Significance of Chatur-Shloki Gita – Location Content & Import

[Congregation program at Dallas, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Thank you to everyone for coming today afternoon.
And I am honoured to be here in Dallas, so close to Radha Kalachand ji. Today I was asked to speak on the Chatur Shloki Bhagavad Gita. So I will speak in this in three parts.
I will basically speak on the significance of the four verses of the Bhagavad Gita in terms of first their location, how they are very significantly placed in the Bhagavad Gita. Then we will analyse their content, what these four verses are. And then we will talk about their import.
What is the implication of the statement of those verses. The Bhagavad Gita has 700 verses. And it is a concise book.
It is spoken in a war field. And naturally at that time there is not much time. So it is as compared to Bhagavatam which has thousands of verses, Ramayana has thousands of verses.
The Mahabharata has hundreds of thousands of verses. So the Bhagavad Gita is relatively very small. But at the same time it has had a big, big impact.
And that is because its message goes over a vast scope. The Gita begins with Arjuna unable to decide. When he is faced with the prospect of fighting a fratricidal war against his relatives.
Especially his own grandsire and his martial teacher. He feels overwhelmed. In 2.6 he says If I kill them, then my own loved ones will be dead.
And if I don’t kill them, they will kill me. Or they will kill my loved ones. So what should I do? I don’t know.
Now if after this Arjuna had followed this up with a simple question. Should I fight or should I not fight? Then the Gita would have been relevant only as a document for historians. How one warrior decided whether to fight or not to fight.
The next verse where Arjuna asks the question reveals the scope of the Gita. He asks He says I ask you what is Dharma? He doesn’t simply ask for a decision should I fight or should I not fight. He asks what is Dharma? And Dharma is of universal relevance.
Dharma is nowadays translated as religion. But Dharma actually means nature. It is the activity that restores us to our nature.
Dharma basically implies that there is an order in nature. And when we act properly, we harmonise with the order of nature. So what is the activity that one should do by which one can harmonise with the natural order of things? That is Dharma.
And then in response Krishna answers at various levels. And in the second chapter Krishna focusses primarily on how before you can understand, before we can understand our activity, we have to understand our identity. If I go into office and I don’t know what is my role in the office.
And I’ll just fool around. I’ll just make a mess of myself and come in the way of others. So Krishna talks about the identity first.
And he talks about how you are not the body or the soul. And from there he talks about how first he talks about Nishkama Karma Yoga. Act with detachment.
That’s more or less second chapter. And third chapter Arjuna is a little confused. He says you are saying Arjuna you should fight.
Krishna you are telling me to fight. But you are also telling me that I’ll become peaceful. But right now fighting means it will be violence.
So you are telling me to do my duty but my duty is to fight. You are telling me by my duty I’ll become peaceful. By doing my duty I’ll become peaceful.
How does this work? Because my duty involves violence. Then Krishna talks about, third chapter he elaborates how there is inner dimension and outer dimension. And then the Bhagavata goes into inner dynamics.
What are our desires? He says the cause of disturbance, the cause of lack of peace is not the outer situation. It is the inner disposition. As long as we are filled with selfish desires we can never have peace.
No matter what all other things that we do. And then the way to achieve peace, fourth chapter Krishna talks about transcendental knowledge. The various ways of acquiring knowledge and he says go to a spiritual master and acquire that knowledge.
In the fifth chapter Arjuna is still confused. And he says okay but should I act or should I not act? Because again Krishna says by knowledge you’ll gain peace. But he says if I had to fight how will I have peace? And Krishna says actually that yes there are many ways to grow spiritually but in your case it is best for you to act and do your duty.
But then what about detachment? Isn’t it that those who are to grow spiritually they need to become detached, they need to renounce the world. Krishna says that is a later stage. First one has to become purified by doing one’s duty then one can become detached.
So from karma yoga later on one can practise dhyana yoga. That is the sixth chapter of the Gita. Where Krishna talks about going out in the jungle and practising yoga.
And then he says the perfection of this yoga is attachment to Krishna, is absorption in Krishna. 6.47 is 6.47 All yogis, the topmost yogi is one who becomes fixed in me, always remembering me. And from the seventh chapter of the Gita the mood and the tone of the Gita change substantially.
From the second chapter, sixth chapter Krishna is primarily talking about detachment. We detach from the fruits of the work, attachment is the cause of bondage. The more you become detached, the more you will become peaceful.
But the very first line of the first verse of the seventh chapter signifies the shift of the mood. Krishna says It is not so much a detachment from the world but attachment to the source of the world, Krishna. So till the first six chapters Krishna doesn’t talk about bhakti so much.
But from the seventh chapter onwards the focus is a lot on bhakti. So in a sense if you consider that there is a gradual process. Like we have a staircase or a lamp which takes us up gradually up the stairs.
So second chapter to sixth chapter, it’s like that staircase. And Krishna says if you come here, actually you know there is another way to come here also. The other way is the elevator.
So by first detaching oneself from doing work with detachment, then detaching oneself from work also, then detaching oneself from the mind. Then finding what exists beyond the mind, the soul. And finding out the source of the soul, that is God.
And then becoming attached to God. That is one process that the Gita talks about. But then afterwards the Gita says this is like a ramp by which gradually you will climb up.
But to get there, there is an elevator. And that elevator is right from the beginning focus on Krishna. So that is bhakti yoga.
Among all the verses that Krishna Prabhupada gave talks on in the Bhagavad Gita. In 7.1 he has given the maximum talks. So from here Krishna talks about how by practising bhakti we can become attached to him.
7.1 talks about how from the bhakti worldview different people can be seen. Those who are godless, those who are godly but are devoted to other gods, those who are impersonalists. So whole devotional worldview is talked about.
Then in the 8.1 Krishna has talked about yoga, ashtang yoga in the Dhyan yoga, meditating. In the 8.1 Krishna compares bhakti yoga and ashtang yoga. And he says that actually it is bhakti that is easy.
In 8.40 he says by bhakti I can be easily attained. And by the end of the 8th chapter Krishna is in ecstasy. And Krishna just continues speaking.
In the 9th chapter he elaborates the glory of bhakti, the topmost knowledge. So what is given in the 7th chapter, Krishna elaborates with more depth and analysis in the 9th chapter. And by the time the 10th chapter comes, Krishna is giving the conclusion.
Krishna tells how he is the source of everything and how he is the ultimate goal of everything. So 10.8 to 10.11 is the Chatur Shloki Bhagavad Gita. These four verses are called by Sripad Ramanacharya as the four central verses of the Gita.
And in a sense after hearing this, the Gita is over. Because we see in Arjuna’s response, Arjuna says Krishna I accept what you are saying. That you are the absolute truth and knowing you is life’s perfection.
I accept this. So after this when Arjuna asks, it is for Lok Gita Nranaam. It is for other people.
So what Krishna has taught, how to explain, how can others understand this? Krishna says always remember me. Then he says how can common people, how can they always think of God? So they can look at this world and try to see the manifestation of God. So that’s how the 10th chapter talks about Vibhuti Yoga.
In the 11th chapter of the Gita, some people may think it is Krishna, he is just another person on a chariot. There are so many warriors, Krishna is one of them. So how can he be God? The 11th chapter reveals Krishna’s Virata Rupa.
Arjuna asks, please show me. And he is asking for others. So even when Krishna is in the universe, the universe is in Krishna.
That is the inconceivability of Krishna. He seems to be one person in the universe, but actually he can show the whole universal form. And in the 12th chapter Arjuna asks, there are people who worship you in a person manifestation.
There are those who worship in person manifestation. So who is better? And like that if we see all subsequent chapters are triggered by Arjuna’s questions. So Krishna’s message in a sense gets over by 10.8 to 10.11. And Arjuna accepts and he further enquires for other people’s understanding.
Sometimes we have a class and there are some new people who have come for a class. And say we are helping them to come to Krishna and they have some questions. But they may be a little shy to ask those questions.
Sometimes we ask those questions to some speaker on their behalf. So that when we ask, they will get the answer. So Arjuna is doing like that.
He is asking questions for the sake of others. And from 10.8 to 10.11 in that sense, in terms of location of the Gita, it is the message with which Krishna concludes himself. And now what is significant about this? What are the content? So I have given titles for each of these verses.
So the 10.8 gives the definition of God. 10.9 gives the relation with God. How is the relationship with God developed? 10.10 talks about the direction of God.
How God directs us. And 10.11 talks about the benediction of God. What is this ultimate benediction? Definition, relation, direction and benediction.
Let’s look at these one by one. So 10.8 is अहम् सर्वस्य प्रभवो मद्धः सर्वं प्रवर्तते इतिमत्वा भजन्तेमाम् उधाभावसं अन्विताः अहम् सर्वस्य प्रभवो That I am the source of everything. मद्धः सर्वं प्रवर्तते Everything comes from me.
Everything is maintained by me. इतिमत्वा, those who know this, भजन्तेमाम्, they worship me. उधाभावसं अन्विताः They are wise, they are intelligent, they are उधाभावसं अन्विताः They worship me wholeheartedly with all the emotions of their heart.
Now many times people ask if God created everything, who created God? Who created God? In fact, the prominent atheist, he said that this is the ultimate question that brings down theism. You know this question, theists have no answer to that. Actually, this question reveals that the questioner doesn’t understand what God is.
Because if we understand the definition of God, then we will not have this question. Asking does God exist, it’s a valid question. Who made God is like asking who made a circle circular? Who made a circle circular? A circle by definition is circular.
It’s not that someone has to make a circle circular. Circle is circular. We cannot have a triangular circle.
We cannot have a trapezoidal circle. Circle by definition is circular. So, when we talk about God, there is depiction and there is definition.
Depiction means when we go to a temple and we say God depicted in a particular way. Now, if we focus on that aspect only, then we will think, okay, you know, the world is so big and in that this temple is one small thing and in that one place this image is there. Okay, where did this come from? Yeah, that seems a valid question.
But if you understand what God means, everything comes from something. And wherever this causal chain stops, that, okay, B came from A, A came from Z, Z came from Y, whatever it is. If we go backwards, wherever this causal chain stops, that point is God.
So, if we say that who created God, then that means if God had a creator, then the creator of God would be God. Wherever the causal chain stops, that is the place where God would exist. Now, somebody may say, why does this causal chain have to stop? Maybe it just goes on infinitely.
But we see that everything in this world is temporary. Everything is temporary. So, a chain of temporary things cannot go on infinitely.
It has to have some foundation in something that is non-temporary. Just like if we see a very tall skyscraper building. You know, you say we are looking at the top.
We see this floor, this floor, this floor, this floor. You can have a large number of floors. But all those levels, all those floors, all those stories, they have to have some ground.
If there were no ground, the skyscraper would not exist. So, God is the ground of all being. He is the being without whom no being would be possible.
Krishna says that everything is sustained by me. Without me, nothing could exist. This is the definition of God.
From the point of view of pure logic, the cause of everything cannot have a cause. Isn’t it? The cause of everything cannot have a cause. The cause of everything has to be the beginning of everything.
So, wherever that point begins, that is God. Now, again continuing with logic, we can say there are two possibilities. Everything came from something or everything came from nothing.
There are only two possibilities. Everything came from something or everything came from nothing. Now, if we, sometimes atheists, they like to ridicule, you know, people, you believe in this, you believe in that, you believe in that, they try to take some aspects of religious belief which seem very irrational.
How do you believe in such stuff? But actually, if we turn that same strategy on atheism and we write the atheistic story of the universe, so what would be that story? Nothing existed because of nothing. Nothing exploded because of nothing. And gave rise to everything.
Now, does that make any sense? Nothing existed because of nothing, nothing exploded because of nothing and gave rise to everything. We don’t see anywhere in the world something coming out of nothing. So, we see if anything exists, it has come from something.
So, everything coming from nothing is irrational. Everything coming from something, that is far more rational. Now, what that something is, that will have to have the potential to produce everything.
Otherwise, how would everything come about? And that, that thing which has the potential to produce everything, that is actually God. So, the Gita talks about Krishna is God but then it gives a definition of God. The one who is the source of everything.
The one by whom everything is maintained. And from this understanding, if one understands Krishna to be God this way, if one understands Him, then in all of us, there is the head and there is the heart. The head refers to the intellectual, the rational faculty.
The heart refers to the emotional faculty. And Krishna says, when we understand Him this way, then such a person becomes Buddha and also bhajate mam bhava samanvitaha. Such a person becomes wise.
The head and the heart come together. So, bhakti is not just a matter of sentiment. Oh, I like to worship this God, so I will worship this God.
Bhakti, it can be because of sentiment. But bhakti is actually the conclusion of the intellectual faculty. When we truly understand what Krishna is, who God is and why He is God.
Krishna has talked about this earlier also, that bahunam janmanamante gyanavan mam prapadyate vasudeva sarvamiti samatmasudurlabham 7.19 he has said that, after many lifetimes, when people surrender unto me, when people understand that I am the source of everything, I am the essence of everything, and then they surrender to me. They are gyanavan. So, surrender is not something which is done by people who have no intelligence.
That’s also possible. They may also do it. But here, Krishna doesn’t bhakti as the summit of the intelligence.
When you understand God as the source of everything, you surrender to Him. Now, okay, somebody surrenders. This is the definition of God.
After you surrender to Him, then what happens? What does it imply practically? In the second verse, that’s 10.9, it talks about the relation. How do those who have surrendered their lives to God, how do they live? How do they relate? machitta madgata prana Do we have the Gita here? So, we can recite after me. machitta madgata prana bodhayanta parasparam kathayantashyamam nityam dushyanticharam anticham So, here, Krishna talks about the way in which those who have devoted themselves, they relate.
They relate with Him, they relate with others, and they relate with their own faculty, their own body, mind, intelligence. machitta Their consciousness is fixed in me. Srila Prabhupada translated this as the thoughts of my pure devotees dwell in me.
That means he’s saying that it’s not just that they think about Krishna, rather Krishna becomes their home. Krishna becomes the home for their thoughts. See, all of us have a physical home and along with that we have a home for our thoughts.
Just like a home means we have our work for which we go out to various places. But once the work is done, we come back home. So, like that, we all can observe what is the home for our thoughts.
When we have nothing to do, what do we do at that time? When we have nothing to think about, where do our thoughts go? Some of us, it may go for cricket. Some of us, it may go for money. Some of us, it may go for say, our children, our family members, whatever it is.
It’s not necessarily bad or good. We’re not making a value judgement here. We’re just making an observation that all of us have a home for our thoughts.
Now, this home, whatever it is, ideally speaking, the home should be a place of comfort and shelter. We get troubled when we go outside and we come back home, if we say. That’s why they say, I’m at home here.
That means, we’re comfortable over here. But unfortunately, whatever is the home for our thoughts doesn’t make us feel at home. That means, we have something that we are attached to.
By default, our thoughts go to that object. But then, it doesn’t make us peaceful. Somebody is attached to cricket and then, they’re attached to cricket.
And sometimes, their favourite team wins and sometimes, it loses. And when it wins, they’re happy. But when it loses, they’re so agitated.
Why? Why? He could have played the shot like this. Why did he play like that? People just get so agitated. In fact, there are cases when a team has lost an important match and there are fans who have committed suicide.
It’s extreme. So, the very thing which is meant to be the shelter for our thoughts, that leaves us shelterless. If by default, our thought is money, then money brings some security with it.
Money is a necessity for functioning. But then, what happens is the thought of money causes enormous anxiety. And the problem is that money is something which we live with.
But often, money becomes something which we live for. Instead of being a means for living, it becomes a purpose for living. And then, when it displaces other things in our consciousness, then it becomes a big problem.
So, we can think about whatever is the home for our thoughts, that is the very thing which agitates us. Maybe we’re attached to some family member, but then often, they behave in very irritating ways. And then, when we think about them, a scowl comes on our face, a frown comes or at least a grimace comes on our face.
Whatever it is, actually, it will agitate us. But Krishna is the person who, if we make Him the home of our thoughts, we will become peaceful. bhajahure mana shri nandananda na abhayacharanaravindare abhayacharanaravindare The mind will become peaceful.
So, that’s how we are practising bhakti right now. We chant Hare Krishna, we hear Krishna Katha. The purpose of this is not just to do these activities.
The purpose is actually to make Krishna our inner home. When we have nothing to think about, automatically our thoughts will gravitate towards Krishna. That is what has happened to the pure devotees.
This is what Krishna says, For those devotees, their life is dedicated to me. madgata prana They live for my sake. And then, when they meet with each other, Krishna has earlier talked about the yogis.
The yogis leave home and go to the jungle. suchaudeshe patishthapya tiramahasinamatmana They go out in the jungle and sit and meditate. But Krishna says, no.
What do my devotees do? They come and discuss Krishna Katha. bodhayanta parasparam kathayantasyamam They constantly discuss about this. tushyanticharam anticharam They delight in discussing this.
That is interesting. Krishna uses the word bodhayanta. Bodhayanta actually means, Prabhupada translates this as enlightenment.
They enlighten each other. Now, the previous verse has said, 10.8 says, that they are already enlightened. They are budha.
Budha means enlightened. The word budha is cognate with buddha. The word buddha has now come to refer to Siddhartha Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.
But originally the word buddha simply meant an enlightened one. And when Siddhartha was considered to be enlightened, he got the title buddha. So budha is cognate with that.
Cognate means coming from the same root. So, now Krishna has already said that these people are enlightened. If they are already enlightened, then what does it mean that they enlighten each other? Actually, Krishna is infinite.
Krishna’s glories are infinite. And one devotee can release Krishna in another way, another devotee can release Krishna in another way. And that’s how the glories of Krishna can be released unlimitedly.
So, Krishna’s glories, in this way, Krishna keeps, devotees keep enlightening each other about Krishna. And now you may say, all this is very wonderful, but you know, I am far away from this stage. How does all this apply for me in my life? Then Krishna says in the next two verses, that for those who aspire to become devoted like this, for them, He provides direction.
So, let’s recite 10.10. So, here the key verse is, Krishna says, for those who are devoted to Me, He says, I give them buddhi, the dhami. I give them buddhi, but what kind of buddhi? Yoga. So, buddhi yoga is a compound word.
There are two words which come together to form this word, it’s called a compound word. And this word can be understood in two ways. The buddhi to do yoga, that is buddhi yoga.
And buddhi yoga can also refer to yoga, the yoga that gives buddhi. So, that means, it works both in symbiotic. We get the intelligence by which to make right choices.
And ultimately, the best choice for us is to do yoga, to connect with Krishna. And also by connecting with Krishna, we get intelligence. So, there are many aspects of intelligence.
There is verbal intelligence, there is visual intelligence. Some people, they just see something and they just remember, oh, this colour was like this, this colour was like this, this was shaped like this. Some other people have very good musical intelligence.
They hear some music and they immediately can write down the tones of that. Some other people have very good geographical intelligence. Whenever they just travel to one place, next time when they come, hey, you have to go left, go right.
Other people, you know, they have come to the same place ten times, they search, where do I go now? How do I go there? So, there are different kinds of intelligences. And Krishna says, dadami buddhi yogam tam. He is saying that, okay, if a child is not able to do mathematics, he starts practising bhakti or he will become a mathematical genius, I will give you the intelligence.
He is not talking about that. He is talking about the foundational intelligence. See, the most foundational intelligence is the intelligence to know what to do with our intelligence.
The intelligence to know what to do with our intelligence. Actually, see that, most of the problems in this world, the big problems that are there, are caused by intelligent people. Now, there are, that means, say consider, if you consider the ecological problems that are there in the world.
Now, the whole ecology, it is, exploiting the ecology, it actually is done through high-end scientific and technological advancement. And all that was developed using intelligence. So science, or science and, because the technology is a product of intelligence.
But the products of technology are not used intelligently. In technology, it is resulting from intelligence, but then it is not used intelligently, it is used destructively. So, we have tremendous technology today, but then for what purpose is it being used? More often than not, it is being used for destructive purposes, for damaging purposes.
So, the most foundational intelligence is the intelligence to know what to do with one’s intelligence. Whatever intelligence we have, some of us may have a lot of intelligence, some of us may have little intelligence, but whatever intelligence we have, what to do with that? That fundamental intelligence Krishna gives to us. Dadami buddhi yogam tam.
What are we meant to do with what we are? One of the big problems in materialistic society is that people often compare. Oh, you know, this person looks better than me. This person, this child is, you know, my child does not have as much memory as their child has.
We can have so many comparisons, and by that comparison, often we become disheartened. Now, when we start practising bhakti, we understand that, actually, Krishna has all given us different gifts. And if God had wanted us to be someone else, He would have made someone else.
He has made us, and because He has made us, we are meant to be me. We are not meant to be someone else. Of course, I am meant to be the best me, not the worst me, but I am simply meant to be me.
We don’t have to become anyone else. That intelligence, to know what to do with our intelligence, that is what we get by bhakti. So, our other aspects may or may not improve by the practise of bhakti, but whatever resources we have, we will be able to use them much better.
Just before this programme, say, we had prasad. Now, suppose it was a feast, and suppose it was a special feast, where everybody has special items, distinct items. So, what is in your plate is different from what is in my plate, is different from what is in his plate, is different from what is in her plate.
And now, all of us have got a feast, all of us have got delicacies, but I have a feast in front of me, but I am looking, what is in his plate? What is in her plate? What is in their plate? Now, what will happen by that? Although I have a feast, and I can delight in that feast, but instead of delighting, I will be dissatisfied. I will be dissatisfied because I am looking at what others have, instead of what we have. So, when we understand that all of us are made by God the way we are for a purpose, we don’t have to become someone else.
Now, I have got a feast right now with me. I just have to enjoy this feast which I have. That intelligence to know what to do with our intelligence, that is what comes by the practise of bhakti.
So, some of us may have a lot and we may use that lot constructively and we will be happy. Some of us may have a little and we will use the little constructively and we will be happy. But some of us may have a lot and if we don’t use it constructively, we will make a lot of trouble for ourselves and for others.
And that’s why the fundamental change that the practise of bhakti does for us is that it guides us to put to good use what we have. The whole of modern materialistic civilisation is that happiness lies out there in getting what you don’t have. Get that, get that new phone, get that new car, get that new house.
Nowadays, get that new spouse. So, what happens is that happiness lies out there in the things which we don’t have. That is the materialistic way of thinking.
And yes, it is true that sometimes there are things out there which we will be able to use better. If we have an old model of phone, there might be some good functionality in the new phone which we can use. If we have a small house, a bigger house might be of help.
But we should know that these things are for functional purposes. They may help us to function better. But it is not that they will provide satisfaction.
If we need them for functioning better, we can acquire them. But the mistake is, again I said, what we live with and what we live for. So, improving things externally, that may help us to function better.
But that won’t make us happier. Happiness comes by better realising who we are within ourselves. And putting to better use whatever we have.
And that redirection of our energy, that is what bhakti does. Intelligence for that. Krishna says, I will give the intelligence and ultimately, by which you will come to me.
The source of the supreme happiness is Krishna. When we attain Krishna, we attain the ultimate happiness. So, when we attain Krishna, how to attain Krishna, what choices to make by which we can attain Krishna.
Those wise choices we will be able to make by the practise of bhakti. So, if we see in the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Mahabharata. And it is spoken right at the start of the Kurukshetra War.
And in the beginning, in the first chapter of the Gita, when Duryodhana is assessing the two forces, he says, he says, okay, there are so many great soldiers on their side. Bhima, Arjuna, Samayuja, there are many who are like Bhima and Arjuna. And he says, anye cha bhava ashura, there are many on my side also.
He basically compares the forces on the opposite side and forces on his own side. And while doing all this, Duryodhana actually names all the important warriors on both sides. But he misses out one person.
Who is that? Krishna. He just completely misses him out. You know, because he, he just, he thinks Krishna is a non-combatant.
So, because he thinks Krishna is a non-combatant, so he thinks Krishna is a non-entity. You know, whack out him. He is not going to fight.
So, if we look at the Kurukshetra War, Krishna did not fight. But Krishna determined the result of the fight. How? Because at all critical times, Krishna gave guidance to Arjuna.
And that guidance proved decisive. So, if we are always looking simply from the materialistic perspective, you chant Hare Krishna, you do bhakti, what do you get out of it? If we look at things purely from the gross material terms, okay, you chant Hare Krishna every day for one and a half hours. What do you get out of it? What does someone pay you for it? What do you get out of it? If we try to quantify the results of bhakti in material terms, we will not be able to quantify it.
So, just like that, but trying to quantify everything materially is actually the Duryodhana mentality. Duryodhana tried to count. What is the value of Krishna? He said, no value.
So, Albert Einstein said that all that counts, all that is countable is not worth, all that is countable does not count and all that counts is not countable. All that is countable means you can put in terms of numbers. All that is countable, it is not necessary that it counts.
Sometimes, you can have a huge pile of currency notes. Recently, there was demonetisation in India. So, there is so many notes which you could count, but it did not count at all.
Suddenly, in one moment, it did not count at all. So, all that is countable does not necessarily count and all that counts is not countable. Leave alone from a spiritual perspective, from a material perspective, also, when we are with those whom we love, those who love us, the joy, the fulfilment that we experience in close relationships, we cannot put any mathematical, numerical, financial value on that.
So, there are things which are not countable, but still they count a lot. So, this whole counting mentality was Duryodhana’s mentality and he thought Krishna is a non-entity. And at several points in the Kurukshetra war, if you look at the 18 days war, almost every day, Krishna did something vital to help Arjuna specifically or the Pandavas generally.
And we know the most dramatic help was when Arjuna had taken a vow to kill Jayadratha. So, at that time, actually, on that day, again, Krishna did not shoot a single arrow. If you think simply in terms of what did Krishna do, Krishna did nothing.
And yet, Krishna did everything. Because Krishna guided those and empowered those who were doing things to make the right choices. So, that day, as Arjuna was racing, racing, racing, he knew there is a race against time to reach Jayadratha and the Kauravas had thought that if you can just stop Arjuna from reaching Jayadratha, Arjuna will die.
And if he dies, then it’s like almost the war is won for us. Arjuna is their key player. So, just like sometimes in an Indian cricket team, there is one batsman who is considered key.
You get him out, then everybody else collapses like a pack of cars. So, they thought that, you know, we just get Arjuna out. And how to get him out? You know, just don’t let him reach Jayadratha.
So, they arranged the whole army in such a way that he just could not reach Jayadratha. And still Arjuna fought gallantly. He broke through the Kaurava forces and he reached Jayadratha.
So, Jayadratha, all warriors had their chariots with their flag on top of it. And he could see Jayadratha’s flag. And Duryodhana was devastated.
He said, how could he have reached so far? And what had happened? First Arjuna had penetrated and then to help Arjuna, Yudhishthira sent Satyaki behind him. And then Satyaki was also very young, almost of the age of Abhimanyu. And Yudhishthira said, yesterday I sent Abhimanyu inside, today I sent Satyaki inside.
So, then he looked around. He said, I want to send somebody else. And there was one person who was itching to fight.
And that was Bhima. So, he sent Bhima inside. And then Bhima just, just total havoc he created.
You know, that day in one hour, Bhima killed 30 of Duryodhana’s brothers. I think after two minutes he was killing one person. So, Duryodhana was just devastated.
He was holding his head in his hands. What happened? What is this? At that time he started thinking, Yes, my whole army is not able to stop Arjuna. And my brother is just falling at the power of Bhima.
How is this happening? Maybe Krishna really is God. Krishna really is God. But then, it is said that, believers need no reasons.
Disbelievers accept no reasons. Those who have faith, they don’t necessarily need reason to accept it. But those who do not want to, those who are disbelievers, no matter what reason they get, they will not be able to accept it.
They just find some way around it. Like if you look at the whole mechanism of rains, how it comes. You see that, it’s so complex.
From the ocean, the water is evaporated. As water vapour, clouds are formed. Cloud comes on the surface of the land.
And then they melt. Now, when scientists try to simulate it, it’s very very difficult to do it in a small quantity. It’s a very complex mechanism.
And if this whole mechanism of rainfall had not been there, you know, we would not be able to live. So, it’s such a complicated, intricate mechanism. And the clouds are like a mobile airborne water tank made of aircraft proof technology.
You know, the twin towers were not made of aircraft proof technology. So, it’s such a powerful technology. And still, atheists will see this and say, if God made rains, God arranged for clouds to give us rains, then why does it rain on the oceans? And it rains on the oceans so that atheists can ask this question.
The point is that, actually, there is enough reason in this world for those who want to believe to believe. And for those who want to disbelieve, they will also find reasons. So, for Duryodhana, the sheer power of Arjuna, unstoppable power of Arjuna, that he felt, yes, Krishna must be God.
But then he started thinking, no, if Krishna would have been God, and Arjuna is so dear to Krishna, and Abhimanyu is so dear to Arjuna, how are we able to kill Abhimanyu? We are able to kill Abhimanyu. That means Krishna is not God. So, he came to his uncle, and he looked up, and he got a surge of evil energy within himself.
He said, no. He looked at the sun, it was just rapidly sinking towards the horizon. Just a little time remaining.
He thought, maybe this one last effort will be able to stop Arjuna. So, he thought that yesterday we had got six warriors to stop Abhimanyu. Arjuna is Abhimanyu’s father, so we’ll get eight warriors to attack him.
Suddenly, right, I told him, Karna and Shalya, I told him, Karna and Ashwathama, attack Arjuna from the front. Drona and Kripa, attack Arjuna from the left. I told two other warriors to attack from the right.
Dushyasana and I, I’ll attack him from behind. They all suddenly pounced on Arjuna from all sides. Arjuna was charging ahead, and was surrounded by a cloud of arrows.
Arjuna was swinging around, whirling round and round, and holding back the attack of arrows. He just couldn’t move forward. And the sun was inexorably going down towards the horizon.
Arjuna started despairing. So close, yet so far. And then at that time, Krishna saw Arjuna’s predicament.
And Krishna decided to do something. Again, he did not use a weapon. Or he did not use a weapon for fighting.
He got his Sudarshan Chakra, but he used it to cover the sun. And suddenly the sun got covered. And then, suddenly twilight came over there.
All the, all the Kauravas started cheering. And Jayadratha had been hiding behind there, cowering. In fact, the previous night when Jayadratha had come to know that Arjuna has taken a vow to kill, so Jayadratha had come running to Duryodhana and he said, You know, that son of Prutha, he has taken a vow to kill me.
I decided to run to the Himalayas right now. So he had been fearful, but now, he started jeering at Arjuna. You are going to kill me? Should I light your funeral pyre? And then Arjuna was exasperated.
He started lowering his bow down. And at that time, Krishna told Arjuna and Arjuna told Arjuna, Arjuna, there is still time. Put the Brahmastra on your bow.
And now, Arjuna knew that there is a time to ask questions and there is a time to defer questions. Now it’s a, what is it? It’s a race against time. Krishna must be having something.
Normally, Kshatriya code is once the sun is set, you cannot fight. And he had taken a vow. So he says, if Krishna is telling me to put an arrow, let me put the arrow.
Sometimes, you know, we say, when we surrender, do we surrender with intelligence or do we surrender the intelligence? What do we do? Do we use our intelligence and surrender? Or do we just surrender our intelligence to Krishna? Actually, both are true. Normally, we use our intelligence, understand properly and then we surrender. But there are times when our intelligence does not work.
So at that time, surrender the intelligence. Krishna, whatever you tell me, I will do. So Arjuna put the bow on, put the paramastra on his bow.
And Krishna told Arjuna that there is, shoot the arrow in such a way that it lops off the head of Jaidrath. But Jaidrath’s head should not fall on the ground. Far away from here, a short distance from here, there is Simandh Panchak, where Jaidrath’s father, Udakshatra, is performing austerities.
And his head should fall, Jaidrath’s head should fall on the lap of Udakshatra. you know, it’s like Arjuna placed the arrow and then immediately Krishna removed the sun. And then he told Arjuna, there is the sun and there is Jaidrath.
Shoot! Arjuna shot. And all the Kauravas were just just jubilant. And then suddenly right in front of their eyes, arrow just went straight and just lopped off the head.
Lopped off the head, you know. It’s like, sometimes in a cricket match, the last ball, you need, the opposite team, the batting team needs the boundary and then the bowler bowls and they think ball is missed. We won the match.
And they start celebrating. And then after celebrating, stop, it was a no ball. And they get one more chance and it is hit for a sixer.
So they thought, the Kauravas thought the match is over. But the match was not yet over. So right in front of their eyes, Krishna shot, Arjuna shot the arrow.
And actually, Jaidrath had been an evil person and his father Vidhakshatra knew that Jaidrath’s animosity towards the Pandavas and ultimately towards Krishna would be very dangerous for him. So he had tried to, in his own fatherly way, protect his son. So he had prayed to Shiva and he got a benediction that whoever causes Jaidrath’s head to fall on the ground, that person’s head will shatter into a thousand pieces.
Now, what Krishna did was, Krishna arranged for Arjuna to shoot the arrow and the arrow was shot in such a way that it went and fell on Vidhakshatra’s lap. Vidhakshatra was in meditation and suddenly he felt something falling on his lap. He opened his eyes.
Skull! Just got up. As soon as he got up, the skull fell on the ground. And because he caused the head of his son to fall on the ground, his own head exploded.
So, Krishna Krishna gave the intelligence. Krishna did not shoot one arrow in the Purushetra war. But, he determined the result.
He gave the intelligence by which the odds swung decisively in favour of his devotees. So that’s what, if we are practising bhakti and if we retain too much of a materially calculative mentality. Okay, if I do this, this will happen.
If I do this, this will happen. If I do this, this will happen. And when we start feeling, what does bhakti actually do? It doesn’t do anything.
We can have material calculation, but we should know that when we are practising bhakti, it is Krishna who is involved who is beyond all calculation. So, we just depend on Krishna. Do what Krishna wants us to do.
Now, we may say, how do I know what Krishna wants me to do? That is his benediction. The last verse, 10.11 So, I have gone through a lot of pain in my life. What is my realisation through it all? Well, I can’t say that there is any one realisation and I can’t even say really that it is a realisation.
Because every time that I think I have a realisation, soon Krishna gives me the realisation that I don’t really have that realisation. I think I have realised something and the next time the problem comes, I realise I have not realised it actually. So, life is, we cannot really say that we have realised, but we can all learn something through whatever we have gone through.
And I feel three main things that first is that when things go wrong, at that time to try to figure them out is just too messy. Don’t try to figure it out. Get out.
Get out means not that we run away from the problem, but get our consciousness out of that problem. Because if you are just too caught in it, then it just doesn’t work. You know, since my childhood I had polio in my left leg and in 2011 I had gone to the Juhu temple once for doing some programmes and morning I was chanting in the temple hall and there somebody had spilled some water.
Just slipped on that and just fell down very badly. So, it was a small fall but because my leg was already very weak, I had osteoporosis. So, it was literally the the thigh came out of the leg.
It was a very bad fracture. So, at that time it was so painful. And I just it was in the morning in the temple hall.
So, after that what happened one of my atheist friends he wrote a letter to me. He says, you know, your God could not protect you in his own temple when you were chanting his names. Yes.
So, why are you worshipping such a God? Do you still believe in God? So, then there is an article on my website also. Do you still believe in God? That’s the title of the article. So, I explained, yes.
Rather than seeing that God is not the cause of everything. He has given people free will and people misuse their free will. Bad things happen.
It is not that Krishna caused that water to spill over there. Somebody was careless and they spilled the water over there. Krishna allowed it to happen.
Now, why he allowed it to happen, I don’t know that. But, even at that time I was sleeping and I had fallen and it was so painful. Somehow, you know, I love the Bhagavad Gita.
I love Bhagavad Gita verses. So, I just started reciting the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita at that time. Almost as if, like, I was lifted out of my body.
Body was painful but I just stopped feeling that pain. It was not that and as soon as I stopped chanting the Gita, all the worst pain came back. So, it was not that I was chanting the Gita out of devotion.
I was chanting the Gita for simply protection. But, from that time, almost in 3-4 hours, I was taken to a hospital and then we did x-ray and the surgery was done. Just continuously chanting the Gita and even I was even till now, every Gita Jayanti, we recite Gita verses.
But on no Gita Jayanti, have I chanted with so much absorption as I chanted as I chanted on that day. So, it was I got a very strong experience that by the remembrance of Krishna, we can actually rise above suffering. So, I felt that was a big gain for me.
So, suffering will come to everyone in life. Ultimately, we we have to live life the way life occurs. I faced a fracture.
Somebody else will face something else. Everybody will get suffering in some way or the other. So, how can we best deal with suffering? So, God is not the cause of our suffering.
He is the cure for our suffering. So, sometimes the cause, it is just impossible to find it out. But from Shastra, we know that Krishna is not a cruel God.
Krishna loves us. So, He is not causing our suffering. He is the cure for our suffering.
And if we turn towards Him amidst our suffering, we take shelter of Him, we do get relief. So, after that, in the hospital, the doctor told me that since 2011 that you cannot travel anymore. At that time, I was travelling quite a bit in India especially to do with preaching.
He said, you cannot travel anymore. And I was thinking, what will I do then? So, at that time, I was in the hospital for 2-3 months. Once I was giving on Skype a class to some devotees.
It was called audio class. I was speaking about the 6 opulences of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And I was lost.
I just started closing my eyes and started getting absorbed in speaking. And I kept speaking for 15 minutes. And I just opened my eyes and I saw the Skype connection had gone off.
And I saw on my phone, I had to keep the phone silent because I was giving a class. I saw that almost 15 calls and 15 missed calls had come. And for a moment, I just felt irritated that what is this? I was just wasted my time speaking so long.
But then it struck me actually while I was speaking about Krishna, I was so happy. I was so absorbed. I was blissful.
So, then it registered on me that for speaking about Krishna, I don’t need an audience. Even without an audience also I can speak about Krishna. And that’s how I got this whole idea of doing online preaching.
I started asking questions. Then I started doing online recorded courses. So, otherwise for many devotees, they feel that just to speak through a camera, how can I speak? I need somebody or an audience to speak.
But somehow I got that experience and then a whole new vista for outreach opened for me. So, I feel that if we just maintain that desire to serve Krishna, then even when like one door closes bang in our face in our life, some other door will open somewhere. But often what happens is we are so angrily glaring and staring at that closed door as if by staring and glaring at it, it will burn down.
But that is not going to happen. That door is closed. It’s closed now.
So, we accept that it is closed and we open ourselves to Krishna. We find that Krishna opens some other door. Not just another door, it’s a better door.
So, if we just keep practising bhakti, then we may not always understand why things happen the way they do. But eventually we see that Krishna can bring good out of it. So, it is not that everything that happens is good.
But everything that happens can be for good. Some things are really bad. They happen and they are bad things.
The loved one passes away or some other things like that happen. Somebody gets a terrible disease. It’s bad.
But Krishna is so expert that he can bring good out of the bad also. But he can bring the good out of bad only if we cooperate. If we choke ourselves with resentment and frustration and negativity, then Krishna cannot bring the good out of it.
So, we have to try to be as devotional as possible and even if bad things happen, Krishna will bring good out of it. That’s my small experience which I dare not call a realisation because we all have to keep realising it again and again to remember it. Do we have time? Okay.
Why do Hindus have so many scriptures, so many things? How do we understand that? Because we have Bhagavad Gita, we have Bhagavad Gita, we have other Puranas, Vedas and all that. Okay. So, for other religions like say Christianity or Islam, they have only one book but for us we have so many books.
Isn’t it confusing? Not necessarily. First of all, the Bible, if you see, it’s one Bible but there are literally hundreds of translations. There is, if you just go to bible.cc for each verse, you will see that there are hundred translations and there is there are different authors, different Christian teachers who accept different translations and what to speak of that, what we call as Bible.
See, there are different Christian groups which actually decide which books are to be included in the Bible. That means the Bible, we get it as one book but within the Bible there are Gospels, there is Ecclesiastes, there are various other sections and different sects say this book is included in the Bible, they say this book is not included in the Bible, this book is included in the Bible. So, with respect to textual things, there is always going to be variance.
It is not that there is only one thing but more importantly we have to understand the principle. See, the Vedas are inclusive. That means whatever level we are at, the Vedas offer us steps from moving there to one step up, to one step up, to one step up.
So, the idea is that the Vedas don’t say for anyone that you are unqualified. You have, you cannot be Dharmic. Whatever level you are, if you want to eat meat, you eat meat but you offer it to Kali.
Do a proper sacrifice to Kali, offer meat to Namavasya and eat it. By that also you will be Dharmic. If somebody is very much in Tamoguna, from Tamoguna they can rise one step higher.
Somebody is Rajoguna, from Rajoguna they can rise one step higher. So, the Vedic texts are such that whatever level one is at, from that level they can rise one step upward, they can rise one step upwards. So, in that sense, the Vedas offer us user friendly spirituality.
You know, okay, it’s user friendly. Whatever level the user is at, from there rise one step upwards. On the other hand, when you talk about the Bible or the Quran, they offer a very exclusive form of religion.
That means, you accept this, you are elevated. Otherwise, you are going to go to hell. And there are some extremist versions of these religions, especially Islam, say not only are you going to go to hell, we will help you get there fast.
So, the idea is that actually these offer like one zero kind of religion. Either you are inside or you are outside. But, what about those people who can’t be inside for whatever reason? Do they have to be outside and they have to go to hell? It’s not necessary.
Now Krishna, the Bible offers, ultimately there is only one God. But the conception of God that is offered in different religions is not identical. The Bible offers a vision of a jealous God.
One of the commandments of the Bible is, and that comes in the Quran also, because they all come from the same root texts. Thou shall not worship any other God except me. So they said, your God is a jealous God.
But the Bhagavad Gita, it does not offer Krishna as a jealous God. Krishna is a zealous God. He is zealous for the elevation of everyone.
In 7.20 to 23, Krishna says that if you can’t worship me, you worship the devatas. When you worship the devatas, I will give you the faith to worship them and I will give you the devatas the power by which they can fulfil your prayers. His purpose is simply our elevation.
From wherever we are, if you can’t worship me, okay, you worship somebody else, but you do worship someone and become elevated by that. So in that sense, Krishna offers user friendly spirituality and the whole mood of the Vedic literature is that no one should be rejected. From wherever they are, let them take one step up.
Let them take one step up. And the advantage of this is everyone is included. But the disadvantage is that everyone can keep fighting on who is right and who is not right.
Just like, most of us may have heard the example of say, the Bible and Quran are like a pocket dictionary. The Vedas are like an unabridged dictionary. And one of my Hindu friends, he read one of my articles and said this is very good, the Vedas are like the unabridged dictionary.
They are like the pocket dictionary. But this is actually, it is not necessarily a matter of religious arrogance for us. If somebody is using an unabridged dictionary, it is not an easy job to do that.
Because sometimes for one word, you may have 25 meanings. And then you are reading a paragraph, which of those 25 meanings applies in that paragraph? It requires energy to understand it. Words can have very different meanings.
For example, the word wicked. Wicked usually means cruel. But nowadays in contemporary usage, wicked, the word means great, wonderful.
It is a wicked party. It is a wonderful party. So the words can actually acquire quite opposite meanings to what they were.
For example, the word epithet, for example, it means a title. One meaning is title. Another meaning is insult.
Same word, opposite meanings. So when something is an unabridged dictionary, one oneself has to be an expert user, or one needs to be in connection with an expert user, expert English user, to know which to use. So that way, that’s why in the Vedic tradition, the Guru is very important.
So the Guru tells us where we are and what we should follow. So, nothing in this world is a pure blessing. And that which is a blessing in one way can also become a curse in another.
So the Vedic literature are a blessing in the sense that they offer something for everyone whichever level they are at. It is a big blessing. It means whatever level they are, people can be elevated from there.
But the disadvantage of that is that people can just find something to justify where they are and stay with that place only. And they may not rise higher. So, how it is, say, you know, a father has two children, two sons.
And one of them just gets barely 40, passes and gets 40% marks. The other is a topper, gets say 90% marks. And both of them have come with results.
And both of them have got 65%. The person who came with 40% says, shabash, well done, I am proud of you. Father will say, other child comes, badmash, what have you done? The second son says, both of us got 65%, you are praising him and justifying me? Why is that? Because from 90%, 65% is a step down.
From 40%, 65% is a step up. That way, if you consider the worship of the devatas, for a person who is godless, who is materialistic, for that person to start worshipping the devatas, it is very punyavan to do that. It is very virtuous for a person to rise from godlessness to some level of religiosity.
That is coming from 40% to 65%. Very good, you have become a religious person now. But Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita is speaking to Arjuna who is at 90%.
And then he says, somebody worship the devata, less intelligent people worship the devatas. So it is not that Krishna is condemning demigod worship. Rather, Krishna is saying, for you at this level, that is a step down.
You don’t have to step down. So there can be confusion. But simplicity is not always a virtue.
But the simplicity of the Quran and the Bible, that can lead to exclusivity. And exclusivity means, this is the only way, you are not following this way, you are going to go to hell. At least a very narrow minded approach to religion.
The complexity of the Vedic literature is essential for their inclusivity. They are inclusive for everyone. But that same complexity can also lead to confusion if you don’t have proper guidance.
If you have proper guidance, then you understand that the Vedic literature manifests God’s compassion in the greatest way, in an unparalleled way. That same God, out of compassion, has given the Bible, has given the Quran, has given the Vedas. His compassion is manifest most in the Vedic literature, in the multiple level, or multiple ways in which he has allowed people to become elevated.
Does that answer your question? Okay, yeah. So, in Krishna Consciousness, we follow so many rules and regulations, like say no meat eating, but in other religions people do all these things. Will they still be elevated and go back to Krishna? There are two different things over here.
One is becoming elevated. Second is getting liberated. The two are not the same.
From wherever we are, we can be elevated by practising any path that God has given. The extent of elevation will depend on how much purified we become. So, it is not that just by being say affiliated with this God, there is no guarantee that we are all going back to Krishna.
It is, the Krishna Consciousness movement is a facility for us to become Krishna Conscious. If we become Krishna Conscious, if we learn to love Krishna, we will attain Krishna. So, attaining God or attaining Krishna is not a matter of affiliation with any particular religious group.
It is a matter of purification. It is a matter of attraction to the Lord. So, if by following some other path, people develop love for God, they will attain God.
It is not that they can’t attain love for God by following other paths. The important thing is are they becoming purified. So, from the level that they are at, whatever regulations they follow, they will become elevated by that.
The extent of their elevation is not just dependent on their affiliation, their affiliation or lack of affiliation. The extent of elevation depends on their purification. So, there are many Christians who are also vegetarians.
In fact, there are Muslims also who are vegetarians. It is not that they all necessarily eat meat and they rationalise the eating of meat all the time. It is just that they practise.
There are people within their religions also who have recognised this is violence against animals, this is not good. But we should not get too caught in the specifics. The principle is that we have to develop love for God and we will see for ourselves that by showing kindness to all the creatures of God, love for God can be more easily developed.
If we are not showing that level of kindness, then we may still develop love for God, but we are actually making it more difficult. We are lighting a fire and putting some water on the fire. More effort will be required, more labour will be required.
So it is not so much of what we are giving up or what path we are joining. The important thing is what consciousness we are achieving. We are developing love for Krishna, we are taking Krishna.
So thank you very much. Thank you very