Why does the Gita say that sva-dharma shouldn’t be given up whereas Bhagavatam says sea-dharma should be given up for bhakti?
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Transcript
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contradictions, thank you so the Bhagavad Gita says that we should stick to asadharma whereas the Bhagavatam says that we should give up our dharma that we should give up our dharma so till what point does one stick to the asadharma, when does one renounce see the scriptures are very context sensitive there is universal essence but the universal essence is presented according to context and the context of the Bhagavad Gita and the context of the Bhagavatam are almost opposite Bhagavad Gita is spoken to a warrior for whom you know who has actually been groomed throughout his life, was trained throughout his life for fighting a dharma yuta and at that time the way for him to practice dharma is through action by fighting on the other hand the Bhagavatam is spoken to a person who is about to die not only he is about to die he is also accepted that I am going to die he is not he is not doing anything to change that so then all the whole narrative of the Bhagavatam is geared toward that context so the Bhagavatam is spoken for a person who has decided that now I have renounced the world, I am going to focus on God how should I focus on God and this context sensitivity is very important, just like there is some young devotee who is depressed because of something and the devotee says you know I will go to Vrindavan, I will chant 128 rounds everyday and that’s how I will spend the rest of my life oh you are young, you are energetic you work here you take up some responsibility, you distribute books you preach, you do this, you do that we will encourage them but suppose there is some devotee who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, it’s incurable and they just give few days to live at that time we are not going to tell them go and distribute books at that time just focus on hearing about Krishna, focus on chanting about Krishna just don’t worry about everything else everything, all your services others will take care of that don’t worry about it so there is this context sensitivity which has to be appreciated and so for the establishment of dharma in the context of the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna’s doing this swadharma is important because the Bhagavad Gita always emphasizes swadharma now Palikshit Maharaj also throughout his life he does his swadharma it is described that when Kali was attacking a cow and a bull at that time can you hear me yes live telecast it is live live telecast live telecast ok so the sound won’t go without this is it ok so now even Palikshit Maharaj also does his swadharma as long as he is the king if the cow and the bull are being attacked he protects them vigorously so eventually when he has accepted that I am going to die at that time he focuses on the practice of bhakti wholeheartedly now of course we can say that this particular verse comes long before the Palikshit Maharaj’s pastime begins it comes 4th, 5th, 6th chapters of the first canto 5th chapter specifically but still that is also setting the mood of the Bhagavatam and if you look at the overall context of Narada’s instructions to Vyasa the point is Narada is telling Vyasa that you should focus on glorifying the Supreme Lord and don’t think that people are not qualified for this now if they practice bhakti they will become elevated so just glorify the process of bhakti but how it is that the Bhagavatam is spoken to a person who is diligently doing his material responsibilities to rise him to the level of focusing on spiritual responsibilities now we live in a world where people are not even doing their material responsibilities isn’t it so the Bhagavatam is spoken to rise people from here to here but you know people are right now over here only and what happens so you know I have an ethos of being uncommitted, irresponsible and then I rationalize my irresponsibility as renunciation as detachment it doesn’t work like that so there is a big difference between detachment and as I said aversion to commitment in an aversion to commitment what is happening is this is the option for enjoyment this is the option for enjoyment if I take one option then I cannot have the other options therefore I will keep all options open basically I want to enjoy materially and I want to keep all options for enjoying materially that is when there is aversion to commitment but when there is detachment that means I have understood material things will not make me happy therefore I give up all material options and focus on spiritual so in that sense there is a huge difference between the two so at our level we focus on doing as per Dharma in Krishna’s sense whatever situation we are in we use that situation for serving Krishna and may be over a period of years as we grow older as we come to a level of retirement at that time we can after we have saved enough and we have done our responsibilities then we can focus more and more on Krishna there is a there is a gradual process of what could be called as the natural development of renunciation in a few people renunciation may develop develop suddenly and it may last so in other people most people it takes a gradual process to develop that and that’s how we move onwards towards Krishna is it answer your question?