Why is the flow the Gita verses not given in Prabhupada’s Gita?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
That is very unfortunate.
So, question from Rajmohan Pramod. The flow of the Gita verses, how one verse connects to another is quite interesting and relishable to understand but we don’t find this quite often in Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita. Why is that? Prabhupada had a particular thrust when he wrote his books.
He had a huge challenge of presenting a message which was ancient and profound to an audience that was radically different from the audience that was originally intended. People were historically, culturally, linguistically, intellectually, always, different from the audience. So, what he did is, in his purports, Shila Prabhupada took the most important points of Krishna Consciousness and emphasized them again and again and again and when he emphasized them again and again, he made sure that the basic philosophy of Krishna Consciousness becomes very clear and along with that, Shila Prabhupada had a challenge also that Bhagavad Gita itself, even if we see, is Bhagavad Gita as it has already become 800 pages and then it could become much bigger and if the book becomes too big, it will be difficult to read.
Now, Prabhupada also said at one time when he was asked which books he would like to comment on in future, he said I would like to comment on Bhagavad Gita again. So, he indicated there are so many Acharyas and you can get insights from those Acharyas. Now, it’s not that Prabhupada does not give a link.
He gives it many places. For example, 15.4 when the verse says that we should go to that spiritual level and then padam tat parimar sringatan nivartanti bhuya tam eva chadyam purusham prapadyam should surrender to that person. Then Prabhupada explains immediately that how that surrender is to be done is explained in the next verse.
And the next verse is So, there are many places that Shila Prabhupada explains also the flow. But the point is that Prabhupada had a particular emphasis and he stuck to that emphasis in his presentations and the Bhagavad Gita can have many levels of deep technicalities and Prabhupada also said that the serious students should study the commentaries of the previous Acharyas. So, in general if we look at what Shila Prabhupada achieved making a scripture that was utterly unknown into a life guide for millions of people that itself is a remarkable achievement.
And it is no it is no minimization of Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita as it is to say that the Gita being Krishna’s words cannot be limited to one book. Gita is because Krishna is infinite so his words also have infinite meanings. And the fact is that Shila Prabhupada is not just giving us his message.
Shila Prabhupada is introducing us to Krishna’s message and then he is introducing us to a whole tradition. So if we want to study the Bhagavad Gita deeply then it is Shila Prabhupada’s expectation and to please Shila Prabhupada because Shila Prabhupada did not come to start a personality cult. He came to introduce us to a tradition.
So what he did not like was or do not appreciate us, jumping over the current Acharya to the previous Acharya. Neglecting the current Acharya and going to the previous Acharya. But when we are rooted in the teachings of Shila Prabhupada well, when studying the previous Acharya’s books, it will be very helpful in understanding the flow of the Gita verses.
And not only the flow but many other concepts also we can understand. And after we look at those many times when we study previous Acharya’s commentaries then we also appreciate more the way Prabhupada has presented their message in the apt and relevant way for a contemporary audience.