How the Bhagavad-gita is special among all books in the world – Gita Jayanti class

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Devotees, especially of His Grace, we did not know that he was here. So that I can try to glorify the Bhagavad Gita on this sacred day.
So, we will try to discuss today, how the Bhagavad Gita is special at different levels. Firstly, how the Bhagavad Gita is special among the world literature. How it is special among the world’s religious literature.
How it is special among the Vedic literature. How it is special among the Vaishnav literature. And how it is special among the Gaudiya Vaishnav literature.
So, let’s see how much we can complete in the allocated time. But we will try that. So, as the Bhagavatam describes in the first canto, that, It says that those words, no matter how poetically, artistically they may be written, if they do not glorify the Lord, they are like a pilgrimage place for the cows.
That is a very euphemistic, a polite way of saying that it is a garbage dump. Because, what is a pilgrimage place for cows? For crows, rather. Sorry.
For crows, it is actually a garbage dump. So, now this is the Bhagavatam’s perspective. But even from the objective perspective, among the hundreds and thousands of books that are written, most of the books, they are written, and they are read once, if at all they are read, and they are thrown away.
And nobody really cares. Among the books that are written, the most popular are the newspapers, what is published. Newspapers are not books, but newspapers and novels.
And neither of them really have a very great longevity. And not only that, most of them actually do not convey anything meaningful, even from the material point of view. All that they offer is something temporarily titillating, some entertainment, some information, at all.
So, even from the material point of view, the Bhagavad Gita is among the world’s top three books, which have been translated in the maximum number of languages. One is the Christian Bible, the other is the Chinese Tao Te Ching, and the third is the Bhagavad Gita. Of course, nobody has done any strict survey, so it might be that the Bhagavad Gita has been translated into many more languages.
Because India itself has so many languages and so many dialects. It has been translated a lot. So, it’s a very well-known book.
And of course, Bhagavad Gita has the undisputed record of being the book which has the maximum commentaries on it. Even the Bible has not so many commentaries on it. Because India had a huge, enormous tradition of scholarship.
And in traditional India, scholarship means scholarship based on scripture. It was only after the heterodox religions like Buddhism and Jainism came, that something other than Vedic literature became the basis of scholarship. And even that scholarship was to refute the Vedic literature.
So, in that sense also, it was not independent of Vedic literature. So, most of the literature is just for entertainment, and they have a very short-term value. But we see that the Bhagavad Gita conveys something meaningful.
It has enduring value, been existing for thousands of years, and still it’s wildly appealing. So, there are, of course, there are nowadays becoming popular called self-help books. Self-help means if you are depressed, if you are feeling inferiority complex, if you are sorry for yourself, whatever.
Then, you read these books and you will feel better. Now, I used to read a lot of self-help books before I at least externally came to Krishna Consciousness. But, you know, they talk about self-help, but they don’t know who is the self.
So, how can they actually help? So, they don’t contain any philosophy, practically speaking. It’s just feel good, be good, that sort of things. So, these books are widespread, and they are practical, but there is no philosophy in them.
And there are books written by philosophers, and they may contain some meaningful philosophy, but one of the tragedies of western philosophy is that it has become completely divorced from practise. The philosophers cannot, even if at all they postulate some philosophy, they do not tell anything by which, if their philosophy is real, how it can be realised. So, there is a vacuum.
There are books which are practical with no philosophy. There are books which are philosophical with nothing practical. But Bhagavad Gita is such a book, it is profoundly philosophical, at the same time, powerfully practical.
So, it reveals the highest truth, Tattvam param guhyam, as it is said over here. At the same time, what it recommends at the end to do is very practical. Think of Krishna, worship Him, chant His holy names, offer homage to Him.
So, in that sense, it’s very practical. So, it’s unique in that sense also. Now, among the religious literatures in the world, most of the other literatures of the world, like the Bible or the Quran, you know, they are books of commandments.
Do this, do that. Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not this.
Thou shall not that. The Bhagavad Gita is special in that, it is not so much a book of commandments, as a book of choices. As a book of choices.
That means, yes, the Bhagavad Gita does contain some commands, as Krishna says, sarva-dharman parityajya, but that is in the conclusion. Vishwamitra Shikhar Thakur explains that the Vedic instruction, sorry, the Vedic statements in the imperative are instructions. That means, dehino smin yatha dehe, this verse does not contain anything what you should do.
So, it’s certainly a Vedic statement, but it’s not an instruction. It’s a Vedic statement. Those who are in the imperative, like sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam charanam, these sort of instructions, or sarva-karmani manasa, sannyasya adhyatma cetasa, these sort of verses, they contain a call for action.
And they are in the imperative. So, those are instructions, which cannot be avoided. But if you look at the Bhagavad Gita, more than the instructions that Bhagavad Gita gives, Bhagavad Gita gives choices.
Wherever in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks, if you look at the fourth chapter, He says, if you are faithful, what will happen? If you are faithless, what will happen? He says, shraddhava labhate jnanam, tad parasayate indriyaha, jnanam labdha param shantim, achirena digacchati. So, He says, that if you are faithful, then you will acquire knowledge. And if you acquire knowledge, then soon you will become, acquire unadulterated peace.
On the other hand, He says, ajnas ca shraddha dhanasya, samsayatma vinasyati, nayam loko sthinaparo, nasukham samsayatmanah. If you are faithless, if you are doubtful, then what will happen? You will neither be happy in this life, nor in that life. So, towards the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita, also Krishna says, machittah sarva-durgani, mat-prasadah tarishyasi, athacetam ahankaram, nashrosyasi vinansyasi.
It is very clearly indicative of Krishna consciousness. If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all obstacles by My grace. If however you act out of false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost.
So, Krishna gives choices, and Krishna tells us, the consequences of the choices. And at the end, He says, vimrishayita dasheshena, yathe icchasi tatha kuru. Now, Arjuna, deliberate on this, and decide what you want to do.
So, Krishna is not the kind of God who imposes His will on the living entity. Of course, He does not do it practically, and even in His instructions, He doesn’t do that. He gives us the choices, and He gives us the consequences.
And He leaves it up to the individual, what He wants to do. That’s why, the approach of the Bhagavad Gita is intellectually much more appealing. It’s much more reasonable.
And not only that, among all the world’s scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita has the most fascinating setting. It has the most fascinating setting. Actually, the Bible was never written.
The Bible as a book was never spoken. It was not Jesus never said, now I am going to start speaking the Bible. It was never like that.
Jesus spoke on different occasions, different things. And those of His disciples who were there at that time, many of them didn’t even realise that He is the Son of God, and what He is speaking is very significant. So, later on, after He was crucified, and after they experienced what they call as the Holy Ghost, then they started feeling, oh, Jesus was a special person.
And then they started compiling His words into written form. And actually, the historians of religion have analysed that there was a big scandal about whose books will be included in the Bible. Because there were so many prophets, and even who will be included in the Twelve Apostles, there was politics involved in that also.
So, actually, first of all, Jesus is not God, with all due respects to Him. And even what we have in the Bible is not His words. He spoke a lot, and what people recollected, and who was close to Him, and who was far from Him, like Paul, who is considered one of the Apostles, he never met Jesus.
And today in the Bible, his section is the maximum. This is not to discredit the Bible, but the point is that the Bible is not a direct word of God. It is a word of the Son of God, and that also, remembered and recollected, selectively.
So, in that sense, and the Bible itself, that’s why the Bible itself does not have a setting. Because, of course, in one sense, we can say it was Nazareth, and other places where Jesus lived. But there was no specific setting for the speech of the Bible.
Similarly, for the Quran, if we see, the Quran was not spoken by God. It was actually spoken by a representative of God, an angel called Gabriel. And it was heard by Muhammad.
So, Muhammad went on top of a mountain, and suddenly he heard a voice. He says, write! So, Muhammad was illiterate. He said, I don’t know how to write.
He says, write! He says, I don’t know how to write. He says, write! And he didn’t know what to do. So, he just took a plate and started moving his fingers.
And the Quran started getting written over there. And then afterwards, later on, of course, that was not the Quran. Later on, what the Quran came out was again a compilation from different places.
The Bible, as we know, was written several centuries after Jesus passed away from the world also. The Quran is slightly more authentic in that sense. But even the Bible and the Quran have several versions.
So, it is the word of God coming through some medium. And that’s where the setting is, okay, it was on top of a mountain, and he had a revelation, and he got the words. But if you see the Bhagavad Gita, it’s on the place where one would think it’s most unlikely to discuss philosophy.
It’s right in the middle of a battlefield. And not that the battle is not started or the battle is over and it’s an isolated battlefield and you’re sitting and talking. No.
It’s a battlefield where the action is about to take place. And the whole narrative of the Mahabharata is reaching its climax in the battlefield. In fact, actually, in one sense, there are some events which are determined.
You know, like say, weather makes a prediction that this is going to, that it’s going to rain over here. Or say, on so and so, this particular cricket match is there. Or this and so part is really authorised there or whatever.
That’s a determined event. So, the way Vyasadev and our Vedic sages have arranged the Mahabharata, throughout the Mahabharata, the final battle is the most over-determined event. That means everyone knows that it’s going to happen.
No matter what all peace efforts Krishna tries, others try, they know the battle is going to take place. And so the whole Mahabharata in one sense, it spans a huge number of verses. It’s 110,000 verses.
It’s the world’s longest poem, by far. The other two longest poems, Iliad and Odyssey, both of them seven times combined together are less than the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is huge.
But in that, as the climax of the Mahabharata is coming, the climax is the battle. And as the battle is about to start, even the conches are blown. Conches are blown means the battle is about to start.
It’s like, you know, the conch is blown and everybody has come for Darshan, the Aarti is about to start and suddenly the Pujari stops doing the Aarti. And everybody is wondering what is happening. That’s what happened.
There is perplexity on the battlefield. So, that’s how it is a very, very intriguing setting that was created. Right on the battlefield, in front of the enemy, Arjuna gets, gets a nervous breakdown.
He gets overwhelmed. He says, how can I fight? So, at any other time, the philosophy is spoken, it’s not as significant. People may or may not be interested.
But here when a war is about to take place, all the ears are there, all the eyes are there. It’s complete attention. And the philosophy is heard very attentively.
So, actually, in one sense, we’ll come to this a little later in the, when we talk about the Vedic literature. But the point is that just as in the Vedic literature, the Shrutis are considered to be the highest and the Itihasas are considered to be a little lower. And Bhagavad Gita is among the Itihasas.
But, if you see, the Gita’s position in the Vedic literature is similar to Krishna’s position in the Mahabharata. Throughout the Mahabharata, actually, Krishna plays a low profile. In the Mahabharata, the Pandavas are the heroes.
Much of the story is centred around the Pandavas. But, when the time, when the most over-determined event, when the climax of the Mahabharata comes up, it is at that time, Krishna plays a decisive role. So, similarly, among the Vedic literature, the Bhagavad Gita may appear to be in the Itihasas.
But, in sum total, actually, from the importance, from the relevance, from the practicality point of view, the Bhagavad Gita steals the show. As Krishna actually stole the show in the battle of Kurukshetra. So, we’ll discuss this a little bit more later.
But the point is the setting is very intriguing. And, in fact, all over the world, people of different religions, they try to popularise their religious teachings. So, the Christians may make some movies on life of Jesus.
The Muslims make some movies on the life of Mohammed. Of course, they are not allowed to show the face of Mohammed. They have to make a movie without showing the face of Mohammed.
It is a difficult task. It is their idea that just as God is impersonal, so his selected representative also, although he was a historical person, you are not allowed to show him as a person. It is a little strange idea.
but, we may also have movies about Krishna. But, how can anyone make a movie about a Bible? Or about a Quran? So, interestingly, there was one popular novelist. Stephen Pressfield.
So, he read the Bhagavad Gita and was very inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. And he decided that he will popularise the message of the Bhagavad Gita in the West. So, he wrote a novel about a golf match.
And in golf match, he called it the legend of bagger vans. So, bagger vans is the assistant of a golf player. The golf player is Ranulph Juna.
And he gets depressed before a championship golf match. And, his assistant turns into his advisor. So, this Ranulph Juna the short form is Arjuna.
That is Arjuna. And, bagger vans is actually a westernised rendition of Bhagavan. So, he does it in a very interesting way.
So, he says, Arjuna, you are depressed about hitting the swing. You have to swing the stick to hit the ball in the golf. So, who is it that is going to hit the swing? Is it your arms? Is it your body? Is it your father? Is it your wife? Is it your ancestors? Who are you? So, that is how he presents the message of the Bhagavad Gita.
And, he first wrote a novel which became so popular that it was later on made into a movie. And then, our devotees are very opportunistic for preaching. So, we have our devotee writer, Satyaraj Prabhu.
So, he went and met the Stephen Pressfield. Now, Stephen Pressfield was very happy that there is a real Gita scholar who has come to meet him and Satyaraj Prabhu’s first name was also Stephen Rosen. So, Stephen.
So, he liked that also. Stephen, Stephen. And then, what Satyaraj Prabhu did is, he took the same novel and expanded it and added the Bhagavad Gita philosophy more systematically and more coherently.
And he wrote a book, Gita on the Press, the mystical tradition behind bagger vans. And that book also became very popular. So, actually the setting of the Gita is very special.
And that grabs the mind and draws the attention of people towards philosophy. So, that’s among the world’s literature. The setting is very special.
It’s a book of choices, not commandments. And again, among the different religious books, the Bhagavad Gita is the most philosophical. If you look at the Bible and the Quran, as I said, they are mostly commandments.
Do this, don’t do this. But there is not much philosophy. There is nothing like we have the three modes of material nature in the Bhagavad Gita.
Nothing like who is the real I? Who is the real I? Actually, Jesus spoke the Bible 2000 years ago. And till now, the Christians are confused of what Jesus meant when he said the soul. When they use the word soul, their understanding is not the same as the soul as we have.
Now, they have the idea that humans have souls, but animals don’t have souls. So, then how are animals conscious? Animals have spirit, but not soul. So, what is the spirit? So, they don’t know what is the spirit and they don’t know what is the soul.
That’s why to make things clear, Prabhupada said, spirit, soul. So, there is nothing very clear about who the real person is and why he is suffering in the material world and how he is supposed to get out. So, the philosophy is very clearly given in the Bhagavad Gita.
Now, among the, so that was in the religious literature of the world, among the Vedic literature. Now, the Vedic literature are bewilderingly vast. They are one lakh lakh verses as what is existing now.
It might have been much more earlier. So, they are so huge and they even appear to be mutually contradictory because the Vedas, if we see, they are themselves in one sense quite materialistic. Materialistic in the sense they talk about material well-being that can be got through religion.
They talk, you do this particular yagya and you get this particular result. You do this particular puja and you get this particular result. It’s karmakand.
And then the Upanishads are practically speaking entirely opposite of the Vedas. The Upanishads just completely reject all sorts of material well-being and they say all sorts of material pleasures and pains are illusory and one has to transcend it all. So, when the western scholars came to India, they were bewildered how such drastically different approaches could be there within one religion.
Now, one is talking about material well-being and the other is talking completely about material renunciation. Another aspect is the Vedas are more religious whereas the Upanishads are more philosophical. That means the Vedas talk a lot about rituals.
Do this, do this, do that. But they don’t talk much about the truths of life. The Upanishads on the other hand, they talk a lot of philosophy but they don’t contain anything practical, what to do.
It’s just analysis, contemplation, speculation, that sort of thing. So, it was in this context that Krishna the Bhagavad Gita plays a very significant role. So, actually what happens is the Vedic literature, the message of the Vedic literature can be compared to be a, normally a yogic ladder.
So, it’s not just a ladder actually, it’s like a building because on a ladder people don’t stay. But actually on each level people stay. You know, there are Karmakandis who stay on that level for lifetimes and there are Jnanis who stay on their level for lifetimes.
So, more appropriate analogy is stories. There are different stories on this building. So, the ground floor is the floor of Karmakand.
So, that is talked about in the Vedic literature and the first floor is about the negation of everything material. And the second floor is about the attaching oneself to something positive. So, what happens is the Vedas talk about the ground floor.
The Upanishads talk about the first floor. But there doesn’t seem to be much of a connect, any literature that connects the Vedas to the Upanishads. So, what the Bhagavad Gita does is the setting of the Bhagavad Gita is many people consider the Mahabharata to be like a Karmakand literature because it talks so much about material affairs, politics and conspiracy and romance and violence and war and all those things.
So, there Arjuna is talking. Arjuna, in the first chapter when he talks, all his calculations are primarily materialistic. If I fight, even if I win, I will have no one to enjoy my life with.
If I don’t fight, then I will lose the kingdom. So, his calculations are actually quite materialistic in that sense. So, what Krishna does is Krishna does not address his questions directly.
He says, either I have to kill my relatives or I have to be killed. So, what Krishna does is Arjuna is talking on the ground floor but the first thing that Krishna does is takes him to the first floor. What he says is actually, what are you talking about being killed? You are not going to be killed.
They are not going to be killed. So, many times there are atheistic philosophers or philosophers. So, they try to point out logically impossible situations based on which they try to prove how God cannot be existent or God cannot be omnipotent.
So, one of their favourite questions is, one devotee sent me this question in my mail. So, I was replying to him. So, he said, can God commit suicide? Because this is a question you know, if you say yes, then that means God will no longer be existing.
Then God will not be eternal. And if you say no, then that means there is something which God cannot do. Therefore, God is not omnipotent.
So, these sort of questions have to be answered by challenging the assumptions which are behind the questions. Just like, if somebody comes and asks a man, have you stopped beating your wife? Now, if he says no, shameless guy, you are beating your wife? And if you say yes, that means you admit you are beating your wife in the past. So, these questions are designed to trap.
These are called as catch-22 questions. So, although the questions demand a yes-no answer, but the answer has to be given not in terms of yes-no, but by challenging the assumption behind the question. Who told you that I beat my wife? Isn’t it? So, like that, first of all, the question can God commit suicide? That just indicates that God becomes frustrated like we become frustrated.
Isn’t it? That’s the assumption. Just think, you know, this person is so frustrated. He is thinking of committing suicide and he is projecting his suicidal tendencies on God.
So, God is Anandmayo Abhyasat. He is always joyful. And, because he is never frustrated like we are frustrated, so there is no question of suicide for him.
So, there are people who try to pose as logically impossible situations. So, Krishna challenges such people in 9.4 and 9.5. He says, So, he says, by me in my unmanifested form, this whole world is pervaded. This whole universe is pervaded.
All living beings rest in me. But I am not in them. And then, after saying this, this itself is bewildering enough.
Okay, I am everywhere, everything rests in me. If I am everywhere, then how does everything rest in me? Because I am everywhere. But then, he says, But I am everywhere, but I am not everywhere.
That is the first contradiction. I am not everywhere. To make it even worse, he just contradicts by saying, The next 9.5 is, That I am not present everywhere.
So, now, this verse, for the logicians, it is completely bewildering. And the only way out of bewilderment is that Krishna is confused. But actually, they don’t understand, Krishna’s words are so deep.
Actually, this verse, This is one verse which concentrates the entire absolute truth in it. So, refers to the Brahman aspect, the Brahmajyoti. Mani refers to the Paramatma aspect.
And, refers to the Bhagwan aspect. By me, the whole universe is pervaded in my unmanifested form, that is, the Brahmajyoti is there everywhere. So, Generally, Prabhupada quotes this verse to talk about how the universes are existing in the Brahmajyoti.
But it also talks about that, So, it is there is nothing remaining except that. And Anant is unlimited. So, the first two lines of 9.4 refer to Brahman.
Then, All living beings are sustained by me. All living beings exist in me. This refers to the Paramatma aspect.
Krishna says that, I enter into all the worlds. Here he is talking specifically about the earth, but other places he talks about how he enters into all the universes and he pervades them and he sustains them. refers to the Paramatma.
But I am not situated in them. That refers to Bhagawan. This material world is sustained by Krishna, but that is by his Paramatma expansion.
So, he is not present there. And that is elaborated further in the next verse. When Krishna says that I am not sustaining the three worlds.
What is that referring to? That is referring to the Bhagawan. The Bhagawan aspect is not sustaining the three worlds. It is the Paramatma aspect who is sustaining the three worlds.
Just see my inconceivable potency. So, in this way, Krishna actually addresses many difficult to resolve philosophical questions, theological questions by the profound philosophy that is given in the Bhagavad Gita. So, this three tier understanding of God, Brahmajyoti, Paramatma, Bhagawan, this is not there in any other religious literature.
What to speak of that? It is not there clearly even in the Upanishadic literature. It is not there even in the Vedanta Sutra. And if you look at it, this three tier revelation is actually the contribution of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism to world literature.
Because, if you see the Bhagavatam verse 1.2.11 from which we explain this It just talks about Brahman, Paramatma, Bhagawan. But, it does not actually tell what is Brahman, what is Paramatma, what is Bhagawan. It does not talk about these three as a three tier reality.
All that it says is Advayam. All three are non-dual. So, there are places where Brahman refers to Bhagawan also and Paramatma also may refer to Brahman or Bhagawan, whatever.
So, it is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is the same Krishna who spoke in the Bhagavad Gita, who inspired Shukdev Goswami to speak Bhagavatam. That same Krishna through Chaitanya Mahaprabhu revealed the clearest understanding of the absolute truth. Now, when we understand Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s philosophy and then we look at the Bhagavad Gita, then the Bhagavad Gita makes complete sense.
Then actually the Bhagavad Gita is fully understood. So, among the Vedic literature, what is the Bhagavad Gita actually doing? The Bhagavad Gita is actually integrating all the Vedic wisdom that is available into one book and establishing which is the highest. Establishing what path is the highest.
So, if we see in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks there are basically three divisions. There is Karma, there is Jnana and there is Bhakti. Yoga is basically a combination of Karma and Jnana.
The first one is Karma and later on one is Contemplation. So, in one sense, if we see this is universal in all religions are all spiritual seekers. Some people try to do a lot of activities and try to realise God.
Some people try to do a lot of thinking and they try to realise God. So, Karma and Jnana in that sense are actually universal in all religions. So, Karmakand is the Vedas, Jnanakand is the Upanishads.
So, now if we see, the human mind universally has two tendencies. There is Sankalpa and Vikalpa. Sankalpa means to accept and Vikalpa means to reject.
So, these human tendencies are represented in the Vedic literature where the Karmakand section represents the human tendency towards Sankalpa. Accepting the material world for one’s enjoyment and the Jnanakand section represents the human tendency towards Vikalpa, towards giving it up, pronouncing it. Like Prabhupada talks in the Devotional Introduction, Bhoga and Tyaga.
So, but the Bhagavad Gita talks about both these things, but it actually in the first chapter itself, when Arjuna is asking this question, he is basically talking on the Karmakand level. He is talking oh, I will go to hell if I kill my relatives and all that. And in the second chapter itself, Krishna rejects the Karmakand level by saying, But he addresses that level and he shows how the problems at the material level cannot be solved at the material level.
So Albert Einstein is considered to be very famous because he was completely bewildered because he proposed his relativity theory and Neel Bohr proposed his quantum theory. And both of them were completely complicated. So, neither of them could solve it.
So, both of them, they were friends in the beginning of their life. When they died, they were enemies. So, they couldn’t talk with each other.
But then, so he said, he tried his best to solve this problem. So, towards the end of his life, he said that problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them. So, he was actually speaking a principle that Krishna implemented long ago in the Bhagavad Gita.
So, material problems cannot be solved at the material level. That’s why Krishna takes things one level higher. And what does he, he talks about the Gyanakand.
And essentially, if we see the whole Bhagavad Gita, at the start of the third chapter, at the start of the fifth chapter, what is the option? Should I work or should I renounce work? Should I work is actually the ground, first floor. Should I renounce the second floor? And Krishna, although he tells him to work, he tells him to work in devotion, which actually takes him to third floor. So, actually, what Krishna does is, he addresses the existing schools of thought and he establishes how bhakti is the greatest.
So, sometimes people ask, you know, if, like, one devotee was recently asking me, and it was a nice question. He said, we are doing the Bhakti Shastri course. So, he said, when I heard the Krishna conscious philosophy, it was so simple.
When I heard the Bhagavad Gita verses that support the Krishna conscious philosophy, it’s so simple. But now, when I start studying the Bhagavad Gita, it appears so complicated. So, how is that? So, actually, in one sense, the Krishna conscious philosophy and the Bhagavad Gita philosophy are two different things.
How are they different? In the sense that the Bhagavad Gita does an overview of all Vedic philosophy, and the conclusion of Bhagavad Gita is Krishna conscious philosophy. So, what happens is, when we hear just the conclusion, and we hear some verses talking about the conclusion, … … There are some standard verses from the Bhagavad Gita, which we all quote, and practically every school devotee knows those verses. So, if that is all that Bhagavad Gita is, then it’s very easy.
But if we actually go into Bhagavad Gita, then we have to stand and understand what is Karma Yoga, what is Gyan Yoga, what is Sankhya, what is Ishkam Karma, and then it becomes quite complicated. So, actually, the conclusion is very simple, and Prabhupada is mercifully given the conclusion. We’ll come to that a little later.
But, the point is, you know, so, why does Krishna not just tell us that Bhakti is supreme? Just do Bhakti. Why does he actually have to tell all the paths? There are several reasons for that. One is the circumstantial reason.
Now, Arjuna was asking whether I should fight or I should not fight. So, whether I should act or should not act. So, Krishna has to give the reasoning, what is the logical consequence of acting in a fruitive way, what is the logical consequence of renouncing, and then he shows better than these two is the third option.
So, so, actually, in western philosophy, they have something which is called thesis, anti-thesis, and they have synthesis. So, like thesis means, you know, one party proposes the argument, and the other party comes and proposes own argument, and both are completely opposed to each other, and then their debate will be endless. So, third person comes, and he takes the right from this party, takes the right from this party, and he brings synthesis.
Best of all, that is called synthesis. So, like that, in the Bhagavad Gita, karma is a thesis. You act, it is natural.
But then the problem is, it is binding. And the anti-thesis is Jnan. God Jnan says, actually, you should renounce work, then you will never come under bondage.
But the problem is, it is impossible to do. You cannot be inactive. So, the thesis and the anti-thesis, and that is what the Vedic literature, the conflict is going on.
But Krishna comes and says, acting is natural, so do that. But bondage is a problem, so throw it away. How do you do that? By working for me.
So, Krishna integrates the good part of both, and introduces a higher paradigm of devotion to himself, and actually gives a solution to the problem that is the tension throughout the Vedic literature. So, that is Krishna’s genius. So, why Krishna talks about all these parts? To conclusively establish how Bhagavad Gita is supreme, and how bhakti is supreme in the Bhagavad Gita, and in the Vedic literature also.
So, it’s like, suppose a particular newspaper wanted to do its advertisement. So, if it says, Times of India, 2.5 crore circulation every day. So, okay, we might read it and we’ll go.
That’s not as effective, if they do the advertisement. If they say, okay, economic times, 1 lakh. Hindustan times, 25 lakhs.
Daily Telegraph, 50 lakhs. Indian Express, 1 crore. Times of India, 2.5 crores.
So, what happens? Glorification by comparison is always much more powerful. It’s always much more effective. So, what Krishna does is, he glorifies bhakti by comparing other paths.
And then he shows very clearly how bhakti is supreme. When Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita, so, this is within the Vedic literature, Krishna actually gives the conclusion of the Vedic literature very easily and very clearly. And again, another thing, earlier I said that the Vedas are religious, whereas the Upanishads are philosophical.
The Bhagavad Gita is a philosophy that culminates in religion. It talks about philosophy, but it culminates in how you practise that philosophy, the path of devotion. So, in that sense, it also integrates that.
Now, more importantly, so, that was from the Vedic point of view. Now, from the Vaishnav point of view, you know, the Bhagavad Gita is the only book in which God declares himself to be God. There is no other book in which a deity declares himself to be supreme throughout the book.
Now, there are some literature, say, like the Shiva Purana may say at some place that Shiva is supreme, and then the Devi Bhagavat may say that Devi is supreme. But then there are also, if one reads these verses, these books carefully, there are verses which qualify this. But there is no book like this where a particular deity is glorifying himself as God throughout the book.
So, when faced with this particular situation, you know, either the human mind will think that Krishna is a really egomaniac, I am God, I am God, I am God, throughout the Bhagavad Gita. Or, he is a liar, or he is really God. So, now obviously, all the great Acharyas have accepted Krishna’s words.
So, he is not a liar. Is Krishna egomaniac in speaking about himself? So, Vishwacharya Thakur gives a brilliant understanding for this. He says that actually, the only purpose that Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita is to glorify Radha Rani.
How Radha Rani? No, Radha Rani is not there in the Bhagavad Gita. Only one fourth of one verse is there. You know, that our Vaishnavacharya explained, it refers to Radha Rani.
And if you look at Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita, the name of Radha Rani comes only once in the Bhagavad Gita. The entire Bhagavad Gita, Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita is so exhaustive commentary. Only once the name of Radha Rani comes.
And that is where, in the introduction, Prabhupada is offering obeisance. So, then, how can Vishwacharya Thakur sustain his claim that actually, Krishna speaks Bhagavad Gita to glorify Radha Rani? So, actually, Radha Rani is the personification of devotional service. So, she is Radhini Shakti.
She is the Bhakti. And Krishna’s purpose in glorifying himself is only one. To convincingly convey the glory of the Bhakti that conquers even him.
That, if somebody, if you tell, you know, this person is a world emperor. He has defeated this king in this country. He has defeated this king in this country.
You tell, how is the world conqueror? And then, after that, there is some small villager in some city, in some village. And he has defeated this person in battle. Now, we may not think this person, villager, to be something very special.
And even if he defeats somebody, what’s so great about it? But if you know the person who has defeated is a world emperor, a world conqueror, then you will think, oh, this person must be great. So, like that, Bhakti appears to be a very simple activity. You just fold your hands and pray or shake your hands and shake your head and chant and offer obeisances and move some incense and arti plates and whatever.
It appears to be a simple activity. But Krishna is telling us that this Bhakti conquers me. And Vishwanath Jagadguru said that the only purpose that Krishna speaks is His glory is, if you see that way, where all does Krishna speak His glory is the 7th chapter, 9th chapter, 10th chapter, 11th chapter.
Now, if you see, in all these chapters, we don’t have time to do that analysis now, but in all these chapters, soon after His own glorification, Krishna talks about how by my Bhakta I am known, how to my Bhakta I am sold out, how to my Bhakta I cannot ever forget Him, I cannot ever renounce Him. He is more dear to me than myself. Ishto sime dhrudamiti tato vakshamitehitam Just before speaking Manmanabhava and Sarvdharvana Prithya, Krishna says Ishto sime dhrudamiti You are dearly loved by me.
So Garuda Prabhu, one of Prabhupada’s disciple, he has translated this Bhagavad Gita as Bhagavad as the beloved Lord and Gita as the sacred love song, the secret love song. So the beloved Lord’s secret love song. So he translates this Ishto sime dhrudamiti as I am determined to love you.
Krishna is saying, you are determined to forget me, but I am determined to love you. So Krishna’s determination Bhagavad Gita, it’s a profound philosophy but ultimately it’s a message of love. And that’s why one of Shri Prabhupada’s disciple Yogeshwar Prabhu wrote a Bhagavad Gita.
So he says very beautifully, the Bhagavad Gita is the most eloquent testimony to the transformative power of love. Testimony to what? To the transformative power of love. So all of us want to be transformed in our lives.
We want to become better human beings, better persons, better devotees. How do we become better devotees? When we understand Krishna’s love for us. And when we understand Krishna is so great and he is extending his hand to us and I want to love you.
Why don’t you love me? Then we are ready to renounce everything else and mam ekam sharanam vraja That is the ultimate secret of the Bhagavad Gita. So Ramamurthy and his Bhagavad Gita introduction offers the prayer to Bhagavad Gita along with that offer to Krishna who speaks the Bhagavad Gita. So we will offer that prayer and we will conclude this class.
So prapannaparijataya totravetra ekapanaye jnanamudraya krishnaya gitaam rtaduhenamaha So he is integrating three different images of Krishna. Krishna is the God of the devotees. One who surrenders to him, he protects him.
But then actually in his original form he is not a God who surrenders, who accepts the surrender and the worship of his devotees. Who is he? He is actually carrying a stick and he is herding the cows. And there is another aspect of God as Bhagawan in the spiritual world.
And then he says Krishna is also the God of the philosophers. jnanamudraya krishnaya That means he is giving actually knowledge. So when Krishna, we have this picture in the Bhagavad Gita, different pictures we have.
One is Krishna wielding a chariot, other is Arjuna that is holding his hands and Krishna is raising his hand to give knowledge. jnanamudraya krishnaya So gitaam rtaduhenamaha So that Lord Krishna who has given us the nectar of the Gita to whom I offer my obeisances. So it was Srila Prabhupada who actually brought to the world the secret of the Bhagavad Gita.
Not only the Bhagavad Gita was unknown, but to whoever the Bhagavad Gita was known the message of the Bhagavad Gita was unknown even to them. They didn’t know that the essential message of Bhagavad Gita is bhakti. It’s now.
So on the sacred day of Gita Jayanti we offer our gratitude to Srila Prabhupada for translating and commenting on the Bhagavad Gita for living the Bhagavad Gita and for bringing the Bhagavad Gita into our own lives. And let us pray to the Bhagavad Gita that this wisdom be realised in our hearts and that we can share it with as many souls as possible during our brief lifetime. Shreemad Bhagavad Gita Ki Jai Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai Sri Krishna Bhagavan Ki Jai Itai Gaur Premanande Jai Guru