The Name and the Lord Are One
А. Ч. Бхактиведанта Свами Прабхупада
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Potency and practice of chanting
nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "My Lord, I am so much unfortunate." Why?
Because in the holy name of your Lord, nāmnām akāri, the name of the Lord and the Lord Himself, there is no difference. Abhinnatvād nāma-nāminoḥ.
In the absolute world, there is no difference between God, His name, His fame, His qualities, His entity; everything is God. That is absolute concept, oneness.
So Lord Caitanya says that You have invested all the energies of Yourself in the holy name of Yourself. In other words, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name.
As we have in this material world, we have got experience that the name and the substance is different.
If I am thirsty, if I simply chant "water, water, water," it will not act; I must have water, the substance. Therefore, the substance water and the name are different. That is material concept.
In the spiritual world, there is no such difference. The name is as good as the Lord. That conception we cannot now accommodate within our brain, because our brain, brain is full of material conceptions.
It is very difficult to understand, but we have to take it from the śāstra. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that in the holy name of the Lord there is all potencies, all energies of the Lord.
Nāmnām akāri bahudhā: the Lord has got multi-names.
We are chanting sometimes Parīkṣit, Dhanañjaya, Gopāla, Govinda, Rādhā-Mādhava, Rādhā-Vallabha, and thousand, thousand names of the Lord. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that each name is as good as the Lord.
But etādṛśī, so in this age, as soon as you chant the holy name of the God, even with the offense... there are ten kinds of offenses in chanting the holy name of the Lord.
In the beginning, naturally, because we are not perfect, we chant the holy name of the Lord with offenses. But gradually we become offenseless. So there are two stages of chanting the holy name.
The first phase is with offenses. The second stage is almost free from offenses. The result of chanting the holy name of the Lord with offense is material pleasure.
And the result of chanting the holy name of the Lord almost offenseless is immediately mukti. The second stage, second stage of chanting is Ajāmila.
Ajāmila simply chanted "Nārāyaṇa", that also not with the purpose of indicating the Lord, but he was calling his youngest son Nārāyaṇa at the time of his death. He was very much afraid. His youngest son was very dear.
And he was asking him, "My dear Nārāyaṇa, please come here." So simply by this chanting the name Nārāyaṇa, he became liberated. That Ajāmila-upākhyāna is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And when we chant the name offenselessly, then we get premā, Kṛṣṇa-premā. Then we become absorbed in love of Kṛṣṇa.
The love of Kṛṣṇa is exhibited in the Vṛndāvana pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa by the gopīs, by the cowherd boys, by Kṛṣṇa's father and mother; that is the perfect exhibition of love of Kṛṣṇa.
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: "nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ."
There is no, I would say, discrimination that you have to chant the holy name at certain hours, in certain places. Just like we go to temple after taking bath and becoming sanctified.
But Caitanya Mahāprabhu says there are no such rules and regulations for chanting the holy name. You can chant in any stage of your life, in any condition of life. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ.
Sadā: even if you are in your, even if you are in the laboratory, then also you can chant. So much advantage of chanting.
Because if you actually chant the holy name, immediately you chant, you become purified from the condition of impurity. That is a statement by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Bhagavān nāmāni, my dear Lord, because I am a fallen soul in this age of Kali, and you are so kind that you have given all your energies and powers in your holy name, holy name.
And there is no hard and fast rule and regulation for chanting. Yet I am so unfortunate... I am so unfortunate that I cannot chant this. Vividham. So, therefore, saṅkīrtana-yajña.
And this is saṅkīrtana-yajñair yajanti. Yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ. Saṅkīrtana-yajña means Lord Caitanya. This is a Lord Caitanya picture with his five associates.
Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita, Gadādhara, Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. In the middle you find the picture of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and on his right side there is Nityānanda Prabhu,
and on the right side of Nityānanda Prabhu there is Advaita Prabhu, and then the left side is Gadādhara Prabhu, and the left side of Gadādhara Prabhu there is Śrīvāsa. They are called Pañca-tattva.
Pañca-tattva means Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and his immediate manifestation, prakāśa. Then his incarnation, and then his spiritual potency, and then his marginal potency. Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa.
Nityānanda Prabhu is the immediate manifestation of Kṛṣṇa, or Baladeva, Baladeva-Saṅkarṣaṇa. And the Advaita Prabhu is Mahā-Viṣṇu avatāra. And Gadādhara Prabhu is the internal potency.
And Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura is the marginal potency. There is no external potency. External potency means this material world. So external potency we have explained: yathābhāso yathā tamaḥ, anyathā ca viviktam.
External potency, this material world, is full of ignorance. So ignorance is compared with darkness. Darkness.
Material versus spiritual energy systems
So darkness, the Caitanya-caritāmṛta says: māyā andhakāra. Jāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra. That's like sunlight. Now it is night. There is no sun in the sky. There is sun, but it is now covered.
So, mm, there is darkness. Actually, this material world is full of darkness. That is the danger. Ah, that for the Vedic: tamaso mā jyotir gamaya. Don't remain within this material world. It's full of darkness.
And in the spiritual world, uh, it is not darkness. And all the planets there are illuminated. Therefore, it is called jyoti. The whole spiritual world is full of brahma-jyoti.
Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa- koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.
Yasya prabhā: that here you can see how the illumination emanating from the sun has made this world, and during this time very shines. Everything can see. But at night you cannot see.
There, in the spiritual world, there is no need of sun, there is no need of, uh, moon.
And here also in the Bhagavad-gītā we understand that Kṛṣṇa says that, "I am the sunshine, I am the moonshine, I am the taste of the water." How He is sunshine, how He is moonshine?
Because original light, original effulgence, emanates from the body of Kṛṣṇa. That is all brahma-jyoti. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi.
That light is coming, just like, uh, you can see from the sun, uh, innumerable waves of light are coming out.
Similarly, from the spiritual world, from the planet which is known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, the spiritual effulgence is coming. Then it is said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: paras tasmāt bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ.
Beyond this material sky, there is another spiritual sky. Paras tasmāt. And that is, that is spiritual sky. And that is sanātanam, that is eternal. This material sky is temporary. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate.
When there will be, uh, the annihilation of this material world, this sky is no more remaining. Exactly like the cloud. The cloud appears and disappears. Cloud is not permanent. Although cloud is in the sky.
Similarly, this material sky is within that spiritual sky, appears and disappears. The description of the spiritual destination of the material stars...
There are in this, as we can take advantage of this, and understand clearly what is spiritual world, what is their position, how, uh, how the planets are there, uh, distinct from this material planet, and, uh, uh, ananto brahmāṇḍa.
We see that described in the śāstras, so unless we take information from the śāstras, our knowledge is always imperfect. We cannot understand about the creation of the Lord by speculation. That is not perfect.
We cannot understand even perfectly what is the position of this material world. Just like we read in Brahma-saṁhitā, that there are innumerable universes. This is one universe.
And as there are innumerable universes, there are innumerable suns, innumerable moons, and innumerable planets, and each and every planet, you should know, the atmosphere is different.
Not that all planets are of the same type. Just as you see before you, when there is sunrise, you feel warm source. And when there is moonlight, you find yourself cooling. Why?
Because the planet has got different atmosphere. Some planet is fire, some planet is cooling. That is the plan of the Supreme Lord. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā. Vividha, uh, vividhā.
The Supreme Person or the Supreme Absolute Truth has got multi-energy. And they are working so perfectly that you see that things are going on automatic. Not automatic.
There is, behind all these exhibitions, there is a very big brain. And that brain is Krishna. That Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ. Don't think that nature is working without any direction. No.
That's like a small guy when there is electric path. It's like in our childhood also, we are thinking like
that. Then when there is a gramophone play, personally I'm speaking, that I thought that there is some man within the box and, as the direction, he is singing.
And friends, from Haraj Sishan, there was first little line from Hara Sishan to Bhagavan. Of course, this is not our personal experience. We heard from our professor of logic.
He says that people used to think that in the engine there must be some horses. Otherwise, how is it? Similarly, our hypothetical, this speculation has no value.
We will think like that, that is in the engine there are horses, and in the gramophone, there is a man. I mean, in a sense. But why this idea? The idea is that without some cause there cannot be any effect. That is real.
Intelligence and universal laws
We do not think like modern scientists; they think that things are going automated.
But a great scientist, Professor Einstein, he said that as he's making progress in science, he is finding out that there is a very big brain behind. That brain is—that brain is Krishna.
And as soon as you call for a brain, then he's a person. Without a person, we cannot conceive of any brain. So Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram, hetunānena kaunteya.
The whole world is going on very smoothly. Each planet is moving. There is no collision. There are so many big, big planets. They are so lightly adjusted that the sun is moving 16,000 miles per second.
That is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā. It is roaming throughout the universe. So every planet is getting heat and light. Such as... just might be... just uh, yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇām.
Yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇām. Sakala-grahāṇām. Yac-cakṣuḥ. The sun is the eyes of all the planets. Why the eye? Because without sunlight in this planet or any other planet, we cannot see.
These eyes are useless without sunlight. Useless. You are very much proud of your eyes. You are very much, "I want to see personally." What you can see? What is the power of seeing?
So this attitude is not very good for attaining perfect knowledge.
Necessity of a spiritual master
Now our Vedas are saying that uh, if you want perfect knowledge, then uh, you must go uh, to guru, uh, gurum evābhigacchet. So, uh, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā.
If you want to understand the secret science, then you understand from a person where you can surrender. Praṇipātena. Surrender. You must find out a personality where you can surrender yourself.
Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena. And then you can question. Question and with sevayā. The surrender and service. That is the way of learning.
Therefore, in our Vedic civilization, the brahmacārīs are sent to guru-kula, to the spiritual master. And there he surrendered and served and inquires from the spiritual master to understand what is life.
So we cannot take help or we cannot learn everything without a superior guidance. That is not possible. That is a fact everywhere.
Even uh, uh, in the material world, you cannot learn anything without admitting yourself in a college or hearing from the professors for acquiring knowledge, any knowledge.
So how people can learn about God without, uh, accepting this process? Tad viddhi praṇipātena. That is not what... That is the heart of all Vedas.
Either you take Upaniṣads, or you take Bhagavad-gītā, or you take Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, everywhere. There are Vedas, you see. In the Bhāgavatam, it is said that: tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam.
If anyone is actually inquisitive, high perception, highest benefits... There are two kinds of things: preya and śreya. Preya means that the immediate attraction of things that we... everyone is immediately attracted.
And this is called preya. And real benefit is called śreya. Śreya means a real benefit. Another place it says: labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte.
This human form of life is obtained after graduation, gradual development of various types of life. This verse was used in so many, uh, places. So, uh, guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam.
Śreya, the highest benefit, uttamam. Uttamam means... Ud-gata-tama. Tamas means this material world, as I told you before. So beyond the material world, if you want to learn something, tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta.
This jijñāsuḥ is here uttama. Uttama. Kṛṣṇa is sometimes described as Uttama-śloka. So, not ordinary persons, those who are very much eager, very much anxious to understand about spiritual matter, spiritual world,
then he must, he must use: tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta. He must approach a bona fide spiritual master. Not ordinary men. Ordinary men, they are not interested.
What is spiritual world, what is God, what is ordinary sense... They are not. Therefore, accepting a guru is meant for one who is very serious to understand what is spiritual subject. Otherwise, there is no need of guru.
Śreya uttamam, those who are happy and very serious, and they inquire of a guru, and whether they, uh, symptoms of a guru, who is a guru, that is also said: śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam.
That a guru is, uh, uh, well- versed in the transcendental knowledge. Śābde brahma, śabda-brahma. Śābde pare. He is very much in such a way...
That's like if you take bath, if you take a dip in the river or in the ocean and we become, uh, all, uh, merged in water.
Similarly, one who has completely undergone the training of merging himself in transcendental water.
Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam, and the result is brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam, situated so highly that he has no more any material interest.
That means a guru is, he is fully interested in spirit or śabda, he has no more any material issues. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam.
In Bhagavad-gītā it says that: tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā, upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ. Tattva-darśinaḥ. One who has actually seen the absolute truth or knows the absolute truth.
But this absolute truth, how can we understand?
Process of receiving descending knowledge
This absolute truth is not possible to understand by speculative knowledge.
There are two kinds of processes: uh, speculative knowledge and, uh, descending knowledge, the knowledge which is coming from, uh, upper planet or higher authority. That is called, uh, āmnāya in Sanskrit.
That is called āmnāya. So we have to take knowledge from the āmnāya. That is confirmed in Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says: evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ. Āmnāya, paramparā, by the side.
As it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā: imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam, vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt. So we have to receive knowledge in that way. That is perfect.
If you want to know Kṛṣṇa as God, you should know from Kṛṣṇa or from His devotee, otherwise there is no possibility. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ.
It is not exposed to anyone and everyone that any scholar will come and try to understand Kṛṣṇa by mental tradition. That is not possible. That is not possible. They cannot approach.
That is a disaster. ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ. By your gymnastic process of the senses, uh, mental speculation, it's not possible to understand Krishna. Nāmādi.
Even you cannot understand what is Krishna's name. Nāmādi. Beginning from name.
Because we can understand Krishna beginning from his name. Therefore, this chanting process is the beginning of devotional studies, of understanding Krishna. You cannot grasp by your material senses.
And how can we get? Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. If you engage your tongue in the service of the God, then he becomes visible. He cannot see Krishna.
Just like you cannot see the sun in this darkness by your scientists. If you say that we have got the most powerful flashlight and I shall show you where is the sun, that is not working.
It gives your thoughts like your flashlight or your levels. Sun will appear when the sun shines. Similarly, you cannot force the sun to appear before you by your whims.
How you can force Krishna, God, to appear before you without being any reason yourself in devotional service? It is not that. He reserves the rights of not being exposed to the non-devotee.
But one who is devoted, one who has developed love of Krishna, he sees every moment, every second. Yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. Smarāmi Kṛṣṇa.
Krishna recommends, the Upanishads recommend, Bhagavad-gītā recommends, Bhāgavatam recommends, all very great literature recommends. And that is, uh, it is facts.
You cannot understand the Absolute Truth by speculating knowledge. That is not fair.
The knowledge must descend from higher authority, just like Krishna is saying that first of all I told the science of Bhagavad-gītā, yoga, to Vivasvān." And now that is lost. Sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa.
So when the paramparā is lost, then the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā or any Vedic literature is lost.
Not that firstly because he is a very good scholar, academic education, and he tries to understand this transcendental science, or any literature. It's not that.
So our system is to understand Bhagavad-gītā — because we are generally discussing our Bhagavad-gītā — to understand from the authority. We don't speculate. Therefore, we are presenting our words "as it is".
"As it is" means as we have received it from the authority. So, the authority. Now, that authority you can know very easily. If you don't accept any other authority, you take Arjuna. Arjuna directly heard from Krishna.
Therefore, he's an authority. So how Arjuna accepts Bhagavad-gītā? He simply tried to understand. Then you understand Bhagavad-gītā. What did he do? What did he say?
After learning Bhagavad-gītā, he says: "kariṣye vacanaṁ tava". Now, as he was ordered, "kariṣye vacanaṁ tava", you ask, I am doing. In the beginning, he was not inclined to fight.
And Krishna had to teach him Bhagavad-gītā to encourage him in the fighting. So after teaching Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna asked him that: "What is now your decision?" This is another point:
that Krishna does not force you to become His servant. That is not His wish. Every entity, although part and parcel of Krishna, but He does not force anyone. Yathecchasi tathā kuru. That: "This is My instruction.
Now, if you like, you can accept. If you don't like, you can reject." But it is your decision. Because Krishna does not infringe on your little independence. Because we are all part and parcel of Krishna.
Krishna is supreme, independent, svarāṭ. He's described as svarāṭ. And He also describes Himself that mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat — there is no anyone to order paratara, because
every one of us is carrying the order of our superiors. But Krishna does not carry out any superior's order. That is svarāṭ. Because He is the supreme. He's the orderer. Nobody else. The only master is Krishna.
And all others are servants. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya. Everyone has to carry His order, whether he likes it or not. It's like I have given the example.
That the citizen has to carry out the order of the government. If he likes it or does not like it, that does not matter. He has to.
If he does not, then he will be forced to carry the order of the government in the prison house. In the arrest. Similarly, we are conditioned within the prison house of this material world.
And we are forced to carry out the orders of material nature. We cannot say, "Yeah, yeah, I can change the material law." It is not a possibility. So either you disobey Krishna or obey Krishna, you have to obey.
Vidhātṛ, that is. Like Krishna and Bhīṣma.
Overcoming material entanglement through faith
Bhīṣma has no independence. But this Krishna consciousness movement is to bring all people actually into their constitutional position without misleading them.
If you mislead a person, that is not actually a welfare activity for the human society. We should teach the real truth. We may accept or not accept. That is another thing. Because everyone has got some independence.
Krishna does not force that you must do this. Krishna is God. Krishna is the Supreme Powerful. He could have forced Arjuna that you must fight. But He was teaching first.
And after teaching, he asked that: "What is your decision now?" The disease and what changed already. But anyone who actually understands Bhagavad-gītā, his decision, decision will take. And what is our decision?
Our decision in this material world is to any of sense gratify. That is another. Our senses are not gratified. Although you are trying at once. That is karma. That is karma. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ.
We are trying to have just things in this material world to be happy. But no. It will not be allowed to remain even in this material world.
Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham, then Krishna will appear as death and will take away all your things what you have created. Sarva-hara. You create your pathway, you create your so many things in this material and file you're in.
But at once, Krishna will appear as death, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraḥ. So in order to save the people from this business of creating and being technologized. And again, we can power to take in various size of forms of life.
Catur-aśīti-lakṣān, eight million four hundred thousand species of life. This is your person. This is the opportunity that we should get out of this entanglement of repeated birth and death.
And that is instructed by Krishna: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ. If we do that, then we actually benefit. Otherwise we shall go on in the cycle of birth and death.
Lord Caitanya teaches us the same thing and Lord Krishna taught the same thing, and our business is to present the same thing as far as possible before all the people of the world. This is Krishna, Krishna consciousness.
Thank you. Not at all. You are the fight. You are the fight there. You are thinking of better. Well, that is the difference.
Men of this age and that is five thousand years ago people were so advanced that they could understand Bhagavad-gītā. And especially when Krishna is speaking, it does not take that long.
Gītā was instructed, and Arjuna became disturbed: "But I have to kill my kinsmen." And that was the chat of Bhagavad-gītā that was given to him.
So it took as much as half an hour, I don't know, because it's just that we see. But at that time, especially, Arjuna was so intelligent that he could understand very quickly, very easily.
So everything becomes very quickly revealed to the devotee. Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau. Tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ.
One who is a pure devotee and has got unalloyed faith in God and guru, to him all Vedic literature becomes quickly revealed. That is possible. This is the Vedic version.
So one must have unflinching faith in God and similar faith in the spiritual master. To him who has got God and spiritual master both, it should be revealed.
And therefore it is not the understanding by the scholar, even scholar. It is not the scholar who can understand. It is the bhakta who can understand; that is the first qualification. Bhakto 'si me sakhā ceti.
That the mystery of Bhagavad-gītā... Krishna could find out any other man to deliver this message, but He selected Arjuna. "Oh, you are so learned, you are a great Vedantist, you are a great grammarian," — not for that.
"Whatever you may be, because you are a devotee, you'll understand."
The Lord could find out any very big scholar, there were also many scholars, but the Lord did not find out any such scholar; He found out a devotee like Arjuna to explain it.
So when a person is selected by Krishna, how do you think that he cannot understand? He's already empowered by Him. Because he is a bhakta. Bhakto 'si priyo 'si me. So that quality is needed, not scholarship.
For a practical example we have got my Guru Mahārāja's guru mahārāja. He was Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī. He was an illiterate; in the worldly sense, he couldn't sign. And my Guru Mahārāja was the greatest scholar of his time.
And he accepted him as his guru, and he loved him so much. It is spiritual force that counts. Na yam ātmā... bhaktir bhagavatī bhakti-yogataḥ prayuktā janayaty āśu vairāgyam jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam.
If one is a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, bhakti... bhaktir bhagavatī bhakti-yogataḥ prayuktā, then vairāgya and knowledge is automatically there. The same thing is said in the Vedas. What do you use a big scholar for?
Kṛṣṇa, Brahmā, he didn't make you a scholar. Kṛṣṇa is the guru. That was the Siddhānta. One who is constantly engaged in my service with love, dadāmi... buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te.
I give him the intelligence to understand. It is very difficult to understand what it is. If Kṛṣṇa helps you, then you can, because Kṛṣṇa is within you. As Paramātmā, He is the guru.
And if He helps you to understand, you do. That is the point. Arjuna knew that in this way we should be personally advised. That was the surrender. But "I am now talking with you as friends."
This is not the question; "I am surrendering unto You."
And you can... there is one mantra that "I am so much bewildered, so much that it's not possible to be pacified by anyone, even if... śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam."
The two things required: I am seeking for God and I am seeking for a spiritual master. But Kṛṣṇa was God Himself and was the spiritual master, as you already believe. And he had unfortunately accepted him. He followed him.
Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. Dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyāṁ mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. We follow the mahājana, the same path completely.
Qualifications for understanding scripture
So it is not easy. That you want to get on the area of... but then we have subjection is that he is not an ordinary man. That I protest. He said ordinary man, I say not. Because he's not satisfied.
But I am speaking to you bhakti, uh, this Bhagavad-gītā because you are my pure devotees and friends. So he's not an ordinary. Why do you say ordinary? No, I want to be and then perfect in the context. But how have it?
You already can be ordinary man. Why say that? No, but uh, you did all the uh context of... Yes, in the whole chapter is real status. Then I have sitting to this word Gītā, which is now lost, because you are my view.
That is certainly clear. And still on the mixture of the sandwich. That is different things. He might have many saṁśaya, but he will be right on you.
Saṁśaya, when you go to the spiritual master, you have saṁśaya, many śāntas. Otherwise, when you use a word to the spiritual master, very fence.
Yes, uh, when you enter into law college, it does not mean you are a lawyer, you have to learn. But your first qualification must be that you must be a graduate. The judge is not an ordinary man.
The lawyer, he's entering the law college after passing the examination. He's not an ordinary student. But he might have many things to learn from the law college.
Similarly, Arjuna might have to learn so many things from Kṛṣṇa, but he is not an ordinary man. He is a devotee. Because grand reason is that.
Just like sometimes there is Vedic in the non-brāhmaṇa, and a śūdra cannot read Veda. That does not mean it is restricted to the brāhmaṇa class.
It means one who has not attained Brahmanical qualities and he cannot understand what is Veda. It is not that a scholar has picture some very literature and teacher coverage. No, that is not for it.
Therefore, the restriction is there. First, one must have the Brahmanical qualities and śamo damas tapaḥ śaucaṁ kṣāntir ārjavam eva ca jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam.
To learn anything, there must be preliminary qualities. So anyone who has got preliminary qualities, he's not ordinary.
So similarly, if you want to understand Bhagavad-gītā, this clear qualification is that you must be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise you need to... The real purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is never understood.
Without Gītā, that is the actual fact. So many scholars, they have committed so many mistakes in their commentaries on Bhagavad-gītā. Because they are not devotees. In that context, why was the viśvarūpa-darśana necessary?
Viśvarūpa-darśana was not necessary for Arjuna because Arjuna would say Kṛṣṇa as: "paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān."
He knew Kṛṣṇa and he accepted Kṛṣṇa, and he corroborated in the understanding of Vyāsa, Devala, Asita in the same chapter. But he requested Kṛṣṇa to show His... So
it is not that Arjuna wanted to understand Kṛṣṇa, whether he's God or not. He has already accepted it.
But because we people in later ages, we shall say that Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna were friends, they have made a compromise in accepting Him as God.
No, therefore he asked this. The viśvarūpa-darśana is not for him, but for us, actually to go. He has already accepted: "paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān, puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum."
But clarifying our knowledge in question. They say when he speaks something with a subject matter, some specific subject matter, then he explains. And one year, I think it's so.
And the time is a little bit over and a few... What is your proposition? But Kṛṣṇa shall explain all these things. Do you think like that? Well, you see what the... Correct.