Gita Study Mumbai 2012 – 06.42-47: The Glory of Bhakti

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
We discussed the first eventuality of the deviated yogi in 6.41. 6.42 describes the second possibility. So Athava means alternatively, otherwise.
That means Krishna is talking about two possible trajectories for the deviated yogi. In the previous verse, he said that he goes to heaven and then he falls. Otherwise he says, He is born, he doesn’t go to heaven at all.
He is born directly into a family of dheemataam. In other words, dheem means intelligence. So, please give me a clue.
People are not as brave as this person. In this 7.9 verse, So dheem is the dheem. So dheemataam, those who have dheem, those who are intelligent, those who are very wise.
So he is born bhavati, he is born into, he appears into. And such a verse, It is extremely rare. So, the word durlabha is not used very cheaply like Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.
Obviously, we are using durlabha, dharam. You know this. There are superlatives, good, better and best.
So, durlabha, durlabha dharam and durlabha tam. So durlabha, etadhi durlabha tam. So, it is extremely rare, Krishnaji.
Where else is the word durlabha come in the Bhagavad Gita? Yes, durlabha. There are all sorts of durlabha for that. Like a person who surrenders to me, we have to become jnana mani.
It is very rare. So, 7.19 talks about that. It is not a word that comes very frequently.
So, here, Krishnaji, this word is very rare. Loki, jnana mani, rishi. Now, what is the rarity of this word? So, etadhi durlabha tam.
So, actually speaking, the number of devotees in this world are very few. As compared to the large number of people in the world. And especially, if there are dedicated devotee couples, and the child is born in their family, then each child gets a lot of positive spiritual impressions.
Right from the childhood. In fact, not just right from the childhood. If the parents are dedicated devotees, then it is even before birth, before the conception itself.
So, if you go for contrast in a lecture, it says, the Vedic culture means that we do good to the child even before he is born. Whereas, the modern culture means that, we kill the child even before he is born. It’s abortion.
It’s a tragic contrast. And of course, after being born also, there is Atma. The soul-filled civilisation which gives us spiritual propensities.
So, in such a civilisation, when Shri Gopal went to America, he saw that this child of Gopal and Shani Agarwal, he was having children, because they drink milk with a bottle. Like they first take from the mother, and the same way, they are not able to chew, they don’t have teeth, so they suck it. So, they suck from a bottle.
So, he saw, Gopal, there was some yellow liquid over there. Something looked like milk. Gopal asked Shani Agarwal, what is this that your child is taking? Small baby doesn’t have teeth.
So, Shani Agarwal was embarrassed. He said, what is that? It is actually liquefied milk. It is liquefied milk.
He said that we don’t want our child to have protein deficiency. So, he is giving milk. So, the child doesn’t have capacity to chew, but he is being fed milk at that time.
This is a misfortune of the civilisation. Actually, even if proteins are needed, proteins are available in a much more natural way through milk. Why does it need liquefied milk for that? This is a kind of samskaras that often come to people when they are born into this society.
So, where the parents are miseducated, and because of that, they bring up the child in a very, unfortunately, misled way. The parents are very rarely desiring harm for their children. Parents are always the well-wishers of the children.
But just being a well-wisher is not enough for us to know how to be a well-wisher. So, even for brahmacharis, the parents are their well-wishers, but they don’t understand what is actually good. Because of that, often they oppose the son becoming a brahmachari quite fiercely.
So, here, the child is born in an emotional family, and right from the childhood, the soul gets the spiritual culture, spiritual training, and then the spiritual life can be afforded. This is very rare. Etan, Buddha, Veda, Dharma, extremely rare.
Lokay, genuinely they do not show any. Actually speaking, this is extremely rare. Now, interestingly, in the Padapur, Prabhupada places himself in this category.
Isn’t it? So, Prabhupada says, both our spiritual master and our humble self had the opportunity to work with such families. So, interesting. Now, we know that both Prabhupada and Mukund Pratapura were eternal associates of the Lord, and they could have been born anywhere.
So, Prabhupada’s glory is not just because he was born in an emotional family, and we understand that Prabhupada came from the spiritual world. So, there are many people who try to trace back what is Prabhupada’s Swarupa in this picture. Now, Prabhupada strongly discouraged such speculation.
There was one time, Prabhupada really had this Mangalarthi, I asked him about Mangalarthi, and he said, it is found in the Ayahs. After that, he read the Aksharathi. The spiritual master is very expert in assisting the Sakhis in their intimate service to Radhakrishna.
What does this mean? Prabhupada blunt, none of your business. Prabhupada is very blunt about it. Prabhupada said, this is not for you, this is negligent.
So, whenever Prabhupada was asked anything about his Swarupa, he didn’t speak anything. Now, some people, they try to claim that, there is one song of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada wrote two songs when he went abroad. So, one song is the marking of Bhagavad Dharma, and the other is, one is Bholo Kripa Kaili Krishna, and the other is, Radharani Jabbe Kripa Bhave, same one it is.
Basically, there are two songs over there. So, in one of the songs, he says, when will I, when will I go and see, what is there in the pithil of Krishna. I will play with Krishna in the forest, and I will see what is there in the pithil of Krishna.
Something like that. Some people try to extrapolate and say that, Prabhupada is Sakyas, and not Madhuryas. And especially, some devotees from Gaudiya Matsya, they say, if you are Madhuryas, Prabhupada can’t be.
So, it’s so stupid. You know, we are having Indra Dukthi Rasa right now. That is what we have to become free from.
So, ultimately speaking, it is not this sort of speculative speculation that is going to reverse the experience of Krishna. It is dedication to the service of Krishna. So, Shri Prabhupada discredits speculation about his Swarupa.
Now, Shri Prabhupada answers the question about who he was in different languages. So, here, in print is, saying that, I was also born in a devotee family. Now, this does not mean that Shri Prabhupada is saying that he is also an advanced or a diligent devotee.
If you read Shri Prabhupada’s wording, they are very careful. Because we had the opportunity to take birth in such families. So, what Shri Prabhupada is saying is, Shri Prabhupada is talking about how this is Durlabha and I had that fortune.
Shri Prabhupada is not saying that I am a devoted yogi and I was born like this. So, Krishna can arrange for his devotees to be born in devotion-minded families, so that the potency of devotions is illustrative for the yogi. And Krishna can get his devotees to be born in non-devotional families, i.e. devotees with individual partnerships, like Bhaktivinoda Thakur, who was born in a Shakta family.
So that, actually, it will evolve how? Because sometimes, by thinking by his independent thoughtfulness, come to the conclusion that Gauri or Vishnu is the highest one. So, Krishna can do either way. So, we understand that Krishna’s acting in the world directly or through his devotees is not stereotypical.
Krishna can act in various ways. as per the story of Prashila Prabhupada, Prashila Prabhupada was asked by Tamal Krishna Maharaj at one time. But what happened first time is that the devotees came to India.
At that time, Prabhupada in good faith introduced his disciples to his godbrothers and they told him that you can keep them. They did not have any centre in India back then. So, you can stay in their Gauri Amman.
But then, what happened was, some of his godbrothers, they might have good intention, but they felt that Prabhupada was not properly representing Prashila Prabhupada’s teachings. And they started telling certain things which were different from what Prabhupada was saying. And one of the devotees got very disturbed and missed.
He almost left the lecture room to Prabhupada. He told him, don’t stay there. There are several pieces of Prabhupada where he said, don’t associate with Gauri Amman devotees.
He said, we respect them from distance, but don’t associate with them. Now, of course, this is not like an eternal command that if somebody is going to associate with them, then help us in Gauri Amman. But the point is, one has to follow one’s spiritual master properly so that one can make spiritual master.
So, Prabhupada said that actually, you know, Mukund Maharaj innocently asked Prabhupada that question. Prabhupada was very sick in 1968 and then he was going to India to take treatment. Mukund Maharaj asked Mukund Prabhupada, Prabhupada, if you are not able to come back, can you please send one of your godbrothers? And Prabhupada’s brother also became very angry.
And Mukund Maharaj became very angry. And then Prabhupada came to Prabhupada. And Prabhupada said, my spiritual master is special.
So, Mukund Maharaj and all the other devotees discussed afterwards and then they understood that actually, the spiritual master is not a possible combo to be like that. So, then later on, actually, when the devotees came to India, they said that India has so many sadhus. We didn’t find anyone like Shri Prabhupada.
So, deeply rooted in the spiritual culture, at the same time, so profoundly compassionate to reach out to everyone and bring them towards Krishna. So, when we are glorifying Shri Prabhupada, that doesn’t mean we are minimising the scope. We just understand the principle that we have to come into ourselves to Shri Prabhupada and our connection with God is imparted through Shri Prabhupada.
So, now, who was Shri Prabhupada? There are different… Tamang Krishna Maharaj also, he had a letter. He had come to India and he probably heard something like this from different body of devotees. So, he wrote a letter to Prabhupada saying, Prabhupada, does the spiritual master know about his previous lives? So, now, for all of them, the spiritual master is Shri Prabhupada.
That means, directly what he is asking, do you know about your previous lives? So, Prabhupada writes back, I don’t know why you ask such a question. I think I mentioned this in Aishwarya Teeth’s course also. Prabhupada says that, you know, it doesn’t matter whether the spiritual master is a Siddha or a Sadhana Siddha.
If he is a Siddha, he can make you a Siddha. For someone who is a millionaire, it doesn’t matter whether he is born a millionaire or whether he became a millionaire. He can give you charity.
He can help you to become Siddha. Prabhupada said, one astrologer said that, I was a very successful businessman or king in my previous life. Prabhupada was very non-committal about astrology.
One astrologer said like that. Prabhupada did not give too much credence to it. Prabhupada did not deny it.
He spoke it. One astrologer has said that, the former Prime Minister of India has become one of the few dogs owned by a dog in Switzerland. So, Prabhupada quoted that.
One astrologer has said, prominent astrologer. So, Prabhupada would quote that, but he would not insist on that. So, basically, now it could have been possible that Prabhupada has taken many births.
Krishna sent him to this world where not only one, Krishna and Prabhupada could have come from many animals. We don’t know. We don’t have to speculate.
So, the point here is that Prabhupada’s placing himself in this purpose simply indicates the power of the devotional samsaras. That’s all. It doesn’t indicate that Prabhupada belongs to this category.
Now, Prabhupada, on a few occasions, to his intimate disciples, he would say that I was in spiritual world, Krishna sent me. So, Prabhupada did not insist on that as his qualification for preaching the world. He said, in the instruction of my spiritual master, that is my qualification.
So, in general, Prabhupada recognises supernatural aspects, but he did not emphasise them. And, that’s why there is no need to go into speculating about what is the swaroopa of this spiritual master. This whole zone is very, very speculative and very offensive.
It can become very offensive also. You start judging. Somebody says, should this spiritual master be a pure devotee? Fine.
He should be a pure devotee. You can say, but how do you know he is a pure devotee? All that you can see is, whether the spiritual master is committed to following the process given by Shri Guru Maharaj, by the acharyas, and he is inspiring others to follow the process, and then he is inspiring me to follow the process. He is the spiritual master.
So, now, interestingly, when we look at this verse, what does it indicate? It says that somebody… So, what are the two alternatives? First alternative is that somebody has practised spiritual life a little bit and he’s got some taste, he’s got some material desires also. Then to exhaust those material desires, the person is allowed to facilitate the enjoyment. The first possibility that we talk about in 41 is for those who don’t have material desires to live in.
42 is for those who don’t have so much material desires in them, but who have still not yet developed sufficient attraction. There are two aspects to this spiritual master. One is detachment from matter, the second is attachment to Krishna.
So, these two trajectories are for different categories of people. 41 is one is attached to material enjoyment, other is not sufficiently attached to Krishna. So, the second person Athva Yoginam, he’s not attached to material enjoyment.
He’s given up the desire for material enjoyment, but still, there’s unorthodoxy and there’s unorthodoxy. So, if the unorthodoxy has not happened sufficiently, then the person has to take birth again in a devotee family and then get the unorthodoxy by the devotional practises in that life. Sometimes you may see some devotees, devotee couples, children, sometimes they pass away early in their life.
That is because these children could have been great devotees. And then they have a little bit of karma and they need to complete a little bit more interaction with each other. When they complete that, they go back to God.
So, did I tell you the story of Vishwanath Prabhu and his daughter? Hmm? So, Raghav Mahadevan has a new book called tentatively called as Yoga of Love. So, the first book is this searching for the path of love. The second book is this experiences my practise in sharing.
So, he talks a lot about Raghav Mahadevan’s community. He talks about different devotees. He talks about Vishwanath Prabhu in the book.
He talks about his devotees. So, he talks about Vishwanath Prabhu over there. And how he can help a person to transcend the inevitable disease of non-existence.
So, Vishwanath Prabhu has two daughters. So, the younger daughter, her name is Varsha. So, when she was born, there was a lot of complications during the birth, during the pregnancy.
Both prenatal and postnatal, both there were complications. And because of that, she was physically damaged. Also, behaviourally a little bit hampered.
The doctors told that she will not be able to live for long and she will have a lot of diseases and a lot of pain. So, generally speaking, when a child is born, many doctors recommend that you abort the child. Because there is not much hope for the child to live.
But of course, many of the complications for her happened. There were some complications before birth and a lot of complications happened after birth. So, this time now, Vishwanath Prabhu, well, she herself had cancer and she had treatment and she recovered from the cancer.
But she is weak because of that. So, both of them were very distressed and they thought, this child is so much traumatised. In one sense, it’s a very burden for the child.
For example, the doctor said that I have seen when this child is born, her family will take care of her. They will take care of her. They will take care of her.
And this is like, she is asking for some guidance. So, Maharaj, Maharaj said, I am going to Krishna. And I told him that, you know, you have two options.
One option is that you think that this world and everything happens by chance. And you are just the unlucky people who bring luck to everyone. The other is that everything happens by Krishna’s plan.
And there is some special manner of Krishna. So, you have to be afraid that this wouldn’t happen by Krishna’s plan. They just wanted to see what would be Krishna’s manner.
Because they were counsellors. They are teachers. And because of this child, this child was born this way.
All the other services were disrupted. They were not able to take proper care of her. So, to some extent, not taking proper care of her.
So, at that time, Maharaj told him that, actually, it is essentially nothing. He is selfless now in service. He is selflessly now in service.
So, normally, in this world, when we are doing service, even to Krishna, that is tenfold selfishness. If we are preaching, we also get credit for it. If we are counselling, we also get credit.
Whatever we do, even if we intend to do it purely, still, inevitably, our service is still just selfishness. We also get something for our own pleasure while rendering service to Krishna’s pleasure. You see, all as sincere devotees, we all want to become pure and selfless in our service.
But it is difficult because of our past condition. Krishna has sent this child in your life to teach you the value of selflessness. Parents take care of their child.
They all say, oh, my child will become beautiful and healthy and wealthy and famous and it will bring glory to me. See, the service that you are offering to this child, this child will never receive it. She will never be able to receive it.
Don’t you see that? Every single thing that you are doing for her, it is Krishna who is personally accepting your service through her. I talked with him after this. So I got the book.
I read the book. So you got the book story. And I talked with him afterwards.
So he said that, what is your perspective? Maharaj said, I completely changed my perspective. Rather than seeing her as a coming out as a tragedy, he started seeing her as an opportunity and what to do for her. In the end, slowly we also started seeing that Krishna was ever since the child was born, everybody, all the devotees in the community, they would come and pray for her, chant for her.
And she was always constantly surrounded by spiritual vibrations. And because of her, what happened was that we also focused more on Krishna and service to Krishna and offering Krishna to her in whatever way we can. So I write that, Vishwamitra is not only a science, he is also a doctor.
But this child is in such a condition that science will not reach anything. It will not do anything. Why? Because science will not do anything.
It will go beyond what Vishwamitra can do. And they started saying that this child will have an opportunity. Whatever karma this person, the soul has, the soul cannot do any further karma because the body is so limited in allowing anything.
So whatever past karma he has, he is getting exhausted. And being healed by this inspiration of the child, we can tell that she will be in that condition. She is just a child.
And she had an older sister. Normally the first thing, I’ll have a younger sister and I’ll play with her. And she said, when I heard from Paramahamsa Narayananda, our family members are there not for you and you are serving your sister in my life, not for me, but for myself.
She started observing that this little girl, she was constantly crying in pain. And her mother would have to constantly ponder her. And sometimes mother would want to sleep for nights and nights together.
So that’s when she took the child off her lap and started crying. So then her sister found that when she would hear the chirping of birds, chirping of birds, at that time this child would become very anxious. So then she decided, how can I save this child? There is a park behind our village.
I would go there every day and I would hear the singing of the birds. I would start repeating that. And then I would come and repeat that singing of the birds to the sister.
And she would become peaceful. And then Narayan would write that, not only because she had been able to serve her sister in this way, not only was she able to sing and pacify her sister, but she was able to write very sweet musical songs. And she is one of the best singers.
Mother still was in her mom’s age. And we have this, what is that musical called? So she is one of the lead singers in that. So, Maharaj writes in that book that the art of living is to achieve a balance between the awkwardness of our body and the elegance of our soul.
It’s the same thing. What is the art of living? It is to achieve a balance between the awkwardness of our body and the elegance of our soul. So, from the moral point of view, this is a very awkward situation.
It’s not at all easy to face such situations. To achieve a balance between the awkwardness of our body and the elegance of our soul. So, actually speaking, it is not at all easy to deal with such situations.
But when we have a spiritual perspective, when we go beyond the body and the soul, and the soul is an attitude that our body sends out, then one can already find these situations. So, even if it is only a basis to different theories, in this order of life, the perspective is different. And the other perspective is different.
So, that perspective is not handy. And we see the opportunity to grow. But we also see that our problems are opportunities to grow.
But if problems are such that they wipe out the middle line, somebody may say, I’ll be positive. But if I think I have a body and I get a terminal disease, how much positive thinking can I do actually? Is it really? Because I am already pained. I can say, oh, I will live happily till I am, but then the pain is that I can’t live happily.
What can I actually do? But when we understand that there is a long, long perspective, and I just, I know, and I just begin to understand that the body exists beyond the body anyway. The body that we are sending out, we send the upset out to the environment and to the world. So, what happens is that existing birth is really fortunate.
So, although the medical point of view is unfortunate, it may seem unfortunate. But that is only extremely unfortunate. The internal substance is that it is really fortunate.
And a person can make immense future advancement by being born with a body. And the parents, by serving their children, making their own, can also make this future advancement. So, in general, if devotees get married, some devotees say that, we are planning on not having children.
But that is not recommended in the ashram. Because, when the children are born, the children force the parents to take responsibility and service. So, that causes a process of maturation that happens.
And if somebody doesn’t want to have children, then, actually, the natural process of transplantation and the purification that happens thereby, that often gets changed. So, in some exceptional situations, when there is a biological mutation, the devotee will not go out of their internal ashram. That is fine.
Right? In general, it is recommended not to have children. And then the children will become devotees. And through that, actually, one makes a future advancement.
Right? Sometimes, especially in our movement, the children of devotees, they see that they won’t become devotees. But often, that was, that happened in the first generation of the swami. Because it was a big, it was a big cultural turmoil.
In the sense that, the parents were non-devotees. They became devotees. And they adopted a very, very, what should we say, rigid devotional culture.
And then, they tried to grow children of a similar culture. And the children got exposed to the outside world. And suddenly, like, you know, this is what we want in India.
So, many times, the children will go temporary to the country like this. It’s a myth within. Then, eventually, Krishna will be there.
And gradually, they will come back. And especially, second generation graduates, happily, more and more devotees will also become devotees. So, they have a devotional tradition.
But they may only explore material life a little bit. After exploring material life, they will come. Because, you see, there is not much in there.
But if they are opposed, don’t go over there. And they are curtailed, and they are restricted very strongly. Then, then they go into material life not because material life is pleasurable, but because they are driven by the rebellious tendencies.
See, all of us have rebellious tendencies in us. So, when we become brahmacharis, we use our rebellious tendency to come to Krishna. But when they are devotee children, they use their rebellious tendency to go away from Krishna.
So, actually speaking, the rebellious tendency has to be very carefully generalised. So, sometimes, it may appear that there is too much restriction. Now, whenever there is any authority, there are three kinds of authorities.
It’s a whole different subject. But authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Three different kinds of authorities.
So, what is the difference between these three? Authoritarian means, this is what you have to do. Authoritarian is one extreme. Then, permissive is the other extreme.
The third is authoritative. Authoritarian, what is the difference between these three? I’ll just explain this. This is authoritative.
See, in guidance, there are two things. There is education and there is restriction. So, restriction means, don’t do this in education.
Why should you do this? Why should you do this? So, authoritarian parents, what they do is, there is only restriction, but no education. So, authoritarian, there is no education, there is only restriction. Permissive, there is no restriction, no education.
Authoritative means, there is education and then there is restriction. So, ok. Permissive means, there might be education also over here.
It might be. It depends on how permissive. Actually, if there is no education, no restriction, that is not a permissive, that is irresponsible.
Nothing for the parents. So, each other, basically, whenever we are guiding anyone, there is no education, there is no restriction, then that is completely irresponsible. Then, such a person is actually not a proper parent at all.
So, when there are both, there is education limit the causes of restriction. So, when only one of them is there, then it is nothing than that. So, gradually, devotees are also learning how to be responsible, responsible authorities and it is very only because of their children.
So, the second generation, more and more children are actually becoming devotees. So, now, Now when Krishna is talking about Patratam, he is talking about both possibilities. Both alternatives, 45 and 42, he will describe from now onwards.
So the branching was like this for these two. Afterwards, from 43 onwards, there is a common trajectory for both, 45 to 45. So Tattratam.
Tattratam means from that Buddhism, one gets buddhi. From the previous practise. From the previous practise, which was done in the previous body, one gets buddhi.
Because the buddhi is common. Manamadhi and Anukalya is common. As attraction to Krishna is cultivated, that is deeper to the soul, that is the eternal law of kundalini.
So, one starts endeavouring on samsara. Samsara is the law of kundalini. So Krishna, Arjuna had endeavoured samsara.
What is it that he gets? Does he get any perfection? He will endeavour again for perfection. So now, how will he come to know? Say, I am born in Africa or somewhere, there are no devotees. Otherwise, devotees are everywhere.
But still, there are some people who never come in contact with devotees. So how will a person get that purpose from you? How will he get that? It is quite realistic possibility that he cannot get it from the material logistics point of view. Krishna said that something beyond material logistics.
What is that? purvabhyasena tenaiva riyate yavasropisa jijnasura piyogasya shabda brahmati vartate So, purvabhyas, by the vast practise, riyate, riyate means attracted, pulled. So avyasyopisa, one is helplessly attracted to this person. riyate yavasropisa One is helplessly attracted to Krishna and jijnasura piyogasya.
jijnasura piyogasya. This is a question because they cause attraction. One will become a jijnasura.
One will become a jijnasura. It is interesting. What is the attraction? Radhakumar also writes in his book Jeevanikum that when he has decided to fast for one month, he will only water the plants with carrot and he throws away his harmonica.
So at that time, he thought so. I was in so fierce with myself. He said at that time I felt that these were not my decisions.
It was as if some force was directing me onwards. Onwards, onwards. And I was yet to come back to this.
And one can say it is his determination. He has so much determination in his business. But in such a case, it is also true.
When in some way that spiritual attraction takes to the person, actually those who do riyate, avyasyopisa, are lost there. And jijnasura can also be seen. Jijnasura is jijnasura for what? Yoga.
What about affection? What connection with God? Connection with spirituality. And shantabrahma ativartate. Ativartate means to move beyond.
This is a very interesting phrase over here. Shantabrahma ativartate means that you don’t belong to any cultures. So what was Arjuna’s question? If somebody is practising karma, if somebody is practising karma, and this was what I talked about yesterday.
By the path of karma, somebody will go to swadha. By the path of transcendence, by the path of bhakti, one will go to moksha, to spiritual world. But now, what if somebody is not able to complete? He is not going to get swadha, he is not going to get moksha.
Krishna is telling that, how can he again fall back to this path and get trapped in this path? So again, that means, he doesn’t complete spiritual success. But what is the guarantee that if he goes to swadha and comes back over here and he enjoys material life, he sacrifices material life, but he again gives back the same material life. What is the guarantee that it won’t happen again? There is no move out.
Advance interaction. Advance interaction means close interaction. You will close into that section.
And you will go. Shabdat brahma nivartate, you go beyond your own. Radhesandra was telling us, when he was saying, he was a guru in Pachadi, his sister told him, see, you are such a diligent guru.
Krishna said, Guru is like that. Actually, spiritual life never goes in. So you practise spiritual life now, in your next life you become a guru.
So Radhesandra said, In my past life, I must have had a sister who told me the same thing. But that’s why I took birth again, I was born here. Shabda vrahmati bhakti.
One goes beyond Vedic rituals. So, one wants something higher. One is practising a ritualistic religious life, but one does not want to be born there.
That’s how Shabda vrahmati bhakti is. So now, if I describe it as Krishna, I will give a conclusion. Vrahmati bhakti means to endeavour.
But to seriously endeavour, yogi, sam-shuddha-yogeshwara, becomes purified of all contaminants, and he will be in samsara. That is, completing many lives, but he will not be in samsara. So, this is how to understand that, yes, he will not get lost.
He will attain the supreme destination. Actually speaking, the sannidhi, the sam-shuddha, indicates that the yogi should be ready to practise spiritual life for more than one life. It’s interesting that Hiranyakashipu was ready to practise spiritual life for more than one life.
How is that? Hiranyakashipu comes to know that Hiranyakashipu has been killed by Vishnu. He was very angry. He said, I will do tapasya.
And by doing tapasya, I will one day get so much power that I will change. And he said that. So, this Brahmaji has done tapasya for 10,000 years.
Or what is it, thousands of years, I call it. There are different calculations, I call it different levels. For thousands of years, he did tapasya.
So he said, I will do tapasya, and then I will become the next Vishnu. So then, Chakravarti Patil’s commentary is saying that that how can Dada, he is telling Raksha Dada, I will do tapasya and then I will come back and I will destroy this Vishnu. He has become Pakshu, like a child.
Then Dada Raksha Dada asked him, Brahma, you have lived for so long. Even you want to live for that long. How can you do that much tapasya? Basically, it’s all wrong.
Basically, it’s so eternal. And even if after doing tapasya I die, in my next life I am born, I will continue doing tapasya. And I will continue doing tapasya for as many lifetimes as required till I become as far as possible.
And then when I become the supreme person in the universe, then I will find Vishnu and kill him. So, what was determination? So actually, facts are important. Philosophical facts are also important.
But more important than philosophical facts is the purpose. And we know that I am eternal. But what am I doing with the knowledge that I am eternal? So, ultimately, spiritual life is not about knowledge.
Spiritual life is on the purpose. Spiritual life is not about gaining any knowledge. It’s about changing our purpose.
You know, the modern version of this, when the Kashyap is the Jihadis, who become suicidal bombers, and they are ready to kill others, and they are ready to kill themselves and they are ready to get the spiritual life I will get. And they will go to Jannah and have a joy with 73 virgin angels for the rest of eternity. That is their idea.
Of course, that is not said in the Quran. But that is the interpretation of the Quran that gullible young people born in poor families are fed with. But the mentality is that they will get all the rewards.
If we have a coded scripture that the essence is spirituality, it is not just knowledge. It is purpose. It is an intention.
So, we become spiritual not just by gaining some new knowledge, but by changing our purpose. Changing our purpose of salvation. So, that doesn’t happen when there is not much inclusion.
You just require a spiritual education. So, if a demoniac person takes an education from you, he is ready to put serious spiritual practises in your lives. So, I told these young people, of course, if I am not changing my mind, you should not see.
It is quite possible that we can complete everything in one life itself. But we do not make demands like that much. And we are ready to practise for whatever is required, whatever time is required.
And we will go back to God immediately. You know, one time Srila Prabhupada was asked, Srila Prabhupada of course gave a different answer. Prabhupada said one time, I don’t even want to go back to God.
He said, I want to come back again and again and smash all these people who claim to be God. He is smashing all of them. So, Prabhupada had that mood also.
The important point is here, if we are determined to serve Krishna, then it is almost as if we have a solution for Him. Even if we have no solution. It doesn’t matter.
Now interestingly, in the previous partho, Prabhupada talks about these people. Aho Pradashyanti Jyotavad. See, Srila Prabhupada does not transcendentalize everything in the Bhagavad Gita.
He also describes things from the non-transcendental perspective. What does it mean? The guy wrote himself. He said, I was born in a devoted family.
So like that, now Prabhupada gave the example of Daldas Thakur. And it was the example of these people who are born in low families, low-interest families, but they are chanting the holy names. So, I discussed this in my Shobhishya course, so I will mention this in the video for you to understand that this was from Devahuti, saying that how wonderful it is that those who are born in low-interest families are chanting the holy names.
This indicates that they must have practised everything by themselves. They must have been from Vijaya, they must have gone to Devahuti, they must have bathed in the sacred places, the sacred rivers, everything they have done already. That’s how they have to chant the holy names.
But if the question comes up to them, they have done all that, then why have you been born in low-interest families? Isn’t it? So that is because of the third possibility. See, what was Arjuna’s question? Do you remember this? How many of you remember I discussed this in Shobhishya? Most of you remember, so I won’t go into too much detail. So the first, Arjuna has asked about this possibility.
Somebody gives up karma to practise a karma, but he can’t do a karma. He can’t do karma as of now. What will happen? But there is another possibility.
Somebody gives up karma to do a karma. But then after that somebody falls back to be karma. That means, say somebody leaves his parents to become a brahmachari.
And after becoming a brahmachari, somebody elopes away with a girl. And not practising spiritual life also. And yes, there is a little bit of life, and there is a little bit of life, nobody is just doing sinful activities, making all kinds of sins.
There is such a person, and they have not actually come back to karma. He has gone down to vikarma. What will happen as a person? At a spiritual level, the interaction to Vishnu will be good.
But at a material level, if somebody has done some wrong things, the reactions may come. And those reactions may lead to a person in a low family. But the attraction to Krishna will ensure that a person can practise spiritual life.
So now, from the absolute point of view, we know that Haldas Thakur is not this kind of person. Who was a transcendentalist, who deviated naturally, fell back to sinful life, and so he went on. Actually, Brahmaji himself, who to demonstrate the universality of bhakti, was arranged to be born in a low family.
But we can understand the principles of bhakti in different ways. So when we transcendentalize everything, then we can’t learn much lessons from it. So that’s why the acharyas, whenever they are in pastimes or in meetings or in scriptures, they give us multilevel interpretations to illustrate different principles.
So here Shraddhoba gives an example that even if somebody is born in a low family, at that time also, he doesn’t have to necessarily be that he is unqualified. He might be qualified, but someone can’t be. There were one time some devotees asked Shraddhoba, Shraddhoba said, actually all of you are the heroes of the devotees.
All of you are the eternal associates of Lord Shiva. So they were shocked. He used to take drugs, eternal associates of Lord Shiva.
How is that possible? So then, he asked Shraddhoba, Shraddhoba mentioned this once in a talk, Shraddhoba said, no man, all of us are strong devotees, eternal associates of Lord Shiva, isn’t it? Shraddhoba said, yes. Shraddhoba paused. Everyone is.
Everyone is an eternal associate of Lord Shiva. Is it fundamentally? So everybody is an eternal associate of Lord Shiva. So you know, any fact, if it makes us proud, it is unfavourable for us.
So we don’t have to go into that sort of home. This person is special and that person is not special. Everybody is, in the practise of life, they are special.
So now, Krishna gave the continuation of this. Tapasvidhyo adhiko yogi Tapasvidhyo adhiko yogi Jnanibhyo vimato nikhah Jnanibhyo vimato nikhah Greater than Tapasvidhyo yogi, greater than the Jnani yogi, greater than the Karmini yogi, therefore, become a yogi. So, now, till now, Krishna has not talked about a path called Tapasya.
And there is no Tapasya yoga as such. But, if somebody thinks that, okay, I just want to do austerities, austerities have to have a purpose. In Narad Panchalatam, it is written as it was, Aaradhito yathihari tapasahata.
Aaradhito yathihari tapasahata. If one is doing worship of Aradhana, what is the need for Tapasya? And if one is not doing worship of Krishna or Hari, then what is the use of Tapasya? All your Tapasya has to do with not coming to devotion. So, Krishna has talked about two paths till now.
Karma and Jnani. And Krishna had told Arjuna that Karma is preferable to Jnani. But then he is saying, actually, ultimately, it is not a yoga.
So, which yoga is he talking about? Karma is not specifically Jnani. Now, we, if you look at the Vedic literature, the path of Ashtanga Yoga does not have a monopoly on the word yoga. Yoga does not automatically or necessarily have to be Ashtanga.
Krishna is non-committal. Arjuna, become a yogi. Become a yogi.
That means become somebody who connects with the Absolute. Become somebody who aims for ultimate freedom from all miseries. The yogi is unruled.
Krishna defined yoga in this chapter as what? That is yoga which frees a person from miseries. Krishna is saying, actually, connecting with the Absolute means that he is the best. And, what is the perfection of that yoga? If somebody has a little ambiguity, what does this yogi actually look like? What is a yogi supposed to do? What is a yogi supposed to do? Krishna says, become a yogi, but what kind of yogi? We will discuss in the next class.
yoginam abhisarvesham yoginam abhisarvesham madgate nantaratmana madgate nantaratmana same yukta tamo mataha same yukta tamo mataha So, yoginam abhisarvesham, all kinds of yoginam madgate nantaratmana one who is madgate, within who is the real of me, within is the heart shraddhavan bhajateyoma worshipping shraddha interestingly, we would think of shraddha as a preliminary qualification of the pathamaham that is shraddha what Krishna is talking about shraddha shraddhavan bhajateyoma so what does the shraddha mean? Actually, Krishna has used the word shraddha again in 12.2 in 12.1 Arjuna asks Krishna who is better? He says a person is better or a person is less better and then Krishna says one who worships my personal form is better and again he uses the word shraddha mayi rameshmano ye mam yukta paasam shraddhaya parveya upekas same yukta tamo in 12.2 also he uses the word shraddha so here the shraddha refers to being Krishna’s personality so the jnanis, they have an approach of utilitarianism this is a meditational tool one has to be Krishna’s personality right the word shraddhavan indicates that Krishna is not a meditational tool to be transcended Krishna is the meditation, the ultimate goal of meditation to be achieved and it’s very significant that the same word will come twice in the Gita so Mahasweta Rupa in the purport would also describe elaborately about the yoga nayada I’ll go into the yoga nayada in a little stage it’s a very very significant work shraddhavan and it comes at very critical phases in the Bhagavad Gita 6.47 it comes 12.2 it comes when it is coming here it’s not referring to preliminary shraddha preliminary means ya but the personality transcendence, Krishna’s personality is not material so this shraddha is actually like nishtha nishtha so it’s very significant that it’s coming at a very advanced stage of it, it’s not coming in the initial stages so advanced stage of transcendence is the personality, Krishna’s personality is not material Krishna is not meditational tool to be transcended there are there are people who call themselves as transtheists transtheists go beyond theism go beyond theism to knowledge they are not ideal, Krishna is not meditational transcendent he is the ultimate reality within transcendence the Bhagavad Gita repeatedly use the word paratpara to describe Krishna paratpara, para is government, paratpara is transcendent to the government he is the ultimate absolute the Bhagavad Gita the Bhagavad Gita in the Bhagavad Gita the word is used param brahman param brahman so now what is the speciality of bhakti because of which the culmination the highest growth of the path of yoga is actually one of these in Krishna so why is bhakti our most complete yoga because it includes all the essential elements of all the yogas in Kavadi yoga there is action in Dhyana yoga there is knowledge in Dhyana yoga there is meditation bhakti yoga includes all these things, there is action because you are different because there is Krishna there is knowledge because of which I will give you philosophical knowledge about the glories of Krishna and how this world is also an energy of Krishna in terms of his and we also try to remember Krishna constantly so in this way the path of bhakti includes the essence of all other paths so it’s not just a self congratulatory idea that we are bhaktas, we are in bhakti’s midst actually bhakti incorporates the essence of all other paths it incorporates Dhyana it incorporates Dhyana and it incorporates knowledge because it incorporates all the elements it incorporates the best of all the most complete of all what is Krishna using the word over here samet yukta, namo, vandaha such a person is most so Krishna has used the word yukta, samo, vandaha in the Bhagavad Gita yukta uchyate this is the only place in the entire Bhagavad Gita where Krishna has used the word yukta, tamo the most the most intimate yukta, tamo, vandaha that’s why this is the highest realisation is the yukta that one should constantly invoke Krishna, constantly serve Krishna now, how does bhakti include all of these how does it include our action, our knowledge our meditation because ultimately all of these follow the heart let’s say if somebody is in a house let’s say a person is walking on the street and suddenly he is walking on the street and he is doing some actions what is happening is the body follows the heart, the heart is in love with cricket, the heart will start to be automatic so the heart is the most essential person and whatever we love, we think about it we work with it we produce our intelligence in relation to it, that’s why we are going to read to the heart then it incorporates everything else along with it all of the other things follows it so in this way Krishna has completed this 6th chapter where he has established that Arjuna shouldn’t become a yogi because there is no loss of the path of yukta, and he has said that the best yogi for you comes to you easily, in the next chapter Krishna will give an alternative path to think about and that alternative path will lead to the introduction of the 2nd section of the 2nd chapter Madh Gati Antaratman Antaratman means inside so I should be his gati I should be his yogi, we should think of him constantly, within himself so why within himself? because yogis generally try to see the super soul within themselves so yes you have to see that super soul is you it’s not that you have to go beyond more than you person, you constantly think of him you person have that you person now, and then afterwards it is more simple you constantly think of him so this was the 2nd chapter