How the Bhagavad-gita’s first and last words reflect its empowering message

[Class at ISKCON, Denver, USA]

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna So today I’ll discuss on the First and last words of the Bhagavad Gita and how they reflect its message So the first words of the Bhagavad Gita is Dharma Of course, the Bhagavad Gita begins with a question by Dhritarashtra Dhritarashtra vacha dharmakshetre kurukshetre samavetayu yotsavaha maam kaha paandavaashchaiva kimakurvata sanjaya So the Dhritarashtra is asking at the place of dharma, that’s kurukshetra When my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled, what did they do? So the first word here is dharma Dharmakshetra, it’s a compound word, but within that the first word that is a part of the Bhagavad Gita is dharma And if you look at the last words of the Bhagavad Gita, 18.78 there it states Sanjay is speaking those last words and he says yatra yogeshwara krishna yatra partha dhanur dhara tatra srir vijayobhutir dhruva nitir matir mama So dhruva, Sanjay is saying that wherever there is Krishna, the supreme mystic, and wherever there is Arjuna, the great archer There, there will be victory, opulence, strength and morality This is my opinion It’s interesting the last word of the Bhagavad Gita is my opinion Matir mama Normally, we would think that if somebody is saying this is my opinion, that makes it subjective Everybody has their own opinions And we often go to the extent of saying that to have our own opinions can be speculation We should just repeat shastra But, it’s interesting the Bhagavad Gita’s last word is, it’s my opinion So why does it stress like this, my opinion? In India, there is a common, short poster that people put in their homes They call it Gita Saar The essence of the Gita And one of the statements in the Gita Saar is Whatever has happened is good Whatever is happening is good Whatever will happen will also be good Now, I have read the Gita several hundred times Recited it hundreds and hundreds of times I have never been able to come to any verse which is anywhere similar to this That whatever has happened is good Whatever is happening is good Whatever will happen is good Will be good So now, we will say, is that contrary to the Gita’s philosophy? Yeah, ultimately Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone And in that sense, whatever happens, Krishna will orchestrate it for the ultimate good of everyone So it’s not incompatible with the Gita’s message But it is not the Gita’s message The Gita’s message centres on Not on God’s power or God’s will It centres on human will And on aligning human will with divine will The purpose of the Gita is not to proclaim God’s position Yes, the Bhagavad Gita does proclaim God’s position But its purpose is not just to proclaim God’s position It is to transform human disposition Arjuna is confused at the start of the Gita And by the end of the Gita, Arjuna’s confusion is removed So the Gita, if you look back at the word Dharma Dharma is the first word in the Gita, Dharmakshetri And when Arjuna asks, while surrendering to Krishna Asks the question What is that question? He says I am asking you, what is Dharma? About what is Dharma, I am confused I am bewildered My consciousness is deluded So please tell me, what is Dharma? And in fact, the Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Mahabharata And the Mahabharata has a driving question Each book has a question that drives that book The Bhagavatam’s driving question is What is the duty of a person about to die? The Ramayana’s driving question is What are the characteristics of an ideal person? The Mahabharata’s driving question is What is Dharma? What is Dharma? That is the question And that which is the driving question of the Mahabharata Is also the defining question of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna is asking What is Dharma? That means that the Bhagavad Gita’s focus Is on helping us align ourselves with the Divine Now the word Dharma can have many meanings Sometimes it’s translated as religion Sometimes it’s translated as duty And all these are valid contextual meanings But the underlying sense of the word Dharma is That Dhruv is sustain So Dharma is that which sustains So the idea of the word, underlying the word Dharma is That there is an order that sustains the universe That there is an order that sustains all of existence And to the extent we play our part in that order Then we harmonise with it So the whole vision of the Bhagavad Gita is To give us a big picture of reality So that we can understand our place and our purpose within that reality Say when we are travelling by a plane At that time we worry whether we reach on time or not We are concerned whether we have our boarding pass or ID proof But we don’t worry when we are boarding a plane Is there enough fuel in the plane or not Is the pilot of the plane sober or is the pilot of the plane drunk We don’t worry about these things Why not? Because there is a whole system that will take care of those things In our flight journey we have to play our part And there is a whole system that will take care of the rest of the things Similarly the Bhagavad Gita explains that There is a whole of which we are a part And we have to play the part of the part And the whole will take care of the whole So that there is an order in the big picture That is true, that is definitely the message of the Gita But we have free will And we are meant to use our free will properly To harmonise with the whole So if we consider the word Dharma It occurs many many times in the Gita But the word Dharma is When it is used in this context When Arjuna is saying पुरचामित्वामिधर्मसमूर्जेता I am confused about what am I meant to do So at that time the whole Gita is spoken To guide Arjuna towards the right course of action So Dharma in this context simply means The right course of action So the right course of action means That action which will harmonise us with the whole And if we see the Bhagavad Gita ends One of the concluding verses that Krishna speaks to Arjuna is Oh Arjuna, you deliberate and now you decide what you want to do विम्रिष्येतदशेषेन इतिजसितथाकुरू As is your desire, so you do But before doing that, deliberate So the Bhagavad Gita does not deny or suppress our desires But it gives us knowledge By which we can choose our desire wisely We can act wisely according to our proper desire So we could say the Bhagavad Gita is like a map And it is a map for life The map can tell us where to go But it is for us to go there If we follow the map properly and if it is a reliable map The map will take us to the destination So at the end of the Bhagavad Gita towards the end of 18.63 Krishna tells Arjuna This is what I have given to you now Deliberate on it and do as you desire So the Bhagavad Gita is actually an appeal to human intelligence And an acknowledgement of human independence It is not giving commandments Do this, don’t do this There are of course verses like that But the Bhagavad Gita’s mood is not to give out commandments The Bhagavad Gita’s mood is to outline choices and consequences If you do this, this will happen If you do this, this will happen Now you decide what you want to do So it is in that sense like a map A map tells us if you take this road you will go here If you take this road you will go here So it gives choices and consequences And the success of the Bhagavad Gita is seen 10 verses later in 18.73 Where Arjuna says that yes, my doubt is dispelled And So he says I will do your will By hearing this message, my doubt has been dispelled My illusion has gone My memory has been restored My composure has been restored And the result of all this is I will do your will In the Bhagavad Gita some people say Why is God telling a peace loving person to fight? Yes, there is a fight in the context of the Bhagavad Gita But if you see, the Bhagavad Gita hardly ever talks about the war In the 700 verses of the Gita, there are barely 25-30 verses Which contain references to the war Apart from the first chapter which is the description Most of the references to the war come only in the 11th chapter Where the Vishwaroopa is revealed But apart from that 11th chapter In the 8th chapter Krishna says Remember me and fight After that there is not a single reference to the war at all So the Bhagavad Gita is not a call to war It is a call to harmony with the divine And that’s why when Arjuna responds He doesn’t say, Oh Krishna, I will fight the war He says, Krishna, I will do your will The stress of the Bhagavad Gita is not to fight a war The stress of the Bhagavad Gita is The human will should be harmonised with the divine will And in the exceptional situation of the Bhagavad Gita That harmonisation of the human will with the divine will Requires fighting a war But fighting a war is incidental to the message of the Gita Now, so the Gita is, we could say, a two-layered conversation One layer is the inner layer between Krishna and Arjuna And that conversation ends with 18.73 Where Arjuna says, I will do your will The second-layered conversation is between Dhritarashtra and Sanjay Dhritarashtra is asking, what happened? That’s the 1.1 And 18.78, Sanjay is saying Where there is Krishna, where there is Arjuna, there will be victory That is my opinion So, this indicates that the outer-level conversation Which is between Sanjay and Dhritarashtra Is also successful How is it successful? That at one level, Arjuna was confused and Arjuna’s confusion was resolved Now Dhritarashtra was attached, but Dhritarashtra’s attachment didn’t go away Dhritarashtra’s attachment still remained So then how was this conversation successful? The success is that Sanjay becomes completely convinced About Krishna’s divinity Sanjay becomes convinced that those who align with Krishna They are going to be successful So when the Bhagavata concludes with matir mama, this is my opinion What that signifies is Not the subjectivity of this is just one person’s opinion and he is saying that But it is conveying that the person who is the transmitter of the Gita That person has also become convinced That harmonising with the divine Is the most auspicious course of action And that’s why he is saying where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna There, there will be victory Now we could analyse this verse a little bit more And we could say that actually why is Arjuna needed? Isn’t it? Wherever there is Krishna, there will be victory So why do we need Arjuna at all? Isn’t it? God, wherever there is Krishna He is the lord of the goddess of fortune And he will bring fortune over there, he will bring victory over there So where there is Narayan, Lakshmi is there with him So where there is Krishna, there will be victory anyway So why does the Bhagavata stress Not just Yatra Yogeshwara Krishna But Yatra Partha Dhanurdhara That where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna There will be victory Just where there is Krishna, there is going to be victory But the point of the Bhagavad Gita, as I said Is not to proclaim God’s position It is to transform human disposition So by saying that where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna There is victory What he is conveying is that Those human beings who harmonise with the divine They will be victorious In the context of the Gita, he is not openly telling That your son is going to be defeated Your son’s party is going to be defeated and destroyed He is not telling that openly, he is not that blunt When people’s emotions are involved There has to be a little sensitivity When a harsh truth is to be conveyed We convey it in a way that is as less painful as possible That’s a figure of speech called euphemism Where he has died, he has passed away He has gone to the next world There are many ways in which we soften the truth And that is just a matter of politeness, sensitivity Which is good So in the past people would be called crippled or handicapped Now we may use the word specially abled Or specially needs people So this is just a way of sensitively speaking So since Sanjay in the hierarchy Dhritarashtra is the king, Sanjay is the servant So Sanjay cannot tell, your son is going to be killed So indirectly he tells After hearing the Bhagavad Gita, I am convinced I am convinced Here it conveys not the subjectivity of just an individual opinion But it conveys the conviction of a hearer of the Bhagavad Gita On hearing the Bhagavad Gita Now he is hearing in the sense that he is seeing the conversation He is hearing it and he is repeating it So he becomes convinced So in the context of the Gita it means that O Dhritarashtra, where there is Krishna, where there is Arjuna There will be victory That means your son is not going to be victorious It is indirectly conveyed over And when he says this is my opinion That means by hearing the Gita, by remembering the Gita Whoever does so, they will become convinced That harmonising with Krishna is the most auspicious course of action Because by that victory will come for everyone Victory will come for whoever follows that course of action Sometimes when we share the message of the Gita At that time we may distribute books, we may give classes We may talk with people at a one to one level And many times people may not be transformed People may not take up the process of bhakti But even if they don’t take up that process Still, the very fact that we have spoken that message That will purify us That will elevate our consciousness If we have the mood of I am the doer Not just I am the doer, but I am the soul doer And I am going to transform this person’s heart By my erudition, by my eloquence I am going to convince this person I am going to convert this person Then if that is our mood Then if somebody doesn’t become transformed Then we feel it is a failure And if Sanjay had this mood Then Sanjay would have become disheartened But the previous two verses 18.78 is the conclusion 18.76 and 77 Both of them describe Sanjay as being thrilled Rajan samsmutya samsmutya Roopamatya adbhutam hare Vishmayo me mahan rajan Rushyami cha puna puna Samsmutya samsmutya Samvadhamim adbhutam Keshavarjunayo punyam Rushyami cha muhurmoho So Rushyami, Rushyami means I am thrilled Again and again I am thrilled Every moment I am thrilled And he is saying, what is this? What is causing that thrill? 76 and 77 verses Tell two distinct things 76 verse says that just remembering The conversation of the Gita is bringing thrill to me Rajan samsmutya samsmutya Samvadhamim adbhutam Keshavarjunayo punyam This is an extraordinary conversation Remembering it I am getting thrilled And then he says By remembering the form of Keshava Roopamatya adbhutam hare The extraordinary form of Hari That is filling me with thrill Now that form of Hari can refer To just the form of Krishna As the charioteer of Arjuna And that can also refer to the Vishwaroopam That Krishna has shown During the Bhagavad Gita narration So basically remembering the Gita And remembering the object of the Gita The centre, the object, the purpose of the Gita is Krishna So remembering the Gita And remembering the centre of the Gita, Krishna Both of these can fill us With a thrilling sense of ecstasy And thus When we are trying to serve Krishna There is We could say There are different aspects Different levels of success There is an external success There is an internal success The external success is When we are trying to do a service Whether the service gets done properly or not We go out for book distribution Whether people take books or not We give a class Whether people start practising bhakti after that or not There is an external result The internal result is That we ourselves become purified We ourselves become attracted to Krishna So we could say that 18.73 and 18.78 They demonstrate these two results So for Arjuna His confusion was removed The war is not yet won Actually the war is to begin still But most often for us When we have to do something which is difficult It is that the mind Tends to make the thing appear much more difficult than it needs to be Often when we have to do something difficult We drag our feet about it I’ll do it later Maybe somebody else will do it We keep dragging our feet Why? Because the mind makes it appear This is going to be too difficult This is not going to be possible for me at all There are things Which are disastrous And there are things Which are uncomfortable But The mind by its exaggeration Makes Even the uncomfortable Seem disastrous I just can’t do this Can’t do this So suppose there is a festival On which you have to fast Now fasting is uncomfortable It is unpleasant But that which is uncomfortable The mind makes it appear as if it is unbearable For Arjuna Fighting against the Kauravas Which include his own relatives and elders That is unpleasant But Arjuna’s mind If we see the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna’s mind starts catastrophising everything All dynasties will be destroyed Society will crumble Immorality will arise And because all this will happen We will cause the war Will make this happen And thus we will have to go to hell So it is definitely War is a very unpleasant Very unfortunate If possible we should always avoid war That’s true But Arjuna’s mind had catastrophised The whole situation Krishna said no The message of the Bhagavad Gita pacified him So the Just hearing the Gita What happened? Arjuna won the inner war The inner war was where His emotion Had sabotaged his determination He had come there to fight the war But his emotion I can’t do this, this is terrible So when His emotion And his emotion had sabotaged his determination He lost the inner war Almost He gave up fighting But then The Bhagavad Gita helped him to win the inner war And so the success in the inner war Is demonstrated in 18.73 And Arjuna won internally And that Arjuna Was going to win externally That is predicted In the second war In the second conclusion of the Gita 18.78 So for Arjuna there is an internal success There is an external success He got the internal success simply by hearing the Gita And the external success Would follow when he would fight the war And he would win the war For Sanjay also there is an internal success And there is an external success The external success was Dhritarashtra was attached And Dhritarashtra gave up his partisanship Gave up his partiality towards His own sons That didn’t happen So in that sense the external conversation Of the Gita was unsuccessful But At an internal level He became cheerful He became blissful He became filled with a thrilling Sense of ecstasy And in that sense the Gita’s conversation Was successful for him So for us when we are practising bhakti If we understand That in our practise of bhakti there are both these things There is internal success And there is external success And the external success may sometimes not come But the internal success Will always come And That gives us security That gives us confidence That gives us The impetus to move on The world Often Is unfair Because the world judges us Outside in Somebody may Study very diligently for an exam But just before The exam they fall sick Then They fail in the exam And they get nothing with it So in the world When we function unless the external Results manifest People don’t value So sometimes The external results are not in our control Despite our best Efforts we may not get the results Sometimes we may function In a very reasonable Polite, courteous, helpful way And still People will misunderstand us People will blame us People will Criticise us Lampoon us It can be very painful Because when we are functioning in the world The world sees us outside in And because It sees us outside in The results are not in our control And so Despite our best Efforts we may be judged Negatively and unfairly However Krishna sees us inside Out Krishna sees our consciousness Krishna sees our endeavours And Krishna sees our mood Of service And that is demonstrated most graphically In 9.26 where Krishna says पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं योमे भक्त्या प्रयक्षति तदहं भक्ति उपहरितन अश्णामी प्रयतात्मन हा Even if you offer me just a fruit or a flower I will accept it Now If you consider the battlefield Of the Bhagavad Gita Battlefield of the Bhagavad Gita is being spoken Arjuna is a mighty warrior with a bow and arrow We try to visualise him Offering a fruit or a flower He has to He has to offer Krishna Arrows from his Gandiva As a war Krishna is stating over here that Even something as simple as this If it is done in a mood of devotion That will satisfy So The Bhagavad Gita actually Empowers us By Revealing that inner success Is always In our hands We can’t always do Our service in terms of Getting the result But we can always maintain A service attitude And if that attitude of service is maintained That is our success The Bhagavad Gita Did not miraculously Cause Arjuna’s Enemies to disappear Bhagavad Gita is spoken by God And God reveals his majesty also And within that he shows How enemies are going to be destroyed But still After that Arjuna had to fight a war And it was not an easy war Eighteen days Were fierce fighting he had to do So in that sense What did the Bhagavad Gita do for Arjuna The Bhagavad Gita Gave him a confidence That no matter What opposition What adversities may come Krishna is with him And Krishna Will help him to overcome the obstacles Machittah sarva-durgani Mat-prasadah Dreshyasi Whatever obstacles come, by my grace You will cross over all those obstacles So the Bhagavad Gita Did not remove The external obstacles in Arjuna’s path But it removed the internal Obstacle, his own confusion And it revealed to him That the internal success Of harmonising with Krishna Of Maintaining a determined service Attitude towards Krishna That was always In his hands Now if we Expand the context of the Gita And see how that applies To us For all of us Also One of the biggest challenges in life Is making decisions If we look at our life Our life is determined Largely by the decisions That we make Our life is determined largely By When we are at crossroads When we are at intersections What decisions do we make Every moment we are making decisions Right now I am speaking, I am deciding Should I be taking this class in this direction Or this direction Right now when you are hearing You are also deciding Consciously or subconsciously Should I pay attention to this point Or should I think of something else So we all make decisions Constantly, moment after moment But there are some moments in our life Which are defining The decisions at those times They shape the trajectory Of our entire life Going back to the earlier metaphor of the map Every moment That we are driving, it matters At any moment we may Veer off course and we may Go into the We may hit the pavement Or we may go off the road and there may be a field or a forest Or there may be a cliff from which We may slide off So in one sense At every moment on the road There is caution required when we are driving But normally There is a well defined road, we move along that road And When we come to a cross road When we come to an intersection Should I go here or should I go there So in conceptualisation We could say Every moment when we are driving, we are making decisions But in terms of Major effect Major consequences When there is an intersection Here or here That is the time when we have to make decisions And we may go completely off track And we may go away From our destination if we make a wrong choice So what does the Bhagavata tell us For us when we are making decisions It is the first decision We always make Is that I want to serve Krishna If we keep that decision That resolution Strong in our mind I want to serve Krishna No matter what happens Then That internal resolution Will give us Connection with Krishna And that connection Will give us a sense of Clarity, a sense of direction What should I do Sometimes We have to make external decisions And while making those external decisions Okay, should I take this job Or should I take that job Should I stay in this place or should I stay in that place Should I join this ashram Or should I join that ashram Should I marry this person or should I marry that person Should I take initiation from this guru Or should I take initiation from that guru There are so many decisions we have to make Even when we are sadhakas in our spiritual life And sometimes These decisions They can confuse us so much This that, this that That we just become discouraged We become disheartened But The Bhagavata tells us, Prabhupada writes in a purport also A devotee may be perplexed But a devotee is never discouraged Perplexed means We don’t know what to do Discouraged means We don’t feel like doing anything So a devotee is never discouraged In the sense that a devotee never loses The spirit of serving Krishna Just as Sanjay Although he could not succeed Externally in terms of changing Dhritarashtra’s heart But just by remembering Krishna’s message And remembering Krishna’s form He became enlivened Similarly if internally We stay determined that I am going to serve Krishna No matter what happens Then We will march forward We will be guided From within We will be guided from within As long as we maintain the inner connection There will be some perplexity, this or that But if we focus primarily on maintaining That internal connection Let me study Dhritarashtra Let me chant the holy names, let me pray to Krishna Let me not become disheartened In doing these things And not just pray to Krishna to solve the problem Pray to Krishna To show the path ahead And then After praying to Krishna what do we do We take small steps The The That is the two aspects That is the internal action and the external action Internally remember me Externally do your duty So in our situation We internally pray to Krishna Connect ourselves with Krishna And externally we do What we can in the situation Sometimes When We are Planning our life It appears I will do this, do this, do this We make a long term plan for our life It’s like a road ahead, it’s night But there are street lights By which we can see the road ahead and we can go ahead But sometimes The lights go off It becomes pitch dark And we can’t see the road ahead At all At that time Our service attitude Will become like our flashlight We are walking along a dark road We don’t have the power to turn on The street lights But we can turn on our own flashlight Our own phone’s flashlight we turn on That will not show the full way ahead But that can show one step ahead And we take one step ahead And the flashlight will show the next step ahead We take the next step ahead The flashlight will show the next step ahead So similarly for us If we have a strong service attitude Krishna you are my lord I am your servant And this is what I am going to do I want to serve you, please guide me How I can serve you We keep that resolute determination To serve Krishna We will take one step forward One step forward And we can cover A significant distance Simply by taking small steps And eventually the lights will come back And the lights will come back And we will see the path ahead Clearly Just as Arjuna was confused What is dharma And Krishna revealed to him That what is dharma for him Just surrender to Krishna I will do your well So rather than Obsessing too much on external situations This or that We focus on changing our internal disposition Increasing our conviction To serve Krishna And to do small steps In moving forward in that service And when we are taking decisions Life doesn’t come With a guarantee Of taking right decisions No matter how much we decide No matter how much we pray No matter how much we deliberate No matter how much we consult others No matter how much we try to analyse The long term consequences Still Sometimes it may happen That we may take a wrong turn We may take a wrong decision But Krishna is so expert That even if we commit some mistake Even if we take a wrong turn Krishna will still guide us back On the right direction So Krishna Actually Krishna’s plan Is so all encompassing That it accommodates Even our mistakes That even if we take some wrong turns Krishna’s plan Accommodates that We conclude with this example That I was giving the example of how The Bhagavad Gita is like a map The Bhagavad Gita reveals to us Krishna’s will So say if we have Google map Which is guiding us Take a left turn And then if somehow at that time We take a right turn Now what does Google map do at that time It immediately Reroutes Now from here You go this way If we take another wrong turn Again it will reroute and again it will tell us the path Now even if we take a hundred Hundred wrong turns Still the map will reroute and show us the right way Now the wrong turns Are not Inconsequential Each wrong turn means That we may be going further away It will take that much time to get to the destination So it is not that the wrong turns are inconsequential They do have consequences But no wrong turn Is fatal No wrong turn means that we will never get to the destination So like that Krishna Is the ultimate Google He guides us Towards the right direction And even if we take a wrong direction Krishna reroutes and guides us again And again and again And wherever we are Krishna is with us Guiding us forwards And that hope That confidence That Krishna Will reveal the path ahead for us In our life If we just keep serving him And we just keep doing what we can With our God given intelligence Krishna will guide us forward That conviction In divine benevolence Is conveyed To the Gita’s concluding word So Sanjay is also Convinced That by doing Krishna’s will That is auspicious for me Similarly Sanjay is convinced It’s my opinion That means Sanjay doesn’t have to do any action immediately Arjuna has to do an action Arjuna has to fight a war So for Sanjay It’s his conviction Whoever is with Krishna That person will be successful That person will be victorious So similarly if we By hearing the Bhagavad Gita understand I always want to be with Krishna I always want to serve Krishna I always want to stay connected with Krishna Then even if life throws many Distractions in our path And even if we temporarily get distracted We will get realigned We will get connected with Krishna once again And Krishna will guide us Towards auspiciousness Just as there is a victory for Arjuna Because he was with Krishna Similarly for us In the ultimate analysis There will be victory We will overcome whatever obstacles Life may send our way We will attain the ultimate victory Of reuniting with Krishna In our heart internally By our devotional connection And in His abode eternally By our attaining That abode at the end of our life So I’ll summarise I spoke about The significance of the Bhagavad Gita’s message As is revealed in its first And the last words So the first word Dharma Last word Matirmama Dharma refers Not just to duty or religion But it refers to the Action that Harmonises us with the order That sustains the universe And that action will sustain us in our position Just like for a Passenger in a plane Doesn’t have to worry about the fuel Or the State of the pilot But he has to worry about doing his part So when we play the part of the part The whole will take care of the whole And The subject The Matirmama, my opinion Which Sanjay says at the end That is not indicative of subjectivity But that is indicative of That he is also convinced About the benefit About the auspiciousness Of harmonising with Krishna The Gita’s purpose Is not just to proclaim God’s position It is to transform man’s disposition And That it does Through its philosophical message So Gita acknowledges human independence And it appeals to human intelligence Deliberate and do as you desire The Gita is a two layered conversation First with Krishna and Arjuna Which ends in 18.73 With Arjuna recognising that I want to do your will So when Arjuna has this confusion What is Dharma? The word Dharma comes at the start of the Gita In 1.1 And in Arjuna’s question Which drives the message of Gita is I ask you what is Dharma? And that is the driving question Of the Mahabharata also What is Dharma? And he understands by the end of the Gita That harmonising with the will of Krishna Is our Dharma Serving Krishna is our Dharma And the Gita demonstrates The external success That Arjuna The internal success of Arjuna is That his confusion is replaced by determination And external success Is going to come to him As is told by the prophecy Of Sanjay Where there is Krishna and where there is Arjuna There will be victory So in a euphemistic way He is telling Dhritarashtra that Your son is not going to be successful And the opposite party Is going to be successful And the Gita does not say just Where there is God there will be success But the point of the Gita is To get humanity To harmonise with divinity So That is The Internal success For Sanjay When he says That means he has become convinced That by remembering Krishna’s message And remembering Krishna’s form He will be joyful He will be enlivened with ecstasy He does not get The external success in the sense that He can’t transform Dhritarashtra’s heart Similarly we may not Get external success in our services And the world Sometimes judges unfairly because it sees us Only in terms of our capacity To get the results which sometimes are not In our power to get The world sees us outside in but Krishna sees us inside out If we Internally maintain the determination To serve Krishna In Krishna’s eyes we are successful And he will take us Through whatever difficulties we are having Towards the ultimate success So When Arjuna says Krishna I surrender to you That indicates that The Gita’s message has enabled him To win the internal war Wherein his emotion Had attacked his determination So for us when we have to do Something which is difficult The mind makes the uncomfortable Seem unbearable But when we hear the Gita’s message This is not that bad I can do it So the Gita can boost our internal determination And externally whatever Obstacles will come It’s not that Krishna will remove the obstacles but Krishna will give us The strength to go beyond those obstacles Our life is determined Primarily by the decisions That we make Every moment we are making decisions But certain moments are like the intersection In our life journey That time the decisions are consequential So Krishna guides us in making those decisions If we make the decision That I always want to serve you So instead of Worrying too much About whether to do this or do that In the externals We can focus more on Strengthening our internal connection with Krishna And When the external streetlights go away There is too much confusion about what to do Where to go ahead Things go wrong externally At that time we can turn on our internal flashlight Krishna how can I serve you And when we tell Krishna I will do your will Krishna Then that flashlight Will show us small small steps ahead And eventually We will go through that dark phase And Ultimately The success of the Gita Is that it will infuse within us This conviction to always Keep serving Krishna And internally By such service we will become more and more connected With him And we will become absorbed in him We will live in him while we are in this world And externally at the end of our life We will attain Krishna And thus The success that is prophesied at the end of the Gita When Humanity unites with divinity Then humanity Attains the supreme success That is we rise to the Eternal abode of Krishna Thank you very much Hare Krishna Yes Ram Guruji The world sees us outside in Krishna sees us inside out So could you just give an example When you were referring to the point that The way the world sees us Results in us judging ourselves Whereas when Krishna sees We are inside out There is more nourishment Confidence Yeah Krishna says just look up So when you are referring to the world seeing us Outside in Can you just Can you just Yeah right So when I said that the world sees us outside in What does it mean If you consider Sri Prabhupada For 40 years When he was trying to Share Krishna Bhakti in India He had practically no success To show So from the world’s perspective All his efforts Had failed But from Krishna’s perspective That he had been serving Krishna so determinedly That itself was a success And in the last 11 years of his life The success manifested So from the world’s Perspective From India’s perspective When Prabhupada was just an unknown Swami With no followers or no influence In the material sense Indians did not pay much attention to Prabhupada When he came back With western followers At that time Oh this must be a great Swami He has made western people his disciples Western people are following him We also want to find out what it is So at that time the world started appreciating India started appreciating Prabhupada So the world will look for material results And of course We also strive to get material results For Krishna No doubt But sometimes the material results may not come So The world sees outside In means The first thing the world sees is When they look at people How wealthy a person is What is the position of a person Is what we see Now sometimes some people may The world sees the appearance of a person But A person may look very impressive May look very wealthy, very attractive But their heart may be quite malicious Quite selfish So for us In our practise of life When we are Going through various situations Sometimes it may appear As if we have endeavoured and we have no result to show But Now Prabhupada also said A tree is known by its fruit But then what was the fruit That Prabhupada was looking for Prabhupada sometimes says If you distribute a lot of books that will please me Prabhupada Encouraged devotees to in a competitive spirit To do a lot of service But there is that famous conversation when Devotees ask Prabhupada what pleases you the most And Prabhupada said If you love Krishna that pleases me the most So the phala that Prabhupada Wanted ultimately for all of us to develop Was that we develop love for Krishna So even if In our services We don’t get any external results At that time We don’t have to become discouraged If we have maintained a service attitude And we have done what we can in those situations Then we are On the progressive spiritual path Even if no progress is seen externally Does that answer the question? Yes You mentioned Arjuna I pray this is an important question As part of my meditation Now that I have no speculation No gambling So in that way But it was one of those pivotal divisions My point of clarification In chapter 2 In the Shambhaka Is that consideration of consequences And speculation Is something we should avoid But I guess the point that is contrary to this Is that we were to not consider consequences And act Rather Not whimsically But act without Proper due consideration You know This might fly off the handle Of improper decisions So How do you balance this With speculation Yeah that’s good So We are told we should not speculate But at the same time we have to consider consequences of our actions So how can we Consider the consequences Without speculating It is Certain words Have certain connotations And The word speculate In our context In our movement Has acquired a negative connotation Say for example The word motivation In the outside world motivational speaker It’s kind of a good thing A person goes out and motivates people But in our context we say that We should practise unmotivated devotional service So if somebody is Motivated We say when we are motivated We are selfishly motivated So in our context some words May acquire some negative connotations So I would say that The word speculation Is a word Which is tinged with negativity So Rather than focussing so much on the word Let’s focus on the concept Word is like If we consider a suitcase The suitcase is a Object which we want to carry And the handle is the Object with which we carry the suitcase So the handle Is like the term And the concept is like the suitcase So currently The word speculation has become Very negatively tinged So let’s put the word Aside for the time being and look at the concept The concept is that We all have been given intelligence by God And we are Meant to use our intelligence In Properly Means first of all the Bhagavad Gita as I said Appeals to human intelligence So it’s not that the Bhagavad Gita Asks us to reject our intelligence Rather It asks us to use our Intelligence To surrender to Krishna Now When we use our intelligence The very nature of Life is That We Some situations are clear to us And many situations are unclear to us Now when The situations are unclear Sometimes it’s possible for us To consult someone Who knows things clearly And then we take a decision So But sometimes it’s just that The Life is so dynamic and we have to take Certain decisions We may not be able to consult someone So then based on our gut feeling Based on our hunch, based on our Intelligence, based on our instinct We may take certain decisions So in that case Is that speculation? Not necessary It can be But Sometimes we don’t know the answer to a particular question Then it is good we can say That okay, I don’t know the answer I’ll consult my seniors and I’ll tell the answer But sometimes we may not know the answer But we can give some Pointers to the answer This is what my understanding is So there are many situations in life Where We will not get A direct Shastric injunction To make a decision Then we have to use Shastra And Understand The principles of Shastra And apply those principles in our life When we talk about we should always Follow Dharma Now Dharma is not like some Some Infinite set of Law codes And every situation that we face in our life Then we Google in our head Okay, this situation, this situation, this situation What should I do in this situation? No, Dharma is not like that It is basically We understand the principle That I am meant to serve Krishna And how best Can I serve Krishna in this situation? If we consider The song that Shri Prabhupada Wrote when he came to America On the On the Boston Pyre When he was looking at the American skyline He wrote the Markini Bhagavad Dharma Preaching the Bhagavatam And there he says Achye kichu karja tabe Ei anumane Nahe keno anibena Ei ugrasthane My dear lord, you must have some purpose Because of which you have brought me here Otherwise, why would you bring me here? It is interesting when he is saying this Achye kichu karja tabe Ei anumane The word anuman means This is my guess You could give a negative spin to this This is my speculation Now we don’t use the negative word But the point is, it is not that Prabhupada when he came to America He knew everything about everything Oh, I am going to go here and I am going to meet this person And this person is going to become a devotee And I am going to go there and we are going to open a centre Prabhupada tried various things Some things worked Some things didn’t work He tried something else So he When he is using the word anuman He is not saying that in the sense of speculation He is saying that There is a certain amount of uncertainty When we are functioning in this world So there is Practical uncertainty about what I am going to do But Prabhupada the philosophical Certainty he has There is a purpose of Krishna, that is why he has brought me here So for us to use Our intelligence in Krishna’s service Is vital And using our intelligence To try to understand things Using our intelligence To try to figure out a course of action That we can take forwards That is not speculation If our purpose is to serve Krishna Then using our intelligence To further that purpose is not speculation When We use our intelligence To question that purpose itself When we use our intelligence To question the purpose Of serving Krishna itself Then that becomes speculation Prabhupada could talk about The difference between philosophical speculation And mental speculation So mental speculation is That we question The conclusion of scripture itself Philosophical speculation is We accept the conclusion of scripture But we try to analyse To make sense, how does it make sense to me So that sort of Philosophical speculation is encouraged I think in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Prabhupada says If we study this chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Then by philosophical conclusion By philosophical speculation We conclude the conclusion of devotional service So we don’t have to become Paranoid about not speculating If speculation means That we stop using our intelligence That is not good But what it means No speculation means We don’t use our intelligence To challenge the conclusion of scripture To challenge the conclusion that Krishna is my lord, I am meant to serve him But specifically How to serve Krishna In what situation For that we need to use our intelligence And that is not speculation That is simply intelligence used in Krishna’s service So there is There is Anuman Anuman is just guessing But when Anuman Is directed towards Shastra Then it is called as Vichar Vichar is philosophical Contemplation And that is vital For us to Internalise the philosophy When I hear The philosophy How do I make sense of it For that we have to use our intelligence We have to use our experience We have to use our analytical skills And that is why sometimes When we hear a class We may have a particular question And one devotee may answer the question in one way Another devotee may answer in a different way Third devotee may answer in a different way And then third devotee answers That makes sense to me So it is not that the previous two devotee’s answers were wrong This is what makes sense to us So if we Use the intelligence to Defy the purpose of serving Krishna Then that is speculation But if we Use the intelligence to further The purpose of serving Krishna Then that is harmonising of The intelligence with devotion That is not speculation Does this answer your question? Do we have time? What did you say? Half Hi Krishna I was thinking more That the world sees outside And Krishna sees it inside out So Regarding Krishna Sees inside out There is no doubt about that That philosophical concept That attitude of Krishna But being sadhakas How much we should be Applying that concept in our lives Because There is a Tendency to Make ourselves Not accountable By Convincing ourselves Artificially that Krishna sees inside out I don’t have to Worry about being accountable to anybody In this world Because Krishna knows my heart I mean genuinely I am completely pure That it makes sense But I get what you are saying So can Krishna See the inside out Be misused to Avoid accountability to others Saying that Krishna knows my heart So you don’t judge me I don’t care for what you think about me Now We serve Krishna In various ways And one way we serve Krishna Is by connecting with devotees So rather than Seeing bhakti As one activity alone We see bhakti As a constellation of activities And association Associating with devotees Having good relationship with devotees Is an integral part of bhakti That is a very important limb of bhakti In fact among the six loving exchanges Let’s say what Actually will Give us longevity In our bhakti Is our capacity to do these Taking prasadam Honouring prasadam Giving and taking prasadam That is something we will do anyway It is important Giving, giving, taking That is also good But actually the capacity to connect At the level of hearts That is the most important aspect of devotion So It is The tendency of the conditioned mind Is to take one point And make it into everything That can happen in material life That can happen in spiritual life also So Krishna says inside out If I am absolute at this point And therefore I don’t care For what the world says I don’t care for what devotees think about me That is inappropriate Because bhakti involves all these things also But there can be situations In our life When even devotees misunderstand us Devotees are unable to Somehow Devotees are not able to help us So at that time we should not let that Dishearten us And make us give up our relationship with Krishna So it is like There is a principle of manas puja That we can worship Krishna In our mind Now manas puja Is not a Replacement for actual puja In a normal situation Is that we don’t worship Krishna in the mind We actually worship Krishna practically by Serving him But in exceptional situations When we are not able to Serve Krishna externally At that time We Serve Krishna internally We worship Krishna in our heart And Krishna accepts that service We have the example in the Bhagavatam that when Vasudev was in jail He couldn’t give any charity At the time of the birth of Krishna But as soon as he was released from the jail He gave abandoned charity So the The intention of the heart Needs to be expressed Through the actions in the world But if somehow circumstances Don’t allow us to Do the action Then we can say that Krishna is satisfied with the intention It is That Suppose We are doing some service for Krishna And say we are Cooking for Krishna And then If we are careless And we make a mess of the cooking And then we say Krishna sees inside out Krishna is satisfied with my intention No We want quality in the external also But somehow If something goes wrong At that time we don’t become disheartened So this is not Say Krishna sees inside out Is not a Rationalisation for external irresponsibility Or external Unaccountability It is primarily A recognition That bhakti is not Just about externals alone But then bhakti is not Just about internals alone also Prabhupada Translated bhakti as devotional service Not just as devotion So devotion refers to the internal mood And service refers to the external action So just as we shouldn’t The material world may reduce People to their externals Some people may reduce Bhakti just to their internals Bhakti is a sentiment Prabhupada writes in the introduction Devotion is not sentimental ecstasy Is not sentimental speculation Or imaginative ecstasy Its substance is practical service So the Point of Krishna sees inside out Is meant to give us strength When the externals Are not possible But it is not meant to rationalise Not caring for the externals Or not doing the externals at all Does that answer your question? Ok yeah I was really impressed by this point that you made That someday Just looking at the Bhagavad Gita To see that actually his success was there Because he heard the conversation And he became fully convinced And then again actually thrilled By reciting the Bhagavad Gita To Arjuna and Krishna And it really brought home to me The power of Reciting Bhagavad Gita and remembering That instruction So fondly He gave instructions that we should Recite a chapter every day And it frees you from self-apparat And helps you remember verses And so many things Of course Krishna also says He has delivered stigas And all of these ideas So just this principle That you brought out Very successfully I want to thank you for that Sanjay is not even there He is virtually there But because he is actually associating With the self-apparation He is experiencing transcendental ecstasy And that is available to us too Thank you Sanjay’s verses in the Bhagavad Gita In the conclusion are very significant If you see The Bhagavad Gita ends at 73 But there are 5 full verses Now in 700 verses 5 verses is not a very small number It is a significant number And when the Bhagavad Gita is We could say Is Given to us We could have clipped off The 5 verses also But they don’t do that Because that demonstrates The potency of the Gita As you rightly pointed out In transforming our hearts internally So I have a whole class on just those 5 verses 74 to 78 Each verse has its own significance 74th verse is Just appreciating The fortune In hearing the Gita 75th verse is acknowledgement of gratitude To Vyasadeva By whose mercy is able to hear this message 76th is He is not just appreciating the Gita But he is remembering the Gita and relishing the Gita And The 77th verse talks about How the philosophy leads to the personality Sometimes people feel I just want to hear Leela I want to have Rassa I want to hear Bhagavatam Bhagavad Gita is too philosophical But remembering the words of the Gita Reminds Sanjay Of the speaker of the Gita So how philosophy leads to personality That is just signified In the 76th to 77th verse The last verse talks about How there is victory Wherever there is Krishna and Arjuna there So in that sense each of these verses Have very great significance Which reflect the potency Of the Gita as it is manifest In the heart and the consciousness Of Sanjay Thank you So thank you very much