Bhagavad-gita 2.11
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Москва · 2006
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Recitation of Bhagavad Gita second chapter
Omna Bhagavate vasude Omna no bag Omna Bhagavate vasude Okay, we read the the first verse of Krishna's speech when he starts speaking to Arjuna in the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita.
Sibhawnuvacha, Srivacha, Asham, Anva Socha, Vadham Cha Baset Gatasum Gatasum Agatasum Cha Na, anushachanti, panditaha, pandita, sribhavanuvacha, sribando vacha, aschachandva sochastam Nano so chantipandita, nano so chantipandita, Sribhagavanuvacha, Sribhavanu Vacha, Assochandva Sochamstwam Pragyava damschava chasse, prayava dam, gata sumagatasam scha, gatasam, katatam, nanochantipandita, asochannanva so chastam, pragyava damschabha se. Nagatasuna gatasamscha, nano sho chantipandita, nano shochandi The
Supreme Personality of God had said. Not worthy of lamentation. Not worthy of lamentation. Anvasochaha. Anvasocha. You're lamenting. You are lamenting. Twam you. Pragyavadan lex also
basha speaking speaking gata Lost Asum Asun Life Agata not past Asum Life Cha also na never anusha chanti lament Panditaha Pandita the learned translation.
Reading purport on matter soul and Lord
The Supreme Personality of God had said, While speaking learned words, your mourning, mourning, for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for living nor for the dead purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him indirectly fool.
The Lord said You are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned, one who knows what is body and what is soul, does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition.
As explained in the later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology.
But he did not know that knowledge of matter soul and supreme is even more important than religious principles. And because he was lacking of that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man.
As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation.
The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow. Therefore, the body is not as important as the soul.
One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: śrī-bhagavān uvāca: aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣhase gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.
Sarasvati devi goravani pracharini sunyavati pachatades panchakapataradescha, kripa sindu bevacha patitana pavandiyovasnava dhyona mama Krishna Hare Hari Hari Rama Kari Rama Dama Dama Hari Hari Prabhupada
Sarcasm and conditional surrender of Arjuna
explains that Krishna is being very sarcastic. And there is a very good reason for Krishna's sarcasm in this particular occasion. In the previous verse, Sanjay explains that
when Krishna was listening to Arjuna, he was smiling. And really Krishna wanted to laugh. Because Arjuna in the seventh verse he
said, Sishyastiham, Sadhima Tvampram, I'm your disciple. I am totally surrendered unto you. Whatever you will do, whatever you will say will do. But then in the next verse he says na yotsya iti govinda. I will not fight.
I will do whatever you will say, but I will not do this and that and this and that. And ultimately I will not do what you want to do. But I I'm surrendered so. I'm your disciple. I'm taking initiation from you now.
I'm ready to do whatever you say, but there's some conditions, there are strings attached. And Krishna is laughing.
And ultimately, he is laughing at us because he knows that what we say is often the case is not what we mean.
It's actually the condition of the conditioned soul, or situation of the conditioned soul, is that we say something externally and we accept something externally, but really our acceptance is very shallow. It's not very deep.
It doesn't penetrate the heart. And the reason for our external or superficial acceptance of something, in particular spiritual life or guru, is that it brings some mental satisfaction. You know.
Everyone has a guru and I also have a guru. Everyone is a surrendered soul. I'm also surrendered, so we are supposed to do like this. This is our culture. This is what we should do.
And there are so many different aspects of this problem which are there, and this is actually very clearly demonstrated by Arjuna himself.
And that's the reason why Krishna smiles, why Krishna actually not even smiles, he almost laughs. Because Arjuna very consistently, even before that, calls him Madhava,
he calls him Hṛṣīkeśa, he calls him Keśava, he calls him Madhusūdana. This is all names of God. So Arjuna is speaking with God.
And moreover, he says, I know you're God but I do not want to fight I've surrendered unto you but I still keep the right to decide with myself the The ultimate decision is within my mind.
And maybe you will help, but ultimately I don't believe that you will help. So that's that's the unfortunate situation we find ourselves uh in the spiritual past.
But there is one very fortunate aspect of it is that Krishna, even though we may not be hundred percent sincere. He still accepts even this superficial surrender.
But he doesn't he's not satisfied with this superficial surrender. He wants us to be completely surrendered, but it's a first good step.
He says, if you cannot do and he knows we cannot do anything else, he says at least say it superficially.
Development of faith from superficial to fixed
And let's start from this point. Because it's interesting the whole Bhagavad-gītā is between these two points. One is initial surrender of Arjuna.
When he says Sishastiham Sadhima from Krafanam, I'm surrendered soul. Please teach me.
And the last verse of Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says, mā śucaḥ, Ahamtvam Sarva Papyvyos, what is this Sarvadharman Paritya Mamekam Saranamba? Bhagavad-gītā starts with the statement of Arjuna, I am surrendered soul.
And it ends with the statement of Krishna, surrender unto me. Isn't it a little strange because from the beginning he says I am already surrendered unto you. But Krishna goes through the whole you know problem and hurdle
of explaining to Arjuna what he should do, to tell him surrender to me. Because he knows that his initial sentiment is just a sentiment.
It's it's a condition of material mind, which is a nice condition, which is a nice sentiment, and he accepts this sentiment, but he knows that it's not very deep.
Because it's not the resolve of the soul, it's just some kind of you know fluctuation in the mind.
At this particular point because I'm totally completely dejected, desperate, because I know that it's very difficult to live in this world. Okay, I surrender unto you. Very conditionally, with so many strings attached.
But still I do it. But he wants the surrender of the soul, which is much deeper. And for that he speaks Bhagavad-gītā. And the whole Bhagavad-gītā is between these two acts of surrender. One is superficial surrender.
Which actually more or less signifies the appearance of śraddhā within the face, within the mind, or within the within the heart of the living being. This initial śraddhā or initial face is very weak and flickering.
Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī calls this initial śraddhā as komal śraddhā. And komal means pliable. Komal means very flexible, very you know sad, yes, I
believe, but uh if the conditions of the external environment will change, then my belief will also change accordingly. You know, here I believe in this, you know, I change my environment and I will believe in something else.
It's not very deep. But still it's good. It's a first step and it's an unavoidable first step. We have to go through it.
But then as Rūpa Gosvāmī explains, if the bhakti develops within the heart, if the realization is coming within the soul, then the śraddhā has to be turned into niṣṭhā, into something which is totally completely immovable.
Because niṣṭhā means stable, niṣṭhā means very fixed. And this is the real surrender.
Between these two initial sentiment, initial faith in God and initial acceptance that I need to surrender to Him to solve my difficulties and problem and niṣṭhā the fixed determination to do bhakti, no matter what, there is a very difficult space which we will have to cross over.
And this difficult space is indeed the most difficult. When you reach the stage of niṣṭhā, it becomes more or less simple.
But in this initial stages of devotion it is difficult and therefore, Krishna more or less uh and the whole Bhagavad-gītā is actually doesn't go further. Śrīla Prabhupāda usually said that Bhagavad-gītā is ABC.
Even though it's a very you know deep and profound book with a lot of spiritual knowledge, still it uh it takes us to the stage of
Niṣṭhā when we are totally completely resolved to follow this path of self-surrender, of self-dedication to the Supreme Lord. And after that, there is a whole realm of spiritual development.
You know, we know that śraddhā is there, sādhu-saṅga is there, bhāva is there, and after bhāva premā is there, and in premā there are you know all the stages of premā.
Sneha, māna and after māna and bhāva, mahā-bhāva and so many other stages of development within the heart, which are very theoretical in our condition.
But what is important for us is how to reach to the stage of stability or the stage of being fixed in devotional service.
And of course what we can see here, why did I have a right to say that Krishna accepts even this superficial or shall we say hypocritical kind of surrender because it is hypocritical.
As I said, the reason why people do it because it gives them some mental satisfaction. It gives them some kind of mental satisfaction.
I belong to this great, great person, you know, like Arjuna says, you know, Krishna, you're so great, you're so great. So I surrender unto you.
Not because he wants to surrender, not because he believes. Not because he really deeply believes that this is good for him, but because you know it's just the way to do.
Reason behind Krishna smiling at Arjuna
And uh uh the similar situation we find ourselves in, but uh as I said, Krishna does accept it and uh it is explained very beautifully
by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and I believe also by Śrīla Prabhupāda in the previous verse where Prabhupāda explains and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains why Krishna smiles.
As I said, Krishna really wants to laugh. Because you know and if Arjuna was his friend, he would laugh. He would s he would just laugh. He said, look how foolish you are.
It's a big joke what you're saying. It's really a big joke. But Arjuna in the previous verse said, I'm your disciple. And it's not good to laugh at your disciple. It is okay to laugh at your friend. It's permissible.
This is what friends do all the time.
But if a disciple comes to guru and guru starts laughing, look how foolish you are, this is really foolish. It's not good. This will be the disciple will be disheartened. The disciple will be really, you know, he will really lose any enthusiasm.
So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that there is this junction or sandhi of two different moods.
Krishna is changing his mood from being a friend who is laughing just very heartily you know because to to being a guru.
And therefore, you know, therefore he kind of forces himself not to laugh, but still some kind of smile is there.
He wants to laugh, but he controls himself and therefore he just slightly prahasann iva bhārata he says he's as if he's smiling. He's slightly smiling.
Not to discourage Arjuna, but at the same time showing that he knows what is going on within his heart. Arjuna himself doesn't know. Arjuna himself in a total illusion. The self-deception mechanisms are very strong.
And they are very strong in all of us. Lord Brahmā while designing this universe. And because this universe is created for us to be in ignorance.
This is a special place, special arrangement of the Supreme Lord to help to facilitate the living beings to be an illusion. He wanted to be an illusion, therefore were an illusion. Nobody is to be blamed.
So Lord Brahmā, to help us to be in illusion, created this very powerful mechanism of being an illusion, self-deception. We are deceiving ourselves in many different ways, and that's the main reason of our ignorance.
We don't know what is what. Because of this self-deception. We don't really know. We don't want to know. And therefore we don't know.
So Krishna knows this condition and therefore he smiles and he speaks this sarcastic verse, saying to Arjuna, you know, na śocanti paṇḍitāḥ. prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase.
He says, no, Arjuna you're speaking such a learned word. You're such a learned person. Why don't you follow what you say? What's the reason? You know.
When you speak, you speak very nicely. But when it comes to your life, you behave in a completely different way. Does it sound familiar? It's a very familiar situation.
And it's very interesting that especially in India because in India and also in Russia somebody told me recently that Russians are white Indians. They're very very much similar to Indians in one sense.
Just the color of the skin is slightly different. And the rest is the same.
You know, the people unless Western people, Western people I mean like this, but in India and in Russia people they like to philosophize, they're very philosophical sometimes.
And they know all these philosophies and like Arjuna says, very significantly Arjuna says, anāśuśrūma, he says, I have heard something. And he repeats what he heard, you know.
When he gives the arguments to Bhagavan Krishna, explaining why he doesn't want to fight, what other reasons,
He says, anāśuśrūma, I have heard something, you know. I've overheard that this this they say that it should be like this, that the women,
you know, should be dropped and they should not be, you know, and the varṇa-saṁkara will be there. He gives all these arguments on the basis of, uh, uh, overhearing it somewhere. And this is um very often the case of us
when we heard something, you know, yes, I heard, I heard something, in Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says. You know, often I receive these kind of questions.
I heard that somebody, Prabhupāda said that this is like this. Is it true? So and uh this is uh again a very common
condition of the, uh, living being who are lazy, uh, to really apply their minds very deeply to the spiritual science. They think they know.
You know, we heard, you know, this is what Krishna says and this is what Arjuna says. And if you ask anyone in India, you know, hardly anyone read Bhagavad-gītā. Amazing enough.
Practically no one read Bhagavad-gītā, but everyone heard something. This is how it is. This is how it should be.
Everyone knows something, you know, and everyone is a big philosopher, and everyone is a big knower of truth. And actually that's what Krishna is sarcastic about.
He said, oh Arjuna, you are such a paṇḍit, you are such a learned man, prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase, you give such a learned discourse here. But why you're lamenting? Because the lamentation which you reveal, the lamentation
which is so obvious, reveals your ignorance, reveals that you don't understand anything, that you don't really understand, that you are as foolish as anyone else, despite of your knowledge of śāstra and of your understanding, of so-called understanding of this, despite of all your arguments, you are foolish because you identify yourself as the body.
Grossly, foolishly, hopelessly
Bodily identification as root cause of depression
identify yourself as the body and this is the reason for your lamentation and the most amazing thing about this lamentation, which is the result of identification with the body.
Whoever identifies himself with the body, he will lament. He will be in depression. This is my input in the medical science. That the root cause of depression is nothing else but identification with matter.
The most profound and deepest cause of depression of all kinds is nothing superficial but ultimately the identification is with matter.
And whoever and moreover, the more one identifies himself with the body the more he will lament. And ultimately, he will lament over something which he has no control whatsoever. And this is the most foolish thing.
People are really grieved, they're so sad, but they cannot do anything
and they think that you know this is even more serious reason for them to be lamenting but this is actually not the reason to be lamenting, but that's the reason to be joyful because you shouldn't lament about something which you cannot change.
What Krishna is saying here, gatāsūn agatāsṁś ca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ, he says that the body will die. Whether you lament or not, it will die. It is destined to die.
According to the second law of thermodynamics and according to all the physical laws and the body is not exempt of these laws, it will die. No one will be able to find the medicine against death.
I had one very foolish friend who thinks himself very intelligent.
And usually all the people in this world who think themselves very intelligent are usually foolish, at least from the highest standard of spiritual philosophy. He's a scientist.
And he is a, you know, good-hearted person, as many of them. And he, he's a mathematician himself, and he is into, you know, this information technology and this and that and all this kind of stuff.
And at one point he uh somebody died in his family. As in everyone's family. You know, there is not a single family where somebody didn't die.
Actually there is a there is a little story about it uh from the Buddhist tradition. Uh once once a Buddha came to to a village.
And when he came to the village, he gave a discourse, and then at the end, at the very end of this discourse, he was about to leave the place.
You know, the old lady came and she was crying and crying and crying and crying and she had a little baby in her hands. You know, she said, This is my son.
I I I gave birth to this son very old and this is my only son and I don't have you know husband and my whole hope is you know for him and he died. You're great saint. Please revive him.
And she's she's she's finished she's crying and crying and crying and she said, please, please, please, what is the use of you being the great saint if you cannot revive my little son?
And he said, Okay, I will revive your son, I can do it. But first you have to bring uh a morsel of mustard seeds from the house when nobody died. That's the only condition.
So this is little thing you should you have to bring me, just a morsel of mustard seeds, and then I will throw these mustard seeds and chant some mantras and he will be alive, but she became very hopeful.
And she started going from house to house, house to house, house to house, house to house. And she said, I was sure.
And then at the end of the day, and it was always delayed and Buddha was patiently waiting under the banyan tree when she came. She came to him and she said, Well so where is the morsel of the mustard?
She said, I couldn't find them in one house where nobody died. And he looked at her and said, then why should you allow that? This is not within our control. This is something and uh when the person is lamenting
about something which is totally beyond the sphere of his control, he's a fool. He's a śūdra. I I I was uh telling this story about my friend who is a scientist. So at one point he got a brilliant idea.
Because he totally identified himself with the body and uh in his family somebody died and his mother was so morose and you know, and then he said, My dear mother, I'm a scientist.
And I'm a good scientist, I am a good mathematician.
So I will learn physics, I will learn chemistry, I will learn biology, and I already know the informatical science, I already know mathematics. What I will do my whole life, I will do it.
But ultimately, what I will do, I will fix up a computer program which will be able to recreate the molecular structure of somebody you know whom whom we want to
and it will be even if he dies we will create exactly the same replica placing all the atoms because ultimately it's doable, you know, you just have to take all the Cartesian coordinates of all the atoms within the living body and just place all the atoms in the same exact position through different methods.
And in this way, you know there will be no death anymore. There will be no cause for limitation.
Consciousness of shudra and Janasruti story
I will do And when he told me about this idea I was I could I couldn't contain myself. I was laughing. Because first of all it's not possible. And second of all, the the whole idea is foolish.
But because people are totally uh hopelessly identify themselves with this body, they will lament and this is not what Pandit is supposed to do. It is said in the very culture that somebody who laments is śūdra. Why?
Because śūdra is the one, this is the we know we're living in this age of democracy when everyone is equal and there is no cash and the cases are bad and have to ban it, it's very bad. We all know this.
But it's not that everyone is equal. Everyone is not equal. There are different grades of the levels of the consciousness.
And in particular, the Vedic culture explains that those who are śūdras they have one very fundamental defect in their consciousness.
And therefore it is said, kalau śūdra-sambhava, everyone in the age of Kali is a śūdra ultimately. The fundamental defect in the consciousness of the śūdra, or uh the svarūpa-lakṣaṇa of a śūdra.
The real sign of being a śūdra is that he identifies himself as the body. And there is no way to somehow or other to convince him that it's not like this.
And the way not to become a śūdra is is to stop doing it. That's very simple. And therefore it is said that śūdra is someone who will lament. Lament over something which he cannot change anyway.
So that's uh that's the definition.
There was a there was this famous story in Chāndogya Upaniṣad where Mahārāja Jana Shruti came to one uh sage and the sage was living under the cart and he was there and he was very happy he was just lying down and and Maharaja Janasruti overheard that some couple of sages uh they wanted to tease him because he was very proud. He was very pious, he was doing all kinds of charity programs, food for life programs, all kinds of programs, you know. He was also into education, you know. He was uh he was building and he is state uh three universities you know and he was so pious and he he became so proud you know I am so pious I'm so good I am such a good man. So couple of Moonies they took a shape of a birds, and when he was laying down and he was about to sleep, these two birds were flying, and one bird said, Oh such a tetra, such a piety, such a force, such a shakti coming, exuding from the body of this king, you know, I cannot even cross over him.
And another bird said, no, no, he's he's a fool, you know, he's nobody. You know what what kind of piety it is.
In his state, there isn't real sage and all the pious activity which he performs the results of this will be enjoyed by this muni. So this Maharaja Janasudhi he became so he was shocked.
He said, who is this Mooney who is living in my state and who will enjoy all the results of my piety? What is this? What kind of arrangement is this? And he came to this mooney and uh he found him.
Somehwere under the car some dirty guy was was he was uh scratching his body and he was playing and you know and he looked at him and Janashuti said to him, Sage, could you enlighten me?
And the sage looked at him and said, Get out of here, śūdra. Śūdras, śūdras are not supposed to get Vedic knowledge. There's no way, you know.
Śūdras are not supposed to, you know, listen Vedas because they are they will not understand anyway anything. They will only misuse this knowledge. They will only uh bring something bad, you know, the result will be bad.
So and he said, I w how come I'm śūdra, I'm a king. I'm very pious king, don't you know this? No, you are śūdra, get out of here. Because you're lamenting. Because you're morose, because you're so sad.
And that's the reason, and that's exactly what Krishna is saying here. Oh, dear Arjuna, you're śūdra. Because you're grieving over something which is not worthy of grief, over something which you cannot change anyway.
Because you don't understand the simple little thing that you are not this body, that the there is a soul. And Krishna will start to explain in all different ways to Arjuna how to understand that I'm not this body.
And he gives a very logical explanation which we have to understand very clearly.
Because sometimes living in this day and age of Kali Yug where everyone is śūdra and everyone is so uh grossly, you know, so uh hopelessly engrossed in the body and an identification of the body, sometimes we also have some doubts.
Um you know, sometimes we think, you know, no how how is that I'm not this body, you know, and because everything which I do is, you know, I do through the body and everything is it's it's a very it's a deep problem.
It's actually d uh the first problem which one has to solve, but this is not the problem which is easily to be solved. It's a very d it's a very difficult problem. Prabhupada uh uh he repeats it again and again and again. You know this body, you know this body, you know this body.
And sometimes people complain that you know why Prabhupada repeats itself. But the simple reason is that uh actually uh that he he's not repeating it often enough.
Because even though he repeats it so many times we still don't understand this.
Soul as unchanging observer of changing body
But Krishna gives a very interesting argument which we have to understand very clearly. He says in this famous verse, the dehino 'smin yathā dehe, kumāram yauvanam jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir,
says that you can observe the changes within your body. We actually take the position of the observer. And to be able to observe these changes means that we are not this body.
Because if we were this body, we would not be able to observe the changes. Because to observe you have to take the neutral position outside of this body.
You know if you are something which is changing you cannot you cannot register the changes. Because you are this.
You are what is changing and uh you know it means that you you cannot see the changes because you will be changing and everything will be changing and you know that you you will you will not be able to notice the changes because you will be this changing kind of thing.
So what Krishna says it's a very profound statement which we have to very clearly understand because you are not changeable. Something within ourselves is not changeable.
The body is changing all the time, every second, every millisecond, some changes are there. So many reactions are taking place within the body.
You know, and this particular moment of time there is you know millions of chemical reactions which are taking place within our body.
You know, the ribosomes and chromosomes and all these mitochondrias, they they they there is work is going on. It's a big machine, you know, so many things. The processes are going on.
Still, you know, I I am not changeable. Especially now I mean I'm this year I'm fifty years old and sometimes I wonder, you know, how is that possible that I'm fifty years old?
It's not possible because I I can never be fifty years old. It's too old. And I look at myself and all the shrinkles and this and then and I said, something something is wrong here because I'm not changeable.
And that's exactly uh uh that's the point number one. And before we understand very clearly this, that I'm not changeable and I will never and I will never be changeable. I'm eternal because I exist.
What Krishna also will say in the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, he will also say very important statement that if something exists and we exist, right? Do I exist?
This is this is the least thing which I know about myself. That I exist. And Krishna says if you exist, you will exist forever. Because uh from non existence to existence uh it's it's not possible.
If something exists, asato 'sato, uh uh it is said in the Vedic literature, if something exists, it exists forever. And if something doesn't exist, it doesn't exist forever.
If non existence is there, then non-existence is uh you know because if you exist now in this particular stage it means that you existed before in some uh in some pre existential stage but you existed before.
Existence, this is of course a philosophical point, but uh at the same time it's not so difficult to understand. You know, if something exists, it exists. And we exist, I exist.
And therefore, as Krishna said, there is no point of grieving over uh over the body. The body will die anyway. Our main uh emphasis in life, our main uh direction in life was to take care of the soul.
Because the soul exists and it will exist forever and I have to take care of the soul, of the eternal existence of the soul.
But body will die anyway, no matter what I do. I may take all kinds of chemical medicines which are there. I will die anyway. Rajikirti can confirm it because he was working in reanimatia.
Prioritizing eternal soul over inevitable material death
He used to say that every day somebody dies there no matter how much reanimators care you know somewhere, but no matter how intensive this care is, you cannot change this inevitable fact that the death will come. Because this is the law of nature.
And this is not what we should be worried about. People and this is the point of Krishna here, people waste their life worrying about something which is beyond their control, which is not worthy of being worried about.
We have to worry, there's no doubt about it, we have to worry, but we have to know about what we have to worry.
The learned per person pandit is somebody who knows about whom he should worry and about what he should worry, about what he should not worry.
And ignorant fool is somebody who worries about everything in the world besides the most important thing which he has to worry about.
If you love ask people in the streets, and usually when you see the people, especially here in Moscow, anywhere anywhere else, you know, they have they're worried, you know, they're so in anxiety, you know, they are they're running here and there and here and there. And usually they become depressed and sad.
And if you ask them why you're depressed, ultimately you will find out they're depressed because of something which they cannot change anyway. They're depressed about some totally foolish reason.
But the real point of life is to live in such a way that I only worry uh and in anxiety and about something which which uh which is within the sphere of my influence.
And that's exactly what is within the sphere of my influence is to take care of my soul is to provide the future for my soul for myself
and ultimately you know realize uh this very important knowledge that I am the soul, which is immortal. And if I do this, then I'm learned.
If I live according to this motto that I have to live for the sake of the soul and I have to relate with everyone else as the souls, not as the bodies which I want to exploit, which I want to uh somehow rather you know push down but as the souls parcels of the Lord then my life is useful.
Otherwise my life is it's just will be wasted for this all kinds of limitations. All kinds of useless pursuits which will not bring about anything. So therefore, you know, Krishna is so heavy here.
He said, you know, you think you know. And he addresses every one of us. He says, you think you know. You think you know. And you think you know. But you don't know anything.
Because if you look deeper than your heart, you will see all kinds of strange emotions, strange desires, strange psychological movements which are based on utter ignorance.
And it means that this path which we have to cross over between initial sradha, between this komalasrada or between this pliable and very weak faith and niṣṭhā which is fixed up faith is not yet over.
And it means that we will be wavering. It will it means that you know within our mind we will always be wavering. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Should I go this or should I not go this?
Should I follow this or should I not follow this? Is it good or is it bad? You know, is it good for me or not good? You know, th that and it means and Krishna says, before that point you're full. And you will remain fool.
But you know, because you're a nice fool, I will give you some hint of how to get rid of this. You know, follow this path. But we have to be very clear about our s status, about
the state of our consciousness, that we are fools. And Krishna says here. This is his glorious start of Bhagavad-gītā. He says, This is the point, the step number one. Just be very clear about the step. You are fool.
Despite all your knowledge, despite of all the ślokas which you may or may not know, despite of all the lectures which you may or may not heard, despite of all these you know things which makes you little proud about yourself. You're fool.
Because still strange desires are within your heart. Which is contrary to the eternal benefit of the soul.
Strange psychological movement and psychological reactions are there within your heart. And it means the ignorance is there.
It means that you still didn't work out this very essential thing, that you are the soul which is eternally with Krishna.
And if you know this, what is the result, what is the external sign of this? How do you know that somebody is self-realized person? So it's very simple. He becomes happy, he doesn't lament.
He's happy in any situation of life.
Socrates as example of fearless facing of death
There is this little story about Socrates. When Socrates was about to die, he was condemned to death, doomed to drink some poison some some special poison
and everyone around him was lamenting, everyone was saying, Oh teacher, oh guru, oh, oh, such a terrible thing happened to you. Besides him, he was happy. And actually it was funny because when he was being judged
you know, he was doing everything possible to get this death sentence.
Some foolish people came and said he is corrupting the young youngsters among the, you know, he's saying that they shouldn't worship this, uh, you know, gods which we worship. He's totally completely, uh, dismantling all our great tradition, this and that.
So he was called to be judged, and they said, you know, this is, uh, this is the judgment which should be given, and then they were listen. And he said, No, I'm not guilty. And then he started challenging everyone.
including the judges and this, and saying, You're fools, you know, and they said, Oh, maybe we will give you some little judgement, uh, some little punishment, you know, for this because there are some something to what these people said.
He said, No, no, I've not accept this little punishment. No, I'm because I'm not guilty. You, you know what you have to do, you have to totally justify me and then you have to also pay all my debts.
And because he was a philosopher he had a lot of debts. And you also had to do this and that and that.
And he was behaving in such a challenging way that the judges they had to give him this you know heavy punishment, death penalty. So and when he was about you know he, was for some days he was there.
Mm and the person uh who was supposed to prepare his poison for him to take, he was delaying because he didn't want that. He didn't want.
And then ultimately Sapratis came to him and said, Why does it take so long for you to prepare this poison? He said, Because I don't want to do it and I'm really dragging the time.
He said, No, no, no, please hurry up, you know, Joldi Koro, Joldi Koro. You know I I I want to experience it as soon as possible. He said, no no no no. Said no it's nice. I I I want to die. It's interesting.
What will happen with me? And when somebody said, Why are you not afraid? He said, please tell me what I should be afraid of. I don't understand what I should be afraid of. He said, Oh that's so terrible.
He said, no, what's so terrible about this?
You know, if I if I'm not eternal, if I'm just you know a pile of chemicals, and if this pile of chemicals somehow or other will be dismantled, so I will not feel anything after this. What's so fearful about this?
And if I am eternal, what is the reason to be fearfully about you? There's no reason to be fearful in either case. If I'm eternal soul, I'm happy. Because I'm eternal soul. And if I'm not eternal soul, I'm also happy.
So what's the big deal? This body will be destroyed. That's it. But he was teaching everyone and he was saying this and that you know if you learn it then you know how to live.
And if you learn it, if you really learn it, if this knowledge really bent deep within your psyche, within your heart, if it's really realized knowledge, then you become happy. There's no doubt about it.
You become totally, completely, absolutely happy and not depressions whatsoever will be able to overpower you. This is the sign. And if you didn't realize this knowledge then you will lament.
And Krishna says this is the ultimate medicine for all kinds of depressions. This medicine is contained within this book.
This medicine is if you want to be free from all kind of lamentation, if you want to be free from all kind of grief, if you want to be free from all kinds of mental agony and agitation then you have to take this knowledge.
But not just here and there and somewhere else, you know, overhearing something here, but really get deep into it and be totally completely convinced that this is the way, this is the reality, this is the truth, this is what we have to do.
And there is no other way, there is no other way. There is no other way. Everything else is just illusion, my, everything else is just a cause for lamentation, for grief.
And uh you know we will remain with all our unresolved problems till the very moment of our death. And we will die with all these problems, grieving over something and then we will have another chance to be born again.
So that's what this book is all about. And it starts with Krishna smiles. And it ends with Krishna smile. At the end, Krishna also smiles. Because he always smiles. Because he has the transcendental knowledge.
Therefore he smiles. No, he is always happy. Everyone to be happy. Therefore he gives all this knowledge and he says this is the way.
And nothing else that there is nothing short of it there's nothing short of it will not help you. The only thing which will help you when you realize this knowledge.
Everything else which is short of this will not be able to help. It will be just some kind of self-deception or illusion.
But if the knowledge is there and if this understanding is there, then everything else will follow in a very harmonious way. So and that's what Prabhupada explains here.
Krishna says to Arjuna, you're bewildered. And I congratulate you, this let's establish this fact very firmly and go from this point onwards to the complete destruction of evil within your heart which will take place when you follow the uh last command of Krishna.
Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam் śaraṇaṁ vraja aham tvām sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ.
Managing anxiety and situations beyond control
you very much. Any questions? Oh what shall we do? Today is Vasmoya Mark, but there's no women here at this side. This is poetic. It's only men. Only men are hiding from women on this day.
In our temple they declare that all the men should fast till three o'clock today to celebrate women's day it's almost three o'clock, so I can break the fast. For
example, in hospital when I ask to woman what is your age thing, Nizhana is fresh with time to remind them that you are getting old. No you should say it like this.
I know that you're sixteen years old, but can you kind because it's a fact. Everyone is eternally young. Krishna remains always sixteen years old. And everyone wants to follow Krishna, but yeah, that's foolishness.
That's people foolishness because they can they can't understand. It's so simple to understand this that you know it's it's something from within tells you yeah, this is this is right, this is correct.
This is how it should be. Yes, I know this. I know I'm eternal because I exist. And exist means always. So those who see the truth, that Tattvadarśī. They can see that if something exists, it exists eternally. So simple.
So simple. As in mentality life, tensions are unavoidable. So how one can control because lot of time situations are beyond our control.
So one has to know very clearly that it's beyond my control, and therefore why should I be tense about it? It's beyond my control. It's really, you know, it's not a question of kind of uh Yes, it's beyond my control.
Therefore, you know what why why should I worry about it? I shouldn't worry about it. I should be calm and and composed about it and try to do my best where I can do my best. And if I cannot why? What what is the reason?
What how I will help?
I will not help. By worrying I will only make it worse. By worrying we completely lose the clear vision, clear understanding of what we should do. Therefore, one has to be very clear what is within my control and what is outside of the sphere of my control.
And if it's outside, I should stop worrying about it. And you know, if it's within the sphere of control I should try my best to change the bad or uncomfortable or uh unjust situation.
But again, if I tried my best and it didn't work, then again why should I worry? Why should I be hung up about it? Why should I, you know... I did my best. There is no use, we will not help.
You know, people have this anger and all this unresolved emotion and that will build up, build up, build up within our psyche, and it will create all kinds of problems, physical problems, emotional problems, all kinds of problems are coming from this.
And therefore, Patañjali Muni in his Yoga Sūtra, the first Yoga Sūtra says, Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. Yoga means complete elimination of all the fluctuations or, you know, agitation within the mind.
And that's also what Krishna says. Krishna said that somebody who knows the truth and somebody who follows this path of buddhi- yoga or yoga for your intelligence, he becomes equipoised, he becomes
very calm and sober, and he says, śāntiṁ cādhigacchati paraṁ-śāntim ṛcchati, you will not only obtain peace, you will obtain the paraṁ-śānti. Paraṁ-śānti means the highest bliss which is beyond ordinary śānti,
calm. So it's again based on knowledge. Our psychological reaction.
Yes, tension will be-I mean, the tense situation will be there, difficult, uncomfortable, bad situations will be there, but according to the stage of our realization, our reaction will be different.
And that's what we have to work. That's what we can change. We may worry more, we may worry less.
And not worrying at all doesn't mean to be cold-hearted, doesn't mean to be, you know, indifferent, doesn't mean... It means that I'm not worried, but I'm still there. My consciousness is there. I'm trying to solve it.
But if I cannot solve it, then I don't worry about it. And I know it's easier to say than to do. But uh according to the progress of spiritual progress, according to the extent
I don't identify myself with the body, I will... this will change. This will be... We will see the tangible progress in this regard. We will see that I become much more much more happy.
It was a very interesting situation in my own life. Because like Arjuna, I became very morose before I met with devotees. uh met with devotees. Uh you know, it's it was such a difficult situation for me.
Psychologically it was so extremely difficult. Although externally there were no reasons for this. Externally there were not much reasons for this.
But I I lost my sleep, I lost everything, you know, and uh but I I just graduated from Moscow State University with uh excellence, you know, and then I was in a postgraduate studies, I was the career was in front of me, you know.
I I had always had money, you know, my grandfather was a professor, he was sending me very, you know, good money. All my fellow students they had much less, you know, I didn't have any problems externally.
Internally there were so much problems. And then I became a devotee. I started chanting or kind of devotee. I didn't even identify this time. I was just started chanting and I became so happy.
And then KGB came to me and they said we will stop you from you know this and some other problems and then I was kicked out from Moscow and they went they took me, they interrogated me, this and that. I still was happy.
So I came back uh to my hometown and
I was there with my grandfather and he was so sad, you know, he said, what happened to you, you know, you were so, you know, you were so nicely situated, you were going up and up and up and everything now destroyed, KGB this and then and, uh, I was sitting in front of him and smiling and he was lamenting and lamenting and lamenting
and then he looked at me and he said, "Why do you smile?" He said, "Because I'm happy." I don't know why. the reason. I don't know why.
Because uh and uh there was so many reasons for me to worry but still I was not I was not worried. I mean because what can you do, you know? To worry about KGB is almost the same as about worrying about death.
It's it's almost the same kind of inevitability is there. Yeah no it's uh such a strong at that time.
Simplicity humility and following natural duty
So I didn't worry about that.
Prabhupada, I'm going to read this in a temple today in the prayers of Queen Kunti. Prabhupada gives a very nice purport. He says that women they by nature are very simple. From this simplicity, it's a great advantage.
Because men tend to be uh you know more intellectual so-called. Uh and that makes them more proud and more rigid and more. You know, there are so many problems coming with this.
It's it's advantage and disadvantage at the same time.
But Prabhupāda says that women they tend to be much more simplehearted and this simplehearted nature allows them to accept Krishna in a very straightforward and simple manner.
And because they're capable of doing this, uh, they have actually the greatest advantage in front of everyone else.
And in this prayer Queen Kuntī says that all the munis are there and, uh, they're trying to understand you and still they can't understand you. So what to speak about us women?
And Śrīla Prabhupāda says actually she wants to say that it's much easier for us to understand you than for all these munis and philosophers and, you know, big big brains.
Because of this uh uh simplicity and because of this nice nature which is there. And of course, nowadays there is a the modern situation, modern civilization is trying to deprive human of this nature.
We can see that there is a everything is upside down and you know there there are men who are like women and women like men, you know, so many of them. So but this is crazy. This is ridiculous.
This is one cannot be happy with all this strange uh situation.
So the only, uh, actually what what Krishna says here in Bhagavad-gītā in a very simple language he says be yourself and this is the most profound instruction which Krishna may give.
He explains it in so many different ways. He says, try to do your duty rather than imitate somebody else.
But the meaning of this instruction which he repeats twice in Bhagavad-gītā is that be yourself. Don't try to follow somebody else's path. Don't try to achieve something which is not within uh your you
know really destination or your karma. Follow be yourself and to be yourself means being ourselves means to be humble.
Humility we know is the main quality for spiritual realization. Humility doesn't mean something artificial. Humility means I am what I am and that's what it is.
And I am not trying to pretend somebody who I'm not. I'm not trying to become somebody who I am not.
So the best instruction which Krishna gives to everyone, including women, is that be yourselves be women be nice be simple be simple hearted be kind hearted this is the instruction which Krishna gives I'm not in a position to give you because I know you already followed this path.
But this is the best instruction which we can we can extract. Be what we are, behave according to our nature and according to the duties which which goes dharma which goes together with this nature.
And by living in this way we can live a very clean and simple and noble life and ultimately that will be rewarded. And the reward is, as I said, as Kuntī says, the reward is that you understand Krishna.
Because you can only understand Him by His mercy and His mercy comes for those who are following their dharma, and who become very simple and straightforward.
And it's difficult nowadays mm, because the whole grain of the society is just, you know, it's just the whole tendencies in the society is opposite. Everything is so artificial and it's becoming more and more artificial. Every day, every day the life becomes so artificial.
The, the simplicity and, uh, the real nature is not, is not there, it becomes more and more and more and more and everything, and the minds become artificial, everything becomes artificial.
But the best instruction is to get rid of all the artificiality. And be what we are. And people become offended nowadays. Nowadays if you tell women that they should cook, they become very offended. Why?
Because that's what it is. What's wrong with that? But the whole society is really upside down. Thank you very much for your patience.