Gita Study Mumbai 2012 08.14-8.22 How the Gita identifies the supreme abode with Krishna’s abode

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
We are going a little slowly. We will have to pick up a little space.
If you have questions, maybe we can discuss separately at the end of the class. If they are relevant directly to the we can discuss. Yesterday, we went into the prana a bit too much.
But in general, we don’t want to only study the Bhagavad Gita. We also want to understand the broad philosophy. So, it is okay.
But we can’t do this every day. So, what we will do is, we want to complete around seven verses per class. So, till yesterday evening, we should have completed 21 verses.
But actually, we have completed till now, how many? 13 verses. So, we will try to at least complete seven verses today. The last part, when there is dhumor, atristha, krishna, that may take a little time.
That we’ll try to do today evening. So, I started this verse yesterday. So, this is the only verse 7.8.14 where Krishna says, it is easy.
It is easy. Now, interestingly, Krishna is talking about two things in this verse. Smarati and Yuktasya.
So, in general, Smarati refers to inner remembrance and Yuktasya. Yuktasya means Prabhupada translates as engaged. Actually, Yukta is connected with the word yoga also in the root.
So, engaged in devotional service. So, in one sense, we can say that this is referring to the inner as well as the outer aspect. The inner aspect is the remembrance.
The outer aspect is the engagement. So, we need to have both. So, there is Smarati and Yuktasya because otherwise you will see the word.
Actually speaking, in this verse, the continuousness of the devotion is stressed thrice. First line is satatam, second line is nitya shah and fourth line is again nitya yuktasya. Again, nitya is there.
And in the first line, again, there is the word ananya. So, the satatam indicates, actually there are three distinct describers. We are supposed to take this sometime, the yoga lehada, but we’ll take it sometime later.
This will take a full class in itself. So, we have uninterrupted. These are not necessarily, all three are not the same.
I’m discussing characteristics of devotional service. I’m not talking here in terms of the six characteristics, which I described in Bhakti Yoga. It’s gone? What happened? Oh, uninterrupted, unmotivated and undistracted.
All three don’t mean the same thing. Uninterrupted, unmotivated and undistracted. So, uninterrupted would be ananya or nitya.
Uninterrupted refers to the time sequence. Because for example, in the TV programme, there is an interruption. So, in the olden days, when the TV would break, broadcast would break for some time, sorry for the interruption.
So, interruption is more in terms of the time sequence. Uninterrupted. So, that is with respect to whether we are doing it continuously or not.
Undistracted means that we don’t go off track. So, if you’re thinking of this in terms of a vehicle that is moving, uninterrupted means the vehicle keeps moving continuously. Undistracted means it doesn’t go off track to somewhere else.
So, if this is the road, it doesn’t go this way off. So, undistracted devotional service. So, ananya would convey the idea of undistracted.
So, this refers to the motion that refers to the destination. The two are different things. So, nitya or trutam refers to the time denotation, the motion forwards and ananya refers to the destination.
And the third is unmotivated. That refers to the purpose, the motive. It’s third, it’s different.
So, the vehicle is moving continuously, it is moving towards a particular goal. But why is it moving? So, pure devotional service is uninterrupted, undistracted and unmotivated. So, later on Krishna will use the word mam chayo avyabhichare.
So, avyabhichare refers to undistracted and vyabhichar means that one is not, as you know vyabhichar is one of the initiation vows, there is no illicit sex. So, no vyabhichar. That means it is actually a relationship with somebody else.
That’s what it refers to in marital context. So, avyabhichar in this context refers to that one should be ananya bhakta. So, we will discuss over there in 14.27 that actually avyabhichari bhakti does not necessarily have to be ahaituki.
My devotion may be uninterrupted and undistracted, but it may not be unmotivated. Even the yogis and jnanis, if they use bhakti as a tool, they may also be very diligent bhaktas, but they are not unmotivated. They are not unmotivated.
So, their motive is not to just please Krishna and serve Krishna eternally. So, that is not considered a motive because that is our eternal nature. But to merge into Krishna is considered to be a motive because that is different from what is our eternal constitution position in nature.
So, therefore, the what are three words once again? Uninterrupted, unmotivated, undistracted. So, in this verse Krishna talks about uninterrupted and undistracted. Uninterrupted would refer to satatam ahityam.
Undistracted would refer to ananya or avyabhicari. And unmotivated would be ahaituki. So, here Krishna has described two characteristics.
We will see as the bhagavad-gita progresses. Krishna will talk about ahaituki also later. So, right now Krishna is saying that these two characteristics are there.
So, actually even for the yogis, if they can practise bhakti which is uninterrupted and undistracted, their path will also become easy. Of course, here Krishna is talking about shuddha bhakti. But in general, if a person can practise bhakti continuously, that means internally remembering Krishna, externally engaging Krishna’s service, the bhakti becomes easy.
And if somebody keeps practising this regularly, in general, if a person doesn’t hold on to a particular conception, the person will become purified. We’ll see Dhruva Maharaj, he practised bhakti, Pururava practised bhakti. But Dhruva Maharaj, when he actually got the kingdom, he didn’t hold on to that attachment.
So, his bhakti, actually if you see it was uninterrupted, it was undistracted. He did not worship anybody else. He did not stop continuously.
In fact, it was not only uninterrupted, it was actually continuously intensifying. Not just at the same level, it was increasing, increasing, increasing. His bhakti, however, was not unmotivated.
He had a motive for a kingdom. But eventually, when he got the kingdom, when he got the darshan of the Lord, he gave up the attachment. This is stucha.
This is kacham vichinvanapi devdharatnam. This is like a broken piece of glass. On the other hand, Pururava, it is described that when he also performed the yajna, he was focused.
So, he was. Actually, when a person has to do yajnas and do that sort of worship, he has to do it in a strict way. But he held on to the motive.
Of course, in the 9th canto, it is described how he continued to stay in illusion. 11th canto describes how he eventually got realisation. So, the bhakti that he practised never went futile.
But it took more time to purify him because he held on to his preconceptions. So, the yogis who are practising bhakti as a tool, can they become purified? We will discuss that in detail later. They can, but it depends on how strongly they hold on to their preconceptions.
So, here Krishna is talking about devotional service that is uninterrupted and undistracted. Actually, apratihata is uninterrupted only. So, apratihata is same as ananya or satatam.
So, let us go to the next verse. So, here Lord Krishna is describing the result. He will attain me very easily.
But what will happen by attaining him? What is so great about attaining him? The attainment of him results in going out of this miserable material world and never returning back. So, generally speaking, we will discover that initially when we want to preach to new people, we say bhagavad gita is very easy to understand. But actually when we start studying the flow, we understand there is a lot of complexity and subtlety in it.
Why? Because generally we quote standalone verses from the bhagavad gita. This verse here, they are important verses, no doubt. They are very important verses and they are actually reflective of the essential message of the bhagavad gita.
But still within the contexts where they are, they serve specific purposes. So, normally we quote this verse for what purpose? Actually, Krishna takes this as a pre-existing knowledge. It is just a passing reference.
Krishna doesn’t elaborate how this world is dukkhalayam, how this world is asasvattham. He says, okay, if you look at the internal flow of the gita, the emphasis is what? Actually, you are practising bhakti, you will get out of this world. And incidentally, as a passing reference, this world is dukkhalayam asasvattham.
That is why it is good to get out of it. So, that dukkhalayam asasvattham is not the emphasis of this verse. The emphasis of this verse is the potency of bhakti to take us out.
That is also valid. We can use this verse to illustrate dukkhalayam asasvattham, but that is not the emphasis of the bhagavad gita in its own internal flow. So, sometimes depending on the context, a certain message needs to be emphasised.
Because in the Vedic culture, it was implicitly understood. Not just the Vedic culture, actually even in Western culture, when it was under Christian influence. Everybody understood this world is a place of misery and the next world is the ultimate destination.
So, that is why that need not have to be emphasised. But it was actually from the 18th century onwards, 17th to 18th century, when science started developing into technology. And technology was seen at that time by some Christians thinkers as a manifestation of God’s material grace.
So, they had the idea that Christianity is God’s spiritual grace, which will enable us to go back to the kingdom of God. And technology is God’s material grace. So, through technology, we will make this material world better and better and better.
But gradually, as technology started developing its own power, people started feeling that actually, yes, it’s we who are developing technology. So, it’s not God’s grace, it’s our cleverness. Just remove God from the picture.
And we can remove God from the picture and remove Christianity also in the picture. There is no need for the other world, there is no need for God. So, we can make this world itself a better place.
And that’s why this is a pervasive illusion now all over the world that by human efforts, we can make this world better. And that’s why there is no need for religion. And this attained its worst expression in the thoughts of Karl Marx, who said that actually the whole purpose of human existence is to make life in this world better.
And religion, which distracts people to some other world, that is a tool that is used by the wealthy and the powerful to keep people from working hard over here. That’s the background of religion is the opium of the masses. So, what is the idea? Because people have religious hopes, so they don’t work hard in this world to improve their lot.
And that’s why get rid of all thoughts of the other world, get rid of all thoughts of the God. That is something which like when a person gets opium, the person becomes sort of paralysed, he starts doing false hopes, a false world, intoxicated ideas, which make him difficult to function in a practical way. That’s why I said just get rid of religion and then people can work hard.
And he said that ultimately labour will triumph. And then when labour triumphs, then everybody will become happy. Everybody will have wealth, everybody will become happy.
But eventually when Karl Marx’s ideas triumphed in Russia and China, USSR and China, what was the result? I mentioned last time how according to statistics, actually what happened inside the Iron Curtain is not very well known. But it’s well documented that actually these two, China under Mao Zedong and USSR under Stalin, these two had huge amounts of atrocities against their own people. And according to statistics vary, but actually the number of people who were killed in China and USSR were somewhere between as much as what was killed in World War II to seven times what was killed in World War II.
Without a war, people were themselves killed. So, anybody who Mao Zedong or Federer opposing me is killed. Similar to Stalin, anybody who was opposing me in suspicion is their killer.
So, the end result was they thought that we will make this world Sukhalaya. But actually they made this world a place of increased misery and death. And eventually the whole system of communism collapsed.
So, the technological hope that this world will become better. So, there are these two schools of thought. There are today environmentalists who say that actually we were born in paradise and we have made paradise into hell.
This world is so nice. Everything natural is so good. This world is paradise and we have made it into hell.
And there are the technologists. They felt we are born in hell and technology will make it into paradise. So, which of them is right? Neither are right.
Neither are right. Actually, this world is Sukhalaya. For example, we may want to have an idyllic farm community, but if we actually go and live in a farm, it’s austere.
Those who are habituated to living in cities, they may find the austerity too much. It’s going to respond to nature outside and doing every small thing takes so much time. Over a period of time, somebody gets used to it.
It’s natural and maybe it’s more healthy, but not necessarily easier. So, life in the material world is never easy. We shouldn’t have an idyllic picture that when there was no technology, when there was everything natural, eco-friendly, that doesn’t mean life was easy or happy.
But when we try to make things better and flout God’s laws, we end up making things worse. So, this world is anyway Sukhalaya, but when we go further, we make it, when we try to enjoy more and more, make it better and better, we make it worse and worse. So, because today there is this huge hope that technology will make things better, that’s why Prabhupada and Skaunvi emphasise this point of Dukkhalaya Mahashastra.
But for Krishna, in his own flow, what is the idea? Just going back to God. He will get rid of this Dukkhalaya Mahashastra. So, Krishna uses this as a transition.
These two verses basically are talking about Shuddha Bhakti and the result of Shuddha Bhakti. The previous verse talks about devotional service as contrasted with Yoga Bhakta Bhakti and then he talks about the result. So, now after the mention of Dukkhalaya Mahashastra, Krishna will contrast the effect of devotional service with the effect of everything else.
So, the effect of going to the comparison between his abode, which is the result of devotional service and any other result one might get by anything else. So, now what is the purpose of this contrast? To make us realise the glory of Bhakti. So, earlier in any spiritual path, there is a process and there is a destination.
So, till now, Krishna has contrasted Yoga and Bhakti in terms of process and he established how Bhakti is sullama. Now, he will contrast Bhakti and other paths in terms of destination and he will describe how Bhakti alone gives eternal destination and nothing else gives an eternal destination. Everything else gives temporary destination.
That’s why, now he is going to talk about the nature of the material world. So, Shilpa Bhoopa uses this verse to emphasise how material improvement cannot lead to any tangible improvement. Material improvement cannot lead to any perpetual or tangible lasting improvement.
And he says that, what is the best? Now, Prabhupada doesn’t give much credit to material improvement in terms of improving technologically in this world. So, even if you try to improve your material level by going to a higher world, still, punaravarti, no, punaravarti continues in the cycle of birth and death. So, even if one goes up to Brahma Loka.
So, one can go to Brahma Loka by other processes. You remember we discussed the chart of, depending on the level where the chakra has come, one can go to a particular Loka accordingly. So, one can go to the higher planets by karma kanda, by worshipping the particular devatas.
One can go to the higher planets by performing some kind of yoga mishra bhakti or practising yoga and not being able to reach the complete destination, the perfection in it. So, whatever way one uses, the destination is within the cycle of birth and death. And Krishna Mantra says, okay, if you practise bhakti, no, you won’t come back.
So, the emphasis is punar janman avidhite. So, now, the Acharya described that Arjuna gets a question over here, but I have heard that devatas are amara. Isn’t it? Devatas are immortal.
So, why are you saying that it is the cycle of birth and death? Then we’ll describe how actually nobody is amara and we’ll discuss what the word amara means. So, let’s recite the next two verses, then I’ll discuss these time scales a little bit once again. So, he has told, this is the day, this is the night.
So, he is focussing, Arjuna you are asking about the devatas, actually I’ll tell you about the topmost devata. So, if this life is not immortal, then what to speak of the other intermediate devatas. Therefore, he is focussing on Brahma’s life over here.
Then, Tatraiva Vyakta Sanyake. Yes. So, Krishna is telling over here, he is using broad terms now.
What is it? Actually, these three verses may seem a bit repetitive. Are they saying the same thing again and again? Krishna is talking from different perspectives. For the first verse, he focused specifically on Brahmaji’s life.
When Brahmaji’s life, this is his duration. This verse, he is focussing on what happens to matter. When Brahmaji’s life is there, what happens to matter? Matter is manifest.
What happens to matter afterwards? Matter becomes unmanifest. So, although the same theme is going on, the focus is different. So, Brahma lives, this is Brahma’s day, this is Brahma’s night.
So, in the second chapter, where Krishna was describing how matter, the body which is made of matter, sometimes that matter is manifested, sometimes that matter is unmanifested. So, the same theme is there. There, Krishna was focussing on go beyond the body to the soul.
Now, he is going go beyond the material world to the spiritual world. So, the theme is similar. Here again, the focus is slightly different.
So, let’s go to the next verse. Then, we will discuss this theme once again in more detail. Prabhupada would quote the phrase, again and again, there is destruction.
This cannot be stopped at all. So, there are actually higher forces in nature against which man is helpless. So, right now, there is a big hurricane in America and the whole of the eastern coast of America is under emergency and the biggest nation in the world can do nothing.
So, there are higher forces in nature against which man is helpless and it is sobering to contemplate on this. It makes us realise how helpless we are actually. There are historians, there is a description of how we know that the Saraswati river was there at one time and then because of some geological upheaval or something, the Saraswati rivers, because of an earthquake or whatever, historians do not know exactly what happened, but suddenly its course changed.
Just like the Ganga course also changed, we know in Navadvip it happened. That is how some parts went underwater. So, rivers changed their courses.
So, it just changed the course and when it changed the course, it could not find a way for itself and it dried up. And there are reports of pilgrims or tourists or soldiers who came from Europe to India and they said that actually there are just villages and towns all there, but completely barren. It is just as compared to the history, it was just like a microsecond.
The river was going this way, suddenly the river changed its course and the whole civilisation was devastated. So, this is just the upheavals that can happen on the earth, but not to speak at the cosmic level. It is avasya.
We are actually helpless in front of all those things. Now, there are four kinds of beings in terms of their life spans. So, there is Martya, there is Amara, there is Chiranjeevi and there is Nitya.
So, there is Martya. So, all of us on this earthly planet, we have a finite life span, which is quite small also. So, it may be 100 years in Kali Yuga, it becomes lesser also, in earlier it might be longer.
So, Martya is those who have a very short life span, they are living on the earthly planet system. Then Amara are contrasted with the Martya, but Amara basically refers not to the point that they are immortal, but to the point that they do not die the way human beings do. So, generally the Amara live for one Manvantara.
So, Indra is the head. Indra occupies the post of Indra or the particular person occupies the post of Indra for one Manvantara. In the 8th Canto, the chapter 14, 15, I think, 13, 14, where it describes the system of universal management and then it is described, okay, in this Manvantara, he was Indra and he was this, he was this, it is described like that.
So, generally the Amara live for one Manvantara. They may live slightly longer also, it depends on who is the Amara. Then the Chiranjeevi, they live generally for one lifetime of Brahma.
Their lifetime is much, much longer. Some Chiranjeevis may live for one day of Brahma, which is also very long. So, Chiranjeevi is also not eternal.
But Chiranjeevis as compared to humans, it is like eternity. And even compared to the Devatas, it is long. So, Chiranjeevis generally, it is one lifetime of Brahma.
So, beyond that is the Nitya. Nitya is those who live eternally. So, only the residents of the spiritual world are Nitya.
So, in a sense, you could say Brahmaji is Chiranjeevi, although he is not referred to like that, because whenever we talk of Brahma, we say that he has his death’s post, the soul occupies that for a finite amount of time. But generally when a soul here is blessed to become Chiranjeevi, his life becomes so long that it is like eternal from our perspective. So, in the Bhagavatam, there is a reference to Nirmala Maharshi.
What was his benediction he had? That actually when one day of Brahma would pass, he would lose one hair. And when he loses one hair, like that when all his hair will fall away, only then he will die. And he did not even have a hut.
And he said, please build a hut. He said, life is so short, why waste time with that? So, he was living so long. So, what is our lifespan as compared to that? So, here, these are the different time spans.
And Krishna is telling actually, nothing, none of this is eternal. So, till now he has described the material world and how it is under the throes of death. So, now he will contrast that with the description of the spiritual world.
Parastasmatubhavanyo Vyakto vyakta sanatanah Vyakto vyakta sanatanah Yahasa sarveshubhuteshu Yahasa sarveshubhuteshu Nashatsunaminashyati Nashatsunaminashyati So, here Krishna starts describing about the spiritual world. This is, as I mentioned yesterday, the first time Krishna will explicitly talk about the spiritual world. Earlier he was passing references.
And here he says that matter exists in two stages, vyakta and avyakta, manifest and manifest. But neither of them are eternal. Beyond that, there is sanatana.
Parastasmatubhavanyo, there is another nature, which is eternal. And I have to emphasise that sanatanah to make it very clear. Krishna elaborates that.
So, in one sense, Parastasmatubhavanyo, there is another nature. So, you are asked what the word bhava means. Here also we see the word nature, bhava.
The standard meaning of the word bhava is nature in Sanskrit. Parastasmatubhavanyo is another nature. And that is beyond the manifest, unmanifest, it is eternal.
And to emphasise the point of eternity, the next two lines describe, Yahasa sarveshubhuteshu, Nashatsunaminashyati. When all in this world is destroyed, that part remains as it is. So, the indication of that is, imagine if a dam has broken down and there is flood that has come everywhere.
And then the government announces, now this area as well as that area, both will be inundated. Only that part of Mumbai will stay above water. And what is implied automatically, go there.
So, Krishna doesn’t have to explicitly say that, just by pointing out of this, everything will be destroyed, only that will remain. The implication is that we should go there. So, Krishna will elaborate this further in the next verse.
And first time he will mention that, okay, till now he has mentioned Paramam Gatim, Param Purusha, but now in the next verse he will mention, actually that is Mayabodh. So, he will, till now, there is mostly a third person reference going on. So, actually speaking, there is some indication, Krishna used the word, mam upette, kaunte puna janmarte, he will attain me.
So, actually, I wish I had this PPT. What I am saying now is here, see, there are subtle linkages which you understand in the Bhagavad Gita, then you will understand the flow over here. So, Krishna will, leave it, don’t spend time, but maybe next class we can try to see something else.
Achha, like that, is it? Okay, fine. So, basically what I am saying is, there are, see, Krishna, in the Vedic culture, it is known that there is a Param Gati and there is a Param Purusha. So, Krishna, Arjuna knows that there is Param Gati and there is Param Purusha, supreme destination and there is supreme person.
So, now the key thing is that Krishna will link the Param Purusha and the Param Gati with himself and his abode. So, that is important. Now, for us, it is very clear for us, because Prabhupada gave a clear explanation.
But within the flow of the Bhagavad Gita, see, when Krishna told earlier in verses 15 and 16, that he will attain, na dukkha levashah, na apno antimahatmana samsiddhim paramam gata. So, there, they will attain me, they will attain my abode, he has said that. But he has not clearly said that that abode, that is the supreme abode.
So, somebody might think, okay, everybody has their abode, Shiva has his abode, Ganesha, Indra has his abode, Brahma has his abode, so you also have your abode. No, Krishna’s abode is the supreme abode. So, the link between the Param Gati and Krishna’s abode, that will happen in verse, in the verse that we are going to recite now.
That is 8.21. So, let us recite this verse, then we will discuss this more. One never returns. Okay, thank you.
So, here, what is the word that is living? avyakta-aksharaityukta. So, that word is called avyakta, it is unmanifested, and it is akshara. So, it is indestructible.
This word started with akshara, brahma yoga, this chapter started with that. That is called the supreme destination. And then, after that, he says, one who attains that abode, he will not come back.
And that abode, from which one will not come back, that is Maya abode. So, in one verse, both are very clearly stated, the supreme abode and Maya abode. Therefore, it is very unambiguous that Krishna’s abode is the supreme abode.
So, for us, it may be obvious, but it is not necessarily obvious here. Now, there is one more point over here. So, I had mentioned earlier how the words are multivalent.
Multivalent means they have same meaning, different meanings, same word has different meanings. So, now the word avyakta in 8.19 and 8.21, it refers to different things. Let us see what it refers to.
Currently, we are inside in 21. So, not 19, it is 18, avyakta jyotteha sarvaha. So, actually, this is referred to 18 as well as in 20.
There avyakta refers to unmanifested matter, whereas here avyakta refers to spirit. So, avyakta aksharityuktas tam ahu paramam gatim. So, that abode is avyakta, it is the supreme destination.
So, what is the meaning of avyakta over here? It is unmanifest, but this unmanifest is not the same as matter that is unmanifest within Mahavishnu s body. It is a spirit which is not manifest to material vision. So, it is not that, sometimes we have a little simplistic idea of the universe.
For example, we say there are 14 planetary systems over here and beyond that is the Vrija river and beyond that is the spiritual world. That is for the sake of depiction, but actually the spiritual world is not like on a continuous geographical map upwards from the material to the spiritual. It is of a different nature.
So, for the sake of conceptualisation, it may be depicted like that, but it is not like, we may say on the border of this river is material, on the part of that river is spiritual. That is okay, as far as it goes. We have to understand, but it is not that on both sides, it is like a geographical continuity.
It is not like say on this side of the river, you call it Karnataka, on the other side of Karnataka, you call it Andhra. It is not like that. So, the spiritual world is a bit of an entirely different substance.
So, here spirit that is not manifest to material vision. So, here basically, when we talk about living entities getting manifested, what it means that the living entities exist, Sri Prabhupada translates as avyaktal and vyaktayas, from the unmanifest, the living entities come about. So, all that it means is that when there is an unmanifestation of matter, at that time, even the living entities go into the body of Mahavishnu.
So, matter is absorbed in the body of Mahavishnu, when the living entities are resting in Sushupti stage in the body of Mahavishnu and then they come out again. So, from the unmanifested, it is manifested. So, the unmanifested here refers to what? Avyaktas refers to matter in an unmanifested stage.
And from that, these living entities come. It is not that they are produced, life comes from life, it is not from matter, but they were existing there, they become manifest, just like the frogs, they may hibernate underground and when the cold season gets over, when the warm starts coming up again, they come out of hibernation. You can say that frogs have come out of the earth, but that does not mean the earth produced the frogs.
The frogs were pre-existing, just came out of the earth. So, like that, the living entities are existing, that their bodies are also unmanifested, they do not have a gross immaterial body. Actually, when they are unmanifested, just with a subtle body, they are unmanifest.
So, in that sense, it is. So, the point is, for our analysis, the word avyakta means different things in different places. Is it clear? So, let us move forward.
In this word, Krishna has described, there is another earth, this is what is the nature, tamahu paramam, supreme abode. Now, he will describe a little bit more about himself. Yes.
So, here Krishna almost makes that link, but does not make it fully. This param purusha is equal to Krishna, he does not explicitly state that over there. He has said earlier, by bhakti you will attain me and he has said my abode is the highest abode and now he says by bhakti you will attain the supreme person.
So, it is almost there. But he will make this explicitly clear in 15.17 and 18. Very explicitly clear.
So, here, what is the thought flow that is happening? Krishna is telling, this will be stated explicitly in 15.17, 18. We will see, it will be hinted at earlier also, several places. But in this chapter, what has Krishna done? By bhakti, you will attain me.
Where did he state that? Several times, primarily 18.14 and 15. Then my abode is the supreme abode. He has stated that in 8.21, as you mentioned below.
And then, that is stated in 8.22. So, it is almost clear from these three that, you could always say that, I will just move this up. So, we could say that this conclusion is almost there, not explicitly there, but it is almost there. And it will be made explicit later on in the later chapter, which will come to you.
So, here, if you want to understand the inner dynamics of the Bhagavad Gita, we have to understand where Krishna is leading. Krishna wants to establish the supreme sadhya and supreme sadhana. That is the essential purpose of the Bhagavad Gita.
To establish supreme sadhya and supreme sadhana. The supreme sadhya is he himself and supreme sadhana is bhakti. So, this is what he is driving towards and we will see how he is going towards that here.
So, any questions on what we discussed today? Yeah, actually this is described in the 12th canto. So, the question is, what happens when the knight of Brahma comes? So, in the 12th canto, there is this, the four categories of we can’t see that. Okay, fine.
This is a little unpredictable. So, 12.4 in the chapter, the four categories of universal destruction. And it describes that basically the lower 11 planetary systems are destroyed.
So, even Svarga Loka is destroyed, but Janloka, Tapaloka and Sathyaloka, basically those three planets remain. And the sages who are there in the heavenly planets, they keep visiting there, they actually fly upwards and they also go to the higher abodes. So, they also live, but the devatas, they are also destroyed.
So, the 11 planetary systems are destroyed. That is why in a sense, it is almost like complete destruction. And after that, Brahmaji, when he wakes up, he creates again.
Correct. In the unmanifest state, the living entities are in a deep sleep stage. So, basically, remember I discussed with a diagram how when the consciousness comes to the gross body, it is called as Jagruti.
When the consciousness comes to the subtle body, it is called as Sapna. When the consciousness doesn’t come even to the subtle body, it is called as Shukti. When the consciousness directs spiritually, it is Samadhi, Turiya.
So, in the Shukti state, the consciousness doesn’t come even to the subtle body. But they have subtle bodies. Actually, in this chapter, destruction of universal, four categories of universal destruction, mentioned that when the subtle body is destroyed, the material existence ends.
So, at that time, subtle body is not active, but it is not destroyed. There is no consciousness, so it is not active. So, it is like the death happens and when the souls come back in the next day of Brahma, they become active, they have new bodies.
It is not they started the same bodies. There is death, there is destruction of the gross body and depending on the karmas the soul has, the soul gets a new body and then the life goes on from there. The soul’s nature is to be active.
Can the soul actually become inactive and sleep in the unmanifested stage? See, the soul has a particular nature, but at the same time, the soul also has a condition covering and the condition covering shapes the behaviour of the soul. So, to what extent it will shape the behaviour, that will vary depending on the nature of the covering. So, the soul is always active, but then if the soul is in the body of a tree, although the soul is active, the only activity is just growth while being in one location.
At least you can say the tree can go upward, lateral, this way, that way, but if the soul is in the body of a grass, it can just go only in one dimension, literally and that too only very limited. So, that means although the soul is active, when it is in a particular body, that body, not just the physical body, but also the conditioning that has got the soul into that body, that will affect, shape, to some extent determine the way the soul will be active. So, that’s why when the subtle body also becomes inactive, then the soul doesn’t exhibit any activity at the material level.
The soul, because it has not yet developed love for Krishna, doesn’t have the desire to serve Krishna, so the soul cannot exhibit activity at the spiritual level. So, this cannot be the eternal destiny of the soul, but the conditioning can affect the soul. The conditioning can affect the soul, it cannot annihilate its active nature, but that active nature can become suspended temporarily.
So, that is the effect of the conditioning on us. It can suspend our nature temporarily. Normally, our nature gets distorted, so that we become active in a misled direction.
But just as the conditioned nature can make us active in a wrong direction, it can also make us temporarily enraged. It’s clear? So, thank you very much. We will continue in the afternoon.
Shri Nithyananda Bhagavad Gita ki Jai, Shrila Prabhupada ki Jai, Gaura Bhakti Ravi laki Jai,