How the Gita’s ninth chapter reveals its bhakti essence
Lecture Highlights:
9.13-14: Inner disposition and outer action of devotees
Concept of bhakti developed in the Gita: 2.61, 3.30, 4.9, 5.25, 6.14-15, 6.30, 6.47, 7.1, 8.14
Varying initial focuses of concentration in ashtanga-yoga: 5.27 and 6.13
Unvarying eventual and final focuses: 6.14, 6.30, 6.47, 7.1
Four ways Gita’s chp 9 glorifies bhakti:
1. Eternal result: 9.20-22
2. Simplicity of worship: 9.26-28
3. Overcomes incidental faults: 9.30-31
4. Overcomes innate faults: 9.33
9.14 – Empowerment is not the absence of obstacles, but persistence amidst obstacles
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna So the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Is called as Raj Vidya Raj Guhiya Yoga Prabhupada Takes the second part of it Raj Vidya Raj Vidya it is part of it Knowledge and Raj Guhiya Most confidential And integrates that And gives us the English rendition of that chapter Translation Now the ninth chapter is Chronologically As well as Conceptually At the heart of the Bhagavad Gita Chronologically means In terms of time sequence In terms of number of verses that have been spoken Largely It comes to More or less at the centre And conceptually It is talking about Bhakti Yoga Which is the heart of the Message of the Bhagavad Gita Now the Bhakti essence of the Bhagavad Gita Is most Dramatically Described In this ninth chapter Most emotionally In a Emotionally moving way It will be described Later in the 18th chapter Where Krishna calls Arjuna Intensely Take to this practise But here it is described in a Very Beautiful way We know that the Bhagavad Gita is Having three sections The first section talks about Karma The last section talks about Jnana The first six in the last six chapters And the middle six chapters talk about Bhakti Correct? No, wrong The first six chapters Talk about not about Karma but about how Karma leads to Bhakti The last six chapters Talk not just about Jnana But about how Jnana leads to Bhakti Right from the first Chapter itself We see the elements of Bhakti coming Where Arjuna surrenders to Krishna In the first Drop of Bhakti comes From Karma moving towards Bhakti Is in 2.61 Yukta, Sita, Madhya Krishna tells And further Description of Bhakti comes next in 3.30 Sarva Krishna says Mayi sarvani karmani Sanyasya Adhyatmachet sa Hirashir nirmamohutva Yudhya svavigata Jvaraha Mayi sarvani karmani Offer all the fruits of your work to me And then From the first section In the first six chapters The most vivid description of Bhakti Comes in the fourth chapter From verses Six Onwards Till verse fourteen So there Krishna talks about How he descends To So Krishna descends To teach Spiritual knowledge To establish Dharma But then he says Actually that is only the external purpose Dharmasamsthapanarthaya Sambhavaamiluvya As Krishna says So I write daily articles in the Bhagavad Gita On gitadeli.com So there Krishna Establishes Dharma In the world To establish us In Dharma Krishna establishes Dharma in the world Dharmasamsthapanarthaya He comes but what is the purpose of that Because in this world There is always going to be disorder The nature of things And nature of time is such that Things will be raised up They will go down But then when they are raised up During that time People can also be raised up And they go down Then again Krishna comes and again he raises people up Why do things go down That is because people’s consciousness goes down So Krishna talks about that To establish us in Dharma means what It ultimately means to establish us in Pure Dharma Of pure Bhakti So that’s why 4.7 and 8 Are often quoted by Hindus About how Krishna comes Ida Ida Hidharmasya Paritranaya Sadhunam But if you look at the number of times Prabhupada quotes 4.7 and 8 It is far lesser than when Prabhupada quotes 4.9 That is Channa karma chame devyam Devam yo vetti tattvata Tattva deham punar channa Naiti mameti so arjuna So This verse tells us The purpose of spiritual life Is to make spiritual life Our purpose The purpose of spiritual life Is not Just to get some recreation Not to get some entertainment Pious entertainment It is to make Spiritual life our purpose We want to attain the spiritual Level of consciousness and attain Krishna Krishna establishes dharma in the world So that from this world We can have a ladder By which we can attain his eternal abode And we can go back to him So here Krishna talks about Returning to him That happens when people have love At the same point Vetti tattvata ha Krishna elaborates how one can know him in truth In 18.55 There he says Bhaktya mam abhijanati Yavan yashcha smita tattvata So you can know me By devotion In the 4th chapter Krishna talks about bhakti And in the 5th chapter also He is talking Going deeper into karma yoga But afterwards He concludes in bhakti There he says 5.29 is Bhoktaram yajna tapasam Sarvaloka maheshwaram Suratam sarva bhoktanam Yad pavamam Shantin rakshati When you know me in truth As the enjoyer, as your friend As your Greatest well-wisher So Then you will attain peace So Krishna Is not talking here about the peace of the mind He is talking About the peace of the heart The peace of the mind Comes when Some agitating things are not there But peace of the heart Comes when there is love Now when a mother Is caring for her baby She may not seem peaceful She has to wake up at night and she has to run When the baby starts crying But her heart is at rest Yes, I am with my beloved baby And that is Peace of the heart That is what Krishna talks about Bhakti Offers us peace of the mind also Because when the mind becomes purified It becomes less agitated And we do get peace of the mind But our goal is not just Getting peace of the mind We want to go beyond peace of the mind To peace of the heart And for the peace of the heart We need to take up responsibility And anxiety for Krishna And we need to lose peace of the mind Still we will be happy to do that So that is why Krishna says Arjuna You will attain peace by this But Krishna says Arjuna fight If he is fighting how will he attain peace by that But Krishna, Bhagavad Gita Is not talking about Simply material violence or non-violence Bhagavad Gita is not a book of violence Or of silence It is a book of transcendence As we discussed earlier So transcendence means that For Arjuna at that particular point Fighting was the way to transcendence That’s what he talks about Now after that, the fifth chapter The 27th and 28th Verses Give a Precursor of the Next chapter That is the next chapter of Ashtanga Yoga Sparshan Kutva Bahir Bahiyam Chakshus Chaivantare Krishna says in Shut out all the senses and turn inwards And practise Yoga So what that is to be practised What is indicated in 5.27-28 Is elaborated in the 6th chapter And then after that What is mentioned in 5.29 That is elaborated In chapters 7-12 So 5.29 talks about Bhakti And chapters 7-12 Talk about Bhakti Now in the 6th chapter Although it is Dhyana Yoga Again and again Krishna talks about Fixing the mind on him He mentions this First in 6.14 Initially in 6.13 He gives an external focus Samamkaya Shirogrivam Dharayana Chalam Samprekshanasika Gramsam Dishaschanava lokayan Samamkaya shirogrivam Stand sit erect Dharayan achalam Sthira no movement Samprekshanasika Gramme swam Look at the tip of the nose Now if you go back to the previous chapter In 5.27-28 When Krishna Was talking about a brief prelude or a preview of a strong yoga at that time he says fix the mind in between the eyebrows so why is he giving two different focusses should the yogi fix the mind on the eyebrows or tip of the nose the point is fix it somewhere the point is not that there is something mystical about the tip of the nose or something mystical about the centre of the eyebrows no point is don’t let the mind wander fix it so initially have an external object of focus but immediately in the next verse after describing the physical posture krishna goes to the inner attitude the mental attitude so krishna says become peaceful practise brahmacharya and then after fixing the mind on me then what do you do mat chitta fix the chitta on me chitta on me now chitta is a very important philosophical concept there is chit and there is chitta chit is c-i-t and chitta is c-i-t-t-a chitta so chit is the original faculty of consciousness that is present in the soul the soul is sat chit ananda soul is conscious that is chit but baldevidya bhushan explains in his govinda bhashya the commentary on the vedanta sutra that that chit that spiritual consciousness is inaccessible to us right now so just like when a person is watching I say playing a virtual video game or watching a movie the person can see what is around has the faculty capacity to see but the consciousness is riveted on the celluloid screen on the movie screen or the computer screen and the consciousness gets lost in that so we all know about this avaranatmika and prakshipatmika shaktis so avaranatmika is that which covers and prakshipatmika is that which pushes a simple way of understanding this is through the example of a movie when people go to watch a movie first one light turns off and then another light turns on so the turning off of the light it shuts off the possibility for the consciousness to be aware of all the other things so that shutting off of the light is avaranatmika shakti that causes forgetfulness of spiritual reality and then another light turns on that is the movie screen and get caught that is prakshipatmika shakti prakshipatmika shakti causes our misidentification material illusion so there are two aspects to our illusion we forget our true identity and we acquire a false identity so now the consciousness that is projected inside the movie screen or the computer screen person has capacity to be conscious of many things but the consciousness gets projected into that and the person is conscious only of that whatever is there within the movie screen so that consciousness which is projected in matter that is called chitta, chitta is the original consciousness of the soul the consciousness of the soul projected in matter is called as chitta and that’s why in 2.17 the Bhagavad Gita says that consciousness comes from the soul but then in six point in 13.7 the same Bhagavad Gita seems to say that consciousness is a product of the transformation of matter so 2.17 says abhinashita tadviddhi yena sarvam idam tatam that which pervades the body that consciousness comes from the soul but what does 13.7 says 13.6 first describes the various material elements mahabhutanya ahunkaro buddhira avyakta meva ca indriyanita shaikam ca pancha chendriya gocharaha so it describes the 24 elements and then it describes ichcha dvesha sukham dukkham sanghatas chetanadruti etat kshetram samasena savikaram udharatam so chetana one of the words is consciousness and it says savikaram udharatam vikar is transformation so is consciousness a transformation of matter no you have whole book of Prabhupada life comes from life how can consciousness be a product or a transformation of matter here Krishna is talking about chetana as it is interacting with the world so all of us are pure souls but at our level of material existence all our consciousness in plural there is no consciousnesses but all our various consciousness are different so why are your likes different from my likes although you are also a soul like me that is because that consciousness is projected through matter and that matter is conditioned in different ways so when Krishna uses the word chetana over here which is kshetra samas which is a transformation of matter that consciousness is the chitta not chit all of our chit is the same but our specific chitta is different and Krishna says this chitta we should fix on him so think about me and fix your consciousness on me so we can’t suddenly start thinking about spiritual reality directly but at our stage we can start focussing on Krishna’s manifestations in the material world his deities his holy name his scriptures his message his devotees his mission these are all spiritual sense objects how can this seems like a oxymoron oxymoron is a contradictory word if I say so that person is a courageous coward you know how either you can be courageous or you can be cowardly how can you be a courageous coward so if two contradictory words are brought together then that is a figure of speech in English called as oxymoron now for example it is said that suicide is an act of courageous cowardice why because you know to give up one’s life requires courage so there is courage involved in it where sometimes people decide to commit suicide and then they go in front of a train and lie down in front of the train and as they hear the sound of train coming so it requires courage to give up one’s body but to give up one’s body for a higher cause like service of nation or some patriotism that’s glorious but to give up one’s life just because one is frustrated with the problems of life and one cannot deal with the problems of life that is a way of that is running away from life’s problems and that is cowardice so suicide is an act of courageous cowardice so these are oxymorons are sometimes used to illustrate deeper philosophical or deeper conceptual points to convey deep concepts so like that when we say spiritual sense objects normally with our senses we cannot pursue spirituality isn’t it so what does it mean spiritual sense objects so that is the glory of bhakti the materialist think that the senses are all that is to be used the purpose of dharma is also to provide a sense objects dharma is for artha and then kama so their idea is the whole purpose and perfection of life is to engage the senses of sense objects and they sort of as they say glamorise the senses the path of jnana is that demonise the senses that oh senses senses senses they’ll cause bondage stay away from the sense don’t engage gratification you know buddha in some of the religions see in our religions or in our tradition also there is renunciation but in buddhism because there’s nothing positive so the renunciation is far greater so when buddha has written a series of compilations his teachings are we call it vinita patra so the message of humility but what he says in that is one metaphor he gives he says he says it is more danger is very explicit that i’m giving this as an example of demonization of the senses what he says is more dangerous than putting your head in the mouth of a tiger is putting your genitals in the vagina of a woman now what is this what is the correlation he says that will only cause you to lose your life once but this will cause you multiple lifetimes of bondage so now of course that is also as krishna says krishna doesn’t demonise like this krishna says dharmaviruddho bhuteshu kamosu bharatarsu krishna says that actually i am sex life that is not contrary to religious principles because that is the way new life is manifested in the world so in the path of buddhism is not exactly jnana but it has a similar premise rejection of the world so some people romanticise or glamorise the senses that is the path of jnana some people demonise the sense the path of karma glamorises the senses the path of jnana demonises senses but the path of bhakti utilises the senses so we don’t glamorise we don’t demonise we utilise this so yes the eyes if they are attracted to the sense objects they can get into bondage but those same eyes if they attract to the deities they can help us to come out of bondage so krishna himself manifests in this world as various spiritual sense objects spiritual sense objects so the deities scriptures or holy name all these are we experience them right now through our senses means with our tongue we chant with our eyes we see the deities with our tongue again we taste the sad which all of you are waiting for so what is krishna doing krishna is offering us spiritual sense objects over here so krishna says so at this stage the ashtang yogi turns from outward towards inward and at this stage the yogi visualises krishna as the paramatma in the heart and tries to fix the mind and then krishna says as the yogi advances then he says in 6.30 and 31 i will not go into the details of that because we have to at least reach 9 chapter we are so in 6.28 krishna talks about brahman realisation and 6.29 and then 6.30 krishna talks about bhagwan realisation yo mam pashyati sarvatra sarvam chamai pashyati one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in me such a person is never lost so initially in 6.40 krishna is telling that visualise me within the heart and in that way concentrate but then beyond visualisation is realisation visualisation means we try to conceptualise yes this is there in the heart but when there is realisation here krishna is not just talking about visualisation he’s talking about one who sees everything is krishna’s energy krishna is present a super soul and krishna my beloved lord is there everywhere so that is a very advanced stage the gopis were at this stage pashyati sarvatra wherever they were wandering in the forest when they had been separated from krishna what were they seeing they were seeing a deer and he’s asking oh dear have you seen krishna saying then they’re saying some tulsi oh tulsi you are a female you know these males are all hard-hearted they will not understand the pain of our females but you are a female you understand our pain in separation from krishna so please tell us where is krishna whatever they would see they would say where is krishna when krishna was in the forest and they were at home they would look at the sun and they would think oh son you are so fortunate you are able to see krishna and then they see the sun is getting covered by the clouds thinking oh clouds you are so fortunate now you are shading krishna from the sun and in this way you are able to serve him but we can neither see him nor we can serve him we are so unfortunate so this is how they’re seeing everywhere so this is not visualisation this realisation because of love one just realises everything has a connection with krishna and one delights in that and it is this level which krishna says is the highest level of yoga in 6.47 those among all the yogis the topmost are who inside their hearts see me and they worship me the word bhajate is very significant in sanskrit the word bhajate is related with separating dividing you know like we have bhag karna bhag is separation so now bhakti is a union that is rooted in separation or a union that is rooted in division there is oneness impersonal union where there is a union that is based on merging that is based on dissolution of one’s identity but bhakti is a union that is based not on dissolution but division yes actually for bhakti to be present there has to be two so bhakti has that paradox there is the oneness of bhakti depends on the two-ness of bhagwan and bhakta unless there is bhagwan and bhakta there cannot be the oneness of bhakti that’s why the word bhajate actually it means that there are two but they are united in one so bhakti has both these connotations the two division of two-ness and the union of oneness so those who come to this level are the highest now from the first chapter krishna’s instructions start actually from the second chapter 2.11 the focus primarily has been on on rejecting the material rejecting material things that’s why sukhe dukhe same krutva nirashir nirmamo bhutva that’s okay we equipoise them all with happiness distress give up desires basically the focus in the first six chapters is in a disconnection from the material world and of course pointers are given for connection with the spiritual but from the seventh chapter the mood of the bhagavad-gita itself changes so now krishna has told by the gradual progression how one can move from karma yoga to ishkama karma yoga to ashtang yoga to bhakti yoga. Karma yoga is from chapter 2 to chapter 5 in between how the knowledge becomes increased and internalised is described in chapter 4 which is transcendental knowledge gyan karma sanyasa yoga and after that ashtang yoga and then perfection is bhakti yoga but now seventh chapter onwards krishna describes an alternative way to come to that perfection so krishna has said the highest yogis are those who fix their mind on him and 7.1 starts with an alternative way of fixing the mind on him so arjuna here hear about how you can become you can have your mind fixed on me and that’s what he describes in from seventh chapter onwards so seventh chapter describes basically as it is called knowledge of the absent mind now there krishna describes about material energy spiritual energy how different people surrender to him how different people don’t surrender to him what happens to those who surrender to someone other than him so 7.14 is surrender 7.15 talks about those who don’t surrender 7.16 17 18 19 talk about those who surrender but gradually and 7.20 to 24 talk about those who surrender to somebody else 7.20 23 talk about those who surrender demigods 7.24 talks about those who surrender to the impersonal brahman and then in this way the chapter develops in the eighth chapter krishna compares ashtang yoga and bhakti yoga explicitly now i mean some gita commentators they accuse shila prabhupada of misrepresenting the bhagavad gita they say that the prabhupada says that krishna arjuna rejects the process of ashtang yoga when he says and i can’t practise this this comes in 6.33 and 34 so then they say that actually krishna doesn’t reject ashtang yoga what does krishna say practise so krishna says yes it’s difficult to control the mind but by by practise abhyasa and by vairagya by by diligence and detachment abhyasa means determined consistent practise and vairagya is detachment you’ll be able to control the mind what does this mean this means like for example if i’m chanting hari krishna abhyasa we keep chanting keep chanting keep chanting and detachment means what even if the mind goes here and there we don’t become disgusted with it okay the mind will go i’ll bring it back we don’t become too attached to getting immediate success nor do we become too attached to things so both kinds of detachment so by now if you see abhyasa and vairagya these are non-specific practises abhyasa and vairagya can be done by ashtang yogis it can be done by karma yogis it can be done by bhakti yogis also so krishna neither endorses nor rejects ashtang yoga this is a broad principle continue practising but in the eighth chapter in 8.14 is the only place in the bhagavad gita where krishna says that this process is easy so arjuna has told in 6.32 and 6.33 and 34 that actually extremely difficult so here krishna answers that in 8.14 and he uses the word you can be i can be easily attained so this is krishna’s response what krishna has told okay keep practising abhyasa keep have iradia don’t give up the cause of mind control how specifically to do mind control there krishna points out and starts taking about an alternative process from 7.1 bhakti yoga and then he specifies in 8.14 this is easy so in general shila prabhupada anticipates and preempts krishna in his purpose that means what what krishna is going to tell later in the bhagavad gita prabhupada tells earlier why is that because prabhupada is impatiently compassionate prabhupada knows that in kaliyuga all of us are impatient and many people will not read the full bhagavad gita also so even if you if you read the bhagavad gita you will see how bhakti is the conclusion but if people are not don’t read the bhagavad gita and whichever part you read so prabhupada is not contradicting or countering the words of krishna prabhupada is fulfilling the purpose of krishna’s words what krishna gives at the end prabhupada gives throughout so in the eighth chapter first krishna compared ashtang yoga and jnana yoga and then later krishna compares various other paths there is a path of pitrayana and the path of devayana which is talked about in the Rig Veda so krishna talks about those paths and then he says towards the end of the eighth chapter don’t worry about all this nai te sruti partha janan yogi muhyati kashchana so don’t bother whether you’ll be able to die at the right time or not whether you’ll be in the shukla baksha or the krishna baksha whether it will be auspicious or inauspicious don’t bother just fix your mind on me i’ll take care of you just practise yoga and then at the end of the chapter krishna has just glorified bhakti and you just practise bhakti and by bhakti you will get whatever other results will provide you and more that by all these whatever results you will get you will get all that and beyond that you will get what you will attain the supreme destination and then in many of the chapters of the Gita there is a at the start of a next chapter or at the end of a previous chapter there is a question which begins the discussion but so for example at the end of the seventh chapter krishna uses some terms and at the start of the eighth chapter arjuna asks what are those so that’s 8.1 but here as krishna is starting to speak about bhakti his heart becomes ecstatic and because of that he starts speaking spontaneously and that’s why without any prompting without any question krishna starts speaking in ninth chapter first three verses he glorifies the knowledge that he is speaking and after that he starts speaking about his material energy and how he is the controller and the third and the seventh and the ninth chapters are similar because both focus on krishna and how different kinds of people relate with him in different ways so just like 7.15 and 16 had two extremes first those who don’t surrender to krishna and those who don’t surrender to him and then after that what is between those who surrender to demigods or those who surrender to the impersonal brahman that was in between so like that the same trajectory is repeated in the ninth chapter but in greater depth so first in 9.11 and 12 krishna talks about those who completely misunderstand him those who misunderstand me all their efforts become futile so that is one extreme those who don’t surrender to me then krishna goes to the other extreme and then says those who surrender to me alone and that’s what are the verses that we are discussing so first mahatma nisthamam partha they are mahatmas i’ll come back to these verses but i’ll just describe the trajectory of this chapter then after this in 9.15 krishna talks about people who are in between so 9.11 12 is those who defy him 9.13 14 is those who surrender to him with pure intention and in between the people are there they are so krishna says others with knowledge worship me in various ways they try to conceive of themselves as one with me they consider that the one has manifested as many as the many gods and they worship the vishwaroopa so now this 9.15 is a very important verse for understanding the flow of the gita so ekatvena what krishna has talked about here that oneness will be elaborated in the 12th chapter how krishna manifests in matter that will be elaborated in 10th and 11th chapters vibhuti yoga and vishwaroopa darshan yoga and pruthatvena bahudha that the how krishna that one absolute truth manifests the various devtas and how people worship the devtas that is elaborated in the rest of this chapter so 9.15 onwards 9.16 till 9.34 basically it’s a very beautiful comparison of demigod worship and pure devotional service and krishna gives four reasons four ways in which his worship is superior first he says is only by my worship result is eternal because i preserve the result you know famous was vahamyam 9.21 where 9.21 says they will come back to us so by my worship you will get eternal result and then next he says is my worship is so simple simplicity in terms of so it gives eternal result but it is very simple to do you just offer fruit and flower and there he says at least offer with bhakti somebody says you know having bhakti is not simple what should i do then krishna says okay yes offer it to me so he says whatever you are doing is offer it to me so even if we don’t have devotion still we can offer to krishna with the intention for devotion so i don’t have devotion but i want the devotion so i’ll offer i’ll do some service to you whatever we so whatever you do whatever you give charity whatever you eat offer to me that means krishna is here accommodating our inclinations our desires our raga and devotion okay still he says you know okay you like to play music play music for me you like to whatever you like to do it but do it for me so simplicity in terms of the paraphernalia of worship simplicity in terms of the way we can worship then after that krishna talks about another thing he says that the potency of bhakti in transcending in overcoming occasional sins now if you do demigod worship if one thing goes wrong you know what can be the big wrong result isn’t it the small change and there was maha vinash isn’t it indra was supposed to be indra was supposed to be killed and instead of indra being killed indra became the killer huge change can happen what am i talking about all of you know the story isn’t it so uh so but krishna says that in my worship even if you commit sinful activity doesn’t matter just keep practising bhakti krishna says over there that even if you do very sinful activity he says we do terribly long activity but if you keep worshipping sadhureva samantavya considered a sadhu if you just situated rightly so now what is this verse saying the essential message of this verse is there is nothing that n that we can ever do that can stop krishna from loving us there is no activity so sinful so offensive there’s no nothing that we can do that can stop krishna from loving us he will always love us no matter what we do in bhakti we may be unqualified but we are never disqualified unqualified means that we don’t have the qualification to practise but disqualified means we’re not allowed to practise so no matter how sinful we become krishna doesn’t take away the opportunity for practising devotion for us so this was very prominently reveals krishna’s love this is with respect to the accidental false that may happen in our practise but then what about our ingrained force now for example in the vedic tradition you know the activities of dharma are not supposed to be performed by impure people it’s like gayatri is not meant to be chanted by those who are non-brahmanas so what about bhakti so this first krishna has talked about that while you are practising bhakti there are some incidental falls because of some external circumstances bhakti will overcome that but then he says what about internal falls intrinsic falls in terms of if somebody’s low born and krishna says doesn’t matter he says even if a person is unqualified in terms of being low born still that person can also practise and become elevated some superficial readers of the bhagavad-gita misunderstand these words and claim that bhagavad-gita is gender discriminatory because they say striyas are called sinful but the point is that is not krishna’s emphasis krishna’s emphasis is even if somebody is considered sinful still they can attain perfection so krishna is actually here countering the conventional social standards which can so for krishna is offering like a nominal tip of the hat oh yeah people consider these people to be papa yona okay but it doesn’t matter in other forms of religion in jnana in karma those who are papa yona may not be able to practise but in bhakti not only can they practise but they can attain the supreme perfection so in this way what are the four ways krishna talks about the glory of bhakti eternal result then simple to practise in terms of paraphernalia in terms of activities then it overcomes any accidental faults and then it overcomes even internal faults in terms of low birth or other disqualifications that means in in our terms what would it mean in our terms you know we are doing some practise of bhakti and we have some fall down or we do something sinful we’ll just keep practising bhakti and by the process of bhakti things will be overcome and with respect to papa yona how it can be translated is we may find that we may not have some material qualifications we may not have very good communication skills we may not have singing ability we may not have managerial ability whatever doesn’t matter no certain material disqualifications may make it difficult for us to do certain forms of service but service comes in many different forms and we can find a form of service that we can do so bhakti itself is never denied to anyone certain forms of bhakti they may not be suited for certain people so krishna acknowledges that no it is not that striyas they have particular body which is not suited for say renunciation so women may not take sannyas but women are not deprived of the practise of bhakti so if he has that material reputations we should not feel discouraged krishna still is there with us and he will liberate us so here we see krishna’s love by manifesting now krishna let’s go back to our two verses which are discussing and try to see what krishna is telling you here krishna is giving in brief how we should surrender to him if you understand that he is supreme if you understand 9.10 maya dhyakshena prakriti krishna is the controller of everything then what should we do so what krishna talks about in 9.13 and 14 he reiterates in 9.34 i’ll come to that so 9.13 he says he talks first about the internal conception and 9.14 talks about the external action so what is the internal conception of these people who surrendered to him he says they are mahatmas and they have taken shelter of the divine nature and what do they do without any distraction they fix their mind on me and they know that i am the source of everything and i am and there is no end to me there is no diminution of me this means they understand krishna to be the supreme reality internally they understand that krishna is my be all and end all krishna is the embodiment and the perfection of all my heart’s desires whatever happiness i may get from else i’ll get it all in a perfect way from krishna that’s why the mind does not go anywhere and here krishna has a very significant word they take shelter of my divine nature so the acharya will explain that this refers to she’s the divinity now our acharya has explained that the whole bhagavad-gita is spoken by krishna to glorify radharani now this seems to be a very outrageous claim why because the word radha doesn’t come anywhere in the bhagavad-gita and even in prabhupada’s commentary on the bhagavad-gita the word radha comes only twice in the introduction so in the sanskrit and then the translation so then how can the whole bhagavad-gita be a glorification of shivati radharani actually we should not think of radharani just as a person yes she’s a person but she’s also the manifestation of bhakti devi so sarva gopi madhya srishta sri radha thakurani sarva gopi madhya srishta among all the gopis she’s the highest radharani and then describes this is radharani what does she do there’s two things ananda swadhan ladini gives happiness to krishna and ladini also what she does she nourishes the devotee so when we try to render some devotional service our devotional service because we don’t have much devotion it may not please krishna but when we offer our devotional service through radharani because of radharani’s devotion she gets pleased krishna becomes pleased and radharani she gives the spiritual satisfaction which is our nourishment she gives it to us so in that sense she is the transcendental mediatrix you know medium is the masculine gender and mediatrix is the feminine gender so one who comes in between so she is the transcendental mediatrix and so the whole bhagavad-gita is it contains the glories of krishna no doubt many as i said 9 chapter 10 chapter 11 chapter talking about krishna’s glories but the purpose why krishna speaks his glory is to ultimately glorify bhakti such a great lord becomes attained and conquered by bhakti and in this way krishna is not interested in his own glorification he’s interested in the glorification of bhakti and who is bhakti radharani so in this way the bhagavad-gita is a glorification of radharani it’s a glorification of for pure devotional service that conquers even the absolute krishna is a god krishna is the supreme who renounces his supremacy so that love can reign supreme krishna is the supreme but in vrindavan he renounces the supremacy says yashodam i will tie me up the gopis will chastise me and he runs away in fear sometimes he renounces the supremacy for that love can reign supreme the highest reality in spiritual world is not krishna it is love for krishna when krishna becomes subordinated by that this is we enter into this world by by taking shelter of the divine energy the more we get the shelter of divine energy radharani the more we’ll become fixed so 9.13 talks about our internal conception then 9.14 talks about the external action what do these devotees do constantly doing kirtan and it’s very significant the next line is most significant actually they endeavour how with determination now normally we think that when there are many material desires then we need determination because this desire drags me away this desire drags me away then i need determination to say fixed on krishna but 9.13 has already said these devotees are ananya their mind is fixed on krishna then why do they need dhruva vrataha if they don’t have any distractions then why do they need dhruva vrataha because the nature of love is to offer one’s best to one’s beloved and that to offer the best one exercises one’s best now it’s interesting that in the spiritual world there are kalpatarus which can provide whatever one desires but in practically no pastime do we see the vrajivasis asking the kalpataru for anything no when yashodhama has to cook for krishna she delights in cooking for krishna she doesn’t think oh cooking is such hard work a kalpataru just provide krishna’s dinner no she doesn’t do that it is said that radharani when she is cooking for krishna at pavan sarovar she cooks simultaneously on 50 stoves 50 stoves you know just stirring here eating there and shaking there and anxiety but in that anxiety there is ecstasy why because she is offering her heart’s love to krishna through that so here for the pure devotees the endeavour with determinations for what so that they can offer their best to krishna and they don’t have any distractions but still they want to offer all their energy to krishna and when these pure devotees come in this world then the world creates obstacles you see you know we can say shila prabhupada was very empowered and that’s why he was he preached his success all over the world that is true but you know we shouldn’t let the point of empowerment minimise the point of shila prabhupada’s determination now it is not that when we say prabhupada is empowered that means that the automatically all obstacles disappeared and everything was rosy see empowerment is not the absence of obstacles empowerment is persistence amidst obstacles empowerment is not what absence of obstacles now sometimes you may have seen this old ramayan mahabharat where two enemies are there and they shoot arrow and one arrow comes from here one arrow comes from here and both the arrows collide and then whoever is stronger that person’s arrows to the other other falls away and this arrow moves on so like that you know it is not that uh when shila prabhupada was preaching there’s no obstacle the arrow is just going unobstructed no prabhupada’s determination like arrow you just move on and there are obstacles it’s not the absence of obstacles but persistence amidst obstacles so what happens is when obstacles came in the face of the power of shila prabhupada’s determination the obstacles fell away but in our case when obstacles come in the face of the power of obstacles our determination falls away but if we remember how krishna loves us tirelessly unceasingly then we can get the inspiration to also do to endeavour wholeheartedly and what do you enter for namashantashyamam bhaktia we offer obeisance with devotion and we serve krishna in various ways so this is the process of bhakti bhakti is not just about disconnection from the world there is some amount of when we do direct devotional activities there is disconnection from the world we’re chanting we are hearing so that is disconnection but then the purpose of bhakti is not just disconnection from the world the disconnection from the world is for connection with krishna and after the connection with krishna then there is greater contribution to the world so it’s not that we become disconnected from krishna and that’s how we stay we chant we study scriptures and then what do we do after that we act in this world contribution in this world we act to serve krishna to please krishna to contribute in his mission and in fact the more we are connected with krishna the greater our connection with krishna the greater will be our contribution to the outer world why because that inner connection with krishna will remove internal friction and distraction i’ll conclude with this point oh in our life we often feel that i don’t have enough time there’s so many things to do it’s not just devotees even materialistic people feel they don’t have time everybody feels they don’t have time so much to do it’s true also no so what do we do we can’t expand time beyond 24 hours but we can become more efficient and often a lot of our energy goes off internally internally it goes off in two ways distraction and friction distraction means i want to do one thing but some other thought is coming in some other talk is some other that is distraction friction means inside only there are two ideas should i do this or should i do that so i am sitting and chanting but i’m thinking maybe i should sleep for some time or a student is sitting and studying he’s thinking hey today is the ipl final so i should watch that so distraction means we want to do one thing but other things come into mind friction means we ourselves don’t know what to do so we ourselves are torn between two things but what happens when we connect with krishna through our devotional activities then that connection leads to Krishna gives intelligence this is important this is not important this needs to be done first this is to be done afterwards and with that intelligence then we can do act and that increases our contribution so in this way bhakti when there is for a devotee both the internal connection and the outer contribution both become susukham both become joyful how because when there’s internal connection krishna himself is the source of all joy so when we remember krishna the naturally joy but when there is external contribution also there is another way of connection with krishna why because we understand we are connecting krishna’s energy with krishna so now we have devotional service so in our devotion we connect our heart with krishna in our service we connect the world with krishna in this way bhakti harmonises the internal and the external with the transcendental bhakti harmonises the internal the heart through devotion and the external that is the resources of the world with the transcendental through service this is the beauty and the glory of bhakti yoga to summarise we started by talking about the verse 9.13.14 the internal conception and the external actions of the devotee and then we went over from the first chapter till the ninth chapter discussing how krishna develops the concept of bhakti so 2.61 3.30 then especially 4.9 i didn’t discuss about 4.35 also krishna talks but then we discussed in 5.29 and then especially 6 chapter we discussed how krishna develops first have some focus of but then go deeper and fix the first there is 6.14 he talks about visualisation in 6.30 he talks about realisation and then 6.47 we’ll talk about perfection he continues that in 7.1 and then that bhakti he describes in 7.8.14 and 9 chapter we did a overview basically he discussed about people who surrender don’t surrender and surrender to something else and discussed about 9.45 describes the evolution of 9th 10th 11th and 12th chapters and discuss the four glories of bhakti it is eternal it is simple it overpowers accidental force it overpowers internal force and then we discussed about how the whole bhagavad-gita is the glorification of srimati radharani and then lastly we discuss about endeavouring with determination empowerment is not absence of obstacles but persistence amidst obstacles and the bhakti it gives us that persistence how by our inner connection then we get the strength and with that inner connection then we can do outer contribution thank you very much so i know there are several questions i’ll answer these questions on my website this world scientist.com and maybe the next about a week’s time if you visit the website your answers will be there