Bhagavad-gita 17.1
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Москва · 2002
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Invocations and reading XVII.1
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Devaya. We will read the first verse from the 17th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.
The seventeenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is called śraddhā-tray-vibhāga yoga, the divisions of faith. arjuna uvāca ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa sattvam āho rajas tamaḥ
arjuna uvāca: ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ, teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā, kṛṣṇa, sattvam āho rajas tamaḥ? Translation.
Arjuna inquired, O Kṛṣṇa, what is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture, but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in passion?
In the fourth chapter, thirty-ninth verse, it is said that a person faithful to a particular type of worship gradually becomes elevated to the stage of knowledge and attains the highest perfectional stage of peace and prosperity.
In the sixteenth chapter, however, it is concluded that one who does not follow the principles laid down in the scriptures is called an āsurah, demon.
And one who follows the scriptural injunctions faithfully is called a deva or demigod. Now, if one with faith follows some rules which are not mentioned in the scriptural injunctions, what is his position?
This doubt of Arjuna's is to be cleared by Kṛṣṇa. Others who create some sort of God by selecting a human being and placing their faith in Him, worshiping in goodness, passion or ignorance.
Do such persons attain the perfectional stage of life? It is possible for them, is it possible for them to be situated in real knowledge and elevate themselves to the highest perfectional stage?
Do those who do not follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures, but who have faith in something and worship gods and demigods and men attain success in their effort? Arjuna is putting these questions to Kṛṣṇa.
ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ, teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa?
Arjuna inquired, O Kṛṣṇa, what is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in passion, or in ignorance?
Sectarian claims versus Krishna's view
oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale, śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine. namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi pāścātya-deśa-tārine. śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda, śrī-advaita-rāśi,
So Arjuna is asking a very important question. And we all have to know the answer to this question. And this question is often being asked.
Because sometimes we see a nice person who has some faith. But at the same time, we see that his faith is not so to speak exactly all right. It's little off, this way or another way.
There are some problems with what he believes, how he believes, what he does, because he believes. And Arjuna wants to clear it for himself.
He wants to know because most of the religions in this world would take a very firm stand in this regard. Most of the religions in this material creation would say only our path is right, everyone else is wrong.
If you go our path, you will get to heaven. If you go any other path, no matter who you are, what you do, you will go to hell perpetually. That's more or less the verdict of any normal, so to speak, religion.
So Arjuna wants to know what Krishna will say to this. Will Krishna say if you follow my path you'll go to heaven, if you follow any other path you will go to hell? Or will Krishna say something else?
This is an interesting question because we do see that sometimes people are faithful. Sometimes people do believe in God and have very strong faith.
Like for example, if we take uh some you know extreme uh people fundamentalists from Muslim for example denomination who are extremists.
But at the same time you cannot deprive them from being faithful. They do believe in God. So Arjuna wants to know what will be their destination?
What is their uh ultimate result of all their endeavors, of all the uh what they do. Because there is some kind of confusion.
I would like before uh we will try to answer this question and try to see what Krishna says, what Krishna answers, what's Krishna's answer to this question.
I would like to make a little review of the last chapters of Bhagavad-gītā so that we could understand more clearly where the Krishna's answers Gita so that we could understand more clearly where the Krishna's answers fit.
Why Krishna gives this particular answer which he will give? How Krishna explains it very scientifically. He is not being sectarian, not at all.
He gives a very scientific answer to this very important and very difficult question indeed. So the last six chapters of the Bhagavad-gītā explain knowledge.
They explain jñāna in great detail and knowledge basically means discrimination. Knowledge means the ability to understand what is soul and what is matter, where is spirit and where is matter, which is actually very difficult.
You know, there's so much confusing candies and it's very difficult. You know, some people say there is spirit, some people say there is no spirit, some people say there is only spirit, there is no matter, it's all illusion. Other people, there are so many opinions.
Some people say there is soul in human beings, but there is no soul in animals. Some people say there is soul in human beings in animals, there is no soul in trees, some people say soul doesn't exist at all.
So many opinions are there.
So therefore, Krishna starts explaining this last section of Bhagavad-gītā: giving this discrimination, giving the vision, giving the principles upon which we can understand what is spirit, what is matter, how to distinguish between them, how to have the vision, how to have the eyes to understand what is the difference between these two principle elements of this creation.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains in his commentary to Bhagavad-gītā Gītā that this knowledge is not just knowledge, is not something which you see it and which you kind of you know try to imagine or whatever.
This knowledge, he says, it's a foundation of bhakti. It's um he says it's bhakti dvaram, it's a gateway to bhakti. It's something through which you can really get bhakti, love of God.
It's actually interesting because from the very beginning Krishna starts his exposition of this spiritual philosophy from establishing this principle that there is individual soul, there is God.
This is the very first verse of Bhagavad-gītā. When Krishna starts teaching Arjuna, first of all he says there is eternal soul and there is God. And they exist individually. What it means?
If they exist individually, it means, and this is spirit, this is spirit, this is big spirit, this is small spirit. It means that the relationship between them is also eternal.
The very first verse of the Bhagavad-gītā establishes the foundation for bhakti, for relationship, for love, for devotion, for everything which is should be there.
So this last uh section of the Bhagavad-gītā also a very important foundation for devotion, for the foundational knowledge, foundational principles which help us to understand why we should develop this devotion, why we should develop bhakti in our heart, why the bhakti is the highest.
So he starts in a 13th chapter describing in great details the discrimination describing what is the difference between the soul and the human body and the body. Kshatrang, Shatrag, Ya.
Shatrak, Shatragyavibh is the name of what is the soul, what is the super soul, what is the body, how body works, what is the function of super soul and soul, how soul gets entangled.
So he gives all this knowledge in a very beautiful way in the 13th chapter.
Soul, observer, and material nature
But 14th chapter is even more interesting. Because in the 14th chapter, he starts to explain why we cannot understand this. Why we don't see the soul? Why there is so much confusion? Why some people understand it? Why not?
Because in the 13th chapter, he explained it in a very clear terms. There is soul, there is body. What is the difference? What is the big deal, you know?
Everyone who has little brain can understand that body is different from the soul.
This is actually the first point of Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā because he says he gives a very interesting philosophical explanation to this. He says, body changes, but you can see the changes. What it means.
If you were the body and the body changes, would you be able to see the changes? No way, because that's you. If it's you who is changing, you cannot see the changes because it's you.
To see the changes you have to be outside of something what is changing. You know.
If you're for example uh even even in the example of our body uh like every day we look in the mirror and what this we don't see the changes because we are the body, you know, we are this.
But when you when we go from some other point of view, when we look from outside and we see, you know, I was a child and then I was this and then I was this and now I am that.
So it means that's what uh Krishna wants to say to Arjuna, it means you are different from the body. You see the changes. You are the observer. An absorber is unchangeable.
You can only notice or watch these changes because you are from outside. You're watching from outside.
So he also makes the same explanation, gives the same explanation in the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, but also you know it's kind of very logical and very clear understanding. One can understand I'm soul.
Like, for example, people don't see the soul, people don't know the soul, people think that it's just a mechanism. He explains this in the 14th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
He says that there is material nature, and material nature in design is designed in a very special way.
The material nature is designed in such a way that it seems like everything is happening on its own. There is only material nature. The material nature originally is designed in such a way that there is as if there is no need for God.
Everything is just going on, you know, there's no God. You know, trees are growing, you know, there is spring. Spring came. And it comes on its own accord. And when spring comes, the leaves are coming. So where is God?
What is the role of God? And you know, people also, you know, what is God? Why do we need God? You know, we get together and we produce a child. Where is the soul here? You know, we get together. Where is God?
Like also Christians they're a little confused because they also say that there is soul, but they don't know at which particular moment the soul is being created because they don't know that the soul is eternal, so they think that the human soul is being created at the moment of perception.
It's a very ridiculous kind of understanding because you know God is watching very carefully and at the moment of conception he quickly quickly makes his soul you know in some bulb you know and sends it down here.
But uh uh the point of confusion which is being described in the fourteenth chapter, which Krishna describes, is that material nature works as if on its own, as if there is no need for any other principle.
Krishna says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā, but he says that material nature is mother. And mother more or less has everything. Father only gives just initial kind of you know push. Like little particle of semen is there.
But everything else is being done by mother. You know, the child is produced, the child is gross, and everything.
Reflexes, desires, and material veil
So uh that's what he explains and uh this is why uh so much confusion is there because people they like uh uh recently I read one article which was published in Russia 150 years ago.
Because most of you, or some of you are medical students, you must know Mr. Sechenov. He's a very Sechenov. He's a very Sechenov, whatever.
A famous physiologist who published in 1863 an article, and this article is supposed to prove that there is no soul. So the article is very simple.
The experiment which he wanted to make to prove that there is no soul is very simple. You know, he's a simple man. He's a professor, you know. But at the same time, very simple.
He took a frog, you know, and cut a frog and looked inside, more or less. No soul. Liver is there. You, he was a little more so sophisticated than this.
He says, but that's the exact uh point of the article because he says everything else, he he takes the frog and he says, you can explain everything about this frog just by uh interpreting this understanding of reflexes.
You know, there is some stimuli coming from outside and reflex is there. So frog is there. You know, you put some... So he made a very nice arrangement with this frog.
He cut half of the head of this frog and put some little salt on its brain. And the reflexes slowed down.
You know, and he says, we see you, there's there's no soul, you know, and there's in the brain there's no soul, just put little salt there and it's it's such a stupid explanation.
Because yes, reflexes are there. And you can explain a lot by reflexes. You can you know uh put the poor frog into a sulfuric acid and the poor frog by reflexes will start flapping around.
But the problem you can say that this is reflexes, but at the same time you cannot explain why the frog wants to live. Who wants to live? It was if it was just a machine, like this tape recorder, is a machine.
In one sense it reproduces some functions of human. It can speak, you know, you push it and speaks, you know. You know for some time it's seemingly life.
But when you push the off button, you know, it doesn't cry, you know, don't do this, I want to live. I want to speak more. Because I didn't express myself fully yet. There is no one there to do this.
Because there is no soul. There is no desire to live. Because what soul does, yes, body provides you with reflexes. Yes, you know you punch some pinch somebody and somebody will cry, yes. But this is reflex.
But soul has desire. And the main desire of the soul is to live. Soul wants to live, soul wants to exist, soul wants to enjoy, soul, because this is the nature of the soul, this is the deep, profound nature of the soul.
But because the material nature is arranged in such a way that as if it doesn't need anything, it as if it's a it's a very complicated mechanism, the confusion is there.
You know, like I also have my tape uh my computer. My computer can also do many things. It's almost, you know, it it knows more than me, much more. Has such a brain that I can only dream about.
It's and it can retrieve all the data very quickly, you know, if you if you know what to ask him. So so he can get everything. You know, I have to really struggle hard with my hard drive to get something from from it.
But with computer it's very easy. And sometimes it's even, you know, manifest kind of emotion, you know, when there is no electricity, when the battery is uh then the computer starts beeping very, you know, piteously.
Beep beep But still it's it's it's a machine, you know. You can take this computer and smash it and it doesn't matter for him, you know.
He doesn't exist as that there is no substrate of it, there is no self, conscious self in it. But frog has it, small ant has it, and we have it. We know this.
And Krishna explains this problem in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, where he explains that there is a veil. The veil which is made of the modes of material nature. Rajo-guṇa, sato-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.
And this veil basically is something which hides away God. God is hidden away behind this veil.
And because we only have this, you know, uh this kind of you know satvagun raja gun tamagun in our eyes we only see gunas we only see the competition of the gunas which are always competing and which make all this arrangement.
Destinations defined by the gunas
So this is uh the reason why we don't see God and this is explained in the fourteenth chapter.
In the fourteenth chapter Krishna gives a very scientific explanation, very uh impartial, not sectarian criteria for the future of human being. In the 14th chapter, he says, what will be your destination?
He says, it doesn't belong, it doesn't depend on which sect you belong to, which religion you go, to which church you give your five rubles every Sunday. No, he doesn't accept these stupid ideas.
He says, if you are in Satvagun, you will be elevated in the next life. For sure.
If you are satvik by nature, if you follow some principles, if you're kind, if you're doing something good, no matter which denomination you belong, which religion you belong, or whatever, you will be elevated. There will be some progress, there will be some development.
You will develop some better capacities for understanding.
And he says Śrīla Prabhupāda actually refers that sattva ultimately gives knowledge, that ultimately sattva-guṇa reveals the spiritual knowledge in your heart. It's more or less guaranteed.
If you live a sattvic life, if you follow some principle, if you're more, mm pious so to speak, then the knowledge or understanding will automatically arise in your heart. Even if it doesn't matter.
If you're a Christian, you know, if you live the pious life, results, and you will get this understanding.
If you are impious, no matter how many crosses you have on you, you may have you know twenty crosses all over your body. It it will not help you in the moment of death.
So Krishna says if you are in sattva-guna you will go up. If you are in rajo-guna you will remain approximately on the same level. If you were running in this life you will go on running in the next life.
Mm, there's a very passionate, uh, you know, look in your face.
And if you're in tamo-guna, if you are in, uh, a mode of ignorance, if you're lazy, if you're, uh, dependent, uh, uh, if you're dependent on all drugs, kind of you know if you're trying to dull yourself, then you will degrade yourself.
That's, uh, what Krishna says in the 14th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, and then
he explains in the fifteenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that behind, uh, it's a very interesting, fascinating chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, 15th chapter, where he says that behind this veil, curtain of material modes, there is Supreme Person, Puruṣottama Yoga.
This is the name of the 15th chapter. And he says: the one who follows śāstras, here is where the Vedas come. The whole 15th chapter describes basically the Vedas. He says, you may know me.
He says, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo. If you want to know me, you should know the Vedas.
The only way to penetrate through this curtain, which is now kind of dividing individual soul from the Supreme Soul, is to follow the Vedas.
And all the Vedas, all the scriptures, all the, you know, śāstras are there for us to give us hope, and to give us understanding, and to give us a way to understand God.
And more or less it's very strictly established that if you follow the principles laid in Vedas. If you follow in your life some vidyā and niṣedhas which are there in the Vedas, then you will understand God.
Then you will be able to kind of unveil God. This curtain will not obstruct you. So this is the topic of the 15th chapter. And then in the 16th chapter, Krishna says that if you don't follow, if you are opposite,
if you are asura, then there's no hope for you. If you reject śāstra, if you just, uh, by kama, by your desire, if you do whatever you like, like some people, you know, they think this is religion.
You know, I do whatever I like. I think I already told you the story about some man who said, my favorite verse in Bhagavad-gītā when Krishna says, Arjuna, I told you everything, now do whatever you like.
So some people they have this understanding. But uh but Krishna is very uh actually this uh sixteenth chapter is very heavy. In sixteenth chapters, Krishna says, yes, there is people who do whatever they like.
But he says, these people they don't uh achieve perfection and na... umāpnoti [h]uhtim, they don't get happiness and they don't get highest uh don't get highest destination they cannot get peace uh in their
life in their heart and ultimately he says uh those people I m uh you know I cast in the lowest species of life because they are whimsical, because they only follow their lust which is there in the heart.
So this discrimination is being done. If you follow the Vedas you're good. If you don't follow the Vedas uh nothing you you you cannot expect anything good.
Understanding unscriptural faith and fanaticism
But now Arjuna has this very interesting doubt because
in the fourth chapter Krishna established very important principle that if somebody has faith, no matter if it's faith in Vedas or uh because Krishna didn't specify at that time, if somebody is faithful, if somebody uh has very strong faith, uh then he is sattvic, right?
Faith has the nature of sattva. And Arjuna asks, you know, what if somebody has faith in God but don't follow Vedas? What is his destination? How do you define him? Because since he has faith, he should be defined as satvik.
And being satvik he has to develop. He has to go up. But at the same time, because he doesn't follow Vedas, he has to go down. He has to be Tamasic.
He rejects Vedas and he rejects Vedas by some rajasic or tamastic principles. And he has faith, and that's satvik. So what's his destination? That's exactly Arjuna's question, Arjuna's doubt.
And that's exactly what we also have to understand. Why and how and what is the destination of such a person.
Because we do know that for example, like all these fanatic Muslims, they do believe that as soon as they quit their body, if they quit the body uh fighting for the right cause, and right cause in this particular case means, you know, the religion of the Prophet Muhammad.
So if they no matter how many people they kill on the way, you know, they may kill five thousand people and you know have a glorious death.
So they do believe that at this very moment, at the moment of death, they go immediately to heaven. And in the heaven they have seventy, you know, girlfriends or whatever.
And the personal darson of Prophet Muhammad and so many other advantages are there. So and they do have very strong faith. You know, that's so faithful that they they are ready uh to give up their life. So much faith is there that immediately they will get it.
Moreover, not only they have this faith, all their relatives have this faith.
Because the promise is also there that uh if you are killed on the way of fighting for this, then uh not only you go to heaven and uh get 70 girlfriends that also we will go there.
So all the families, they send their sons, "You go, get killed, no problem. So and they do have faith. So Arjuna's doubt is what is their destination? What is what is the fate of such people?
How uh uh uh how you will judge them? Uh, are they sāttvik, are they tāmasik, are they rājasik? What the what happened? And we do know that this principle, very important principle, which is the that faith is sāttvik.
And that's a fact because faith, uh, first of all, it gives knowledge, no doubt about it. It gives some kind of knowledge. It gives some kind of proper mental attitude.
If you have faith, the faith is a tremendous source of strength, tremendous source of uh achievement, you know.
People who have faith, if you don't have faith in what you're doing, you will never achieve the goal, no matter what it is.
Even if it is a simple study, you know, if you don't believe in it, you will not achieve the goal. Just to achieve the goal, you have to have faith.
Strength and limits of faith
And the stronger the faith is, the better you will be able to achieve. And uh there is a very interesting story in this regard, which I once told somewhere.
And this is a story how the faith can make miracles. You know, if it even if it's a bogus faith. So in this particular story uh that happened long ago during the crusades time.
The Christians they uh used to go on crusades uh to get the you know the I don't know what they wanted to get, some kind of relics, something which belonged to Jesus Christ.
They used to go to Jerusalem and uh at one point there was a big huge crusade from France and they went all the way to Jerusalem and they were totally, completely defeated.
They were smashed, uh there was only few of them left. The Arabs completely defeated them and uh they were they couldn't understand. We were fighting for God. This is our aim, you know. How is that that God doesn't help us?
So in this you know situation of complete confusion and bewilderment, one of them all of a sudden arises and says to his compatriots and crusaders that my dear friends, I had a dream this night. And in my dream, Jesus Christ came.
And Jesus Christ told me that somewhere here where we have now our camp there is a lens. And this lens was the lens of somebody who pierced with this lens
the body of Jesus Christ when He was crucified? Somebody pierced His him with the lens. So this is the very lens which touched the sacred body of Jesus Christ. And it's somewhere here.
And he said, you get this lens and you go with this lens and you get the victory. So they become very excited and they start digging and digging, digging everywhere.
And ultimately, this person who had a dream, you know, he found a very rusty old, you know, lens. And everyone was so excited. They got the lens. They got this something very sacred. Which proves the body of Jesus Christ.
So they went there. They went to Jerusalem again. Completely inspired by this uh miracle which they had.
And they completely all the very very few people, they defeated everyone and they got what they wanted and they got victory and they came back victorious.
And everything, you know, and they thought, yeah, God He directed us, and everything was nice. Until 20 years later, this person confessed in his
deathbed that this lens belonged to his grandfather. When he was going to this crusade, his grandmother told him, take this lens. This is very nice. And he was trying to use it, but it was useless.
It was rusty and it was old, you know. And he thought I'm complete fool, you know, I was carrying this heavy lens all the way from France to Jerusalem. And it's uh out of no use. So he invented this story.
You know, he faked this story and he said, This is the lens of Jesus Christ. And they defeated them. They got victory. They were completely sure that this is the way you know that God is with them.
So this shows that the faith, even bogus faith, gives them tremendous amount of strength. Because by nature, faith is sāttvik. And sāttvik gives this strength, gives this gives this courage, give give the uh you know patience, gives so many good qualities.
Reasons people reject scriptural guidance
Um so uh this is the confusion uh which is being presented here by Arjuna, and this confusion is being conserved here in a very beautiful way by Krishna.
Krishna says, yes, faith itself is sāttvik, but the very fact that you reject scriptures and that you don't follow scriptures and the sātvika rules of scriptures means that you are either tāmasika or rājasika.
Why people reject scriptures? Why people don't follow them, what is the most common reason?
You know, if you ask anyone, uh uh like I know so many Indians, they come here to Russia and the first thing which they do, they start eating meat.
Because in India they never ate meat and here it's they say it's cold here, right? Therefore they have to eat meat because it's cold.
As if there is some, you know, serious justification, you know, so what, cold, so what, it doesn't have it doesn't mean that you have to become rākṣasa you know, if it's cold. It's not enough reason for this.
So the first explanation, there's two explanations. There are basically two reasons why people do reject scriptures, why people do reject principles laid in the scriptures.
One reason why they do this is because they don't have time, right? This we heard and we know in our own life, you know. You ask somebody, why don't you do this? I have no time.
You know, they have time for everything else, but not time for following little scriptures. You know, that's that's too time consuming. And that's passion. That's the Rajasic motive which is there.
If you say I have no time, I have I'm too busy, you know, I'm too busy doing so many other things, but I have no time to read Bhagavad-gītā, this is this is rajas. This is mode of passion. And another uh reason is that
uh you know why they don't follow scriptures is because it's you know it's uh they are lazy. They don't want. It's it's too troublesome, too taxing, you know, for me. So that's tamo-guṇa. You're too lazy to do this.
So either you have you reject scriptures only because of two reasons. Either because you are in rajo-guṇa or because you are in tamo-guṇa, right?
Because you have this, you know, glorious modes of material nature which influence you and we you don't want to part with them.
So that's and and Krishna will explain to Arjuna, yes, Arjuna, they are faithful and the faith makes them Satvik, the faith makes them somewhat pious.
But this motivation when they reject scriptures, why they don't follow the sātvika principles of scriptures make them mixed. They are sātvika mixed with rajas and tamas. And therefore they have mixed destination.
Three modes of faith and taste
And he will explain very beautifully in this chapter a very important principle of what is religion. This uh of what is faith. In this chapter which is called Shraddhatrayavi
Bhaga Yoga, he distinguishes between three kinds of face.
He says that the faith which is contaminated by the modes of material nature, sattva-guṇa, raja- guṇa, and tamo-guṇa, because it's contaminated, it has different nature, and people start developing certain belief according to the unique combination of the influence of material modes of material nature, sattva, rajas, and tamas.
And the first principle how Krishna establishes this, and the first criteria: how you can understand what is your faith in what you believe, what is your real, you know, where is the position of your heart, who, which mode of nature influences you. It's very interesting.
What Krishna practically gives as a first criterion by distinguishing three ways of religion in this, in this chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. He describes three kinds of food. It's in itself very mysterious, you know.
It's three kinds of religion. First thing, Krishna says, if you want to know which religion somebody belongs to,
You don't have to look whether he has cross or whether he, you know, has the green flag over him, you know, whether he has some other symbol. He says you look what he eats. This is his religion.
His religion, it's a very important and very uh deep philosophical principle.
He says that the religion of people, the faith of people, is defined by the influence of the mode of nature, not by his formal or official affiliation with this organization or that organization, not because of the rights which he does, not because of any other external principles.
The faith is being defined or being determined by the influence of the mode of nature. And you can immediately recognizeืน the influence of the mode of nature on the taste which person has.
According to the taste, you know, if somebody has uh you know we know sāttvika taste is sweet. If somebody likes sweets, he's supposed to be brāhmaṇa, you know, because brāhmaṇas are supposed to be... You're not bona fide brāhmaṇa if you're not a little fat.
Because brāhmaṇas are supposed to be sāttvika, and sāttvika means sweet, and sweet means fat, right? It's all very tightly connected.
So uh Krishna defines it like this: if you want to know the religion of a person, you first look what he eats. And then you will understand what influence is there in his heart.
And if it's you know if it's uh if it's salty, if somebody likes salty preparations, it means rajo-guṇa, you know, because salt makes one thirsty and makes one very active.
And if it's uh really heavy, you know, if you have you know half a kilo chili and half and uh two potatoes, then it's tamoguna. It's pure tamoguna. Chili is tamoguna. Oh, it's so uh uh because
you know in tamoguna you're so lazy and so you know tomatic then you need something to wake up and therefore you eat only chili, you know to somehow or rather to get little little fire inside.
Conflicts arising from material tastes
So that's the taste which you you know develop and that's exactly what Krishna explains in in the 17th chapter. He says that when people when they argue
about the faith, when they have, you know, and we know that this is uh a very common kind of phenomena in this world. That they people say my faith is better. And there is constant fighting, you know.
This religious group says we're better and this other religious group says no, you're all stupid fools, you know, you go to us and only here you will get something.
In reality, what is happening is that this is the fighting of the of the tastes. Because in reality what people say, they say my taste is better and your taste is is it stinks, you know. It's rotten.
No, I have the real taste. And you have to get here and to uh develop the same taste. Basically that's what we see.
The all this fighting of the religions, or so-called religions, so-called material religions, so-called material faith uh in in this world, it's uh nothing else but this. Like also we see a very strong uh you know conflict now or very strong kind of um two enemies now, two two poles in in this world, in the modern world.
On one pole you have this Muslims fanatics and on another pole you have United States. And both have taste. And what the Muslims, the Muslims reaction, all these terrorists we can condemn it as much as we want.
But the real reason is because they feel that the aggression is coming from America. Because America, they are trying somehow or other to force everyone to follow the taste of Americans. It's a very subtle way.
They don't convert anyone, they don't have, you know, American churches where they you know worship hamburger, you know, put it in the altar. But they do it. They still do it.
You know, they they brainwash everyone that this is the taste which is the best. You know, you go to McDonald's, this is the best taste in the world. And old people so brainwashed that they they follow them, you know.
Uh but this is religion. According to Krishna this is religion. This is a certain kind of um uh contamination, material contamination, which they want uh the whole world to follow, this kind of contamination.
You we they built, you know, there is now McDonald's on the way to between Vrindavan and Agra, you know, near Mathurā. McDonald's is there, you know. It's there in the holy land of Krishna.
They're so aggressive in promoting this kind of taste, this stupid taste which they have. You know this if you go to America, it's a it's a far out place.
I don't recommend anyone, but if you want to see it you know, in America that the problem number one in America, that's what they um admit themselves. The problem number one is obesity.
And obesity means you, know you, have all these round people. People who have no shape. They're, you know, because the you know the ball is the most economical shape. You know, that's according to geometry.
It's uh, you know, if you want to have something really economical you become you know round. So they by following their taste, by following their religion, they gradually,
you know, that it's it's uh it becomes a nation of balls, you know, the one a father ball, mother ball and little kid ball, you know.
Basically they don't even walk, they kind of you know roll because they only eat hamburgers and Pepsi-Cola, you know. That's their diet, you know. The Pepsi Cola is the holy water.
They they they do abhiṣeka, and they you know they have their mantras and everything is there. It's a full fledged religion. So and they want the whole world to follow them, more or less.
You know, and uh and um this Muslim people who are very strict and they want to follow their taste and their religion, they they feel this aggression, they they they hate this.
Acquired nature versus scriptural progress
They want to kill, you know, each other because the this is the conflict of the tastes.
And that's exactly what Krishna says that you know what is mundane taste. If you take mundane taste, it's more or less following the taste which you already have.
You already acquired in your past life, because of your past karma, you acquired some kind of inclination, some kind of swabhava, your acquired nature is there. And you're born with a certain predisposition.
You know, you can look in a small little child and you immediately see what he is what his predisposition is. You can see if he is sättvika or if he's rājasika or if he's tāmasika, you know.
You look at child, you know, they're supposed to be very beautiful, but you know, some of them are not so beautiful. You look at them and they—but because they already have this nature. And this nature is there.
The influence of the guṇas of the modes of material nature is already there in their heart.
And when he grows up, he more or less finds his niche, his kind of you know belief or his ideological kind of framework of his life, which is uh more or less uh according to the mods which is already there.
You know he is looking and he he is born in some phase and if this face is too sattvik for him, he will somehow rather be gravitated to some other group which is according to his you know uh taste you know which has enough chili in uh in its belief you know which which has a specific kind of rituals and specific kind of you know this and that.
So what Krishna says here, he says that if you just follow the face which is already there, if you are more or less follow your nature so to speak.
Like some people say, uh if you start speaking with them about the religion, about the faith or whatever, they say, I follow my heart.
You know, I hear it so many times, you know, my heart is, you know, you know basically what they want to say get lost. I follow my heart. It was my heart.
But that's exactly what Krishna says, this is stupid. You by following your heart, you only more or less uh confirm what you already have. You are not going any further.
You are more or less uh admitting what you already have and you're more or less uh kind of stuck there. You don't go anywhere. You are more or less on one place.
Um but the way of material nature is such that if you only follow your heart, so to speak, or if you stood on one place, if you stand in one place, then you will be degraded.
Unless you go further, unless you try to develop, unless you try to take a progressive way uh if you even even to maintain the status quo you have to fight. You have to work you have to do something. Just to maintain.
It's as if you are in a river, you know and, you're trying to swim against the flow.
You know, even to stay in one place, you have always to work. If you only s you know stay there, you then you will be going down and down and down.
Elevating the self through scripture
So, what Krishna says here: it's ridiculous and it's stupid if you only follow your heart. He says: you shouldn't follow your heart, you should follow the scriptures.
The ultimate conclusion or the ultimate recommendation of Krishna in this chapter is that no matter who you are, the main point of following the scriptures is that by following the scriptures you elevate yourself. The main point of religion is not to maintain your status quo. The main point of religion is not to say, I am this, you know, get lost. I already have my face.
The main point of religion, the religion may be bad, and it is bad if somebody doesn't develop spiritually practicing this religion.
And it refers not only, we are not being sectarian here, it's equally refers to any kind of religious or faith. It may refer to Krishna consciousness.
If you just you know do Krishna consciousness as a matter of ritual, if you don't really have this goal of developing spiritually, of elevating yourself in the modes of material nature, of being more and more pious and kind and elevating yourself higher and higher and higher, then it's useless also.
It's only for you an excuse, you know. Get lost, I already have my face, you know. I I'm busy, you know, I already do whatever I'm supposed to do. So many people they are spiritually lazy and they only use uh their
affiliation with certain organization just to say I I don't want to do you know, they they're looking for some uh like for example, very I I don't want to offend anyone, but very uh big religion now, especially in the West is Buddhism.
Buddhism is so big in America especially. America it's it's uh almost becoming a state religion. Why is it? Because you know because in Buddhism there is no God. There's no soul.
You don't have to uh you know basically uh there is no soul, there is no God, and ultimately you don't have to follow anything, and at the same time you're spiritual, right?
You don't follow anything, there is no God, there is no soul, but you're so spiritual, you know, you you feel good about it. Because you're, you know, you're kind of spiritual.
And so many people they uh do use uh kind of you know their affiliation of formal affiliation just to say I'm spiritual, I'm already doing something, I'm doing this minimum which I'm supposed to do.
But this is not the point of religion. Not the point of following scriptures.
The point of following scriptures is to help someone to elevate oneself, is to help, is to push, is constantly kind of you know remind oneself that don't be complacent, don't stay in one place, you have to elevate.
And this is the point of Kri Kri uh Krishna which he says in in the seventeenth chapter.
The conclusion of the seventeenth chapter, which is explained by Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that that you don't just to have to follow what is already there. You have to follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures under the guidance of somebody who has greater spiritual experience. And by associating with somebody who has bigger or more profound spiritual experience you will elevate yourself gradually.
He will explain how good it is, how by this way you can achieve happiness, you can achieve peace, how gradually you can be, you know, elevated step by step. This is the point of religion.
This is the point of spiritual practice. And no matter where it takes place, if it takes place in the Christianity, even in Christianity like in Christianity some people are very pure.
They do follow strict principles, they don't eat meat, you know, some monks or some old people who are who are really spiritual, they don't eat meat. You know, it's prohibited completely.
And they can give some spiritual guidance. And if it's taking place, then it means that you're developing. It means that your future destination will be better.
If it doesn't take place, you know you're just using religion as an excuse. And you're basically can be dragged down by by this flow, natural flow of material nature. That's uh what is being explained here.
And this is the point. The point is that what we do it's not just a matter of ritual. It's not just a matter of blind belief. That's what uh exactly Śrīla Prabhupāda explains. He says artificial faith.
The faith which is produced by this combination of the modes of material nature, it's either blind faith, you just believe in what you believe because you believe or uh
or it's uh it's artificial faith because it doesn't have anything to do with real spirit with spiritual understanding, spiritual spiritual science. The spiritual science is being described here in the Bhagavad-gītā.
And it's simple, it's easy. It's uh Krishna himself says Pratyakshava Gamamam Dharmyam Susukam kartumavya yam. It's it's joyful to do.
If you do it, you become joyful, your heart becomes you know light, your heart becomes very nice. So that's the way of real religion, and that's a criter criteria. If you follow the real religion, you become joyful.
You become very, you know like in some religion they they have this image of religion. The religion it's something very serious. Like I I read an interview with one priest, Orthodox priest.
And this orthodox priest is happened to be a son of one most famous Russian humorist. And this most famous Russian humorist, he was his main goal of life is to make people laugh. And his son becomes a priest.
So naturally, the journalist, the reporter asked him, you know, what you think about the uh uh is there any uh you know place or room for laughing in religion?
And he became a little puzzled and then he says, I can't imagine how that Jesus Christ would laugh. No, it's it's not possible, you know. He owned. Krishna doesn't say this.
Krishna says there is a lot of room for laughing. He says, Susukam kartumavya. The real religious past is joyful, joyfully performed. It has a lot because Krishna is the best humorist in the creation.
He created this world in a very humorous way. And he has a very unique sense of humor. Sometimes we don't even understand why he's joking like this with me. But he does have this.
But the real point of religion is to become happy. And you can only become happy if you elevate yourself, if you gradually uh progress and develop yourself spiritually and uh the prospect of this is actually very nice.
I want to thank you very much for everything that was my presentation. Hare Kṛṣṇa.