Bhagavad-gita 10.32
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Moscow · 2006
Chapters
Recitation and translation of verse
Omna mo Bhagavateva Sulévaya Sulévaya Onamamo Bhagavate Vasulévaya Oh no, Bhagavate Vasudevaya Narayanamas kritjam, naramchaiva narotamarotam, dim saraswadiasam, patojayamudiray, parodyamudiray,
I will read chant the thirty second verse of the tenth chant chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, the opulence of the absolute, of the buddhi yoga. Today there was a ceremony of Vidya Ramba at
the beginning of the dedication little boy who is here And in this verse, Krishna explains that among all the Vidyas, different sciences or different branches of knowledge. I am Adyatma Vidya or Spiritual Science.
So I will speak about this foundational science of Adyatma Vidya.
Sarugana madirantacha, Sargana Madiranta Ca, Sargana Madirantacha, Sarhana Madhirantach Madhyam Caivaham Arjuna, Madhyam Arjuna, Madhyam Caiva Arjuna, Madhyam Arjuna, Adhyatma vidja vidjanam, dyatma vidja vidjan, vad
Vadah prava, bada prava ta maham, sarhana ma dhirandascha, sardhamanaama d Madhamtascha, Madhyam Chaiva Madjuna, Madhyam Savam, Adhyat Malidamityanam, Madhya Vijnam Vada pra vadama sarganam
dyram tacha, sardhana madhivam tacha, madnam Cyaha Marjuna, Adyachima Vidya Vidyanam, Vadya Vidya Vidyanam, Vada Prabadaham Sarganam Saram of all creations Adihi Adihi the beginning the beginning cha cha and madam middle
middle cha cha also also Eva Suddenly Suddenly Ahama I am Arjuna Arjuna Arjuna Adyatmadi Spiritual knowledge vidyanam or full education Vada Vadada The natural conclusion. Natural conclusion. Ravadatam Ravadam of arguments.
Of arguments. Aham I am.
Three aspects of divine creation
Translation Of all creations I am the beginning and the end and also the middle or June of all sciences and the spiritual science of the self, and among logicians I am the conclusive truth.
Among the creative manifestations, the first is the creation of the total material elements.
As explained before, the cosmic manifestation is created and conducted by Mahavishnu, Garbada Kashai Vishnu and Ksiradakashaya Vishnu. And then again it is annihilated by Lord Shiva. Brahma is a secondary creator.
All these agents of creation, maintenance and annihilation are incarnations of the material qualities of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all creation.
For advanced education, there are various kinds of books of knowledge, such as the four Vedas, the six supplements, the Vedānta-sūtra, Books of Logic, Books of Religiosity and the Puranas. So all together there are fourteen divisions of books of education.
Of this, the book which presents Adhyatma Vidya, spiritual knowledge. In particular the Vedānta-sūtra represents Krishna.
Among logicians there are different kinds of argument, supporting one's argument with evidence, so that supports that also supports the opposing side is called Jalpa.
Merely trying to defeat one's opponent is called Vitanda, but the actual conclusion is called Vada. It's conclusive truth. It's a representation of Krishna. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya.
Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smirir jñānam apohanaṁ ca, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham. vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham.
Of all creations I am the beginning and the end and also the middle Arjuna. Of all sciences, I am the spiritual science of the self and the more positions and the conclusive truths.
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaranaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ sarvātma-snapanam paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam
we'll speak today about different kinds of knowledge. It is very important.
Review of tenth chapter opulences
But first I will give a little review of the Times chapter. In the Times chapter Ah Lord Krishna reveals his all pervading nature. He says ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate. Oh no no no, it's not.
He explains in this uh tenth chapter that everything is coming from me. And he says Mataksarvam pravertate He repeats this twice,
in a slightly different way from the grammatical point of view, meaning that basically he is two principal causes of this creation.
Basically he's saying that everything is coming from me, it means that I am the efficient cause of creation. And I am also Mataksarvam Pravartate. Again, everything is coming from me.
It means that I am the material cause of the face. Everything which you see is God. It's made of God. And it's coming from God.
He is the original impetus of this creation, otherwise how this wonderful creation came into being.
And then the logical question is that from which it is being created. And some religions are being puzzled. What is the stuff of which this creation is made? And Krishna says that's made again. There is nothing else.
In some religions it is say uh it is said that God has created this world out of nothing. Ex nihilo. You know. Just took something dancing, something dancing. Made something out of nothing.
Krishna says no. That's me. It's not nothing. It's made of me. Of nothing else but me. And uh basically this is the central topic of uh
this tenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, it means that we can interact with the Lord even in this world. We can understand the Lord, even in this world. We can see the Lord even in this world.
And Arjuna, when he realized this truth, and he basically understood that it's not just a human like figure which is standing in front of him and talking with him as his friend, but this is the original
cause of all causes, someone who has created this whole wonderful creation. When Arjuna realized this, he was overwhelmed. He started praying to the Lord and he was saying, yes, now I understand who you are.
And then he begs Krishna. He says, Dear Krishna, please now tell me more about your opulences. In other words, he is asking how I can more clearly see you in this world. How I can understand you by being in this world.
By which means I can uh interact with you. And Krishna starts explaining the rest of the chapter he's explaining different wonderful creations, saying that I'm this, meaning that
among all the things which we see there are something which is foundational.
Recognizing God through material opulences
There are so many different things in this world and it's so bewildering. This world is absolutely bewildering. So much creation is there, you know, so many new things is coming all the time.
Yesterday uh I counted and I understood that there is eighty four lakhs of mobile phone models eight million four hundred thousand So much creation is there. So many different varieties of different creations are here.
So how do you understand the Lord? And he says just find something which is the most striking, the most wonderful.
Like they say that the hmm son of Ukrainian president has mobile phone which cost uh eighty thousand dollars or something like this. So Krishna would say I'm this mobile phone.
Mongol all the varieties of mobile phones and this. Basically what he wants to say is that there is something unique in this world. Something out of which everything is secondary.
And if you find this, you can really be amazed, overwhelmed by this amazing manifestation. This is actually quite common trait in older religions.
Like in Christianity, it is said that the beginning of your understanding of God uh uh manifests from your being able to be surprised by his creation.
To be really uh We are being you know very dull uh human beings don't really you know we take it for granted. So what? You know, yeah, I know. Sun is rising every day, so what?
But actually religion means we start appreciate this fact. It's not that natural after all that sun is rising every day and that the sun is shining for thousands of years without being diminished in its power.
If you just think about this little fact, we can be totally amazed and overwhelmed.
This this sun, they say that there is explosion is going on. There is, you know, a lot of explosions and work on in the sun. It's always something is exploding there.
But we know that usually explosion how long it lasts? It lasts just split second, fraction of the second. But the sun is being, you know, in the process of explosion for millions of years.
And still there is something to be explored. This is God. This is his power. And uh Krishna is basically teaching us in this chapter how to be amazed how to become overwhelmed by
this wonder of his creation, saying that there are so many different things in this world which uh represent me in particular. He says that there are some foundational things in this world from which you can
derive this sense of cause of all causes. Like here he says that uh of all the creatures and the
Divine control of life and death
beginning, the end and the middle. We see in this world the constant process of creation. Something is being created, something is being maintained and something is put to an end.
Krishna says that I am the ultimate cause of the beginning. The end, and the middle of everything. It's me. I'm behind this. And in particular, in relation to our own life.
Krishna is saying that I am the cause of you being here. You as you are. Are here only because God is there. If there was no God, you would not be here. I swear you, you would not be able to come into this.
Because, uh, look how wonderful you are in one little tiny cell of the human body. There is information for ten to the power of fifteen different cells.
And this human body there is ten to the power of—in the power, am I correct in English? In the power of fifteen. Ten with fifteen zeros. That many cells are there. Just just the cells in our brain.
There is fourteen billion cells in one brain. And it doesn't really work, Because we still don't understand that God is there. There is around two hundred sixty varieties of different cells in this little body.
And then some fools are there who say it just came into—just by chance. Yeah, just by chance. Yeah. There is no cause of this. It's just—it's just because I'm so good. That's why I'm here. This is human foolishness.
This is how foolish we are. But Krishna says, because you see this orderly process of beginning or the creation, maintenance and destruction in this world. I am behind it.
I'm the cause of your appearance in this world and I'm the cause of your death too. I am the cause of your destruction. So there is nothing to lament. You know, he's the cause. Why should we lament? He's the boss.
There is no point of lamenting. And he's saying just by thinking about this, just by meditating on this simple fact that there is a very orderly creation in this world, you can understand a lot about God.
Like people, they're usually quite rebellious and they don't like, they don't like the way they're being maintained. They always complain. They always need more. Never enough.
There was one big billionaire, multi-multimillionaire. He was the richest man of his time. So by the end of his life, somebody asked him, so now probably you have enough. He said, no, I want more. So that's my motto.
So that's that basically manifestation of our dissatisfaction with the way we exist. But Krishna says that's me, so shut up. Just be satisfied the way you are. You know, I created you and I allotted you what you deserve.
Not more and not less. And when your time comes, you will be finished. Don't complain about this. This is this is your time. This is my order behind this.
And Krishna says, this is how God manifests here in this world. This is how you can relate to him.
If you know that you are here not without reason but because he is here then you can understand that he is there and then if you know that you will be finished at one point of time and also a very good indication that he is there.
And then he says uh uh then he says uh I will go quickly to the third point and then I will speak a little bit more about the sādhyatva-vidyā.
And he says among all the ways of leading argument, which is important because now in this particular verse he's explaining how to
Logical methods for establishing truth
get knowledge of. Basically now he says among everything which we see there are certain things which can be helpful or beneficial for us to get some glimpse or some knowledge about the Lord.
And he says uh usually people try to establish truth by arguing. They enter into some argument and there are different modes of arguing. Some people are doing Jalpa.
Jalpa basically means you say something really you know, something something foolish and uh bewilder your opponent. This is jalpa. You just say something and more and more and more and more. And then there's vitanda.
Vitanda it's just some kind of mean uh uh method when you're trying to defeat by different uh uh not proper things. But Krishna says there is also Vada. Vada means very logical and natural conclusion when you're impartial.
When you don't really do it for the sake of arguing or for the sake of establishing yourself as the right person. Usually we when we argue, uh we're not really interested about the truth.
The only truth which we're interested in is to establish that I am the right one and everyone else is wrong. And I'm always right because because it cannot be otherwise. It's just that's the way things are in this world.
I'm right. So Krishna says when you have the sense of logic which you use according to the proper usage of logic. When you want to establish the truth, that's me. That's how you should use the logic.
Basically, he says if you use whatever you use uh in a proper uh context, then only uh you will be able to get a sense of me, get a glimpse of me.
And then he says, uh vidyanam adhyatma vidya aham. I'm uh the spiritual science. And that's extremely important because in this material world there are so many sciences, so many different kinds of vidyas.
And even uh in the very culture there are so many vidyas. This vidya and that vidya and vidya basically means education, as Prabhupada says, or uh practical knowledge. Like there is Vastu vidya.
Or there is Sarpa vidya. It's very practical knowledge. By this sarpa-vidya you can control the snakes. And in India it's uh it's quite practical, especially in the rainy season when the snakes are in abundance.
So, sarpa-vidya, there is jyotiṣa-vidya, when you know the astrology, the science of astronomy and astrology. There is also, you know, vastu-vidya, there is nāda-vidya, the science of music.
There are so many different vidyas.
And originally in Krishna book it is said there are sixty-four vidyās. Sixty-four different branches of knowledge which originally in the Vedic culture function quite differently than the vidyās in the present world.
At present we do learn different sciences, the science of physics, science of medicine, but they're quite gross. All the sciences which we use have very utilitarian purpose.
It's just for so called well being of the human uh existence of for the comforts of the bodily comforts of life.
All the vidyās which are there are very very tāmasika in nature at present because they all related to the body. The purpose of all the vidyās ultimately is to create more and more comforts for the body.
Like people using their unique human brains. They're wasting their life and inventing different kinds of stuff for the body. I I I saw one advertisement which was really striking. There was this toilet.
Very beautiful toilet for Caribbean. Very you know, so graciously carved. You know so much brain is there to create this story.
It was it was the advertisement for some kind of Swedish Swedish toilets and it was written there if you want to feel yourself like a king you will sit on a toilet and you feel yourself like you're a king.
You're sitting on a throne. So this is what basically vidyā means. This is what people are using their brains for. They are using their brains for creating this kind of environment which is
supposedly uh should make our life better. But in Vedic culture uh these vidyās, sixty-four vidyās which uh described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in particular they're also material in essence.
Most of them are material in essence. But they are more subtle by nature. Actually, uh subtle technology. They are more subtle in nature because their main purpose is to create uh
not just gross bodily well being, not just gross physical well being, but more like subtle mental well being. Like all these subtle sciences, science of music or science of uh chess, playing or whatever.
This is all to create a very nice uh mental atmosphere. More or less to create the happiness in the mind. So now we we're living in a very gross Kali Yuga type of civilization and this is all forgotten.
Scientific nature of spiritual knowledge
And uh we're mostly engrossed or engaged in uh this uh gross kind of education and we think this is all and all. People wasting their life.
But Krishna said that the foundation of all the sciences is adhyātma-vidyā. And this is the most important science. And all other sciences are useless unless and until you know the science of the soul.
The point here is that uh basically if you don't know the science of the soul and the science of the soul is the science. It's not just some belief or religion.
It's not by chance it's called adhyātma-vidyā or spiritual science because it has all the basic characteristics of the science.
If you open Bhagavad-gītā, that's what actually uh struck me when I first read Bhagavad-gītā, that this is totally scientific. And before I read some Bible or this or that.
And it was quite impressive for me, but it never impressed me to the exactness of the science. And Bhagavad-gītā Krishna explains the spiritual science with the whole exactness which is there in the science.
He says let's analyze what we see. There is sat and asat.
There is something which is real and something which is unreal and if something is real, it has to stay. If something uh exists, it has to exist all the time and this is called spirit of soul.
And then there is something which is unreal which is totally, completely, permanently being changed in the process of constant change, this is not really real. And so on and so forth.
So he develops the whole science of Bhagavad-gītā in a very systematic manner. And if you have some kind of scientific inclination and uh you read Bhagavad-gītā, you will be amazed that this is real science.
And Krishna says that every other science makes only sense if you know this science. If you don't know this science, uh every other science will be just a waste of time. You may learn so many different sciences.
Medicine in particular. You may know all the you know, different medicines which are there, different diseases which are there. There are so many diseases.
But all this stupid little knowledge which you may know will be wasted because you don't know the very foundation of the science.
If you know the foundation of the science, that is the spirit soul, then everything else is related to this. Like there is Ayurveda.
And Ayurveda, or any other science, like Prabhupāda, he mentions in his purport 14 books of knowledge.
And in particular, he mentions Smṛti-śāstra. He says religious books, religious rules and regulations of our daily life. Smriti Shastras. And all the Smriti Shastras which regulate your life
very tightly which say when you should get up from the bed and which way you should get up from the bed or whatever. All these little details are there in these books.
But they all start from the foundational principle that there is soul, there is God, and there is a relationship between soul and God and this whole world is created by God.
If you take any smriti shastra, let's say Manusmriti, the Manu Smriti starts from this foundational principles, that there is God and everything is coming from Him.
All these little small details which you need to know are only valuable when you know this basic truth. If you don't know this basic truth and you know all these details, ultimately you will be bewildered.
But if you know this foundational principle of the science that there is spirit and everything is coming from spirit and there is supreme soul and basically adhyatma means not just uh the self or the soul but this is supreme soul that there is supreme soul super soul and this creation and that the whole creation is coming from him.
If you don't know this, no matter how knowledgeable you are, your life will be wasted.
Like there was one very famous Russian scientist who was studying, studying worms, which is a worthy subject of study. As anything else.
And this world is created in such a wonderful way that every little thing which you start studying it's unlimited insight. It's totally unlimited. It's ananta.
You take little little tiny thing, you know, and you you may dedicate your whole life in studying this little piece of this leaf and you will not come to the end.
The whole life will just flash and you will still be intrigued and amazed what's going on in this little piece of the leaf. So this this scientist he was a big, big specialist in the worms.
And particularly in the worms which live in a stool.
Somehow rather he had some fascination about these creatures. Probably he was or if he was not before this creature, he will definitely become one because at the time of death he will think about one of those.
So so somebody asked him are you not bored by studying this little worm for the whole life? He said no. The life he said the worm is so long and the life is so short.
Basically what he wants to say is that whatever you start studying, if you go deeply into it, you can study and study and study and still do not come to an end. Because this is God's creation.
So you may know all these little things, but if you don't know the foundation of everything from where this worm is coming from, then uh what is the use? You're just bewildered. You're just totally bewildered.
So therefore Krishna says there is this Avhyatma vidya, which is the most important vidya, which everyone should know. And then if you know this, then you can know everything else.
And more or less, uh better say if you know this science you know every other science. Like Prabhupada He was an old man. He was not really up to date with all the you know scientific discoveries and everything.
And he had some hobby. When he came to the West, he asked his disciples to bring to him different scientists. And they would be very happy to bring some professors, university professors.
And Prabhupada started arguing with him and invariably he would defeat them. And Prabhupada was very proud about this.
He would say that, look, I know Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore I know all the sciences and I can defeat everyone.
Because again, if you know Bhagavad-gītā, you know the principles upon which everything is else is just derivation. You know. This is very beautifully described in the Vedic sciences.
Like in Vedas there is this science of Ayurved. And in Ayurveda again, first thing which you have to know is that there is soul, that your soul which has nothing to do with the body and then you have to behave as the soul.
And if you behave as the soul, then you can know everything else and everything else is derived from this city You can basically derive uh uh every science
in a very proper manner if you know this foundation that there is spirit, soul, and the life is coming from the spirit. Or as Prabhupada said, life is coming from life. Life is not coming from dead matter.
Life is a completely different creation and it's coming from spirit. And spirit is Prahati Mand.
Scripture study and chanting Vedic mantras
So and i it's coming from this life, from the Spirit, from God. And in the Vedas there are two particular ways of knowing or studying this spiritual science. One is the traditional way, and you study books.
You study Vedas, you study different books of knowledge. And in particular you study Bhagavad-gītā as Prabhupada says, Vedānta-sūtra. Vedānta-sūtra is a very logical explanation of Upaniṣads.
Basically, when we say Adhyatma Vidya, Adhyatma Vidya means specifically Upanishads. And in Upanishads, in a very poetic way, the sense of spirit is being transferred.
When you read Upanishads, you don't understand anything logically. But you understand certain kind of y you you get some feeling that there is one universal underlying principle. This is basically what the spiritual science is all about to explain or
to somehow rather to give us the sense that everything is coming from one source and there is one principle upon which everything else is based. And this principle is called spirit of Brahman.
So this is what Upaniṣad and Vedānta-sūtra explains the same uh philosophy in a very logical way.
But there is another way of getting this sense or this Basically, the meaning of the scriptures in a very compact and concentrated way is invested into Vedic mantras.
And when you chant Vedic mantras starting with pranava oṁkāra. Oṁkāra is the most famous Vedic mantra. Just Om. Om. It
is explained that Svadhyaya or studying or understanding this science of the soul has these two divisions which are inseparable.
Yes, you have to study, you have to understand on the level of knowledge, uh of logic, of the on the level of your brain, in a very logical way, what is the soul, what is the spirit, and how it is different from matter.
Yes, you have to do this. But the most important realization comes when you chant the mantras. And the meaning of the mantras is very significant because ultimately this is the meaning of all the scriptures.
The meaning of all the mantras is that like for example we chanted before this lecture oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Or you know they all start with some bīja and then there is always uh either namaḥ or svāhā.
Meaning of surrender and jnana mudra
The meaning of all the mantras, which is the essence of Vedic knowledge, which is the essence of spiritual science, is surrender. What is namaḥ? Namaḥ means I'm paying my obeisance. What is svāhā? Svāhā means the same.
Svāhā means that I am sacrificing my false ego, my false identity. And you know this jñāna mudrā. You perhaps know that there is this most famous jñāna mudrā which yogis do when they chant praṇavaṁkāra.
They sit in this lotus posture in padmāsana and they put their uh fingers in this mudra which is called jñāna mudrā. They sit straight. But why is it jñāna mudrā?
Why this particular position of the fingers is called jñāna mudrā? Do you know? Yeah, it's prapatti. Because this is the meaning of surrender. This is God. Among the fingers God is this. He is this big finger. And this is me.
This finger represents my false ego. So Yanudra means basically that you pass or relinquish the three modes of material nature, Tamagun, Rajagun and Satragun.
And you come to the point of boiling down or surrendering to the Supreme Lord. This is called Yan. This is called spiritual knowledge. This is the essence of spiritual knowledge.
The essence of spiritual knowledge is to understand who I am. And who I am? I am eternally subordinate to the Lord. And nothing can change this situation. I am eternally subordinate to him. And I have to admit this.
And when I deny this fact, I am in ignorance. I am situated in Avidya. And Avidya is the source of endless sufferings for the human beings.
Actually any spiritual science starts from this fact that unless you get the real video, real knowledge, you will continue suffering. And the And the cause of suffering is idea or ignorance. The less of knowledge.
And the less of knowledge is basically denial of the simple fact that I am eternally subordinate to the Lord. And this is the essence of spiritual science.
The spiritual science uh which you can get from reading or understand from reading the literature or from chanting the mantras have to bring you to the point of surrender.
Like Krishna says, sarvān dharmān parityajya mām ekaḿ śaraṇaṁ vraja. At the end of Bhagavad-gītā, he says so many things.
He says do this and do that, he says, do meditation and sit like this and like this and on this asana and uh you know do this and if you don't like to do this you can do something else.
He's basically very liberal because he knows people are wishivoshi. People are so they like all this kind of stuff. But at the end he says, sarvān dharmān parityajya mām ekaḿ śaraṇaṁ vraja.
Come to me and surrender unto me. And this is the essence of all knowledge. And this is the ultimate point which we have to come. If we don't come to this point, we're still in ignorance.
And if we are still in ignorance it means that we will continue suffering.
Material pride versus true happiness
So this spiritual science which is the beginning of all sciences, the foundation of all sciences, has to bring us to the point of surrender or to the point of utter humility. And basically there is nothing to be proud of.
If we look at ourselves, it's so childish when they are proud. You know like little child is doing something stupid and then he says look what I did.
So in the same way we do something stupid and then we say, Look what I did. And everyone is supposed to give a round of applause or something like this. This is the pride and pride is foolish. Pride is childish.
Pride again is a manifestation of our ignorance. And pride is the cause of all our sufferings. All these people who are proud, proud of their beauty. You know, I mean I will not describe what the material beauty is.
No, I will not describe it. Because it's useless. All these ladies on the on the glossy magazines look like witches. That much cosmetics on that face.
I once read the statistic that an average lady eats forty kilos of lipstick during her lifetime. Forty kilos and yes. That's why they become so fat. So this is the beauty and people being proud of their beauty.
You know, and then you have to make all this plastic surgeries to again make it look nice. But what kind of knowledge it is? We don't know anything. We're really bewildered.
We really you know we pass some exams and then we forget everything completely after that. And still we have this diploma, you know. I graduated from We don't remember anything but diploma is there.
Oh you're being proud of your belt. This is my belt. And you get some plastic for this in exchange from this papers and plastic car or plastic sample. Ridiculous.
And then people sometimes are proud of their births, you know, very glorious births, you know.
Of course nowadays it's not so much their nowadays in India it's better to be śūdra because at least you can be admitted in the university. Now they are proud that they're śūdras. They can get the admission easily. But this is all ridiculous.
This is all childish. And ultimately it will bring about only sufferings, nothing else.
And therefore Krishna says if you want to know me, or if you don't know the essence of life, the meaning of life, you have to know this Adyatma Vidya. This is the most important. That's me.
If you know spiritual science, which starts from Bhagavad-gītā and which uh actually extends itself into so many books of spiritual knowledge.
And culmination of all these books of spiritual knowledge is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the commentary on Vedānta-sūtra. Then you know everything.
And the distinguishing factor by which you can say whether you know or don't know. Whether you have this knowledge or don't have this knowledge is only one. Whether you're happy or not.
If you are still in ignorance, if you are still in Avidya, no matter how much materially you are knowledgeable, you will be not happy. You will be miserable in this world.
But if you get this adhyātma-vidyā, the spiritual note, the manifestation of this is simple. You are happy. You are happy under any circumstances of life. No matter what, you are still happy.
Because you know that this is the condition of the soul and when the soul is released released from this uh, from this miserable ignorance, uh, which brings sufferings only. Uh then the soul uh obtains the natural condition which is happiness. And the soul becomes eternally happy.
So therefore Krishna says out of all the knowledge, uh sciences, kinds of education, I am adhyātma-vidyā, spiritual science.
And today we started Vidya Ramba, started uh educational process for this little soul which is crawling there. Quite ignorantly. But his his process or his journey into the spiritual science has started today.
So you please bless him so that he would obtain all the spiritual knowledge which is there and become eternally happy. So they also applauding. Strange question to this. Yeah.
See, he's already happy. Received some spiritual knowledge. Any any questions? No questions. Everything is clear. So now you have to either study these books or
if you don't have enough diligence for this at least chant Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare. And the result will be the same because the all knowledge is contained in this mantra.
All knowledge is there.
Focusing on singular spiritual truth
Because it will bring you to the point of surrender yourself.
But when we come to spiritual knowledge, then again people get bewildered because there are knowledge of various scriptures, various worships and all these things.
So how that knowledge can become uh one-sided rather than getting bewildered again in scripture knowledge or speak for things that I know because I've already known some scriptures, scriptures out of the cast or something.
So how do you come to the true knowledge of Krishna consciousness? How we have to make people accept Krishna consciousness as well. It says in his script Gita Mahatmya that there is only one scripture.
Ekam shastram devaki putram gitam. There's only one shastram. Ekam Shastram Devakiputra Gita. This Gita or the song of Devakiputra, the son of Devaki. Eko deva, devakiputra eva.
There's only one God. This is Devaki Putra, son of Devaki. Eka mantras, tasyanamani eva. There is only one mantra. His name. And there is only one work or karma. There is only one ritual which we have to perform.
Tasya devasya seva. Service to this Supreme Lord. It's simple.
Because ultimately knowledge means and this is explained in the eighteenth chapter of Bhagavad Gita, knowledge means in sattva-guna, sattvik knowledge, or knowledge and goodness means uh understanding that is only one cause of all causes.
There is only one underlying principle behind everything which we see. And we have to come to this point of uh a kagrata or one point on this. This is the only means to overcome our problems.
Actually it's very m beautifully described by Patanjali Muni in his Yoga Sutras. He describes different problems of human beings, diseases, the wilderness, all kinds of problems which are there, disturbance in the mind.
And he says you can overcome this just by knowing one thing that there is only one truth. And devotion to this one truth. When you are completely devoted to this one truth or one understanding.
The understanding of oneness will bring you to the point of knowledge and to the point of uh relinquishing all your problems. So uh when we just study the books for the sake
of being proud that I know this book and that book and this book and that book, that's again ignorance. Knowledge means that I come to the point of oneness and uh uh for that I don't need many books.
I need just one book, isn't one book is enough? I don't need so many books. If you know Bhagavad-gītā, you know at least. If you really know Bhagavad-gītā.
And if you leave Bhagavad-gītā as it is and even if you don't know Bhagavad Gītā, but you surrender to the Lord, you still know everything. So knowledge doesn't mean to know much to read many books.
Knowledge means to surrender to one truth which is in within your heart. Surrender to this one truth. And truth is only one. It's interesting that in Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad, Yājñavalkya is asked.
Great sage Yājñavalkya is asked how many gods are there? And he says three thousand and three. And then he says three hundred and three. And then he says thirty three. And then he says ten. And then he says three.
And then he says two. And then he says one and a half. And then he says one. So he's again being asked, how many gods are there? Can you tell us? He said, I only told you.
It's three thousand and three, three hundred and three, thirty-three, ten, three, two, one and a half and one. It depends on your understanding.
If you are in rajas, you only know all these differences and you're totally bewildered. And in this way you think there are so many gods and I can choose to whom I should worship.
And there are so many scriptures and I can choose which one I should study. And there are so many different other things and I can choose what I should do.
But, uh, if you are in goodness, you understand there is only one truth and there is only one scripture which manifests this truth. I mean this truth is manifest in many different ways in different scriptures.
But ultimately in the whole completeness it manifests here. So why should you go to different scriptures? We will not understand anyway all the scriptures. So we will only get the rule that more means.
Therefore, Śaṅkarācārya says ekam śāstram devakī-putra-gītam. Make that life simple because it's only seven hundred verses. Makes that life simple because it's only seven hundred processes. Okay. There are no questions.
How suffering inspires faith in God
Okay. Uh, what is the best way to convince an ignorant man to believe in God? For an ignorant man, there is only one best way to convince him, is just to really hit him on the head. This is the language he understands.
And that's usually when and how people start believing in God, when something bad happens with them. And God takes His club and He says, It's too much. I, I'm sick and tired of this man. Let's work on him.
And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the only way. Something that will happen to you and you will start praying.
Oh my dear Lord, I don't know whether you exist or not, but please save me because there is nobody else who can save me. So just in case you are there, let's do it. Okay. Thank you very much.