Gita Study Pune 2013 15.16-16.8 Importance of Tri Shloki Bhagavad-Gita

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So now we discuss the three shloki Bhagavad Gita. So Krishna has said that I am the compiler and the knower of the Vedas. So Arjuna asks, please tell me then what is the content of the Vedas, what is the Vedanta, what is the essential conclusion of the Vedas, in brief please tell that to me.
So then he will speak these three, these very important verses, they are important for various reasons, the context itself highlights their importance because it is following the point that now the Vedas are the most important and we will see at the end of this also Krishna will say such a person who knows this, he is Sarvabhed, so the context is important and the content also is important. So the content is of the whole Bhagavad Gita, this is the strongest refutation of Mayavad, the strongest establishment of the transcendence of the personality of Godhead. So, let’s look at that.
So this Chitushloki, it is important because of as I said content and context both. Context means what, where is it placed? Context is in 15.15 that is knower of Vedas, knower of Vedanta and 15.19 which is such a person knows everything, here Krishna is the knower of Vedanta, that means the giver of this knowledge is the knower of everything and then Krishna is telling the acquirer of this knowledge, he becomes the knower of everything. The giver of this knowledge, Krishna is the knower of Vedanta and the acquirer of this knowledge becomes the knower of everything.
So that is the context and content is the strongest refutation of Mayavad in the Gita, the clearest exposition of the transcendence of the personality of Godhead, that God’s personality is transcendental, that’s it. So, let’s look at this. द्वाविमाव्पुरुषव्लोके शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरः सर्वाणि भूतानी खुतस्थो अक्षर उच्छते द्वाविमाव्पुरुषव्लोके शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच शरस्चाक्षरएवच � उपत्रिष्टानुमन्ताच उपत्रिष्टानुमन्ताच So Krishna is repeating that over here द्वाविमाव्पुरुष्वलोके and he is naming them one is शर and one is अक्षर so शर refers to fallible and infallible that means those who have made mistakes those who have not made mistakes चाक्षरएवच शरः सर्वाणि भूताणि शरः सर्वाणि भूताणि the living beings over here in this material existence is अक्षरः and beyond that are the अक्षरः the अक्षरः are those who are कूतस्त कूतस्त means actually just like a bird if there is a tall building the bird sits on the say the tower, the minaret on top of the tower or the minaret of the building and from there is high above all the ups and downs of the of what is happening in the world, it looks out from that vantage point, so like that कूतस्त means to be situated at a very high point, above from which one can look down at everything so this basically means those who are above the ups and the dualities of this material world, so those who are liberated there are two kinds of living beings those who are bound and those who are liberated, so he describes two characteristics of those people they are अक्षरः and they are सर्वाणि भूताणि, that is one category and the other अक्षरः and they are कूतस्त, so they are infallible, don’t commit mistakes and they are situated beyond the world, so Prabhupada explains they are conditioned and liberated, so if you look at the reference it’s quite clear now the second one it could refer to Brahman or God or whatever, it is possible, so you could clearly say that from the Mayavadi perspective this could mean, yes there is the conditioned Brahman and there is the liberated Brahman there is Brahman under Maya and there is Brahman beyond Maya so it could mean that the Mayavadis want to, they don’t accept that there are there is personality in transcendence so then this could mean that, but the next verse is very clear ok, there are these two kinds of Purushas one conditioned, one liberated but beyond them there is something else, there is someone else no, no, that’s what I said, it’s not necessarily spiritual world, you are saying Kutastha, they are situated, Kutastha you remember what I said just now, it’s like some height above, so it’s not necessary that it has to be spiritual world Prabhupada explains that to make it clear for us, you know, Prabhupada often integrates the purport within his translations, that he does often, but if you look at this in Sanskrit, it’s clear that these are situated at a higher level so there are Shara, there are fallible who are everywhere, and there are Akshara who are situated higher yeah so now this description is to some extent generic what all it covers, from the description itself we cannot know, but it is very clear that if you are, Krishna is using the word Shara and Akshara so Akshara means who is, as Prabhupada translates, infallible or who is not fallen so fallible would make mistake and not make mistake so here, it’s fallible and infallible in more sense, those who are fallen and not fallen so they are not fallen so it’s quite logical to say that it refers to the liberated, so it can refer to all kinds of liberated beings, it can refer to those who are liberated in Brahman, those who are Jeevan Mukta in this world, and those who are Nitya Siddha who never fall from the spiritual world, it can refer to all of them so basically this refers to the bound and the liberated, now in a sense, from the Mayavadi perspective, these two cover all of existence, there is nothing beyond, there are bound and there are liberated that’s all that there is but Krishna makes clear in the next verse that there is a third someone so, uttama purushas there is another person who is uttama purushas and he is known as Paramatma means he is known as, so it’s significant that he is not just another among these people he is different, Anya makes it clear that he is different, and Krishna makes it further clear, he has a special name also he is known by a special name that is Paramatma now this was used earlier also in 13.23 he is known as Paramatma so he is in the Deha but he is Paraha so like that, here also Anyaha it’s very clear that he is different from the previous two, so that means from the Mayavadi perspective, the condition liberated cover everything, so what is this third person beyond the liberated uttama purushas, so Purushottama is beyond the Akshara also, that is the important point here and what is his role, he is known as Paramatma, but what does he do he enters into all the three worlds, and then he enters and maintains all the three worlds, and he himself is Auvyaya ok, that’s possible so there could be Akshara and Akshara and then beyond that there is total Brahman that is possible, the only thing is in Mayavad, actually once you become liberated, there is no difference between you and the total Brahman that is one of the biggest problems with the concept of Mayavad, Prabhupada refers actually in the purport of 2.12 Prabhupada makes this point and Prabhupada is drawing from Ramanujacharya’s commentary over there and it’s a point that Ramanujacharya just hammers and hammers, he says that if the Mayavadi is realised then for the Mayavadi there is nothing that exists apart from Brahman so if nothing exists apart from Brahman, then for the Mayavadi there is no need to give any instruction to anyone because nothing exists apart from Brahman and if the Mayavadi has not yet realised Brahman, then he is also in the same illusion as everyone else then he is not qualified to give instruction so if he is not liberated, he is not qualified to give instruction if he is liberated he does not have any vision by which he needs to give instruction because the whole concept of instructor, instructed and instruction are illusion so therefore the foundation itself he strikes Mayavad and you know for them at least now we may we have the concept of Uttam Adhikari coming down to the Madhyama level but our understanding is that the spiritual level and material level both are real the material level is also a reality and somebody can descend from the spiritual level to the material level of reality, out of compassion but from the Mayavad perspective, the material level is an illusion so if you are in the spiritual level, you will not see the material level only it’s like if I am awake, I don’t see a night dream and if I am seeing a night dream, that itself means I am not awake so therefore, the whole concept this is a very complex concept for Mayavadis to refute and they drew a lot, Ramacharya is one of the lethal arguments which he uses against Mayavad, so therefore if there is something third like that, beyond the liberated the bound and the liberated the third and the second are the same only because aham brahmasmi sarvam khalvam idam brahma ekam brahma ditya nasti there is brahma satya jagan mithya, all these statements, their implication is once you have realised that you are Brahman then there is just nothing beyond you are everything so therefore, it becomes very complex for them to explain why they should give instructions so therefore this anyaha is a very direct and very clear explanation that there is somebody else who is beyond the two, now till now Krishna had been referring in this chapter he has been referring to himself in the first person and the second person alternately, in 15.4 and 5, he was referring to himself in the third person, where he said you have to go beyond this material world, cut down the tree and there surrender to the supreme person and then immediately in 6 and 7 he says that is my abode and the living entities are my parts so again he continued on that first person in 15.12 to 15 where he says that I maintain everyone that I am giver of knowledge I give light to the sun, all that now again he has shifted to the third person here, there is another person who is beyond, so now what is the reason for this, generally speaking when Krishna refers to the super soul, he refers to the super soul in the third person so Krishna, when he is talking about himself in relationship with his devotees or in relationship with bhakti he refers to himself as aham but when he is referring to the administration of the material world he refers to himself in the third person and also it’s also part of the humility of Krishna now Krishna doesn’t want to talk about himself all the time you know just like there is an incident of Srila Prabhupada, when the devotees told Prabhupada we want to make a palace for you so they said in Mayapur they wanted to make a palace for you, Prabhupada said no there is no need to make a palace for me, a spiritual master can live, I can live in a hut also they were told again, you know Prabhupada you want to make a palace for me, Prabhupada said no and then after that they said, Prabhupada you want to make a palace for the spiritual master, Prabhupada said yes you can make a palace for the spiritual master so then they made that big building, Prabhupada Vishwa Samadhi Mandir and the palace of gold in New Vrindavan so now this is not just hypocrisy it is actually, Prabhupada is not thinking that he is the only spiritual master he will be the spiritual master for the disciples and they make a palace for him but the spiritual master is not just a person he is also a principle, he is an institution he is a representation of something very sacred and divine so similarly when it is necessary Krishna will refer to himself, but in general when he is talking about the administrative role with respect to the universe, he refers to himself only but in the third person but here that third person and first person confusion is also resolved in the next verse, so who is this this third person who is Anyaha, who is Paramatma that Krishna makes it clear in the next verse he says yasmad ksharamati toham yasmad ksharamati toham aksharad api chottamaha aksharad api chottamaha atos miloke vedecha atos miloke vedecha pratita, so now Krishna has earlier told now this is, what is he saying we can just look at the Sanskrit and understand it is referring to the same thing, previous verse he says ok, there is kshara and akshara that was 16th and this is beyond them is a purushottama is a uttama purushottama is known as Paramatma and now he is saying that beyond the kshara and akshara there is I, I am beyond the akshara and akshara and therefore in the Vedas and among the people I am known as purushottama so previous uttama purushottamanya, so same thing uttama purushottamanya and purushottama but Krishna is in a sense quite humble, he is not saying I am purushottama, he says people know me as purushottama so it is like you know, somebody says I am the president of the country people call me the president of the country so so here Krishna is establishing his own transcendence beyond the kshara and the akshara so this itself refutes Mayavada very conclusively so that means there is a higher reality beyond even the liberated souls and Krishna says that I am that higher reality who is known as purushottama so in this way the message becomes very very clear and at the end of this after describing this, Krishna will give a very clear conclusion which makes it even more unambiguous purushottama janati purushottama sasarvavid bhajati mam sasarvavid bhajati mam sarvabhavena bharata sarvabhavena bharata so so now Krishna has said that in the world and among the people in the Vedas and among the lokas I am known as purushottama now Krishna continues that and the person who understands me to be purushottama so he says in that reason that understanding is correct and one who acquires that correct understanding yo mam eva asammudho janati purushottama one who understands me as purushottama so the word asammudha so he is not bewildered, he is unbewildered yo mam ajamanadhim cha vetti loka maheshwaram asammudha samarteshu sarvaprapai pramuchyate Krishna has used the word asammudha earlier also in 10.3 when he is talking about one who understands me as anadi and ajam and sarvaloka maheshwaram he is asammudha and he becomes free from all sins so asammudha means completely free from illusion and in this chapter also he has used the word similar, the opposite of mudha is nirmana moha jita sanga dosha dhyatma nitya vinivritta kama dvandvaya mukta gacchantya amudhaha paramahuvayam tat so amudha, so he has used that in 15.5 so this is a, Krishna uses this word amudha or asammudha where he is talking about those who are free from illusion, so one who understands me as purushottama he is asammudha he is free from illusion why is this asammudha significant because the mayavadis say ok you consider a person personal brahman to be high to be lofty but that’s true, but there is a higher reality also there is a higher reality beyond the personal brahman, but Krishna is saying no this one who understands this me to be the supreme person, he is asammudha he has no illusions he is free from all his illusions and sa sarva ved such a person becomes knower of everything that needs to be known and what happens after that as if this is not enough, so it’s like this verse is so important because in one verse both bhagwan and bhakti are established as the highest sadhya and sadhana the first part asammudha purushottama sarva ved, these three qualifiers establish bhagwan as the highest truth and then after that bhajatimam sarva bhavena so sarva bhavena bhajati, this establishes wholeheartedly worshipping this establishes bhakti as the supreme sadhya, so in a sense this verse is like 10.8 in 10.8 also what is done aham sarvasya pravah matah sarvam pravartate iti matva, so first aham sarvasya pravah matah sarvam pravartate it establishes it establishes krishna as the highest sadhya he is the source of everything and then then iti matva one who knows this bhajatimam sarva iti matva bhajante ma budha bhava saman such a person is wise and bhava samanvitah wholeheartedly he establishes he worships me so in this a.b. establishes bhagwan as supreme sadhya and c.d. establishes bhakti as the ultimate sadhana so it’s a very important verse and after this krishna will describe that one who has this knowledge he will be he attains all success, he attains all perfection it is not in yeah now actually it’s a, now why this was not in trishloki, in a sense that whenever a capsule of verses is made nutshell are given everything cannot be included in that so actually once bhagwan’s position is established bhakti is a natural corollary once bhagwan is established, bhakti becomes a natural corollary in that sense so what is that so once we understand that he is purushottam then naturally we will worship him so there is always no condensation of any book will be complete in exhaustive sense but just establishing bhagwan as supreme is enough because naturally bhakti as sadhana, he is the goal to be achieved that is like a natural corollary ok ok if it Hare Krishna ok so yes, actually speaking that 16 lays the foundation because normally the mayavadi just talk about, yes there is condition and they are liberated that’s all, once you are liberated you have become brahman, so without that 16 it really doesn’t the difference the position of Krishna is beyond the liberated that will not be established without that foundation, that’s why that is also important it is not that important in terms of setting the conclusion but it is important in terms of setting the foundation for the conclusion to be established now Krishna will explain ok now if he is asamudha then he is not conditioned he is liberated, then he is talking about liberated soul in the spiritual world so how is that telling the sadhana indirectly, because that is what the person does and then to attain that stage that is what we should do that means it’s like a person in knowledge does that then we should also do it, see this is a good point many of the Gita’s verses are both descriptive and prescriptive descriptive and prescriptive descriptive means for example you know if there is a person who wants to become a cricket champion and then if somebody writes a biography of Sachin Tendulkar you know how he would practise batting for hours and hours and hours and how he would have special bats designed and how he would be so careful about which bat to use and how he would have his footwork and his vision all the training is given, all the description is given, so now when if a cricket coach while coaching his students describes about Sachin Tendulkar’s batting training now that is descriptive but implicit in the descriptiveness is also prescriptiveness, that means if you want to become a champion, you should also do that so there are several verses in the Gita which are in this category which are at one level they are describing the siddha but at another level they are also directing the sadhaka, that this is how you should behave so now after this Krishna will give the conclusion of this, he says that this is the person who is perfect iti guhyatamam shastram iti guhyatamam shastram itamuktam mayanagha itamuktam mayanagha etad buddhva buddhimansya etad buddhva buddhimansya krita krityasya bharata krita krityasya bharata so iti guhyatamam shastram this is the most confidential knowledge among the shastras and shastra is important over here because in 15.15 he says vedanta krita vedavidevachaham so I know the vedanta, so now I am telling you the most confidential knowledge of the shastra so has Krishna used the word guhyatamam anywhere till now that is guhyam, is there guhyatamam anywhere till now yes, 9.1 so let’s look at this now we will look at where all guhyatamam comes in the Bhagavad Gita till now and we will see where it will come later also so actually these are indications of how the knowledge is very important so first time it came in 9.1 idam tu te guhyatamam then after that it came in not exactly the same way but in 14.1 and 2 Krishna described parambhuya pravakshami jnananam jnanam uttamam so it is a superlative so instead of guhyatamam we can say use of superlatives in the Gita for describing knowledge so now here if you see there are many descriptions and you will see that most of these descriptions relate with bhakti 7.3 was nothing more to be known sorry 7.2 yeah here is this is most confidential ok then after that 14.1 it is best of knowledge jnananam jnanam uttamam now here he is referring to 15.20 is most confidential scriptural knowledge and after that we will have something similar again this will be the highest superlative actually there is one more in 10.1 parambhuya pravakshami jnananam jnanam what is that bhuya eva mahabaho shrunume paramam vachaha yatteham priyamanaya vakshami hitakamyaya so there he is saying parambhuya bhuya eva mahabaho shrunume paramam vachaha hear my supreme words uttamam is there what are the full words sevayam mayatedya yoga propta puratana bhakto sevayam mayate bhakto sime sakha cheti rahasyam yaitad uttamam so rahasyam is also same as bhuya very nice good so 4.3 rahasyam yaitad uttamam sorry yaitad uttamam correct 4.3 correct so now in this way krishna has talked now if you see wherever he has talked about it immediately it is in the context of bhakti actually where is bhakti coming here it is 4.3 only bhakto sime sakha cheti then 7.3 just before that 7.1 was mayi asakta manah use of is is immediately in the context of bhakti is always linked with bhakti sorry with bhakti so 9.1 is actually this whole chapter is about bhakti yoga chapter is bhakti yoga and actually there is no doubt that it is so much so many verses in the chapter which talk about bhakti yoga so here my supreme words here also actually the whole chatushloki comes soon after and even before that also yeah before that also 9.34 was manah very good point and after that soon after that there is chatushloki and here best of all knowledge this concludes with bhakti bhakti and bhagwan that is 26 and 27 26 is mam chayo bhicharena and 27 is brahmano hi pratishtham and here of course here there is before was bhakti very clearly 15.19 was bhakti so and 18.64 is that again most confidential knowledge spoken because I love you spoken because I love you dearly and this is immediately followed by two famous verses 65 and 66 they are directly bhakti verses so why are we discussing this over here so much in detail because the point which you are making is that is Krishna telling that there is something higher than bhakti now whenever he talks about the highest knowledge he immediately connects it with bhakti that’s why there is no concept of any knowledge being higher than the knowledge of bhakti the highest knowledge is the knowledge of bhakti of course another word we could put is that it is not guhiya but it is also talking about elevation of bhakti in 18.54 you come to the brahman platform and then you attain bhakti but let’s focus here on superlatives so superlatives is best so uttamam is also like that so later on we will discuss all this we will go chapter wise towards in the 18th chapter we will do that we will go from chapter 1 to chapter 18 and look at all the verses where Krishna refers to mam and aham and see the context and see what it means there are many verses and it will take time but it is an important discussion now here Krishna completes the 18th chapter by describing how the person who knows this oh Arjuna you are sinless therefore I have spoken this to you and then similar to 4.3 or for that matter in 9.1 and then you have to describe etat buddha one who understands buddhimansyat he becomes buddhimansyat so again this is similar to buddhabhavas manvidah and krutakruteshcha bharata oh bharata one who understands this then whatever action he does that action will lead to success that action will lead to perfection so it is significant Krishna doesn’t say over here you will attain victory in a battle because the understanding Krishna’s supremacy and understanding bhukti’s glory will give us a result far far greater than just attaining victory in battle so Krishna answers in general terms krutakruteshcha bharata you will attain all success your endeavours will know success so now Krishna concludes in this way this purushottam yoga so purushottam yoga establishes himself as purushottama but along with that it establishes bhakti also as the highest among all sadhus so now we will do some of the 16th chapter so he started in 13.22 by describing the bija 14th chapter described the water that nourishes the tree of material existence then 15th chapter describes the tree per se and how one can become liberated from that tree through bhakti so now he will describe the parts of the tree the upper and the lower parts so these are the daiva asura sampada vibhaga yoga yeah so how is so 15.1 had vedavid 15.19 has sarvavid so how are they related or contrasted yes one who knows the tree of material existence he knows the vedas but then Krishna also said vedashya sarvair ultimately the purpose of vedas is to know me and when one knows me then he becomes sarvavid because just knowing about the material world is not enough ultimately after knowing the material world we have to transcend the material world and for that we need to know what is beyond the material world so knowing the tree makes us a knower but knowing Krishna makes us a knower of everything yes 17th chapter middle part of the tree but that is divisions of faith yeah if you look at the we will come to that 17.1 Krishna talks about those who have faith but not in scripture so those who have faith in scripture are godly those who have no faith in scripture are demoniac but those who have faith but not in scripture there is some kind of faith in some kula daiva in some ancestor worship so they have faith they are not entirely godless they are not atheistic or demoniac but their faith is not in scripture that is the starting question that is why it comes in between is it clear the tree is the material world the water we can understand is three modes the up and down we are understanding now it is described as upside down in 15th top and bottom ok divine and demoniac but divisions of faith is it again ok how is the division of faith related with actually no in that chapter Krishna is asked by Arjuna those who have faith but not in scripture what is their situation and Krishna says what is their faith will depend on their way of living and then he talks about aahara and tapasya and things like that by which we can understand the nature of their faith so why it talks about divisions of faith is in the sense that these people who have faith in various things not mentioned in scripture then what is the nature of their faith will depend on the modes for example some people may worship Gandhi as the father of the nation and in India there was a few years ago there was a movie called Munna Bhai and that made Gandhigiri very popular and that was relatively quite sattvic people were dealing with corruption there was lot of social activism based on based on that movie so that’s kind of worship so in that movie Gandhi mystically appears and guides people guides this hero Munna Bhai it’s almost making Gandhi into a god but there that kind of faith is relatively elevating that is relatively in goodness not exactly in goodness relatively is relatively better on the other hand some people have faith in ghosts and evil spirits and then based on those ghosts the belief in their ghosts they may do certain things that can be quite tamasic so none of this is scriptural directly but within the non-scriptural also there is a gamut so that’s why Krishna says we can analyse the non-scriptural faith within the three modes scriptural faith can be also within three modes that’s also possible but the scriptural faith itself has some foundation of goodness because if one doesn’t have some basic level of goodness then person will not worship will not accept scripture only so you had told me to remind you to discuss that Lord Shiva’s not now sorry we will have to move forward we will discuss it later we will find time and discuss it not now please so abhayam sattva samshuddhi abhayam sattva samshuddhi jnana yoga vyavasthiti jnana yoga vyavasthiti danam damasya yajnasya danam damasya yajnasya svadhyaya sthapa arjavam svadhyaya sthapa arjavam ahimsa satyamakrodhas ahimsa satyamakrodhas tyagah shantir apaishunam tyagah shantir apaishunam daya bhuteshval oluktvam daya bhuteshval oluktvam mardavam rirachapalam mardavam rirachapalam tejakshamadruti shaucham tejakshamadruti shaucham adroho nati manita adroho nati manita bhavanti sampadam daivim bhavanti sampadam daivim abhijatasya bharata abhijatasya bharata so abhijatasya that means it is born with that means Krishna is talking here about how different people are born with different qualities and based on the kind of qualities they are born with we can understand whether they are of a godly nature or of a ungodly nature, of a demoniac nature now of course if people cultivate certain qualities also their godliness or their demoniacness can decrease or increase but here Krishna is talking about the starting point abhijatasya now this purport is quite extensive and I will just take some broad outline I won’t go into everything here so abhayam actually these qualities the acharyas analyse as describing the various varnas and ashramas also so abhayam sattva samshuddhi gyana yoga vyavasthiti so abhayam and sattva samshuddhi this refers to sanyasis sanyasis are fearless, they travel everywhere and anywhere and the purpose is sattva samshuddhi jnana yoga vyavasthiti is the duty of manaprasthas, they cultivate knowledge then dhana is the duty of grahasthas dhanam damascha yajnascha grahasthas also have to practise some extra dhamma and then yajna they have to do, fire sacrifice swadhyaya especially is the duty of brahmacharis now this is not exclusive but it is indicative even brahmacharis also have to to some extent have some sattva samshuddhi they also have to cultivate knowledge, jnana yoga vyavasthiti but it is generally indicative, these are the focus of these particular duties now after that there are further descriptions of the remaining qualities which are of the varnas, so this first is ashramas, then for example ahimsa is the quality of brahmanas, ahimsa satyam akrodhas tyagah shantira paishunam these are all qualities of the brahmanas then tejah kshama dhruti shaucham so these are the qualities of a of a vaisya adroho non-enviousness is the quality of a vaisya and na atimanita, not expecting too much prestige is the quality of a shudra shudras they may not get so much respect but they should not think that I should get respect like a brahmana whatever position they have been given to serve they can serve accordingly now this doesn’t mean that others don’t have to cultivate these qualities, it is not like that now everybody can cultivate all these qualities but certain qualities are emphasised for certain varnas and ashramas and bhavanti sampadam daivim now sampada means like sampatti, wealth sampadam daivim means what the godly consider these qualities to be their sampatti this is the daivi sampatti means those who are godly they consider these qualities to be precious that means the godly judge people and judge themselves according to whether they have these qualities and they consider the development of these qualities as the accumulation of real wealth, to the extent I have these qualities to that extent I have become wealthy sampadam daivim now prabhupada’s purport is quite extensive and you can read this elaborately we will not focus on that let’s go to the next verse but there is a lot of solid instructions purport about it’s like almost point to point prabhupada covers everything so for example nati manita, not expecting honour applies to shudras so for example shaucham is also especially for mercantile people who should not deal in the black market now after this krishna will now describe the demoniac qualities first he will give a brief introduction and then he will go into the detail in describing the demoniac qualities so before I move forward I just forgot to mention the overview of the chapter so it’s a small and clear analysis first krishna describes in summary divine and demoniac qualities and then verses 1-9 then after that 10-18 he describes the activities of the demoniac people and then 19-22 he describes consequences and causes of the demoniac activities so what are the results that they will get by this kind of activities and why do they act like this and then how to choose between the divine and the demoniac that is based on scriptural guidance so that is how this chapter goes over now we have discussed the divine qualities right now so first krishna describes the divine then the whole chapter is daiva-asura-sampad-vibhava-yoga he focusses on the demoniac qualities why? because he has described the divine qualities in various ways earlier he has talked about nishkama karma yogi, he has talked about sthita prajna, he has talked about the bhakta, he has talked about the person who cultivates knowledge in 13th chapter so I will come to that slightly but this is overview of the chapter let’s go to the next verse dambho darpo abhimanascha dambho darpo abhimanascha krodha parushyamevaca krodha parushyamevaca dambho darpo abhimanascha so this is slightly different but the common denominator is pride, arrogance constitutes seeking honour for oneself krodha parushyamevaca so krodha is anger and parushya is especially harsh speech so anger can be disposition anger can be expressed to violence and fighting but parushyam harshness so actually this parushyam also refers to sarcastic speech people like to make taunts at others and in the way you can speak taunts sometimes people think that the more you can pass comments about others the more hurting the comments the cleverer you are so that sometimes some people’s standard of judgement for how clever you are how cutting the comments you can pass about others so that parushyam harsh speech is is a characteristic of the demoniac people so as contrasted with that is polite speech so we will discuss that Krishna will talk about this in 17th chapter anudvega karamvakyam that speak in ways that are not agitating to others so we will discuss about polite speech later anudvega karamvakyam but parushyam so krodh agyanam cha bhijatasya so they have all these undesirable qualities along with that agyanam they don’t know anything about the truth sampadam asurim sampadam asurim means that the asuris consider these to be the more sarcastically the more hurtingly you can speech the cleverer you are that is the idea so they consider this to be their sampati and that is why it is a very perverted way of looking at things very distorted way of distorted set of values for society they have now after describing this Krishna will now give some summary verses and then he will go into description of the demoniac further now he will say daivi sampad vimokshaya daivi sampad vimokshaya maashucha sampadam daivim maashucha sampadam daivim abhijatosi pandava abhijatosi pandava so after he described these two he immediately described their consequences daivi sampad will lead to liberation and the asuri sampad will lead to nibandhaya Arjuna is a very attentive and sensitive hearer so he starts thinking Krishna has recommended ahimsa as the godly quality and he has said that he has said that krodha parushya all this is ungodly, all this is demoniac and I am about to fight a war so probably I am also a demoniac person maashucha sampadam daivim no don’t fear Arjuna, you are born with godly qualities you are born with godly qualities so now actually speaking for a kshatriya to fight in righteous war is not ungodly there he is not fighting because of parushya or krodha he is fighting because of kartavya so he has called there tejah kshama dhruti ksham so tejah, vigar or resourcefulness dhruti, determination, these are qualities of a kshatriya so kshatriya fighting in a righteous war is not demoniac because the kshatriya is fighting for the cause of dharma and he is acting in a godly way, so therefore Arjuna do not fear you are born with divine qualities now then he will describe general so he has talked about daivi and daivi and asu sampadhi now he will give general principle dvabhut sargau loke smen daiva asura eva cha daivo vistarahsha prokto asuram partham eshranu so let’s look at this, krishna is saying daivo vistarahsha prokto that I have spoken about daiva in detail already so let’s see where all he has daivo vistarahsha so where all has he talked about the godly qualities so first of all of course is 2.54 to 72 he has talked about the sita pradyam then this is, repeatedly this comes but then specifically in 4th chapter 4.19 to 24 he has talked about the nishkama karma yogi there also he discusses sarve samarambha kama sankalpa varjitaha then after that again in the several times, actually this qualities come again repeatedly in between but we are talking about a list of the qualities this will come again in the 12th chapter 12.13 to 20 the qualities that endure one to krishna then in the 13th chapter he has talked from 8 to 12 qualities that characterise knowledge then after that he has talked in the 14th chapter about those who have transcended the modes 14th question of krishna was question of arjuna was there how do we know one was transcended so daivo vistarah so in this way i have spoken about the divine qualities in detail in the past so asuram parthamesh therefore arjuna now i will speak about the asuri qualities so now we will start from the 7th one first you will describe the sorry ok fine so 2nd chapter 4th chapter 12th 13th and 14th chapters daivo vistarah prokto then when we will start about describing the demoniac so we will start by first talk about their activities and then we will move on to describe the mentality that leads to the activities pravrttimcha nivrttimcha nivrttimcha jananavidurasuraha jananavidurasuraha nashaucham napichacaro napichacaro nasatyam tesu vidyate nasatyam tesu vidyate so pravrttimcha nivrttimcha what is to be done and what is not to be done that jananavidurasuraha the asuric people do not know this.
So, they have no cleanliness, they have no proper behaviour. They do not have truth among them. So, in that section 5.17-22, 25-26, that is more like, does that describe godly qualities? You can say in a sense yes, but that is more a comparison of material and spiritual pleasure.
I think we can include that. There the focus is not so much on qualities but on pleasure. That is why I had included.
Throughout the idea is this pleasure leads to suffering, this pleasure is eternal. Therefore, give up this pleasure and choose that pleasure. So, in a sense, that is also quality.
But the focus is not directly on qualities. Now, what qualities are mentioned over there? Not only is buddha, na te suramate buddha. So, that is also an important quality, which pleasure one chooses.
But apart from that, other qualities are not mentioned there. That is why I did not include that. But that does describe the characteristics of a wise person, no doubt.
So now, what is to be done and what is not to be done? Actually speaking, once a person gives up scriptural morality, then what happens is, the whole world becomes a tremendous place of confusion. See, sometimes rules may seem to create restriction. But rules also bring a lot of freedom for making more important choices.
I will start with some simple examples. Suppose now I have to make a PPT. When I have to start with the PPT, if every time, every single aspect of the PPT, I have to enter all the parameters.
What should be the font colour? What should be the font size? What should be the font type? What should be the template of the PPT? What should be the top side? What should be the bottom side? Actually speaking, if you go into formatting, there are hundreds of details to fill. So, if every single time, I have all these choices to make. Now, I want to write a letter or I want to make some slides.
By the time I go through all those choices and then come to that, my energy will get so much exhausted. So, actually speaking, if there is a default that is set up, this is how you should work. If I have some specific purpose, I can change the default.
Default is not like a frozen thing, but it helps me to get on with the more important things of my life. Similar, in the same way, if everything in my life is up for the grabs, now what time I sleep, what time I wake up, how my hairstyle is, how I dress, what I eat, if everything is left for me to choose, then there is what is called as a choice overload. Choice overload means, there are so many things to choose from.
Actually speaking, we all need some sort of framework. What are the things that I should do? What are the things I should not do? Every day I wake up in the morning, my own mind internally and the culture externally will bombard me with so many choices. I do this, try this, eat this, go here, watch that, enjoy that.
And this can just completely burden a person. So, when there is too many choices, it leads to anxiety. Now, for example, we may not realise it, but as brahmacharis, the more things are settled for us.
Okay, this is the time you sleep, this is the time you wake up, this is what you dress, this is what you eat and this is how you do these activities. So, what happens is, our life becomes free for thinking of many other things. Now, for example, imagine if we decided that every day, the prasadam menu, we only have to decide.
So, so much mental energy. Once in six months or once in a year, we sometimes have some discussion on prasadam. In a common brahmachari class, we may discuss, okay, should it be like this or like that.
And that itself sometimes takes so much time. But imagine if every day, we had to choose. We may think that it is nice, I get to choose to eat what I want.
But if you think of it, it’s not such an important thing. Once you accept that, okay, I don’t want to bother about this, then our mind becomes free for so many other things. Actually speaking, for people, choosing a dress to wear is such a big burden.
They don’t feel it as a burden, but actually it is a burden. You know, okay, should I wear this dress? What will people think? Does this? You know, people wear a shirt and then they have to get a matching pant and then they have to get a matching belt and then they have to get a matching tie. And then they find that face is not matching.
Then, you know, there is so much, by saying face is not matching means, actually people have a particular image of how a good looking person should be. And you know, plastic surgery is literally a multi, is a billion dollar industry now. And many times, the original face is not at all bad also.
But still people think, you know, if you just make your nose one or two millimetre longer, you look more beautiful. And people spend so many dollars, so much money on this. So actually, and then people put implants in their body so that, you know, their curves look more attractive and they do so many things for that.
So it’s just too much. What happens is, when everything is up for grabs, so literally men may spend body, spend so many hours doing bodybuilding exercises, so that they can have their body shapely. But practically, when you have too many choices for everything, it’s just everything gets so, these small, small things take up so much of the time.
See, we talk about simple living and high thinking, the two are related. The more simple our living, the more freedom we have for high thinking. But when there is no, when the living is not simple, then there is no time left for high thinking.
So all the time, all the thinking is only about living. Now what I should eat, what I should do, what I should go, it takes so much time actually. So when the scriptures provide us some guidance, there may be some freedom, there may be some sort of limitation, but that limitation also frees us.
So choice overload prevents us from getting to the important things of life. So if I had to choose every single detail and every single thing I have to do, I would just get overloaded by that. So simple living, it frees our mind and time for high thinking.
You know, people, for example, an example is let’s say, you know, when people wear trousers and then on trousers, you have to have a belt. So people’s waistline keeps changing all the time. So then what happens is, you have a trouser and the trouser doesn’t fit.
You have to alter the trouser or change the trouser. Then you get a belt and then the belt has to match the colour of the trouser. The belt has to match the colour of that shirt.
If you have a dhoti, just you have a tie, knot, you know, whatever the waistline, you can tie one knot. So it doesn’t matter. So simple living, actually, it helps in high thinking.
It just frees the mind for so many things. So that way, actually, they don’t take guidance from scripture. And then there is no cleanliness left.
No proper behaviour. So means no cleanliness. Actually speaking, cleanliness is both external and internal.
So the Western countries seem to be much cleaner externally than India. So that is because not the Indian culture in itself is intrinsically unclean, but to a large extent, modern India has got the worst of the West and the East. In the modern India, what has happened is the many of the cultural and spiritual values of traditional India, we have lost them as we have become modernised.
But when we have taken the technology of the West, we just don’t have the infrastructure for the technology. So for example, you know, roads in India, what happens is people want vehicles, but we just don’t have good enough roads and we don’t have people who have responsible ethics for driving. So then it just, the driving becomes like a jungle ride sometimes.
It is often so dangerous. So now, it’s not that Vedic culture in and of itself is unclean. So we are not here in a sense labelling everyone who is ungodly as demoniac.
Or rather, everything Western is bad and everything Indian is good. The point is that Shouchang is something which can also be done just for the sake of sense gratification. That means you want to have cleanliness so that you can enjoy better.
You know, China tries to have a whole image of being a very efficient country. So one time, they had a big bridge over a river. And two trains, they had these bullet trains which go at huge speed.
And they don’t really, so the two trains, boom, they just hit into each other on that bridge. And one train was standing and the other train hit into it and just flew off. And the train fell into the river and hundreds of people died.
So what the Chinese government did is, actually as soon as they came to know, the first thing they did is, they got sort of, what do you say, what are the machines for crushing things, bulldozers, sort of bulldozers they got and they just efficiently crushed the whole machine into powder, whole train into powder and buried it on the river. So they are going to say that there was such a disaster, they didn’t want to show the signs of that only. So the idea was, of course, where people died, they died.
Others they tried to rescue. But then because of social media, Facebook and others, they had pictures posted and clipped. But the idea is, the shoucha, they are trying to show a very clean image.
But the purpose is what? The purpose is not something godly. It’s just to try to continue materialism and they just want to hide away the problems. Sometimes when you go to hospitals, they look like five-star hotels only.
But they are places of suffering. It’s not that we want to have suffering pictures everywhere. But the point is that sometimes shoucha, the whole misery is concealed so that people don’t even realise that there is misery.
So that people don’t even recognise that there is misery. In the western culture, this whole ethos is now towards separating the old people away from the general people. Put them in old age homes, put them in a corner, so that ordinary society doesn’t even see them and think that there is no such thing as old age only.
So the shoucha might be there, but actually the motive is not anything auspicious. The shoucha, even if it is there, it is just for the sake of further facilitating materialism and self-centred enjoyment. And on the other hand, there is actually a lot of uncleanness also which is there, especially in terms of conduct, especially in terms of values.
Shoucham na apichacharo. There is no proper behaviour. Na satyam te suvidyate.
So this is actually na proper achar. All over the world, nowadays almost like everywhere, abortion has been legalised. And there are several cases where after legalising abortion, the worsening that happened was very quick.
So that means, originally when abortion was legalised, the whole idea was that, they said that the mother’s life might be in danger and we have to save that. That is a fair enough consideration. But then after that, as the legalisation went further and further, now there are atheist thinkers who say that even after the mother has given birth to a child, if she doesn’t want the child, she can kill the child, after the child has been born.
And when this idea came up, there was a furor against it. But then the opposition was that from the scientific point of view, whether the child is inside the womb or outside the womb makes no difference. If you can kill the child inside the womb, what is the point in objecting to killing the child outside the womb? So the Journal of Medical Ethics published a long article on this, on how abortion or killing of the child should be allowed outside the womb also.
So now this is like the idea of choice gone on a riot. Now they have a thing that mother should have a choice of what to choose, but here they are killing born children. So what happens with the demoniac is, once the scriptural morality is left, then there is no stopping from the person going down the downward slide.
It’s like a slippery slope, on which you can just slide down very swiftly down. So Krishna says that they don’t know what is true, what is not true. Now what is that? There is no understanding of the absolute truth.
So Krishna will relate this na satyam teshu vidyate with their conception of the world. asatyam pratishtham te jagadahur anishvaram aparasparasambhutam kimanyat kama hai tukam So the Acharyas give often the contextual explanation of the verses. See asatyam pratishtham, if you look at 7.15, namam duskrtino mudha, practically different Acharyas down from Ramacharya or Madhvacharya or Baldev Vidyabhushan, they all give, who are these four categories of people, they explain differently.
Why? Because these scriptures are not frozen documents, they are living texts. So the Vedic standard is to expose and refute the current formulations of avidya. So whatever is the current brand of avidya, that is to be refuted.
So the Acharyas will present the scripture accordingly. So now asatyam pratishtham te, if you look at the Vedic context, this is referring to specific doctrines, jagadahur anishvaram, so the idea that kama is the source of everything, this is the doctrine of the atheistic sankhya. Atheistic sankhya says that there is nothing beyond this world, so purusha and prakriti come together and what brings them together is kama.
So there is no cause of this world beyond kama. Kim anyat kama hai tukam, there is nothing else. And does the world have any ultimate truth? No, it doesn’t have.
Does it have any ultimate foundation? No, everything is just sankhya, atheistic sankhya is basically materialism. So there is no satya, there is no ultimate truth, there is no pratishtha, certainly there is no Ishwar. Kapila sankhya is different, Bhagavad Kapila sankhya is different.
So aparas parasambhutam kim anyat kama hai tukam. So this is the meaning from the Vedic context. But we can look at it from the point of your western history also, how it has happened.
Asatyam apratishtham te jagadahur anishvaram, that this world is anishvaram, there is no God in control of this world. Now once there is no God in control of this world, then there is no God to decide what is right and what is wrong. So if you look at the history of the world, it was 1859 that Darwin proposed the theory of evolution.
Although Darwin was not an atheist, but it led to atheism. It basically made, Richard Dawkins is the world’s most famous atheist now, or infamous atheist. So he says that Darwin made it possible for an atheist to become an intellectually proud atheist, intellectually fulfilled atheist.
He said, what is the idea? That before Darwin, we had no explanation of how the world came about. But after Darwin, we had the explanation. So now we can be intellectually proud atheists.
That is the idea. So of course, there are a lot of problems with evolution. But the point is, from the stage when evolution was postulated and accepted, atheism became the mainstream thinking within the intellectual world.
And just a few decades later onwards, kim anyat kama hai tukam. Kim anyat kama hai tukam means there is no ultimate value to life higher than lust. That’s what came about.
How did this come about? There are several thinkers, but the most prominent among them was Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud had the idea that the human mind is like a haunted house. His idea is the human mind is like a haunted house.
And what is haunting the human mind? He said that what is haunting the human mind is repressed sexual desire. And the way to free the ghost that is there in the mind is to stop all repression of sexual desire. So he said, just as soon as you start expressing sexual desire freely, then the haunting of the mind will go away.
And he was in his own way clever. He was a genius, but he was an extremely perverse genius. In his childhood, he had sexual attraction towards his mother.
And because of the culture, he couldn’t express it. But when he grew up and got himself labelled as a scientist, he came up with this theory that all boys have sexual attraction towards their mother and all girls have sexual attraction towards their fathers. And he called them as Viagra complex and some other complex.
So what happened because of this is, now what happened is he presented everything in the garb of science. And because he presented it in the garb of science, so it became very attractive and accepted. If sense gratification is intellectually justified, then who will want to stop it? Then, even in America, before the 1940s, before the Second World War, even morality was quite common.
Radha Nanda Maharaj says in his lecture that even in his times, divorce was unheard of in families. But actually before 1940s, sexual morality was quite strong. But from Sigmund Freud’s time onwards, the whole idea of sexual morality was seen as, sexual regulation was seen as repressive.
It was seen as repressive and the whole idea was, that’s how when Prabhupada went, there was this free sex mood. Now everybody can have just whatever they want to do. And then there have been catastrophic results in terms of families getting ruptured, abortions, divorces, diseases.
But then there was no going back and subsequent researchers have found out that there was very little science in Sigmund Freud’s ideas. Because the human mind is so complex that to understand it is not at all easy. But his ideas were not scientific in that sense.
But there is no higher value than enjoyment. And one of Sigmund Freud’s successors, he developed, I will conclude with this point, he developed his own theory of advertisement. So their idea was that, that human beings seem to act as rational beings.
But that rationality is just like a small tiny boat. And below that is a whole turbulent ocean of irrational emotions. So it’s in one similar, you know that small boat is like Satvaguna and below that is Rajoguna and Tamoguna.
So there is a small tiny bit of rationality, but below that is huge ocean of irrational emotions. So his idea was that actually people will behave in bad ways because their irrationality will overcome their rationality. So before Sigmund Freud’s ideas became popular, there was advertising.
But all the advertisement was based on the virtues of the products. Now if you want to buy a car, it has this much distance it can take and this much litres of fuel and it has these facilities. But from the point of this insight, they said that if you want to appeal to people, there is no point in appealing to their head because the head’s influence is so tiny.
You appeal to their feelings. You don’t tell how useful the product is, tell how the product will make you feel good. So advertising became a form of pop psychology.
The pop psychology means try to cheer up people through advertising and the most egregious, the most outrageous example of this was in 1929, when you know, the cigarette at that time, the harmful effects of cigarette were not known and cigarette was becoming immensely popular. But the cigarette companies found that now, all the people who have money to smoke, they are already smoking. So what do we do? How do we expand our market? And then suddenly, one of these students of Sigmund Freud, he got the idea that actually 50% of humanity is not smoking till now.
Because women would not smoke. So he decided that how do you get women to smoke? So what they did on the Independence Day parade in 1929, they got several of the most prominent female stars from Hollywood, they all were in the Independence Day parade and at the most visible photogenic point, they all whipped out their cigarettes, special thin cigarettes made for ladies and they all started smoking it. And all the American newspapers, they published it, it was on television and then these cigarettes were labelled as torches of freedom.
The cigarettes were called as torches of freedom. And the idea was that women wanted freedom and society doesn’t want to do, whatever society doesn’t want you to do, you get free by doing it. And the idea of freedom was so popular that nobody asked the question how cigarette will lead to freedom.
But just within just a few decades, within less than a decade, you know, more than 20-25% of American women started smoking. And it was only 30-40 years later that it was discovered how cigarette smoking is so dangerous for women, especially when they are pregnant and also for their prospects for pregnancy. But then it was very dangerous.
So this torches for freedom is considered to be like a touchstone event in modern advertisement. Although there was no truth to the idea, but just by appealing to the feelings, it just started off. And then now most advertising today is, there is no rationality in it.
It is just, you know, atheists criticise religion for telling fairy tales, telling fairy tales about how, you know, this happened and that happened and then that happened. So, but actually all advertisements are nothing but fairy tales. You know, there is advertisement which shows there is some film star who just comes out and then three, four women come and embrace him.
And they start kissing him. And there is another young man who is saying, oh, nobody comes to me. And this film star comes and tells him, you know, you put this perfume on your body.
And you put the perfume on his body and he does that perfume and then three, four women embrace him. See, such an advertisement is an insult to both male and female intelligence. So, first of all, to think that females will just attract it because some perfume is there and to think that males will believe this.
Both is insanity. But that is what happens because there is no, there is no ultimate substance. There is no shastra to decide what is pratya, nivrtti and kim anyat kama hai to kam.
So, there is no value