What is the essence of the Bhagavad-gita?
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
What is the, how will you explain the essence of Bhagavad Gita, is a question by Nitin Dubey. The essence of the Bhagavad Gita is love. The Bhagavad Gita demonstrates the transformational power of love.
At the start of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is disheartened, putting aside his bow, unable to do his, to answer the call of duty, unable to fight the war that was there in front of him, beckoning him. By the end of the Bhagavad Gita, that same bow which he has put down, he has picked it up and he is ready to fight. So Arjuna's bow represents our determination.
When we face perplexities, when we face adversities in life, we put aside the bow of our determination. We start thinking, we can't do this. But when we hear the message of the Gita, it restores our morale, it reinstates our determination.
And again we pick up our bow to fight whatever battles we need to fight in our life. Now, what was it that transformed Arjuna? That, that knowledge is the knowledge that centers on spiritual love. So, Krishna explained to Arjuna that at his core, Arjuna is a spiritual being.
So, we are not our physical bodies, we are souls, Atma. And the Atma has an eternal relationship of love with the Paramatma, the Supreme Soul, that is Krishna. And to the extent we act in the light of that loving relationship with Krishna, to that extent, we can be purposeful and focused in this world, irrespective of whether we get success or failure here.
So, the Bhagavad Gita urges us to see life as a reciprocation of love between us and Krishna. So, in this world, sometimes we may get success, sometimes we may not get success. Sometimes we will be loved by others, sometimes we may not be loved by others.
Sometimes we will be honored, sometimes we will be dishonored. If our eyes are only on this world, then all these dualities will take us up or take us down. And we will not be steady.
But, by raising our eyes beyond this world to the source of the world, to Krishna, we will become fixed in acting in this world in a mood of service to Him. So, the Bhagavad Gita's practical direction for applying this message of love is twofold. It says that firstly, we need to directly connect with Krishna through devotional activities by which we can experience His love for us.
We can experience the shelter, the calmness, the clarity, the purity that comes by connecting with Him. And we ourselves can direct our love towards Him. So, we need to give a significant amount of our time on a daily basis for connecting with Krishna through practicing bhakti.
And then, we bring this vision of bhakti into our full life. So, Bhagavad Gita says in 18.46 that we all can worship Krishna through our work. That means whatever we are doing in this world, we do it not just for the sake of earning money or gaining fame or proving a point to someone else.
We do it in a mood of service to God. Whatever talents we have, they are gifts from Krishna. And they are gifts which He has given us by which we can make a contribution in this world in a mood of service to Him.
So, what we are is God's gift to us. And what we become is our gift to God. So, this is the bhakti vision of life.
And this seeing life as a reciprocation of love between us and Krishna and learning to experience Krishna's love and express that love through our daily activities. That is the essential message of the Bhagavad Gita. Thank you.
So, question from Gede Shant Jai. I work as a bar waiter in a cruise ship. How can I transcend my occupational duty into devotional service? Answer.
We are all in different situations based on our past and present karma and choices. And important thing is that wherever we are, we start connecting with Krishna. There is a connection with Krishna which is direct and there is a connection with Krishna which is indirect.
Direct connection with Krishna is by chanting His holy names, by associating with devotees, by studying scriptures, by worshipping His deity. Basically called AVC, Association Books, Chanting and Deity Worship. So, these are the direct ways in which we can connect with Krishna.
And whatever profession we are in, the profession doesn't take 24 hours. So, we can allocate some amount of our time apart from our profession to connecting with Krishna through our direct devotional activities. Now, as far as the indirect devotional activities are concerned, we may not have so much facility to control or change them.
Direct devotional activities, we just make some adjustments in our life, change our priorities. We can make time for doing direct devotional activities. Now, the indirect devotional activities are something which we have to use our intelligence to find out how to spiritualize them.
So, usually the activities that are involving activities that are anti-devotional, then they are detrimental to our spiritual growth. And we can try to minimize our involvement in them. But if it is not possible because of circumstances, so there are four primary activities which are considered anti-devotional.
Meat-eating, gambling, intoxication versus sex. So, these we try to avoid and we try to avoid being involved in professions which are centered on these activities. But if it is not possible to avoid those activities in whatever situation we are in, because of whatever circumstances, then we need to try to infuse a devotional consciousness as much as we can.
So, let me enhance that. Krishna Prabhupada was so inclusive that he said that at one time that if somebody is a compulsive drinker, somebody is an alcoholic and they say that I just can't give up alcohol. Prabhupada said, okay, think that the taste of alcohol is Krishna.
If you think like this, then one day by that remembrance of Krishna, you will become purified and one day you will become a great devotee of Krishna. So, what this means is Krishna is not, Prabhupada is not saying that you drink alcohol. If you are not able to give it up, at least try to think of Krishna within that situation.
And that thinking of Krishna will purify us and gradually the person will give up alcohol. So, whatever situation we are in, now if we have to serve in a bar, then we have to give alcohol to people. So, that's just if we can't change that profession, then what can we do? We try to remember Krishna as much as possible in that profession.
So, we can see people how mad they are for alcohol. And then we can think, what is actually, alcohol is basically, people are killing themselves by drinking it. But still they are mad for it.
Why is it? Because this, they are getting some taste of Krishna in a distorted, fragmented way over here. Now, when Prabhupada says the taste of alcohol is Krishna, what is he meaning? He is not saying that we should all drink alcohol. He is simply saying that, that irresistible allure that they are getting, experiencing over there, where does that come from? That is a spark of Krishna's splendor.
But this is a spark that doesn't take them towards the source. This is a spark that takes them away from the source. So, we don't want to go away from the source.
We don't want to go away from Krishna. But we can appreciate, people get so captivated by this. So, a spark can be so attractive.
How much more attractive will be the whole? And that way, whatever way is possible, we try to remember Krishna. We try to, whatever profession we have, we try to give a portion of that, earnings from that profession in charity. And as we keep practicing bhakti, praying to Krishna for a more favorable situation for practicing bhakti.
Maybe it will work out that we might be able to get a job which does not involve such anti-devotional activities. Or we might be able to shift within that job to a different kind of role within that particular profession. To a different kind of role where we are not directly involved in such anti-devotional activities.
But the important thing is, don't delay one's connection with Krishna just because of one's circumstance. Wherever we are, whatever we can do, we should start doing. And by doing what we can to connect with Krishna from wherever we are, we show him our intention to connect with Krishna, connect with him.
And then he will give us greater facility, greater intelligence for how we can keep connecting with him more and more. Thank you. So one last question.
So question from Gauri Chandra Prabhu. How to deal with devotees who are part of ISKCON but have the tendency to criticize the movement? Answer. We have to, when we come to Krishna's movement, we have to be clear about our purpose.
What have we come here for? We come here for trying to learn to love Krishna, trying to serve Krishna, to go closer to him. So we need to cherish that association that enables us to go closer to Krishna. And we need to, if there are other devotees who don't inspire in that cause, then we need to keep a distance from those devotees.
So the important thing is, that we have to be clear about our purpose. As far as devotees who are criticizing the movement, now, it's not that all critics are offenders. Sometimes there are things which are wrong in a moment and they need to be corrected.
So when somebody is criticizing, we don't have to label those devotees as bad devotees. But generally speaking, we all have to choose our battles. That means we have limited time, we have limited resources, we have limited influence.
And with that limited time, resource, influence, we have to see what is the best that I can do. Sometimes some devotees may criticize with the genuine intention of improving things. And if they have the power or the position to improve things, that is good.
But if that criticism is simply creating a negativity, just discouraging, this is wrong, that is wrong. And devotees don't feel encouraged to practice bhakti. And an overall culture of fault finding comes up instead of Krishna finding.
We are here for Krishna and certainly thousands of people all over the world have come here because they are seeking Krishna and they are finding Krishna at different levels. So as far as finding Krishna is concerned, we can find Krishna in Krishna's movement if that is what our purpose is. So keep a distance from devotees who criticize and find devotees who are like-minded.
So if that devotee, that means we have a particular inspiration in our practice of bhakti, we like certain things in bhakti and just focus on doing those activities wholeheartedly. To the extent we keep doing those activities wholeheartedly, we will be inspired, we will be able to connect with Krishna and we will grow spiritually. And who knows Krishna may by his arrangement help us to have more influence in future by which we can also make things better, we can play our part in improving things.
But right now we have to keep first things first. That means our primary purpose is to ourselves connect with Krishna and to learn to love Krishna. And we associate with those who inspire us to do that.
And if things are wrong, genuinely wrong and they need to be corrected, then if we have the power to do that, we can be a part of doing that. But our focus should never become to keep looking at what is wrong and to keep criticizing what is wrong and to go on a campaign for that. There is much that is right in Krishna's movement.
And the most right thing is that we all have opportunity to go closer to Krishna. So we tap that opportunity and encourage others to tap that opportunity. That's how we can move forwards in our devotional life.
Thank you. So thank you very much for your time and attention. And there are some questions remaining, which we will take in our future session.
Which will be announced in due course on our Facebook page. Thank you for joining.