Gita Study Mumbai 2012 05.24-29: How knowing Krishna brings peace

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Start with the last section of the fifth chapter. We will continue with that section, we have already started that.
So, we discussed 5.23, 5.23. So, in this purport Sri Aurobindo explains how for materialistic people, sense desires are their motives for all action in life. The devotee can work harder than the materialistic people without any sense gratification because they get a higher happiness. Sri Aurobindo is the example of what he is speaking over here.
Now, Krishna is having a flow over here. So, 19th verse told us how Sri Yukteswar has, one has got sama vision, we discussed 18th. Sri Yukteswar has conquered material existence.
How has one conquered that? 20th verse says be equipoised. To be equipoised, 21st verse says then become detached from external stimuli. To become detached from external stimuli, 22nd verse says that one has to realise that this world is a, that sense enjoyment is a mode of misery.
And even one understands, one understands external desires, one should tolerate that. So, after talking about how one should deal with external pleasures, now Krishna in 24th verse continues the part of how to focus on internal pleasure. So, vindati, atmani and sukham, that is the second part of 5.21. So, now that how does one enjoy pleasure within, that is what Krishna will describe in this verse.
So, yo antara sukho, very simple sentence. One knows happiness within. Antara aramas, so there is some redundancy over here.
Arama and sukha are the same. Krishna has contrasted with indriya arama was there in 3.16. Antara arama, we have the Bhagavad Gita famous was atma arama. So, antara arama, one who delights within.
So, arama actually means more than happiness, it means relaxation, when you have arama within, something similar. So, one who delights within. Antara jyoti re laya, so here jyoti refers to light or vision.
So, one whose vision is fixed inwards, antara jyoti re laya. Say yogi, say yogi, what happens to him? Brahma nirvanam, so brahma bhutodhiracchi, he will attain the brahman platform. Now, this is the interesting compound word, brahma nirvanam, let us see what this means.
Where does the word nirvana normally come across? Buddhism, yeah. So, in Buddhism, they have the concept of nirvana. What is nirvana? Nirvana means actually like extinguishing a candle.
Nirvana means ending one’s existence. So, now this word brahma nirvana comes not too many times in the Bhagavad Gita. It comes in 2.72, then it comes here in 4.25, 4.24, it will again come in 4.25, and once more it will come in 6.15. So, this verse comes, now why is it particularly significant? Because at one level, Krishna is giving a transcendental message that is eternal, that is absolutely eternal.
At the same time, that eternal message is revealed at a particular time. And now, conventionally speaking, we know that Buddha came much later than Lord Krishna. Bhagavad Gita was spoken much later.
Many of the academic scholars, they try to date the Bhagavad Gita very late, and they say Bhagavad Gita was written in 3rd, 4th century BC or something like that. And the word like this is brahma nirvana. So, this is Buddha’s tifta.
And therefore, they say that Bhagavad Gita is very simple. But this is actually a very superficial understanding because even the Vedanta Sutra contains a repetition of Buddhism. And Vedanta Sutra was written 5000 years ago.
So, how can Vedanta Sutra contain a repetition of Buddhism? Actually, it is known that Buddha founded Buddhism. Buddha was a prominent exponent of Buddhism. Mr. Shankaracharya did not find him all Mayavad.
Now, his own gurus who were there, Govinda Gaurapad, who wrote a famous commentary on Mandukya Upanishad called Mandukya Karika. So, he was also Mayavad. But these are prominent exponents.
Say, Ramanujacharya is not the founder of Sri Vaishnavism. He is the systematiser of Sri Vaishnavism. Before him, there were the great literal Alwars, where Kulshekar is there, and Andhav and all the great Alwars are there.
So, similarly, Madhavacharya is not exactly the founder of Govinda Gaurapad. These ideas are there. These Acharyas are prominent Acharyas because they are systematisers.
Systematisers of that school of thought. Systematisers means that they bring it all to the whole together into systematic philosophy. At present, if you look at Sri Vaishnavism and Alwars, they were more of poets than philosophers.
There was philosophy in their poetry also. But they were primarily poets. They would write devotional songs.
And they have their own set of devotional songs which is called as Divya Pravanda. Thousands and thousands of songs are there in that. And in the Srila Krishna Upanishad, they call it as the Kumbhaya Veda, the second Veda.
So, now, that means poetry. It’s like Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s poetry. Nanda Thakur’s poetry.
That also means philosophy. But that is not a systematic exposition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. If you want to understand what is systematically Gaudiya Vaishnavism, you probably have to read Swami Satsang’s works.
So, like that, Ramanacharya is a systematised Sri Vaishnavism. Similarly, Buddha was a prominent exponent of Buddhism. But the school of thought that ultimately there is nothing in existence.
And ultimately, the way to come free from misery is to just negate and terminate one’s existence. That is an old idea. So, when Krishna is responding to what Krishna used as using a parallel Buddhistic term, what is he doing? He is actually addressing the prevailing misconceptions of that time.
So, that is also one of the prominent misconceptions of Sri Ramanacharya. There is one devotee who was interested in Buddhism earlier. And when he was introduced to Krishna Consciousness, so then, the Maharishi Maharaj was introducing him.
He was following Buddhism earlier, but now he has become a devotee. Yes. He said, what attracted you to Krishna Consciousness after your practising Buddhism? He said, this Buddhism told me how this world is a place of misery.
And Krishna Consciousness told me how there is another world full of darkness. So, it’s a progression. So, he said, yes.
So, Buddhism means extinguishing the candle, blowing out the existence. That is their idea. Of course, within Buddhism also, there are different schools of thought.
But this is a prominent school of thought. Now, these ideas are there at that time. The idea of nirvana means, nirvana means to end one’s existence.
So, in Krishna Consciousness, the word brahma nirvana. So, here, nirvana indicates end of material existence. Brahma nirvana means simultaneous revival of spiritual existence.
So, brahma nirvana, the existence at this level gets switched off, but the existence at another level starts. They take the same example of candle. When we blow a candle, the candle may get extinguished, but the energy that comprises the candle continues to exist elsewhere.
It is just existing in a form that we cannot see. Similarly, when we say our existence ends over here, that doesn’t mean existence ends forever. It simply means that existence ends at this level and existence commences at a higher level.
So, materialistic people think that life ends with death. The devotional, the jnani understanding is that life begins with death. What does it mean, life begins with death? Their idea is that actually, whatever the place of death is unnatural life.
And actually, when we become liberated, that is when life begins. But, the Vaishnava understanding is that life begins whenever we start serving Krishna. So, when we start serving Krishna, at that moment life begins.
We have the story of the Jivova Marova. Through that story, four kinds of people have given four kinds of blessings. So, the person was performing austerity.
He didn’t know, end your life, because you have performed so much austerity, why do you continue to stress? End your life right now, till death comes to you. Their idea is life begins with death. So, these are different life conceptions.
And this Brahma Nirvana, oh sorry. So, what is the materialistic understanding? I said here, life ends with death. Some materialistic people dread death.
The idea is life begins with death. But thus, life begins whenever we start serving Krishna. So, Prabhupada writes, earlier when this word Brahma Nirvana comes in 2.7.2, Prabhupada writes that practising devotional service and attaining the Kingdom of God are the same thing.
Because as long as you are practising devotional service, you are in the Kingdom of God. When you actually go back to the Kingdom of God, there is no falling away. But right now, when you stop practising devotional service, you may relax back in the material consciousness.
But actually, practising devotional service is not different from attaining the spiritual. Yatra Gayatri Madhavstha Tatra Krishna Vinayagartha. So, Lord Krishna said, wherever my Lord is chanting my praises, I am present over there.
So, now what is Krishna telling in this verse? That if a person is constantly seeking and relishing happiness within, such a person is situated in the Brahman platform, Prabhupada Vivekananda and he attains Brahma Nirvana. That means, his existence in the material level ends and his existence in the spiritual level begins. He attains the real life.
So, Rupa Goswami describes that when a person has become Jeevan Mukta, that means when a person has realised his Swaroopa. Remember yesterday, I talked about how there are Mahabharatas who are Swaroopa Siddha and Munati. So, if somebody is Swaroopa Siddha, when Rupa Goswami explains, such a person serves Krishna at two levels.
Externally, that person will be acting as a Jnasi. And externally, that person can be, I’ll say, doing whatever is expected for Jnasi. Internally, the person has realised his particular Swaroopa, as Gopal, Gopi or Manjari, whatever.
And he is also serving at that level. And the existence is simultaneously at both levels. And eventually, when the body’s duration gets exhausted, then the existence transforms completely to that level.
And we have the example of Ramana Das Goswami. He said, he got stomach digestion. And because the doctor said, he will eat sweet rice.
Now, what to speak of sweet rice? He would not even take sweet or nice for that. He would just take a little buttermilk. Isn’t it? So, still, what had happened was, he was experiencing that in his future.
Now, it was not that. At that time, he was not existing in this level. Sometimes, when the experience of Ramana Das Goswami was completely to trance, he goes into trance.
And that kind of person may not be there in the external consciousness. That happens when the absorption in the spiritual realm becomes too much. And there are experiences.
The whole last part of the CC, my 18, 17, 17, 18, 19, 20, 19 chapters They are all describing the final madness of Lord Shri Krishna Mahaprabhu, the Lord Shri Krishna Mahaprabhu’s adventure by the ocean. They have described that Lord Shri Krishna Mahaprabhu jumped into the ocean at one time. And in the end, he was just lost.
The fishermen caught him out and brought him on. And then, finally, on the road he reverted. Lord Shri Krishna Mahaprabhu said, Ma, actually, I was in Vrindavan and I was observing the one person, Radha Krishna.
Why did you bring me back again? So, these are times when the consciousness is completely shifted to the spiritual realm. And the body may be there, but still, there is no consciousness there. So, this also happens.
But here, Brahman Nirvana means there is Nirvana at a particular level and this attainment of Brahman. Now, Krishna will describe this further in the next verse. So, he thought this was sort of summary qualification of who will attain Brahman Nirvana.
Lavante Brahman Nirvana Lavante Brahman Nirvana Hrishyakshina Kalmasa Hrishyakshina Kalmasa Chinna Vaidhaya Kaatmana Chinna Vaidhaya Kaatmana So, Lavante, one attains that Brahman Nirvana. What are the qualifications? Hrishaya, because it will be a Rishi, seeking spiritual life. Who is a Rishi? Rishi is one who is ready to give up this life for the next life.
Hrishaya, Hrishyakshina Kalmasa is purified from the contamination and when he is freed from the contamination, what happens? Chinna Vaidhaya The duality that is there, that Chinna is destroyed. Kaatmana, which is naturally controlled in the sense that Sarvabhuta Hrithenata This person is engaged in the welfare of all living beings. So, actually this verse is talking about a Karma Yogi.
A Gyan Yogi is not engaged in the welfare of all living beings. He is completely absorbed in his own Samadhi. So, after giving this high level of Brahman Nirvana So, 19th verse described in Chittabha Sarva where from 28th to 24th is describing how one attains that.
22nd described that. Now, this verse brings Arjuna back again to the level of practise of Karma Yoga. So, Sarvabhuta Hrithenata means live in the world but act for the welfare of all living beings.
So now, actually who can act for the welfare of all living beings? The person should be pure hearted. If the person is not pure hearted, he may think that I have to do good for one person but the person ends up doing harm to others. So, Sarvabhuta Hrithenata is possible when there is Chinna Dvaitha.
Otherwise, even in the best intentions the results can be very counterproductive. So now, we will discuss the next verse. So, Abhito means soon not very long time.
Brahma Nirvana again this word Brahma Nirvana comes 5 times in the Bhagavad Gita. It’s 4.26 also. Bharatate Vidhatmanam is a person who has controlled himself.
Now, actually the Yati, the first Sanyasi Yati Naam Brahmacharya was called as Yati Raj. So, Yati Naam actually these are Karma Yogis because Krishna is saying that they are as good as Sanyasis. Krishna started the chapter of Karma Sanyasis.
So, although they are Karma Sanyasis although they are Karma Yogis but they are as good as Sanyasis. So, when they act, they have to act without Kama Krodha, without Kama Naam. So, one is free from Kama and Krodha.
This was the same thing that Krishna talked about in 23rd Chapter Kama, Krodha and Brahma Naam. Kama, Krodha and Brahma Naam. Now, actually what is Kama and Krodha? Kama is the 6 Arthas are broad but Kama is actually the desire to be enjoyed, the desire to be God.
And Krodha is the frustration, when I can’t be God then I just destroy everything. I destroy everything. So, Kama is actually an expression of the enjoy mentality and Krodha is the expression of the frustration of the enjoy mentality.
So, these are both, these two are the two sides of the same coin. Once one has the idea of Krodha Kama, Krodha Kama the idea of a separate existence with Krishna, then that leads to these two things, either I think I am to enjoy or not enjoy, I am to destroy. So, Kama comes from the mode of passion, Krodha comes from the mode of indifference and both these obscure the nature of the soul.
So, now after describing this I mentioned earlier, Kama sorry, Karma Yoga in and of itself does not lead to liberation. Karma Yoga has to be supported by something else. Karma Yoga can bring one to a high level of enlightenment and it’s important to practise Karma Yoga when a person is not yet purified enough.
After practising Karma Yoga, then say, one is coming to Karma Yoga here, then the person can take any of the three paths. He can take Gyan Yoga, he can take Dhan Yoga, he can take Upanishad Yoga. So, for attaining liberation, ultimately speaking one has to touch himself.
So, now Krishna has actually told that don’t practise Gyan Yoga. So, what Krishna will tell us now that from Karma Yoga one can practise Gyan Yoga. So, next two verses give a summary description of Gyan Yoga and that will be elaborated in the sixth chapter.
And then Krishna says you can practise Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti Yoga is intertied in that. 29th verse and that will be elaborated in the chapters 7 to 12.
So, Prabhupada told this was very nice verse from Bhagavatam. He talked about how one can become free from Krama growth. What it says is that तद्वन नरिद्धमतयो So, रिद्ध is रिद्ध चगा करिये यही है क्योंकि स्यार्विद्ध ब्लाइन्स So, रिद्धमतयो means those who try to empty their minds.
So, the Gyanis, नहीं दे, नहीं दे, नहीं दे, don’t think of this, don’t think of this. Their process is emptying the mind. रिद्धमतयो, and it doesn’t work.
नरिद्ध, तद्वन नरिद्धमतयो यथयो पिवित्ना So, on that, instead of trying to empty the mind, what has to do? यथादवानिकल्य पलाशि दिलावसमा दिलाइन्स, see the practise of Roshan says, दिलाइन्स, the nectar at the lowest level of the Lord. That will actually lead one to liberation. We will discuss this course later on.
Krishna has described a summary description of Nihana Yoga. विगर्णेच्छा भयः फ्रोधो विगर्णेच्छा भयः फ्रोधो next chapter let’s go to the last verse this is the proper part of this verse पीस्वदिला भुक्तारां यग्यतवसां भुक्तारां यग्यतवसां सर्वधोतमहेश्वयं सर्वधोतमहेश्वयं सुवितव सर्वभुतामिनां सुवितव सर्वभुतामिनां यत्मामां शान्तिवृच्चति यतमामाम शान्तिवृच्चत् So mam very clear the purpose is coming here that maam yatmama you should know me to be because this is my own bhakti yoga if you know me as street thesis As the decent joy as the law of everything and as the Guru at the level, cant you feel peace, so arjuna is being told Arjuna do you want peace Just by avoiding the war to obtain peace, what do you have to do? You have to actually go and be a supervisor. So, let’s see first what is being talked about in this verse and then we will see how it brings peace.
So, Gyan-tva-va-domyas. So, this is actually describing Krishna as the goal of all processes. So, first is Goktaram Yajna-tapasam.
This is describing Krishna as the goal of Karmakand and Karmayoga. Why? Because in Karmakand and Karmayoga one performs Yajnas. So, Goktaram Yajna-tapasam.
So, in Goktaram Yajna. Goktaram Yajna. So, actually in the 9th Chapter Krishna will appear there also.
So, this describes that Krishna is the goal of Karmakand and Karmayoga. Then Tapasam. This refers to as goal of Dhyan-yoga or Ashtang-yoga.
In the Ashtang-yoga he is the goal of us. Then Sarva-loka-maheshwaram. So, he is the ultimate goal of every God also.
By the end of the verse we can go to different Lokas. But actually all those Lokas, Indra-loka does not belong to Indra. Indra-loka also belongs to Krishna.
So, that’s why when Krishna took Parijata from Swarga, Indra thought that he is stealing. But actually it was Krishna’s doing. Krishna can take it whenever he wants.
So, for Krishna when he took the Parijata from Indra-loka and brought it to Dwarka, what it is like? I have my money and I have my laptop. I take out the money from my laptop and put it in my right hand. That’s beautiful, isn’t it? Just because something is in left pocket, some person thinks, oh it’s mine.
So, in Sarva-loka-maheshwaram, there is actually a lot of everything. So, this is actually Dhyan-yoga. The Dhyanis, they also do Tapasam.
And Suvarudham Sarva-loka-maheshwaram. Suvarudham actually refers to the goal of Ashtanga. Because the yogis, when they practise Ashtanga, they want to go deep inside and they want to find the Lord in the heart.
Suvarudham, the Lord in the heart, is actually a Dhyan-yoga. Dhyan-yoga. And the Dhyana is the Vashinti.
And see, what is that? The Supreme Lord. This is one of the beautiful verses in the Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita. It’s also similar to what I just said.
How the Supreme Lord is the goal of the Supreme Lord Krishna. Vishnu is the goal of everything. And now, the last part is Sarva-kumaranam.
So, even if somebody is not on any of these paths, goal of everyone, goal of all. So, one has to know that Krishna is the ultimate goal of everything. So, basically by this, Krishna is explaining that in this condensed verse, He is the guest to be known.
Whatever path one is practising, ultimately one has to know Him. And when one knows Him, then one attains Shanti. So, this is a famous verse in Chaitanya Chaitanya which talks about Shanti.
See, it compares the Dutas with the… So, Kukti, Kukti, Siddhi. These are actually Karma-yoga, Dhyana-yoga and Ashrami. Siddhi, Kamijata, Ashrami.
All these are Ashrami. Because they have some desires. Now, Krishna-Bhakta also has desires.
But they are not coherent desires. That’s why they are not called as Kama. In this Kama, whatever you call it, you will call it unique for yourself.
At the aim of Ashrami. Therefore, it’s Kama. So, this is first part is Gyaatvama.
Now, let us look at Shanti-Urkshati. So, how exactly, by knowing Krishna, one will attain Shanti? So, for this, Krishna is going to tell the same thing. One has to know Him as the enjoyer, procreator and benefactor.
What is the transformation? Benefactor or well-wisher? Benefactor and well-wisher. So, actually, well-wisher is one who wishes good for others. Benefactor is one who does good for others.
One is wishing and the other is acting. So, Krishna wishes for our good and Krishna acts also for our good. So, enjoyer, procreator and benefactor.
Now, how does knowing Krishna and these three things lead to peace of this world? Now, we know that Prabhupada used to use this as a peace formula. When the Vietnam war was going on and the warlord destroyed his family, in the middle of it, in the red place, Prabhupada used to write, when I got this pamphlet, my reaction was sheer incompetence. He says, what is this? How can you do it? You know, if you want peace, you have to have some political change or you have to have some treaty between the two warring factions, you have to have some policy decision about the Bengal and the Gujarat war and all the country war.
So, how is this world doing peace? It actually, this is the connection that most people try to make out. What the company that makes it out is that before we can attain peace in this world, we have to make peace with God. What do we have to do? We have to make peace with God.
What does making peace with God mean? Actually, the soul comes to this world. Actually, the soul has declared war on God, in the sense that Krishna is the enjoyer and I want to be the enjoyer. Now, material nature is saying, no, you cannot be the enjoyer.
No, I will be the enjoyer. So, essentially, we are trying to go against God. We are trying to oppose God, which is clearly declaring war against God.
It may not be an exclusive war against God. Of course, there are some terrible atheists who are out to open war against God. Because of Islamic fanaticism, there has been increasing rise in the west of atheist fanaticism.
And these atheists are, they are not just believers in atheism, but they feel that individualism is the cause of all evil in the world. And they are very, very provocative and aggressive people. They have slogans like, for humanity to live, religion must die.
It’s an antithesis of the idea of universal brotherhood. So, these people are, these are frank atheists. They are few in number.
These people have openly declared a war against God. But then the problem with their philosophy is that, actually, atheism also ends up becoming a religion. So, they say, how can you have faith in God? Okay, fine, we are not seeing God, but we cannot know the existence of God.
But at the same time, nobody can disprove the existence of God. Isn’t it? Then they are different. Atheism is an agnostic religion.
Nobody can disprove the existence of God. So, if one becomes an aggressive atheist, aggressive atheism is also a religion. And it is a religion of faith in faithlessness.
Faith in Godlessness. Because to say that God doesn’t exist, that is also an act of faith. Because how? There is no scientific experiment to prove that God doesn’t exist.
So, there are these explicit atheists who have openly declared war against God. But, in general, all souls who come to this world, because they want to assert the position of God behind them, they have, in a sense, declared war against God at the implicit level. So, the Buddhists, it tells us that we have to make peace with God.
All the wars in this world are because, ultimately, all these souls who are warring are fighting for God’s property. All the souls who are fighting in this world, they are fighting for God’s property. So, every person over here wants to become the enjoyer himself.
And Prabhupada will give the example of concentric circles. Whereas, we would have circles with different centres. And that circle with different centres would intersect.
So, this goes to the topic. First of all, we make peace with God. And to make peace with God, we have to understand its attributes.
First attribute is that Krishna is the enjoyer. So, if I think that I am the enjoyer, then I will want as… Actually, then I would want the positions of this person. Because to enjoy something, I need the position.
If I am the enjoyer, then I want sense objects, I want clothes, cars, gadgets. So, naturally, it will be on the top here. So, first you have to understand that Krishna is the enjoyer.
Then, why is Krishna the enjoyer? Because he supports me. Because he holds everything. Now, Krishna is the enjoyer, Krishna is the property.
But what about me then? Am I supposed to get more enjoyment? No, Krishna is the enjoyer. When I give enjoyment to Krishna, I get enjoyment also. In fact, we get greater enjoyment by serving Krishna than by imitating Krishna.
And that’s why the Lord himself, Kamsa Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the taste is nothing. So, actually first, if people understand these two things, that actually, I am not the enjoyer, Krishna is the enjoyer. And I am not the property, Krishna is the property.
Then, now when we say we are not the enjoyer, that doesn’t mean that we are sufferers. All that means that we are not independent beings. So, when we understand that, we cooperate with Krishna.
We cooperate with Krishna. Actually, Krishna is our greatest enemy. Krishna is the greatest enemy.
This peace formula is going at a much, much deeper level Then, the superficial ideas, I don’t think we have to make some political alignments or sign some treaties or something like that. You know, in the World War II was fought? Or World War I? They said that it is a war to end all wars. There is one party that is evil and one party that is good.
And the evil party is destroyed and there will be no more war in the world. But, soon after the war to end all wars, what happened? So many other wars took place. And, some of you may have seen that, in the Kriyayana, I should let you predict, just how many people have been killed in the last century itself.
Certainly, the World War I and World War II were big casualties. So many were killed. So, there is Stalin and Lenin’s regime in Russia and Mao Zedong’s regime in China.
There is millions of people were killed. And, the two ravines involved, number of people killed in both of them, number of people killed in the world wars. Both world wars combined.
Both of them were dire and they had a policy that anybody who opposes them is finished. Because, both these countries were more or less behind the iron curtain. So, the atrocities there were not so much highlighted.
Because, they were under the communist block. So, things were concealed a little bit. But, we know there are revolting forces out there anyway.
They have been practising. So, actually, these two countries, Russia and USSR. Now, it’s called Russia.
But, it’s split up into two states. USSR and China are the two countries, which in recent memory, recent history, have experimented with 100% secularism. With total atheism.
Not just no religion, but official non-Sultanist religion. And, what was the result? They had the greatest killings of their own citizens. Actually speaking, if there is no God, there can be no peace.
There can be no peace. And, if there is sometimes conflict among Ages, that conflict is not so much because of their religions per se, but it is more because of the people of India. So, when we understand Krishna, and enjoy Krishna, and appropriate Krishna as benefactor, then what happens is, the soul stops trying to enjoy Krishna, and co-operates with Krishna.
When you co-operate with Krishna, then there should be some peace. There should be some peace. Krishna provides peace for the world.
But, the root cause of the suffering of the living entity is the enjoymentality. And, the root reason for the cause of human suffering is, due to the desire to be loyal to the Mayans, the cause of human suffering is. And, Gopal writes over there, what is Krishna Consciousness? It’s a nice sentence.
Brings one into spiritual life, even while one is in the individualisation of matter. Or, it is an arousing of spiritual existence, by practise in the material world. In practise, let’s say there is a drama, so there are rehearsals for that drama.
So, we do the rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals, and ultimately there is a live performance, a real performance. So, like that, Sadhana, Bhakti, they are the rehearsals. And, we liberate it and go back to the spiritual world, and that is the real performance.
So, it is an arousal of spiritual, arousing of spiritual existence, by practise in the material world. So, we practise, in other words, we simulate the role of the servants of Krishna. Of course, we do not know exactly who we are, and as such.
But, whoever we are, the common denominator is that we are servants of Krishna. So, if we practise our service to Krishna, then by that, we revive our spiritual existence. And then we ultimately get liberated.
So, in this chapter, Krishna concludes by describing that we should know him and himself. Now, for Maharshi, the question is, what about agnostics? Agnostics are people who say that God cannot be known. And, are they right? There are two aspects to this.
Certainly, God cannot be known as foolish. That is true. At the same time, even with our praptiksha andhaman, we can see the hand of God.
We cannot see the heart of God. We cannot see the face of God. But, we can see the hand of God.
What is the difference between the hand, the face and the heart of God? They are different things. In this world, we are not able to see the loving nature of God. Because this world is so massive.
But, at the same time, we can see the hand of God. We say that we see that this world is divine. The evidence of this world is that this world is divine.
So, we can see the hand of God. The face of God means the beauty of God. Sometimes, we can see the beauty of God when we are observing nature in its best time stage.
Otherwise, we will not be able to see it. So, firstly, even with praptiksha andhaman, even by observation, one can come to a conclusion that there is some higher power or higher person in this world. And further, if you complement that with scripture, then you can certainly come to know.
So, agnosticism is a position that is adopted because it may seem to be a humble position. Ultimately, I don’t know about this. So, I won’t take any sides.
I don’t know about this. But, actually speaking, there are ways in which it can be. There are ways in which it can be.
I agree that the agnostics do not explore those issues. And often, in general, the cause of agnosticism is not so much the reason and logic in favour of those people. It is generally speaking, the misbehaviour of the part of the people who are propagating it.
They have told, that is the main cause. And when they see that, then it leads to disaster. Because, this is, I think I told you before, the evangelical Christians do go and push people a bit.
You know, become this, become that, do this. So, in America, they have a holding, God, please save me from your comments. So, evangelicals, either they can be very aggressive, or they can sometimes be improper in their dealing.
So, actually, we generally care a bit about Islamic fanaticism. Because, that’s what has affected India. But if you look at the church history, it has become lesser.
The Catholic church at least, as well as the Protestant church in India, whenever people who are not religiously involved, they get to power. When they get religious power, they do misuse it. And the history of Catholic church, the history of much violence, murder, especially Pope John Paul II, when he started, he said that, in the next 2000 years, the church has come to a new genesis.
He started apologising. So, he started one apology, and he gave one more, right? That’s another apology that he had given. Now, he apologised for the massacre of millions of people that we did in South America, and then it all goes into temptation.
He apologised for, so, actually, when the Protestants came up, in Europe, in the 14th century, so, back then, the Catholic church was also affiliated with the ruling powers of the kings. It was a massacre. Millions of people were massacred.
And who did this and those? Both accepted Jesus as their saviour. But, one side did not accept the Catholic church as a representative of Jesus. And then, until the year of the war, that 12th of March, and then, the war would have gone on.
You know, similar to that, there was a big plague in Chile. The bombing plague. So, it was a very, so, if you look at the fact record of the Chilean, often if there are immature people who are heading the religion, then, they can be used as an excuse for for misbehaving.
And miscruising. So, there are, because, actually, even the Catholic church, all the Protestants are mostly, mostly, mostly married people. Catholic monks are there.
So, all the, the whole catalogue of all the, all the Easter prayers that they had, and that also, the whole thing, what happens is, people do speak about it. So, I mentioned in the world during these classes about how the Catholic church was selling the indulgences. What are the Chilean indulgences? That means, that, okay, actually, your relative, your father, your grandfather, somebody has done some sin and he has gone to hell.
But, you give this donation to the church, and, by our prayers, essentially, we transfer from death to heaven. So, you know, this is, this is very brazen and martyrdom from the way it is done. That’s how the Chile Protest went on.
So, to some extent, if we can, yeah, you know, if we look at our own lives, we certainly study the philosophy, and we need to study it. But ultimately, what gives us very strong faith is when we associate with devotees, these dedicated devotees trying to live pure lives, and, we see that. that is what actually contributes to this movement.
So, along with the study of scripture, we see that, Nirmala Siddhartha, Neelkanth Govind, Mahanji Modi, Nirmala Siddhartha. So, actually, the lives of the devotees are such lives that we may not be able to inspire experience. So, it’s a great responsibility to try to connect this Krishna Consciousness to this Krishna Consciousness.
And, that’s why, so, the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness cannot touch people’s lives as much as the lives of Krishna Consciousness. And, that’s why, the Jyotirmukha is important, because, it talks about how a seeker became a seeker, how a seeker became a part of God, and, so, it’s a critical piece to it. So, the Christians are usually sort of enlightened, but, of course, they have a series of thousands and thousands of, they call it chicken soup for the soul.
Chicken soup, because, they write, I think, they write about chicken soup, because, it’s a chicken soup for the soul. Series, series, huge number of books are there. All the books are about how I became a Christian, how I became, they have the saying born again.
So, born again is not reincarnation. The idea of born again is when I become a Christian then I am born again. So, they have series of how I became a Christian.
And, they move in the destination. They move, you know. You know, that’s why, you know, in a, back to Godhead, one of my most popular poems is How I Became a Christian.
Most people don’t write their stories. If they write it, it will be inspired. You know, one of my early friends was, he used to go to church, and he said, in the church, every seminar, every time that they have a seminar, or they have their Sunday Mass, you know, every week’s Mass, the company were resting.
You know, how I was saved by Jesus. Of course, how I was saved by Jesus is one of the really mundane things. But, see, the idea of doing these stories are very important.
you know, there is Param Suryananda wrote a book called What the Bible a Yogi. Basically, this life story and had did so much to popularise Hindu spirituality in the West. You know, now that you think yourself, of course, he talks mostly from a Hindu person’s point of view, and he quotes from, Bhagavad Gita also supports the path of Yoga.
He says, he only quotes 6.46, not 6.47. Why 6.46? Yogi is the best. It is a perfect Yogi. But, basically, stories of human stories, how people live, is very important.
Even the most hard hearted atheists, they can transform their destiny, their lives, their parties. Gnosticism is… And atheists have embraced Gnosticism because of the logical defence of it, because of the emotional alienation that results in people see that those who claim to be God, devotees of God, are not God. They are ungodly.
Such a profile will say that philosophy without correctness that means this Rana Maharshi So Rana Maharshi says in his lecture that if we don’t make a serious work of Krishna Consciousness actually that is practising cruelty to all human beings. So if I am not making serious work of Krishna Consciousness, what are we doing? How are we being cruel to all human beings? Because, actually speaking, we have been chosen by Krishna to receive his mercy, to share his mercy. So the doctor is in the hospital and the doctor is not serious about human beings.
The doctor is fooling around. No, we are talking about nurses. That is actually being cruel to the patients.
So, like that, if a person has got Krishna Consciousness and he has decided to share Krishna Consciousness and he doesn’t do that, then actually that in one sense is cruelty. So if you practise Krishna Consciousness nicely, life can transform that conscious soul of any human being. And if you see in the ancient days of Krishna Consciousness, the devotees did not know too much about Krishna Consciousness.
So really, it used to be amazing. So what attracted people over, these people are happy. These people are so confident, these people are so happy.
So when they saw that, that’s what attracted them. That’s what attracted them. So actually, if you become serious about Krishna Consciousness, it’s paradoxical, the more serious we become, the more happy we become.
Normally people take seriousness means naughty. They are naughty. But actually the more serious we become about Krishna Consciousness, the more happy we become.
When we become happy by that, then we share that happiness with others. So, a serious Krishna Consciousness is the way to become happy, to share that happiness with others. Thank you very much.