a lazy person would give up activity.
So, it’s not that he is a sannyasi. And just by taking sannyas one doesn’t attain samadhi, one doesn’t attain perfection. So, Krishna is talking progressive.
Just by giving up work, that’s not sannyas. And just by taking sannyas, that’s not perfection. So, Krishna is talking about externals being not very important.
They are not unimportant but they are not all important also. So, then he says Okay, why just by giving up work that doesn’t lead to sannyas? He will describe a very important principle that will come again and again in the Bhagavad Gita. Naishkarmya basically means freedom from karmic reactions.
So, Krishna is saying just by giving up activity one will not attain freedom from karmic reactions. And just by taking sannyas one will not attain perfection. Now, is naishkarmya and sannyas equal? To some extent, yes.
But what is the purpose of taking sannyas? To become free from karma. So, in that sense they can be equated. What Krishna is telling over here is essentially that just by the external of giving up an activity you won’t become free from karmic bondage.
Just by the external of renunciation you will not attain perfection. So, in that sense there are two parallel things but they are not unconnected. The common thing connecting them is that externals alone are not enough.
So, now he will describe in the next verse the principle why just inactivity does not lead to naishkarmya. So, Krishna is telling that the modes will impel everyone to act. Especially the lower modes will force everyone to act.
That’s why one cannot be inactive. And Prabhupada takes this further in the purport. Prabhupada says, first sentence, it is not a question of embodied life but it is the nature of the soul to be active.
Prabhupada takes it further. He says, it’s not just because you are conditioned that you have to be active. Even when you are unconditioned also you have to be active.
It’s like sometimes in school we have race. Running race. Sometimes we have sack race.
When the sack is tied around the legs running is much more difficult. So, in the body like a sack on the soul. Even with this big body like a burden to the soul, the soul runs so much.
When the body is not there, how much more the soul will run? How will the soul be inactive? So, Krishna is talking just at the relative material level because the more you cannot be inactive. Prabhupada is taking the purpose to a higher level. At the spiritual level you cannot be inactive.
But the principle is that inactivity is impractical. And now, this section is the grahastha section of the Bhagavad Gita. So, often if some grahastha want to pull some boy to become not become a brahmachari, become a grahastha, they use the next two verses.
So, Krishna is talking about here a pretender renunciate. So, yes, of course, ultimately grahastha and brahmachari, all of them are serving Krishna only. And there are just different ways in which you can serve Krishna.
It’s one army and there are different battlements in the army. But if people focus too much on externals, this is a problem everywhere. Like also in Christianity, there is a laity and a clergy.
There are conflicts there also. But in general, when you understand the principle, then things become very clear. So, Krishna is not talking of condemning a renunciate.
Krishna is condemning a pretender renunciate. So, who is a pretender renunciate? One who restrains the senses. He keeps remembering the sense objects.
So, he is a vimudhatma. He is fooling himself and he is trying to fool the world. He is a hypocrite.
So, why is he a vimudhatma? Because the world may think that he is a renunciate. Then why is he a vimudhatma? Because he is fooling himself also. He is not making any spiritual advancement.
It is not just the ashram that needs spiritual advancement. It is the service attitude. It is the devotion.
It is the remembrance of Krishna that needs spiritual advancement. So, if one is a brahmachari, but is not remembering Krishna, but is remembering the sense objects, then he will not make much spiritual advancement. And of course, the past memory of the sense objects may come.
But the important thing is whether one cultivates those memories or one fights off the memories. So, this sort of verses, this section we can correlate with Ramacharya’s story. That Dhanurdas was a very sincere jahastha and the brahmacharis were attached to their kopis.
So, if one is attached to sense objects, then surely it is undesirable. But this verse is not talking about true renunciation. Krishna will talk about true renunciation later in the 13th chapter.
And he will talk about, of course, the ultimate principle why we practise brahmacharya is because it is anukula to bhakti. It is not that we want to practise brahmacharya because we want to be superior or something like that. Brahmacharya as shown is anukula for our bhakti.
So, our principle is anukulase vankalpa, patikulase vajana. So, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam means what? When you give up all dharma, that doesn’t mean become a dharmik. That means, because ultimately you have to follow some dharma, you follow the dharma which will enable you to do mam ekam sharanam vraja.
So, whichever dharma can enable us to do mam ekam sharanam vraja, we follow that dharma. So, for some people, the grahastha dharma will enable them to take shelter of Krishna better. For others, brahmacharya dharma will help them to take shelter better.
So, ultimately, we follow whatever is anukula to our bhakti. Now, Krishna is telling, see here, the contours, contours means the borders, the battle here is not actually, although these words can be used for grahastha and brahmacharya, it is not actually that. The conflict essentially is between the path of inactivity, path of inaction on one hand and the path of action on the other.
So, the path of inaction is jnana and the path of action externally is dharma yoga, internally is bhakti yoga. So, that’s why it is a complete misapplication to use these verses for that purpose. Because even as brahmacharis, we are not inactive.
Sometimes brahmacharis are more active than grahastha. There are so many services to do and so much running around, so much travelling, preaching. Brahmachari life is also very busy.
So, in that sense, these verses are not talking about brahmacharya in the ISKCON context. Because brahmacharya and grahastha both are bhakti. But the principle applies to us also.
If we are dwelling on objects, then that is undesirable. So, now Krishna will say, rather than being inactive and letting the mind be active in the wrong direction, better be active with the senses. That is a very good use of the senses.
Sense of sleep. Krishna is saying that, control the senses of the mind and engage the senses in Krishna’s service, in practical service. Prabhupada means the sense of sleep.
A sincere sleeper is better than a charlatan meditator who meditates simply for the sake of earning a living. So, surely, a devotee in that sense is active. So, this verse is apparently going to apply to the bhakti context.
May be apply not for brahmacharya and grahastha, but for bhajanandis and rakshanandis. We cannot artificially become bhajanandis. If we try to, our mind will keep dwelling on sense objects.
So, in that sense, we can use this verse that we should do practical service at our level. Niyamya arabhate. Arabhate means vigil.
Karmendri karniyon asakthah with detachment. So, vishishyate means much better. And Krishna will… Therefore, so, Vishwanathan says that, the scriptures have different statements.
Certain statements are informative and certain statements are instructive. So, certain statements come in the imperative. Be this.
Be like this. They are instructions. That is not an instruction.
That is not information. Of course, we can say at one level, all scriptures should be the instructions. But there are certain statements which are just information.
That is not information. But where Krishna is in the imperative. Be like this.
Those are especially important for sadhakas. Sarva-dharman pratyuktya. What is that? That is imperative.
That is instructive sentence. On the other hand, if Krishna says that aham sarvasya prabho bhaktah sarvam pravartate. So, that is information.
So, we can transform informative sentence also into instructive. Yes, I showed it. So, this is important to Krishna.
So, here, this is an imperative statement. mokam kuru karmakam karmu jaya karmana hira yatra pichate na prasidhya karmana So, Krishna is telling that ultimately you have to do something to maintain. You have to do your duties.
Fine. So, now, this section more or less ends over here. So, how the Bhagavad Gita is saying? Next verse we will talk about the perfection of karma yoga as bhakti.
When karma is offered to Krishna, then it becomes bhakti. That is the perfection of karma yoga. But here, Krishna has concluded that although theoretically, jnana yoga is higher, but for one who is not qualified trying to artificially practise jnana yoga, the need to him becoming a deluder and hypocrite.
So, therefore, for Arjuna, he says karma yoga is better. And that is why the imperative is mokam kuru karmakam. What is your innate karma? What is your prescribed duty? You do that.
And you will become purified by that. So, I will summarise what we discussed. We started today by discussing from the last section of the second chapter.
We discussed about the sitapragya and the four questions. What are its symptoms? If you get external oppression, if it happens, if it happens in the body. Then we discussed about the difference between the desires of the mind and the desires of the soul.
Then, how does he speak when he is equipped with distress? Then, how does he sit? He fixes his mind on you. That is how he lives in the material world. And how does he act in the material world? He lives without any material desires.
We discussed elaborately about how bhakti enables us to control our senses. And then, we continued by talking about attaining eternal life by being in a godly life at the final moment of life. Then, in the next third chapter, we started by Arjuna’s confusion.
Krishna has talked about karma-yuga as superior to karma-kanda. But Arjuna is thinking of inaction as superior to action. Therefore, Krishna clarified that main conflict between inaction and action by telling that for him, action is better.
What is action? It is karma-yuga. So, inaction is not suitable for you, Arjuna, because the impurities of the heart or the mind will keep troubling you. So, don’t be a hypocrite.
Do your prescribed duty. Thank you very much.