Bhagavad-gita 8.6
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Udupi · 2024
Chapters
Recitation and translation of verse eight six
Omnamo Bhagavate, Omnamo Bhagavate, Omnamo Bhagavate Sudevaya sudeva, narayanamastrity, naramchayva, Devi Saraam, Tato Djaya Mudiraye So we will We will read the verse number six from the eighth chapter of Bhagavad Gita.
Attaining the Supreme or Akshara Brahma Yoga, Yam Yam, Ba Api Smarandhavam Tjajati Ante Kalevaram Tadbava. Bavita, Yambati Marambava, Yambati Marambavamatismarambava, Tjajatante Kalivam, Tjaatante Kalivam, Tam
tam eviti conteya, tam tam tik konteya, Saddata Bhava Bhavita, Saddata Bhāva Bhavita, Sada. Yam Yyamambapis Marambavam, Yamatismambava, Tjajatyante Kalevaram, Tamtamivāti konte Saddata Baba Bhavita, Sadhana.
Yam Yam Whatever Vapi At all Smaran Remembering Bhavam nature tja jati gives up and And then Khalevaram this body body tam similar Eva Certainly Eti Gets Kuntea Osanaf Kunti Sada always Ta Bhava State of Being State of Being Bhavitaha Bhavitaha Remembering
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda Kijā. Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body or son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail.
The process of changing one's nature at the critical moment of death is here explained. A person who at the end of his life quits his body thinking of Krishna attains the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord.
But it is not true that the person who thinks of something other than Krishna attains the same transcendental state. This is a point we should note very carefully. How can one die in a proper state of mind?
Maharaja Bharata, although a great personality, thought of a deer at the end of his life. And so in his next life, he was transferred into the body of a deer.
Although, as a deer, he remembered his past activities, he had to accept that animal body. Of course, one's thoughts during the course of one's life accumulate to influence one's thought at the moment of death.
So this life creates one's next life. If one's present life, if in one's present life one lives in the mode of goodness and always thinks of Krishna, it is possible for one to remember Krishna at the end of one's life.
That will help one be transferred to the transcendental nature of Krishna. If one is transcendentally absorbed in Krishna's service, then his next body will be transcendental, spiritual, not material.
Therefore the chanting of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare is the best process for successfully changing one's state of being at the end of one's life.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: taṁ taṁ evāsmaran bhāvam tyajaty ante kalevaram, taṁ tam evaiti kauntēja sadā tad-bhāva- bhāvitaḥ.
Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body or son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail. Thank you.
Nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta- svāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- pracāriṇe, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādī-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe. Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ.
Jaya Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Prabhu-Nityānanda Śrī-Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
ajñāna-timirāndhasya saṅkīrtana Palu Vande, Jagat Priya Karokaru Navataru.
Scientific nature of Vedic spirituality
Yontak pravisi Mamavachimam, Sandji vaya, te ki la Shakti Darah Swadhamna, Anjaam Scha, Charna, Shrawna Twad, Prananda Mau, Bhagawte, Pur Shay Tub. Swastu Vishwasia Calah, Prasidaam dayantu butani sivam mitodiya manaschabadramba ja tata doksaja avesya tu no matir happy haituki.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. I am very happy to be with all of you this Sunday. And we have by the grace of Srila Prabhupada, an opportunity to speak about Krishna and to think about Krishna.
And in this way, ensuring the ultimate success of our life, according to this particular verse from Bhagavad-gītā. The difference between Vedic spirituality,
Vedic path, and many other religions which are there in this world is that Vedas explain everything in a very rational way. Vedas don't explain dogmas. Well, dogmas you don't need to explain, dogmas you just state.
Vedas don't encourage the blind faith. Vedas want us to think and want us to understand the principles of spiritual life. Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda again and again called Krishna consciousness as science of God.
He didn't call it religion. He didn't call it the religious movement of God consciousness. He was very specific and very strict. He says it's a science of God by which you can attain God.
And this particular chapter, which is called Akṣara-brahma-yoga, or as Prabhupāda translates this traditional name of the eighth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā as attaining the Supreme, is actually explaining the science of attaining the Supreme, not the dogma.
Because in many other religions you will hear, you know, you become the member of this religion. You just do certain things and then for sure you will be transferred to God.
No, no, Krishna doesn't guarantee you just by the matter of membership. You know, you can become life member and pay, I don't know how much you should pay now. There is inflation now.
During Prabhupada's time it was 1111 rupees. Now it's probably ten times. But the point is that
you know, if you become life member, it doesn't guarantee you that after this life you will still remain a member of Krishna family. You know, you're only life member. You're only member in this life.
After this life remains to be seen. So, what Krishna wants to say is that there is a science. There is a scientific principle.
It's not just blind faith, you know, you become a member of this particular organization, you support this particular organization, and then we guarantee you you will get a certificate.
At the moment of this, your soul will get a certificate. He is a member, so he has a free passage to heaven. No, no, no. It's not like this.
Krishna says: this is the principle. In which state of mind you leave this body, this state you will achieve in the next life.
Consciousness at the moment of death
And therefore, the implication of this statement: very important, because Arjuna asked this question. He asked this question, Oh Krishna, how I can remember you at the moment of death.
At the end of the seventh chapter, Arjuna asked this question and he said, you know, please explain to me how isn't that possible, especially in the middle of this battle.
Because we know it's so difficult, we have to really, you know, use our intelligence and everything, how we can remember about God. And Krishna starts speaking.
And Krishna explains at the moment of death: basically, this is the very important implication. You will only remember what you tried to remember during your lifetime.
Your endeavors to remember God will culminate in remembrance of God during the time of death, as Prabhupāda explains in the purport, in the critical moment of death, you will only remember what you practiced to remember.
He doesn't say, you know, you live whatever life you like, and then at the end of the life, you know, you remember Krishna, no problem, you will go back home back to God. No, no.
It's not possible it's not possible at all if you remember all kinds of garbage during your lifetime then at the moment of death you will remember the same garbage. There is a very nice computer engineer principle.
You know I'm not speaking in Bangalore, of course if I would speak in Bangalore everyone would understand what I mean. But I think you will also understand what I mean. The principle is that garbage in, garbage out.
You know, if you uh put something on the hard drive of computer which is actually flawed, which is not nice, which is not perfect.
Then the output, whatever input is there, the output will be the same. You cannot expect the output, nice output, if the input was bad. So, in the same way, you know, the same uh you you will get at the moment of this the same output uh what you were trying to input in your consciousness during your lifetime.
So it actually gives a very grave responsibility upon us. That whatever we think, whatever we consume, whatever food we eat, whatever sensual impressions we get, it all gradually gradually builds up our next body.
Actually, this principle was explained by Mahārāja Vāsudeva during critical time when Duryodhana, oh sorry, not Duryodhana what was his name, this Kaṁsa, anyway, those rascals, so when Kaṁsa wanted to kill Devakī, you
know, then Mahārāj Vāsudev, who wanted to protect his wife and he couldn't protect his wife by weapons, he was trying to protect his wife by the means of intelligence. Intelligence is a weapon.
Intelligence is a very powerful weapon. And you can change the mind of other person by your intelligence. So Mahārāj Vāsudev was making a point. Now you are about to commit a very heinous act, very evil, very cruel act.
And this act, if you commit it, will always remain with you. Especially when we do something very drastic. When we do, you know, memory works in a very peculiar way.
We don't remember most of the things which we encounter in this world.
Impact of emotional memories on consciousness
But certain things we remember, and these certain things which stick to our memory is actually very important.
So, what we usually remember, we usually remember something which is connected, which has some emotional content in it. If some memory is connected with some emotional state,
is charged with some deep emotions, then the memory of this will be very deep and will be will stick to our consciousness.
So Mahārāj Vāsudev trying to preach Kaṁsa against this heinous act which he is about to commit, he says: if you do this, you will remember it till the moment of your death, and in the moment of your death, you will remember the same thing. It will stick to your memory because this act is so bad.
You know, like in every religion, there is a notion, a concept of sin. But practically none of the big religions of this world, which are primarily not scientific, which are not talking about scientific principle.
They don't understand why certain acts are sinful and why other acts are good. Why certain acts are commendable and other acts are bad. So there is no definition. I mean it's more or less taken for granted.
You know, if you do something bad, you know, but why is it bad? Why you should follow this principle and not other principles? Why you should not eat meat but at the same time you can eat, I don't know, carrot or potato.
You know what is the difference and it's not explained. In most of the religions, it's not explained. In Bible, there is also, uh, prohibition.
They say don't eat meat of these animals and that animals, and these animals, you know, the animals who have five claws, these animals should not be eaten. But why? Why? Vedas are very clear.
Vedas are very clear: ahimsā iti. If you do himsa, if you do inflict pain to other living entities, then this pain will come back to you.
If you inflict pain to other people to other living entities, first of all there will be some Adrishta, some karma, invisible karma, some external manifestation of this act which will uh sooner or later come back to you.
But moreover, if you do this cruel act you develop certain nature, and this nature is actually not conducive for you to be close to God.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains here very beautifully, he says that if you do certain things uh whatever we do in this life, whatever we are doing in this life, should make us godlike.
And therefore, Kṛṣṇa uses here the word bhāva. Bhāva means emotion. Bhāva means emotional state. Bhāva means certain state of consciousness.
You know, why are certain things prohibited in religion? Because they change our nature. They make our nature foreign to God.
We cannot approach God because we more or less enforced nature which is not very conducive or not very congenial to the nature of God. So what acts we should do?
The acts which produce certain bhava. And this bhava should be conducive for us to become closer to God.
It's actually very simple and very scientific principle. You know, we should do something which is God-like. If we want to come to God. If we don't want to come to God, if we want to remain in Udupi, no problem.
You can remain in Udupi or in New York, no problem. You can go to New York and become as crazy as practically all people who live in New York, no problem. But if you want to come to God, then you have to act
in the same way which would produce certain emotions which are congenial to the emotions of spiritual life, which are spiritual emotions. So this is exactly the point which is being done.
So I was I'm trying to explain that Vedas, they they explain very clearly why certain things are called sinful. First of all, because they create nature which is not very favorable for your Krishna consciousness.
Second of all, because they create some impression, some memory which are very deep. And these memories, because they are not good memories, they will influence your thinking at the moment of death.
One of the names for sin in Sanskrit is Agha, like Agasura. Agasura is the personification of sin. He is the sin personified.
So the word agha means it comes from the verbal root, Sanskrit root han, and han means, han means to kill, han means to destroy.
So like na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, the soul is not being destroyed when śarī, when the body is destroyed.
So han means to destroy, and agha means something which is indestructible. So it's a very again scientific and deep implication. What is sin? Sin is something which creates saṁskāra which is practically indestructible.
Very strong saṁskāra, very deep saṁskāra. Why certain things you shouldn't do? Because it creates very deep memory and this deep memory will not be favorable at the moment of death.
Because again, everything which we do, and this is there is a Sanskrit saying about this: everything which we do, all tapasya which we do in this life, all the good things which we do in this life, all the bad things which we do in this life, everything is being tested at the moment of death.
The moment of death is the examination. And you know, sometimes people think that you know you can change something at the moment of death. At the moment of death, you cannot change anything.
Whatever you did during the lifetime will be just concluded at the moment of death.
Significance and practice of chanting Hare Krishna
And therefore, we have to understand this and we have to remember this.
And the best way to remember this, and the best way to remember about Krishna, and the best way to always be in the memory of Krishna is of course we know by
chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Provided you are remembering about Krishna while chanting Hare Krishna. Which is not such an obvious statement.
You may be chanting blah, blah, blah and remember about something else. You know, you know, some people, they're very expert in making this sound in the morning and their mind is somewhere else.
It's not in Rama, it's not in Krishna, it's not in Hari. It's somewhere else. It's not there. This is just two three sorry three names of God which are meant for us to remind us. There is God. And this God is very peculiar.
This God is very charming. Therefore He's called Kṛṣṇa, He is all-attractive. This God is very pleasing. He is making our heart full of joy. Therefore, He is called Rāma.
And this God is very tricky because he can take away all the bad things from our memory. We first say Hare, Hare basically means please take away all the bad memories which we have.
I want to be prepared to this critical moment of death. In this critical moment of death, I don't want to remember about my wife. Definitely not about my wife.
I mean, luckily I don't have any wife, so at least this I I will not remember. You know, I don't want to remember about my husband, I don't want to remember about my children.
I don't want to remember about anyone, I want to remember about you. And therefore we first say Hari. Hari basically means take away all other memories.
But somehow or other we say Hare or Hari and then immediately we start remembering something else. But we should remember no, Hari is somebody who can clean our consciousness, who can clean our heart.
And therefore we call him first. We first call him Hare Krishna.
We can only understand who is Krishna, or feel the attractiveness of Krishna if our heart is clean, if our heart is free from all other memories or remembrances or saṁskāras. And therefore we say Hare Krishna.
Not just Krishna. First Hare and then Krishna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.
And then it's also very important, uh this is of course mantra which is according to Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad uh is recommended for everyone in this age of uh Kali-yuga.
And uh it is very important because in this mantra we have Hare Krishna and Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Hare you can translate as Hari, it's vocative of Hari Hare, but it's also vocative of Hara.
And then when we translate Hare as Hara or Hara, we mean of course Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, we mean the energy of God. And the structure of this mantra is very peculiar. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.
So, Hare Krishna means Krishna and Radha together. Krishna and His energy together they are in Vṛndāvana and they are engaged in meeting with each other.
And then Krishna Krishna Hare Hare means that Hari, Hara and Krishna are separated. So in this mantra we have meeting and separation. We have sambhoga, Hare Krishna, and we have vipralambha, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.
When they are when Krishna left Vṛndāvana and went to Mathurā and uh he left all his inhabitants of Vṛndāvana to sing in uh separation about Him. So this is what we should remember during chanting.
We should remember about Krishna. We should remember how beautiful He is. And we should remember how He is beautifully engaged in the past times with his devotees.
How he is happy when his devotees are serving him and how he is reciprocating with the service. And then we should remember that sometimes Krishna leaves. Sometimes Krishna leaves us.
Sometimes we feel that my heart is empty. There is nothing there in the heart, there's no Krishna there. It means Krishna is trying to see whether we are crying in separation with him or we just take it for granted.
Yes, of course Krishna is somewhere there and he doesn't care about me. So this is what we should remember every day of our life, and therefore Krishna says here, smartva-tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ. Sadā. Always. Always.
We will remember about Krishna at the end of this tyaktvā kalevaram when the time for leaving our body will come to us. Only if during the lifetime sadā all the time we remember who is Krishna by chanting his holy name.
Therefore, in this particular chapter again and again and again Prabhupada repeats practically in every purport sometimes two times in a purport, sometimes three times in a purport.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Why? Because he explains this is the easiest way to change our bhāva. And our life is meant for changing our bhāva.
The human form of life is only form of life where we can change our bhāva. Animals cannot change their bhāva. Animals they're destined to remain animals and they will die as animals.
But human beings can change the bhāva, can change the emotional content, can change the state of being, can change the condition of our ātman. And therefore, it's so important to try to change it by chanting Hare Krishna.
Not mechanically chanting Hare Krishna, but by chanting Hare Krishna, understanding the science of God, which is Krishna consciousness. Not just dogmatic statement.
Chant and somehow or other miraculously you will be transferred somewhere. No.
Miracles are there, but miracles, behind miracles, there is higher science. Whatever people call miracles is actually also some scientific occurrences which are based on the principles of higher science.
So, yes, we should count on miracles. But if we want this miracle to happen with us, if we really want to meet with Krishna at the moment of death, we should understand this higher science of Krishna consciousness.
If we change our bhāva then for sure we will see Krishna. If we don't then for sure we will see somebody else about whom we mostly all remember during our lifetime. That's it. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Gaura-premanande!
Krishna's reciprocation during death in coma
Maybe there is one or two questions and then we will go. Uh there are lives will be a post to go up, but not to talk about their own. I didn't don't. Okay. Some devotees they leave the body in comma.
This particular question was asked by Ramanujacharya in his relationship with Varadharaj Swami in Kanchipuram. Ramanujacharya was also puzzled by this question because it seems unfair.
You know what if I be in this unconscious state of mind during my lifetime? Oh during not lifetime, during the death. And uh Varadharaj said, don't worry about this.
If you try to remember about Krishna during your lifetime, then Krishna will remember about you during your death. Even if you don't remember him, he will remember you. Why?
Because he himself formulated the principle, again, scientific principle uh uh that uh m what is it in the fourth canto? You know, if somebody how somebody relates to me, I reciprocate with him in the same way.
So if we rem if we try to remember about Krishna during lifetime, then Krishna will remember about us and it doesn't matter so much. What matters is what we're trying to do during our lifetime. All right.
Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya, Śrī Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā Mahārāṇī ki jaya, Śrī Śrī Krishna Balaram ki jaya, Gaura premānandī. Nṛsiṁhadeva ki jaya.