The Gita is elevating and accommodating – Overview of chapters 1-12

House program at Singapore

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Krishna So I’ll speak on the topic of how the Bhagavad Gita is both elevating and accommodating.
The basic theme I will take is of how the intelligence has to deal with the mind. The way a mother deals with a child. The mother, the child can sometimes be naughty, the child can sometimes be restless, the child can sometimes be obstinate.
But the mother, she cannot just get angry with the child, she has to somehow get the child on the right track. And all mothers gradually learn what to do, by which they can make the child do the right thing. Sometimes the child is just too strong and insistent and allow the child to do a little what it wants, and then get the child back on the right track.
So like that, we’ll discuss how the Bhagavad Gita trains our intelligence to become like a mother for our child. So now in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna starts with Atma Jnan in the second chapter. And then, once I understand I am the Atma, what am I supposed to do? I cannot just stop, I still have a body, I have to feed the body, I have to maintain the body.
I am still in the body even after I realize that I am the soul. Therefore, to begin acting at the spiritual level, Krishna talks about Karma Yoga. And then Karma Yoga is talked about in the second chapter, 37th verse onwards, till the 6th chapter, 4th verse.
From that time onwards, Krishna starts talking about Dhyana Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga. And Ashtanga Yoga concludes in the 6th chapter, 47th verse, that is Bhakti Yoga. The middle six chapters of the Bhagavad Gita are called as the Bhakti section of the Gita.
So some people say that the first six chapters talk about Karma, the middle six chapters talk about Bhakti, and the last six chapters talk about Dhyana. Actually that’s an incorrect understanding. It’s an incomplete understanding rather.
The whole Bhagavad Gita is directing towards Bhakti. The first six chapters show how Karma culminates in Bhakti. The last six chapters talk about how Dhyana culminates in Bhakti.
And the middle six chapters focus on Bhakti directly. And Bhakti is more and more clearly described in the 7th, 8th, 9th chapters. Bhakti is essentially a relationship.
Bhakti is the emotion that is experienced in the relationship between the soul and the Supreme Lord who is the object of love. So now, in any relationship there are these three things. There is the first person, there is the second person, and there is the emotion, the affection that joins the two persons together.
So in the first six chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Gita explains the first person. If A and B are in love, and the movie is going to talk about them. So it tells a little bit about A first, then it tells a little bit about B, and then it talks about how they fall in love.
And when they fall in love, then their personalities also change, they come together with each other, and their characters are also revealed through their interactions. So like that, to explain what Bhakti is, Krishna first introduces us to ourselves. He introduces us to who we actually are as souls.
So the concept of soul is, especially for western people, very difficult to understand. Even Indians, it’s not easy, because we all have the conception that, okay, I am the body and I have a soul. So soul is one part of me which will continue to exist afterwards.
Once one devotee in Russia was giving a class, he says, you are not your body. So after that one person raised his hand, he asked a question. He said, if I am not my body, then whose body am I? So the idea is, I am the body.
If I am not my body, then I must be somebody else’s body. So whose body am I? So the bodily conception is very deep-rooted in us. So Krishna, in the first six chapters, introduces us to ourselves, that is the soul.
Then from the seventh chapter onwards, seventh chapter is knowledge of the absolute, Srila Prabhupada translates it as. So that is focusing on the second person in the relationship, that is Krishna, the soul and Krishna. The eighth chapter, the seventh chapter gives an introductory understanding of Krishna in terms of how he is the lord of everything and how everything comes from him, how everything rests in him.
And then in the eighth chapter, Krishna shifts the focus to bhakti. Because when you form a relationship with Krishna, or when you seek transcendence, seek something beyond this world, at that time there are various processes. So there is, Krishna talked about Karma Yoga and he talked about Ashtanga Yoga in the sixth chapter.
So in the eighth chapter, he compares Ashtanga Yoga with Bhakti Yoga. There is only one verse in the whole Bhagavad Gita where Krishna says that the process is easy and that he refers to for bhakti. In 8.14 he states that अनन्यचेतः सततं यो माम् स्मरति नित्तिषः तस्याहं सुलभः पार्थः नित्युक्तस्य योगिनः तस्याहं सुलभः पार्थः Those who remember me, he says for them I am easily attained.
सुलभः Now Krishna, this word सुलभः is significant because earlier, in the seventh chapter, in the nineteenth verse, Krishna has used the opposite word. बहुनाम जन्मणामन्ते ज्ञानवान्मां प्रपद्यते वासुदेवः सर्वमिति समाथ्मः समाथ्मः सुदुर्लभः दुर्लभः, very difficult to attain. सुदुर्लभः is extremely difficult to attain.
So that which is extremely difficult to attain through the process of ज्ञान, which may take many lifetimes, ज्ञान, बहुनाम जन्मणामन्ते that can be attained by the remembrance of Krishna very easily. Now, after describing how whatever is attained by any other process is all attained by the process of भक्ति. Krishna says in the last verse of the eighth chapter, वेदेशु यगेशु तपः सुचैवः दानेशु यत्पुण्यः फलं प्रदीष्टम् अत्येति तथ सर्वमिदं विदित्वा योगी परम्स्थानमुपयित्ति चाध्यम् So, whatever is attained by any other process of dharma, that is attained and much more is attained by the process of भक्ति.
And in this way, after describing the process of भक्ति, then again in the ninth chapter, Krishna shifts his focus to भगवान. Because if you say, भक्ति is so great, then how can the appreciation of भक्ति be increased? One is, I may say, this process is great, this process is great. If you consider different yogas to be like different roads, then where is the road going to go? People are not attracted to a road.
This road is very good, go along that road. No, I want to know where the road is going. The road may be comfortable, but if it is going to a dead end, what is the use of going along that road? So, Krishna talks about the road, how easy it is, but then he describes what is it that we are going to attain at the end of that road.
And then that is 9.5 to 9.8, he describes his position, how he is the controller of material nature, मयाध्यक्षेन भर्कति, 9.9 states. Then, once Krishna’s position is understood, there can be two extremes in approaching Krishna. Some people may love him, some people may hate him.
So, Krishna talks about these two extremes, not exactly in terms of hating him, but in terms of being envious of him, in terms of being negatively disposed towards him. So, he talks about them in 9.11 and 12. अवजानन्तिमामूढः मानुषिन्तन्माशृतं परंभावमजानन्तोमं भूतमहेश्वरं मोगाशामूग कर्माणु मोगज्यानाविचेतसः राक्षसिमासुरिंचैव प्रकृतिम्मोहिनिशितः So, 9.11 and 12, he says, those who misunderstand him, they are doomed.
Then, from that extreme, he goes to the other extreme. 9.13 and 14, he talks about those who understand him properly and they become devoted to him. मानस्तुमापार्थदैवें प्रकृतिमाशृता वजन्त्यनन्यमनसोग्यात्वाभूताधिममेयं सततंकीतयंतोमाम्यतंतस्युद्रधव्रतानमश्यंतस्यमाम्भक्त्या नित्युक्ताउपासते 9.13 describes the internal characteristics of the devotees, 9.13 and 9.14 describes the external characteristics.
And then in 9.15, Krishna talks about those who are in between. There are those who are opposed to him, those who are devoted to him. And most people are somewhere in between.
And those people who are in between, Krishna places them in three categories. ज्यान यज्येन चाप्य अन्य जंतोमाम पासते एकत्वेन प्रुथक्त्वेन बहुधा विश्वतो मुखं He says that there are these people who have some knowledge and by knowledge they try to worship me. ज्यान यज्येन चाप्य अन्य अधर्स यजंतोमाम उपासते They worship me.
And what are their conceptions? एकत्वेन They think that everything is one. प्रुथक्त्वेन बहुधा They think there are many gods and any of them can be worshipped. बहुधा विश्वतो मुखं विश्वतो मुखं They think the whole universe itself is God.
And these conceptions are addressed by Krishna in the subsequent chapters. In the ninth chapter, Krishna talks later from 9.20 onwards till 27. He talks about those who worship the various Devatas.
They are also worshipping me, but they are worshipping me अविधी पूर्वकम् Improperly. So, after describing this, how are they worshipping Krishna improperly? Because, कृष्णा इस पिताहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामहम् 9.70 says he is the father of all living beings. Suppose there is a king and the prince has quarreled with his father and has left home.
And one out of whom has gone out of his father’s kingdom and moved into some other kingdom. And in that kingdom he is struggling and barely managing to account a living. And his father comes to know about how my son is suffering.
And the father wants the son to come back home. But, if the son, when he knows the son is still having that misunderstanding, will not come back if I approach directly. So, what the father does? He sends a minister.
He tells the minister, you invite him back. And then the minister says, you are working here, you are getting only this much. You work for me, I will pay you much more.
And he says, okay, you pay me, come. I will come with you. And then the minister gets the son back into the father’s kingdom.
He has not yet come back home. But still he is under the protection of the father indirectly. Because he is in the kingdom.
So, like that, those who are worshippers of the devatas, they are in the kingdom of Krishna. They are not in the home of Krishna. But they are in the kingdom of Krishna.
Actually, Prabhupada was once asked that who are better? Are devoted Christians better or are devoted demigod worshippers better? So, Prabhupada explained that those who are worshipping devatas can often be better because they are in the house of the Vedas. Now, of course, this is not a universal statement. There can be devata worshippers who are very materialistic.
There can be Christians who can be very spiritualist. It’s a matter of consciousness. But in broad patterns, those who are in the house of the Vedas, for them, progress towards Krishna is much easier.
So, they may be in the outer parts of the house. But still they are in the house of the Vedas. So, Krishna talks about how they are also worshipping people indirectly.
And they will get temporary results. In the 10th and 11th chapters, he talks about how those who worship Krishna in nature as the Vishwaroopa. And the Vishwaroopa is revealed in the 11th chapter.
The Vishwaroopa is majestic. It’s a magnificent vision where Krishna reveals how he pervades the whole universe. And the idea is that Krishna makes himself accessible in many ways.
Krishna doesn’t say that you have to worship only me. If you don’t worship me, you are going to go to hell. There are religions in the world who say like this.
You have to worship our God. If you don’t worship our God, you are going to go to hell. And there are fanatical people in these religions who say, not only are you going to go to hell, we will help you get there faster.
So, the Bhagavad Gita is not like that. Krishna is not a jealous God. He is a zealous God.
Zealous means he has zeal for elevating the souls. And for that purpose, he is ready to do whatever it takes. So, the system of Devata worship is also meant to slowly indirectly elevate people.
The system of Virat Rupa Aradhana, to consider the universe itself to be God, that is also meant to give people some level of God consciousness. So, in 9.15, he talked about three different categories of people. Those who worship the Devatas, those who worship the universe, and those who worship the impersonal manifestation.
So, he talked about Devatas in the 9th chapter, their worship. He talked about the worship of the universe in the 10th and 11th chapters. And the worship of the impersonal manifestation.
He talks about it in the 12th chapter. And he says, they will also come to me, but they will take time. He says, those who try to attain the absolute truth of the impersonal manifestation, it is very difficult to progress.
Why is it? Because the only thing to talk is that there is nothing to talk. The only thing to do is that there is nothing to do. The only thing to think is that there is nothing to think.
Because within the impersonal conception, actually all thought, all action, all emotion, all words, they are meant to be transcendent, to go beyond it all. So, what is there beyond it all? Ultimately, it’s not a very appealing conception. It will appeal only to those people who are utterly fried out with material life.
Just like sometimes we may get, you know, when too many people are nagging us, we may just say, just leave me alone. Just leave me alone. Now, if people took that literally and left us alone for the rest of our lives, we would be miserable.
We want people, we want people, we want association, we want friends, we want a social circle. Sometimes it may become too much. So, the impersonal conception is like an overreaction to the frustration of material life.
It’s like when I say, just leave me alone, it’s not that I just want to be left alone. I just want my space, I want my time. I want relationships also, but I want my space and time.
Similarly, impersonal is material life is frustrating. We don’t want relationships. We don’t want emotions.
We don’t want, you know, forms in the material world are very attractive. So, these forms are attractive, but they’re temporary. They’re temporarily attractive.
So, therefore, we don’t want any of these things. Now, they say we don’t want any of these things, and then what happens? When they see the form in Krishna, they think this form is also temporary. Suppose, you know, we go to some place and they give us some currency notes, and suppose it’s fake currency.
Now, to mistake real currency to be fake, to mistake fake currency to be real, that is bad because we get cheated over there. But suppose somebody becomes so burned out by the experience of fake currency that when somebody gives real currency also, they say this is fake. Don’t give it to me.
Then they cannot use currency at all at that time. So, to mistake the false currency to be real is bad, but to mistake real currency to be false is worse. So, materialists are people who mistake the fake currency to be real.
That means they think that, oh, the forms, the relationships, the emotions, the pleasures here, they are the ultimate goal of life. They are what is real. And even if God exists, their idea, okay, now Krishna is playing his flute, inviting us to come to the spiritual world, to join his pastimes.
There can be people who are materialist and they are also religious. Their conception is what? Krishna, they don’t want to join Krishna in his pastimes. They say, Krishna, I want to perform pastimes here.
You come down and assist me here. You assist me in whatever I want to do here. So, now, in materialism, they think that this world is the real world.
Everything here is real. So, that is like mistaking the fake currency to be real currency. The impersonalists, they are so burned out by the fake currency of this world that they reject all currency as false.
So, they consider the forms of this world as false and they consider Krishna’s form also to be false. Some of the materialistic people, some of the impersonalists, they sometimes, they say, I was an atheist till I discovered I was God. So, the idea is, they just think that God means absolute non-differentiated oneness and they think we are all that one, so we are all God.
So, impersonalism is basically overreaction to the frustration of material life. Then, Krishna says that if one tries to progress in this way, it is very difficult because there is nothing positive, there is nothing attractive in the spiritual conception. So, then, after describing the difficulty of this in 12.5, in 12.6 and 7, Krishna states how, whereas, in 12.5, he said, for those who are on the impersonal path, progress is difficult, but for those who become his devotees, for him, he personally helps them.
teśām ahaṁ samundharta vṛttyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt bhavāminacirād-pārtha mayyāveśita-cetasām So, he says, those who become devoted to me, that was mentioned in 12.6, that those who become devoted to me, ahaṁ samundharta, I will deliver them. vṛttyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt, from the ocean of material existence. bhavāminacirād-pārtha, nacirād, not after a long time, very soon I will deliver them.
mayyāveśita-cetasām, those who fix their consciousness on me, I will deliver them. So, in this way, from the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita till 12.7, Krishna has taken the message to its peak. You are not the body or the soul, therefore, you practice Karma Yoga.
From Karma Yoga, come to Ashtanga Yoga, then come to Bhakti Yoga. In Bhakti Yoga, understand the glory of Bhagavan, and become totally devoted to Bhagavan, giving up all other conceptions of worshipable objects, like devatas, or the universe, or the in-person manifestation. In this way, when Krishna takes one to the top, so now, this top level can sometimes be attractive, and can sometimes be very forbidding.
It’s so high up. How can I ever reach that top level? So then, from 12.8 onwards, Krishna drops down a ladder of mercy. From 12.8 to 12.12, Krishna talks about various levels at which one can practice bhakti.
So, I said, how? The child doesn’t want to do this, mother says, okay, you can do this, you can do this, you can do this, but somehow or the other, the mother gets the child on the right track. So, like that, Krishna is offering various options to us. So, first, in 12.8, he says, just think about me always.
He says, He says, if you think of me always, if your intelligence and mind are fixed in me, then you will live in me. So, Krishna is using the present tense word over here. He is not saying that you will attain me in future.
You have already attained me. You are already in me. Because where our heart is, that is where we are.
So, if our heart is devoted to Krishna, then we are already with Krishna. In the Garuda Purana, it is stated that for those who are purely devoted to Krishna, they are already with Krishna. And for them, it is just a matter of the body’s prarabdha karma to get over.
And as soon as the body falls, they will be back with Krishna, actually. So, those are the people who are totally devoted to Krishna. And this is actually the highest level.
Now, for them, this highest level is not possible. Many times people say, how can you always think of Krishna? How is it practical? We have to think of so many things. We have to do so many things.
So, actually, thinking of Krishna is not an external imposition. It’s not like, say, a child doesn’t want to eat something. And the mother catches the mouth and says, take the medicine.
So, constantly remembering Krishna is not like that. The mind goes here and there, forced to remember Krishna. No, that way, that is sadhana bhakti.
We will talk about that later. But the constant remembrance of Krishna is not an external imposition. It is an internal reorientation.
It is an internal reorientation of the heart. It’s like, say, when a mother loves her child, the child may go to school. And the mother may be thinking, oh, now my child must have reached the school.
Now my child must be having lunch. I made this lunch. Will she like it? Will she take it fully or not? Maybe she will leave something behind.
And then, when the class is getting, when the school band is getting ready, now my child must have gotten out of it. Maybe she is coming by bus or whatever. So, although the mother and child may be physically separated, but because of the affection that joins the two, the mother is always thinking of the child.
So, similarly, at the exalted spiritual level, there are very esoteric books like Govindanilambrut, which describe how devotees in this world perform a meditation on Krishna based on what kind of pastimes Krishna is performing in the spiritual world. So, for example, the devotees wake up in the morning and when they wake up in the morning, they think about what all pastimes Krishna is performing in the morning. Oh, now Mother Yashoda must be bathing him.
Now Krishna is wearing a nice dress. Now Krishna is taking breakfast. So, in the morning, they meditate on Krishna’s morning pastimes.
When it becomes day time, now Krishna is going to the forest. And now Krishna must be herding the cows. Now this calf is going here, Krishna is pulling her back.
And Krishna is playing his flute. Krishna has three different flutes. One for the cows, one for the Gopas and one for the Gopis.
So, now Krishna is playing the flute for the cows and he is getting all of them back. And then as evening starts happening, then they start thinking, now how all the Brajwasis have come out of their houses and they are eagerly waiting, when will Krishna come back home? They are anticipating and then they see a dust cloud rising. And as the dust cloud rises, then their heart rises.
Because the dust cloud indicates that all the cows are coming back and as the cows are coming back, their hooves are raising the dust cloud. And then Krishna tantalizes his devotees. How is that? He wants to make sure that every single calf comes back home.
He doesn’t want to intentionally tantalize his devotees. But he wants to make sure that every calf, single calf, no calf is lost. That is also one of the meanings of the word Govinda.
Govinda means one who gives pleasure to the cows, one who gives pleasure to the senses. So, Krishna, Bilvamangal Thakur prays in one prayer that Krishna, he says that when the cows go out for grazing, you make sure that every single cow comes back home to you. He says, the word Go also means senses.
He says, all my senses are going away from you, please bring them back to you. Please bring them back to your place. So, the point I was making is that Krishna comes last.
All the cows come back and Krishna comes. And all the devotees are waiting. When is Krishna going to come? And as their anticipation increases, their ecstasy increases.
And finally, they see this blueish black heartthrob of their lives. And they feel ecstatic. So, this is how the devotees, they remember how Krishna performed various pastimes in the spiritual world.
And corresponding to the time here, they meditated on the time of what pastime Krishna is performing at that time. Now, this sort of remembrance is a natural result of affection. Just as a mother will remember what my child is doing where now.
Similarly, now this is not that the mother has to constantly keep looking at the photo of the child. That’s not constantly. That’s helpful.
But that’s not what is required. It’s natural affection. So, when there is affection internally, there is automatically recollection.
This is the highest level. So, constant remembrance of Krishna, it is a result of natural affection for Krishna. Now, this we don’t have at present.
At least I don’t have. So, then what is the next level? Krishna says another level, 12.9. He said, अतचित्तं समाधातुं नशक्नो सिमईस्थिरं अभ्यास योगेन तो मामिच्चाप्तुं धनन्जयः If you cannot fix your consciousness, if your mind is not being fixed in one place, therefore what do you do? अभ्यास योग अभ्यास योग means practice. And what will practice do? मामिच्चाप्तुं धनन्जयः मामिच्चाप्तुं You’ll get इच्चा for me.
You’ll get attraction for me. So, it’s interesting, Krishna says, the attraction for him will develop by recollection. So, if we keep remembering Krishna, if we keep hearing Krishna Katha, taking darshan of Krishna, chanting Krishna’s name, by that our attraction to him will develop.
Many times people talk about love as a feeling. Like, in movies they talk about love at first sight. You know, the hero sees a girl and the girl sees a boy and they both, it’s like, they’re maddeningly carried away by love.
It’s possible when two people see each other, they may feel attracted to each other. But the relationship and its stability is determined not by what happens at first sight. It is determined by what happens after many sights.
So, the relationship, it cannot be just based on a feeling. You know, the feeling has to be cultivated and then there has to be, when people act in a loving way, then the relationship settles. So, Krishna is talking for a pure devotee, when they see Krishna, then natural affection.
For us, there may not be that natural affection immediately, but there is a cultivation. Cultivation means, say, we serve Krishna in various ways. We try to care for Krishna.
And whatever ways, devotional services we do, Krishna says, by this what will happen? You will get Iccha for me. Your desire for me will become stronger and stronger. And actually, if we have desire for Krishna, naturally, we will think of Krishna.
Because what we desire for, we think about it naturally. Suppose a person is alcoholic, then that person, suppose, say, this is the home, this is the office, and along the way there is a bar. Then, even before the person comes near the bar, the mind has also already gone inside the bar.
Why? Because there is desire. And if the person is addicted to alcohol, then what to speak of before the person comes to the bar? Even before the person goes out of the house, the mind has already gone inside the bar. So, when there is desire for something, we naturally think of that thing.
So, in Bhakti, what we need to do is get that desire for Krishna. That right now, we know Krishna is our Lord, and we are meant to love and serve Him, but the desire for Him is not very strong. And Krishna says that desire will come by practicing sadhana.
So, the first level is, in 12.8, He said, what is that? Always think of Me. Second level, He says, practice thinking of Me. Here, there will not be affection, but practice it, and by that, He says, affection will come.
Now, some of you may say, but that is also not practical. I have so many things to do in life, I have to go here, I have to do this job, I have to do this housework. I can’t think about Krishna all the time.
I can’t even practice thinking about Krishna all the time. So, Krishna gives one level lower. Then He says, abhyasepya samarthose, matkarma paramobhava, madartham apikarmani, kurvan siddhim avasisi.
This is abhyasepya samarthose. You cannot do abhyas also. Asamartha, you are not capable of doing that.
Then He says, matkarma paramobhava, this is work for Me. And madartham apikarmani, even by working for Me, kurvan siddhim avasisi, even by working for Me, you will attain Me. So, this work for Me is something which is more practical.
Because, our consciousness is very much externally situated right now. So, for example, if I relax like this, I raise my legs up, and then I say, I am very humble. I feel very humble.
Is it practical? I may say like that, but just that posture itself is very bossy. It is a posture, if I put my legs on a table and I relax back, it is possible that some people may feel humble. But, it is very difficult.
Certain postures, they evoke certain emotions. So, for us, if we get the externals properly, then the internals are more likely to come. Suppose if I want to chant attentively, and I lie down flat on a bed, soft bed, and I will chant attentively.
Well, it may be possible for some people. But, there is the samadhi in transcendence, and there is the samadhi in ignorance. We will probably go into that samadhi in ignorance.
We will just go to sleep at that time. So, the externals affect our internals. And internals are often not so easy to cultivate, but the externals can be cultivated.
And through that the internals will gradually come. So, Krishna, the second verse, first and second was about internals. First verse he said, always think of me.
Second is, try to think of me. Third is, when it comes to externals, work for me. Work for me.
So, work for me, the acharya has explained, this can be at two levels. One is, we directly do seva for Krishna. We may go to the temple, we may do some service, we may distribute books, we may clean the temple, we may cook for Krishna.
Here, we may not be consciously thinking about Krishna while doing these things. But still, we are working for Krishna. And the second level is, where we may be doing our own work, but we are doing that in a mood of offering it to Krishna.
So, for example, we may do some seva in the temple, and then we have our jobs, we have our families, we have our homes to take care of. So, that time when we are doing that, that is our own work, but we do it in a mood of service to Krishna. Krishna talks about this in the 18th chapter when he says, sva-karmana tam abhyarcha siddhim vindati maanavaha This is an Indian word for it, sva-karmana, by your own work, tam abhyarcha, attain Him, worship Him, abhyarcha.
And if you do this, siddhim vindati maanavaha, you will attain perfection. So, by your work, worship Him. Some people translate this as, work is worship.
Now, if work itself is worship, then the donkey is the biggest worshipper. Isn’t it? The donkey works so hard. If work itself is worship, a thief may come and say, robbing is my worship.
A beggar may say, begging is my worship. So, all work automatically does not become worship. Work is worship is a fine enough principle to talk about the dignity of all labour.
No work should be looked down upon. All work should be done carefully. So, if you are talking about, in that sense, we can use the saying, work is worship.
But in a philosophical sense, work itself is not worship. Krishna doesn’t teach work is worship. Krishna says, worship Him with your work.
Worship the Lord with your work. So, if we think of our work as our work only, it’s one thing that we may think of God as somewhere up there. And I am here.
But Krishna tells that, I am not only up there, I am everywhere. That Lord who is the source of everything, that Lord who pervades everything, you should worship Him. In the 7th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a story of Prahlad Maharaj.
And, when everybody in the universe is trembling in fear of Harinikashipu, and so Prahlad is fearless. And Prahlad is so fearless, you know, suppose some thief comes in to our house, and the hefty, well-built thief, and some… some person in the house, some lady, she is completely fearlessly facing that thief. Who is behind you? Now, how are you so fearless? I can just crush you.
So, like that, this itself, there may be some match. But Prahlad is just a tiny 5-year-old boy, Harinikashipu is a big demon. So, Harinikashipu naturally asks, who is the source of your strength? So, the idea is that he is thinking, I am not able to break you, but if I can break the person who is behind me, then you will cower down to me.
You will bow down to me. So, he wants to do that. So, he asks, who is the source of your strength? Sometimes, we may think that God is the best of all beings.
You know, God is the highest, God is the greatest, God is the best of all beings. Now, that is a partial understanding of God. It is not the full understanding.
Because if we think that God is the best of all beings, then what that means is, it’s like if you have cricket, now, recently there was a T20 world cup. So, one cricket world cup was there. So, one particular team won the world cup.
That has become the best team. But it is the best only for four years. Afterwards, some other team may win and then they will become the best.
Or if you have tennis, somebody will be number one right now. In the future, somebody else can become number one. So, like that, if we think of God as the best of all beings, then we may think that actually, if somebody else can defeat God, then they will become God.
Then we think like, okay, I am here, they are here, they are there, then God is up there. Just like people think we can climb a corporate ladder and go above our boss. So, like that, we may think I can go above God also.
So, God is not just the best of all beings. He is the basis of all being. He is the basis of all being.
Nothing can exist without Him. In 10.39, Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, nothing can exist without Him. Nothing can exist.
So, it is not that, okay, this is number five, this is number four, number three, number two, and that is number one. But they are all in the same category. Just one slightly bigger than the other.
But God exists in an entirely different category. No one can rise to His category. He is in a different category of existence.
That’s why, what Prahlad Maharaj answers? Prahlad Maharaj doesn’t say, Vishnu is the source of my strength. What does he tell? Does anyone know? When Aniruddha Ghashipa asks Prahlad, who is the source of your strength? The answer specifically he gives, he says, the source of my strength is the same as the source of your strength and also the source of the strength of Brahma. Why Brahma? Because Brahma is the source of the strength of Hiranyakashipu.
Hiranyakashipu was called a prediction for Brahma. In fact, he says, he is the source of the strength of all living beings. So, here, Prahlad Maharaj, even at that time, he is trying to elevate Hiranyakashipu’s consciousness.
He says, don’t think that Vishnu, and the next two words if he says, in that context, he says, Vishnu is not your enemy. Vishnu is your greatest well-wisher. Your only enemy is your uncontrolled and misguided mind.
Is your uncontrolled and misguided mind. And if you can just get over that enemy, then you can become elevated. Then you can become liberated.
So, here, the point that we are talking about is that God is not just one among many beings. He is the source of all beings. So, when I, if I am working in a job, it is, okay, the temple is there, home is here, my office is here, and I go to the temple, I worship Krishna.
It’s not like that. When I come home, Krishna is there in the temple, Krishna is there in the home also. And Krishna is there in the office also.
Krishna is there everywhere. Everything comes from him. Now, there are two extremes.
One is to think that Krishna is only in the temple. And the other extreme is to think that because Krishna is everywhere, there is no need to go to the temple. Both are misunderstandings.
To think that Krishna is only in the temple, that means we don’t understand who God actually is. God is not just a person like us. God is a person who is the absolute truth.
And he is present everywhere. But the other extreme is to think that God is everywhere, so there is no need to go to the temple. That is a misunderstanding because God is everywhere, but God is not perceivable to us everywhere.
Just like if I feel thirsty, then when thirst is filled with, quenched with water, now water is present everywhere as water vapor. But if I want to quench my thirst, I cannot just hang out my tongue and get water in my mouth. That will not satisfy me.
Water is there everywhere as water vapor, but it’s not accessible to me. Where the water vapor is transformed into water, I have to go to a tap, there water becomes accessible to me. So like that, Krishna is present everywhere, but Krishna is not perceivable to us everywhere.
And that’s why we need to spend quality time in those places where Krishna is perceivable to us. In the temple, in chanting his holy names, in worshipping the deity. And then, in that contact, our affection to Krishna is evoked.
Our recollection to Krishna is stimulated. Recollection of Krishna is stimulated. And then afterwards, when we go to other places, when we are doing other activities, then also we can be carrying that remembrance of Krishna.
If we are not carrying that remembrance, if we do not cultivate that remembrance before, then that remembrance will not be there later. So for example, suppose the husband is working at some faraway place, in a different town, and the wife is in another place. And the husband comes back home, and the husband says to his wife that, you know, when I am at that place, I always think about you.
But then the wife starts talking, and the husband takes out his cell phone and starts taking his messages. He doesn’t pay any attention to the wife. And the wife says, when I am in front of you, you are not paying attention to me, you are not thinking about me.
How can I believe that you are thinking about me when I am not there? Isn’t it? So affection, it has to be first expressed, when a person is there, we pay attention to that person. And then when that person is not there, there will be recollection of that person also. If there is no attention when that person is there, then there will be very little recollection.
Because there is no, that affection has not been nourished. That’s why, for us, to do directly devotional activities is important. But after doing directly devotional activities, the remaining time, we can be doing our other activities, we carry the remembrance of Krishna with us.
And then the last level, which Krishna talks about in the sequence, 12.12 is a little more technical, I won’t go into that. 12.11 Krishna says that, if you can’t work for me, at least, do your work for some good cause. He says, 12.12 What he says is, that you work for a good cause.
That means, Krishna is essentially talking about selflessness. Selflessness means, he says that, if you can’t do this, do this, do this, do this. If you can’t do this, at least give some charity.
Do something for others, by which you are not always self-centered. You are thinking about others, and you are becoming devoted to others. Now in the Mahabharata, when Krishna is in the, when the Pandavas are in the forest, at that time, they go to the, they are, they move up the forest, in the Himalayas.
And when they are in the Himalayas, at that time, Bhima at one time just, Bhima is an adventurous person. And an adventurous person, he is not so adventurous, he is so confident of his strength, he is often reckless. Now for example, when you are going to a forest, and sometimes a tiger would come.
Now when tiger sees, when humans see a tiger, they get scared. So when Bhima would see a tiger, Bhima would just, slap the tiger. Tiger would just fall down, and tiger would look, what happened? No human being, ever had the audacity to slap me like this.
Bhima was so strong, right from his childhood. At one time, Kunti and Pandu, they were sitting on top of a cliff. And they were just talking with each other.
At that time, Kunti just nodded off. He slept. And then suddenly in the distance, a tiger roared.
With the tiger roar, Kunti, she just woke up, and she was scared. So as she is scared, she just rose up, started up. And Bhima was in her lap.
And Bhima just fell off the cliff. And he just flew off. And Kunti screamed in horror.
Pandu just charged down the edge of the cliff, as fast as he could. And when they went down, they saw that, Bhima had fallen on a rock. And the rock had broken into pieces.
Nothing had happened to Bhima. So, Bhima was so powerful. Now the same Bhima, was so powerful, he just went down to the forest to explore what is happening.
And as he was exploring what is happening, he suddenly saw that there was a serpent over there. And he saw there was a cave. And from that cave, some serpent was looking out.
So he was not very interested in serpents. He started walking away from there. As he started walking away, suddenly, Bhima felt as if he could not move at all.
And who could restrain him? He just looked around, looked around. Couldn’t see anything. And then he found that, he was being dragged along.
He felt as if he had lost all his power. Bhima was extremely powerful. And for him to lose power was incredible.
And he turned around and that snake was looking at him. And although the snake had not yet caught him, he was just being irrevocably pulled towards that snake. And then that snake got a big coil and just like Krishna, Kali had caught Krishna, like that, that snake caught Bhima.
And he said to Bhima that, actually, he said, who are you? How can you catch me? No snake can catch me. So that snake spoke. He says, I am your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.
He said, what? He said, actually, my name is Nahusha. And I was a king in the same dynasty in which you were. And I had performed great pious activities and I had become elevated to heaven.
But there, in heaven, I committed a pran to the Sapta Rishis. And it tells the whole story. We will not go into that story right now.
But he committed an offense to the Sapta Rishis and because of that offense, he had to come to the earth as a snake. And he said, when I was a snake, I begged forgiveness of the sages and they said that, they said that, you will be a snake. But because you had been so punyavan earlier, you will be a special snake.
An extremely powerful snake. And anyone who comes within your, the radius of your perception, anyone whom you see, if you want to catch them, you will be able to catch them. You will have that much power.
And therefore, I have been able to catch you. Bhima realized that, his power was physical. But when the sages give blessings, that is spiritual power.
And that is how the spiritual power can at any time overcome the physical power. So now he said, he realized that he is a snake, he said, I am going to eat you now. So, and what can I give for you? He says, tell me anything.
He says, I will do whatever you want. If you want food, I will myself go and get food for you. But, he says, no, I think I want only one thing.
He said, I have been, then he, the snake was not at all interested. He says, there must be some way. Bhima was also, he was, although he was sometimes reckless, but basically he was also intelligent.
So he started thinking. He says, there must be some way out. He says, when you are cursed, what is the way you can get released from the curse? So at that time he said, you know, the sages told me that when I ask questions in spiritual wisdom and if somebody can answer those questions, then I will be, on hearing, on being enlightened by their answers, if they give correct answers, I will be released from the, I will be released from the snake body.
Then Bhima said, yes. He said, I have my brother Yudhishthir. He can answer all questions.
Actually in the forest, Bhima was very angry with Yudhishthir. Because, first of all, Yudhishthir had gambled and lost everything. But more importantly, Bhima, several times he would get the Kshatriya.
He said, why are we staying in the forest? Let’s go back and attack the Kauravas and defeat them right now. So, Bhima, he would use his own reasoning. He says, you know, according to one Purana, one month is also called one varsha.
Sometimes, a month is also called a year. So, already, we have finished 12 months. So, let the 12 months, the 13 months that we have finished, let it be 13 years.
Let’s go back to the Kauravas. So, like that he would try to give various reasonings. And each time, Yudhishthir, he would shift his role from that of an elder brother to a father.
You know, in a family, often the elder brother, especially the father is not there, the eldest brother, often takes the role of a father. So, Yudhishthir, what he would do, when Bhima would act in this way, oh child, don’t speak like this. Bhima, he is such a powerful Kshatriya.
To be called a child, he would get even more angry. So, he was very angry with Yudhishthir. But he thought, yes, Yudhishthir’s brahmanical learning will also come to some use now.
So, he said, okay, don’t eat me. If I don’t go back soon, my brother will come and search for me. And my brother is very wise.
You also must have heard of Yudhishthir. Yes, yes. Yudhishthir is famous in all the three worlds.
I have also heard of him. So, he says, let him come. So, when Yudhishthir comes there, at that time, there is a long series of questions and answers between Yudhishthir and Nahusha.
But one of the important questions over there is that how is a spiritually advanced person known? So, Yudhishthir Maharaj replies that spiritual advancement is known through one’s actions. It is not just through the kind of dress one wears or what one is… We cannot know what someone is constantly remembering. Someone may say, I am constantly thinking about Krishna.
But how do we know that? What we can see is what they are doing. If the actions are devoted to Krishna, then, actually, we can see that they are devoted to Krishna. Insha Allah, Prabhupada met the famous musician George Harrison.
George Harrison was quite spiritually minded. In fact, he was a part of a musical group called Beatles. And among them, George Harrison was called the spiritual Beatle.
He was very spiritually minded. And he had met many other spiritual leaders from India before he met Insha Allah Prabhupada. So, he asked, Swamiji, why do you say that your Bhagavad Gita is only Bhagavad Gita as it is? Others can also comment on the Bhagavad Gita.
Others can also explain the Bhagavad Gita. Prabhupada said, yes, they can explain the Bhagavad Gita. But, Prabhupada said, simple test.
He said, Bhagavad Gita is a book which talks about Krishna. It talks about becoming devoted to Krishna. And, we see that Arjuna at the time of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna did not become a Jnani.
Arjuna did not become a Yogi. Arjuna became a devotee. And in the mood of devotion, he served Krishna by carrying out his duty, which was fighting for him.
So, Prabhupada said that if the Bhagavad Gita teaches devotion to Krishna, if the original student of the Bhagavad Gita became a devotee of Krishna, then those who are claiming to teach Bhagavad Gita, you have to see, are they devoted to Krishna? They hardly ever chant the name of Krishna. They hardly ever worship Krishna. They may be great scholars.
But, are they teaching the Bhagavad Gita? Are they living the Bhagavad Gita? So, the criteria that way is very simple. That, if somebody is teaching the Bhagavad Gita, they should be living what the Bhagavad Gita’s conclusion teaches. So, similarly, it’s by actions that one will know.
So, Prabhupada was constantly devoted to Krishna. Wherever he would go, he would just think about Krishna. And the way Prabhupada started, I’ll conclude with this.
The way in which Prabhupada started the Dhyatara festival in, West was amazing. One day, Prabhupada was just on the first floor of a house. He was there and he was chanting Hare Krishna.
Walking along in the balcony. And on the ground, he saw on the road a flatbed truck going along. A flatbed truck means the side walls of the truck had been removed.
So, it was a flatbed truck. And Prabhupada just looked at this flatbed truck and suddenly got the idea. He says, you know, we can put Jagannath Bandhu Subhadra on the back of a flatbed truck and we can perform Pratyatara here.
So, now, who can see a flatbed truck and think of Pratyatara? That was Shri Prabhupada’s consciousness. He was constantly thinking of serving Krishna and because he was constantly thinking of serving Krishna, even a side which is all as mundane, nobody would think of a truck as anything spiritual. Just something going on the road.
So, Prabhupada saw a truck and he thought, here is an opportunity to serve Krishna. And this is how, by our work, whatever we are doing, we can serve Krishna. By our actions, whatever we do, we do it in the form of serving Krishna.
And thus, gradually our consciousness becomes spiritualized and we do, by following Shri Prabhupada’s guidance as he has given in his books and by understanding the Bhagavad Gita, internalizing the mood of devotion to Krishna, we can also make our consciousness Krishna-mind filled with Krishna. So, I will summarize. I started by talking about how the Bhagavad Gita is both accommodating and elevating.
So, accommodating means that it doesn’t just say, this is the only way. First of all, it talks about various ways like Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and it says they all elevate, but Bhakti Yoga is the best. And even Bhakti Yoga gives the highest level, but then it gives the other levels.
So, somehow it stays connected. So, elevating gives the path to the highest, but also accommodates. It cannot be at that level.
Keep moving forward at some level or the other. So, discussed the flow of the Bhagavad Gita in terms of a relationship between two people. So, when I say somebody is talking about a romance novel or a romance movie, they first introduce the hero, then they introduce the heroine, and they describe how the relationship develops.
So, there is A, B, and the affection between A and B. So, like that, the Bhagavad Gita first introduces us to the person, that is the soul, who is the Atma. And how one can realize the Atma for that Krishna moves from Karma Yoga from the second chapter to the sixth chapter start, and from Karma Yoga to Dhyana Yoga which comes in the sixth chapter. Dhyana Yoga culminates in Bhakti Yoga.
And in the seventh chapter, Bhakti and Bhagavan mode. So, in the seventh chapter, Krishna focuses on Bhakti as the best way to approach transcendence. In the focuses on Bhagavan and describes how He is the Supreme, how He underlies as the essence of everything.
In the eighth chapter, Krishna compares Ashtanga Yoga with Bhakti Yoga and shows how Bhakti Yoga is the highest. In the ninth chapter, He focuses on the object of Bhakti, Bhagavan and then He describes His supreme position, He talks about 9.11-12, those who are opposed to Him, 13-14, He talks about those who are devoted to Him. 9.15, He talks about those who are in-between, 3 categories, those who worship the universe, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the impersonal manifestation.
Those who worship the devatas, He talks about in the remaining part of the ninth chapter, those who worship the universe, He talks about in the remaining part of the ninth chapter, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, worship the devatas, those who worship the those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who worship the devatas, those who those who worship the devatas, worship the class and drink water. We can’t access God everywhere. And then we will talk about how when Krishna is present in front of us, if we offer attention, then that builds affection.
And then when Krishna is not present in front of us, that time also there will be recollection. It’s like, I talked about our husband who is away from his wife, and the wife is there, then he has attention and then there will be recollection later. So then we concluded by discussing how the bhakti is manifested not just through internal recollection, that is fine.
But at our stage, what is most important is actions. We try to act in a way that is uncool to our bhakti. And in our connection we discussed how Bhima was overcome by the physical power of Nahusha in the form of a snake.
He was rescued by Yudhishtira’s will strength, not in physical terms, but in his intellectual terms, by his wisdom. And he described the true characteristic of spiritualism, the most important characteristic is the actions. By the actions, if we have devotion, that will become manifest.
By the actions, if we don’t have devotion, the devotion will become cultivated. And we discussed how Prabhupada, everywhere, wherever we go, just see the potential to serve Krishna. And by cultivating a similar mood of service in our own small capacity, we can also infuse our heart with Krishna consciousness.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions, comments? I have a question. Most of the times, we have faith in God.
But we don’t encounter them with their faith, what they really say. But they continuously negating Krishna. Whatever you are doing is just chanting, showing off, you are limiting.
And whereas we are constantly remembering God. How to counter those kinds of? So those people who say that we are constantly remembering God, but they don’t do anything externally connected with God directly. And they condemn those who are doing externally external activities that you’re just going to show off and you’re limiting yourself to the external activities.
You’re not doing practical activities. And in any situation, in any relationship, love already has to be expressed through action. If a husband comes back home after work, and the husband is tired, and the wife says, I love you.
A child comes back home from school, the mother says, I love you. The child says, I’m hungry. I love you.
I’m hungry. I love you. I’m hungry.
I told you I love you. That’s fine, but I want food. No, I love you.
That love has to be expressed through actions. So tell any relation, show any relationship, in which love is only in the mind, never seen in actions. It doesn’t work like that.
No relationship can be sustained. In fact, when people have affection for each other, but they don’t express it, then even a good relationship can go so because of that. So there should not just be internal emotion, but also external expression of that emotion.
Both are required for a continuation of a healthy relationship. So similarly, with respect to our practice of bhakti, there is, it’s possible that some people may do their religious activities just for show. Sometimes some religious activities can be done as exhibition.
And Krishna talks about this. So he says, the ungodly people, sometimes they do some charitable activities, they do some religious activities. Why? They go to the temple not to take darshan of Krishna, they go to the temple to let everyone have their darshan.
See, I am such a pious person. I also go to the temple. So they are not really interested in God at all.
They don’t do naam yagya. They do yagya for naam. They do yagya for the sake of name and fame.
They don’t do naam yagya. There are people like that. And such people do give religion a bad name.
And now, these are not the only kind of people that are there. As I said that, there can be exhibitionism, which is there in religion. But there is also exhibition and there is also expression.
So expression means that in any relationship, affection internally has to be expressed practically. So similarly, when we chant, when we dance, when we wear tilak, when we wear a particular kind of dress, that is the way we are striving to express our affection for Krishna. So now, sometimes it happens that people, they say that, oh, you don’t need to worship God, you just do something in this world.
Okay, take care of poor people, feed them, that’s all good. But if you feed poor people, if you feed them food, that’s okay, their hunger will be mitigated. But if you provide them prasad, they will be spiritually also benefited.
The point is that there is manavseva, there is madhavseva. Some people do only madhavseva and don’t care for manu. That means they are only worshipping God and don’t care for fellow human beings at all.
That is not the mood of devotees. People, as devotees, we don’t share Krishna with others. And that doesn’t mean only philosophy.
We also distribute prasad, we also offer practical help whenever it is possible for us. The point is, one extreme is that only madhavseva to do and there is no need to do manavseva. When Prabhupada was in Australia, at that time, next to the temple, there was a big building and there was a fire.
And the fire was there, the fire security men who had come, they did not have any safety net or something like that. So, the devotees, the next day they were going to have rathyatra. And they had made a big thick cloth to put on the Jagannath cart.
So, the devotees took out that cloth and they held it. And the person from the fire, from the upper building, they jumped down and they were saved. So, then after that, the next day the newspaper reported.
And so, this is because in that time, they had the idea that India is filled with Brahmins who are already sanctimonious. Sanctimonious means they are very puritanical, I don’t touch you, I am untouchable, you are like this, you are like that. So, when they heard that devotees had used this sacred cloth, it was meant for their religious festival for saving a human being.
And the newspaper reported and then lord it returns. And then they asked Prabhupada, these people use it for this purpose, can we still use it for rathyatra? Prabhupada said, you can use it. You wash it properly, clean and use it.
The point is that it is not that if somebody says, we are going to be so busy in Madhavseva that we cannot practically help you. So, Madhavseva and Manavseva should not be considered as two non-intersecting sets. Somebody may say, I will only do Madhavseva, I do not care about people at all.
But the other extreme is also what? I will only do Manavseva, I do not care about Madhava at all. Now, this is also incomplete, because people cannot be properly helped unless they become connected with God. According to WHO statistics, there are 800 million people in the world who are undernourished, who do not get enough food to eat.
But there are 1000 million, that is 1 million people who are obese. So, what that means is, more number of people who do not get enough to eat is the number of people who eat too much. So, the problem is not just shortage of food.
The problem is the misdirection of resources. And the same principle applies to everything. In this world, there is so much, there is enough for people’s needs.
But when people are greedy, and even if we want to help others, if we can help them in a way that tangibly solves their problems, then that is better. So, if people’s greed can be removed, then they can be much more sustained in the transformation. And the practice of bhakti, people become purified of their greed.
So, therefore, only Manavseva, I think Manavseva alone is enough, there is no need to do Madhavseva. That is not going to transform people. Temperate may benefit, but does not transform people.
About 5, 4, 3, 4 years ago, I was at a conference organized by UNESCO, out of the 60th anniversary, not 70, 80 years ago, 60th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations. And there the head of the India branch of the United Nations had come. And he was speaking that in 60 years, the United Nations has almost 67 organizations, sister organizations.
And they have had millions of volunteers all over the world. And billions of dollars have been spent. But in the 67 areas that they have worked, in all the 67 areas, the conditions have become worse.
Whether it is labor rights, whether it is nautical protection, whether it is this or that. So, they have worked hard since then. But still conditions are not tangible.
In some ways, they improve and afterwards they become worse. So, what we need, material improvement is fine. But material improvement alone is not enough.
Martin Luther King said that we live in an age of guided missiles and misguided men. So, we need to have material things, material help, which will make externally better. But unless people are internally improved, people cannot truly be helpful.
That is why there is a balance of both required. And as devotees, we do not say that Madhavseva alone while not caring for mana and we do not say Manavseva without caring for Madhav. What we do is, we do Madhavseva by which we purify our hearts and we connect others with Madhava and in that process we serve them.
That way, we and others, everyone can be holistically and sustainably benefited. Any other questions? Shall we stop here?