Bhagavad-gita 9.29
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2003
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Reciting Bhagavad-gita chapter nine verse twenty-nine
So I will now read one verse from the Bhagavad-gītā and try to speak something on the subject matter of this verse. I will read the twenty ninth verse of the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. First read the Sanskrit.
Sammoham Sarvabhuteshu. Sammoham Sarvabhuteshu. Namedvesh Yosti Naprya. Translation and purport, translation. Krishna says, addressing Arjuna to whom he is speaking, and all of us at the same time.
I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto me in devotion is a friend. He is in me, and I am also a friend to him.
One may question here that if Krishna is equal to everyone and no one is his special friend, then why does he take a special interest in the devotees who are always engaged in his transcendental service?
But this is not discrimination. This is natural. Any man in this material world can be very charitably disposed, yet he has a special interest in his own children.
The Lord claims that every living entity, in whatever form, is his son, and so he provides everyone with generous supply of the necessities of life.
He is just like a cloud which pours rain all over, regardless of whether it falls on rock or land or water. But for his devotees he gives special attention. These devotees are mentioned here.
They are always in Krishna consciousness. And therefore they are always transcendentally situated in Krishna.
The very phrase Krishna consciousness suggests that those who are in such consciousness are living transcendentalists situated in Him. The Lord says here distinctly: Maite, they are in me.
Naturally as a result the Lord is also in them. This is reciprocal. This also explains the words Yeyat hamam prapadiente et amstatham yabadjam yabam. Whoever surrenders unto me proportionately I take care of him.
This transcendental reciprocation exists because both the Lord and the devotees are conscious. When a diamond is set in a golden ring, it looks very nice.
The gold is glorified, and at the same time the diamond is glorified. The Lord and the living entity eternally glitter and when a living entity becomes inclined to the service of the supreme lord he looks like gold.
The lord is a diamond And so, this combination is very nice. Living entities in a pure state are called devotees. The Supreme Lord becomes the devotee of his devotees.
If a special relationship is not present between the devotee and the Lord, then there is no personalist philosophy. In the impersonal philosophy there is no reciprocation between the supreme and the living entity.
But in the personalist philosophy there is. The example is often given that the Lord is like desire tree, and whatever one wants from this desire tree the Lord supplies. But here the explanation is more complete.
The Lord is here stated that He is partial to the devotees. This is the manifestation of the Lord's special mercy to the devotees. The Lord's reciprocation should not be considered to be under the law of karma.
It belongs to the transcendental situation in which the Lord and his devotees function. The devotional service of the Lord is not an activity of the material world.
It is a part of spiritual world where eternity, bliss, and knowledge predominate. Samoham Sarvabhu Teshu Namedve Sustina Priyaham Nye Bajan Titu Mambakya Mai Te Teshu Chapiaham.
Again the translation of this verse: I envy no one, nor I am partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto me in devotion is a friend.
Two options for reciprocating with God
He is in me, and I am also a friend to him.
So I will try to explain a little bit about this verse of the Bhagavad-gītā, where the Lord Himself, Krishna Himself, explains different relationships which He has with the living entities.
And basically, God here, because Krishna is God himself who incarnated five thousand years ago to the earth and he is speaking to Arjuna, he is explaining that there are basically only two ways of reciprocation with the Lord.
And people, they can choose between these two ways of reciprocation with the Lord. You cannot really escape the reciprocation with God because he's the creator. He created everything.
He pervades everything with his energies. Everything is his energy. And he says himself that I'm in control. I'm in the heart of every living entity and I'm arranging everything here.
We may or may not understand that behind everything which we see there is a force, but instinctively everyone actually understands that there is some force, some order, some intelligence behind everything which is happening.
But here Krishna reveals a very special secret because he says that there are basically two ways of reciprocating with the Lord. You may do it in a mechanical way. And this mechanical way is also fascinating.
So many people now are interested in this law of karma. And the law of karma is basically the huge mechanism which is invented or implemented by the Lord for the reciprocation.
Because the law of karma, of course every religious scripture and basically every sane man can understand what the law of karma is. The Bible say that the law of karma is what you sow, so you reap.
Whatever you do, the reciprocation will come sooner or later. You cannot really get away with it.
And basically, if we see what is going on in this world, we see that any law which is there, which is being investigated by the scientist or whatever, it's just a partial manifestation of this law of karma.
The law of cause and effect. So Krishna says that if you want, I can relate to you or I can reciprocate with you through this impersonal media of this law of nature, the highest law of nature, the law of karma.
And this is also ultimately the reciprocation with the Lord because he implemented this law, he arranged this system. And whoever is doing something, he ultimately gets reciprocation with the Lord, from the Lord.
He gets punishment or reward. And he says, Samoham Sarva Butishu, in this case if you want, if you choose to deal with me in such a way, I'm like a judge. I'm very neutral. I'm impartial.
And whatever you deserve I will give you. Don't complain about this. I'm just giving it to you.
Misconceptions about bribing God as judge
So that's one way of reciprocating with the Lord. But then he says, but if you choose, you can belong to another category. You can really belong to something different.
People, they usually, when they speak about the Lord, they usually have this conception that the Lord is the judge.
If you open Bible, the Bible says, you know, he is judging you, he will give you the eternal punishment or eternal reward.
And ultimately there will be this doomsday, and we will all be doomed after the doomsday or whatever it will be. But and usually people they do like this.
They they they feel that, you know, they somehow rather they have to, you know, please the Lord in a somewhat superficial way. Or sometimes they even think that if he's judge... Don't know how it's in Sweden.
Sweden is probably different, but in Russia, know, in order to get the good judgment from the judge, you have to bribe the judge. You have to grease his palm. In Sweden, it's a little more civilized than there. But there it's an established law that you have to give him something.
So some people they think that God is also of this category. He's judged, but we have to really grease him. We come to the church, we put little donation in the donation box. It's here, by the way.
And then you will get the eternal benefit after that. But this is actually not what is required. This is not what Krishna is saying here. He says this is just kind of, you know, little childish.
There is a little anecdote about this. It's a common story about one very greedy man. He was very, very greedy.
And but at the same time, within his heart, he knew that this is something wrong, that I really have to be different, that I have to give, and I have to give something to the church.
And, ultimately, you know, after so much struggle, internal struggle, he went to the church, and he came to the donation box and he put, you know, 10 crowns there. And he said, yeah.
And he felt very good about this. Now I'm saved. And after some time he died.
And when he died, some, you know, heavy yamadutas, heavy persons came to him to take him to hell. And they told him, you know, we're going to take you to hell. And he started arguing with them. How you dare to touch me?
I'm a saintly person. I gave 10 crowns to the church. Have to really consider this. I'm not an ordinary person. You don't have anything to do with me. Get away from me.
And he was arguing with such a force and such a conviction that they got some doubts. Maybe he really belongs to heaven, not to hell. So they brought this attention to God and asked God, see, we have a special case.
This is a sinner. He's a greedy man, but he gave 10 to the church, you know, so what shall we do with him? And God was thinking, thinking, thinking. He said, you give him back the 10 crowns and take him to hell.
So the point is that really God doesn't need our money. God doesn't need any bribe. He has everything. He's after all the source of everything which we have.
Suffering within material law of karma
And it's very childish to think that we can somehow rather bribe him or even childish to have to think that we can, you know, in a very superficial way please him.
Like some people they really have this conception that if I do something pious then it will be pleasing to the Lord.
But this is again still within the realm of karma, within the realm of this cause and effect, which is not the best way of reciprocating with the Lord.
Because ultimately if you reciprocate with the Lord in this way, you will remain within this jurisdiction of the law of karma. And this is in itself not good.
The Lord himself says that basically here in this material world it's very difficult to be happy because everything in this world is shaky. You know, the world is shaking.
You cannot really be happy if you are there on a, you know, if you're living on a volcano, and the volcano can erupt any moment.
Recently there was this, terrible event in Moscow when the ransoms were taken by the Chechen terrorists, and they were kept for some time in this hall, in this theater hall. So there was one story.
One lady was calling on the mobile phone to her husband, and she said, You know, I'm sitting here, and I have a bomb which is tied to my legs. And then after that he said, But ultimately it's not so bad here.
Ultimately, they take care of, they take nice care of us, you know. But this is basically, this is an extreme situation. But basically we all have the bomb which is tied to our legs.
Because sooner or later this bomb, there is this, you know, time bomb which is, you know, ticking. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And it's there. You know, it's in our heart. And at one point it will explode.
At one point the problem with this material world and with this situation because everything is temporary here.
As soon as you try to settle yourself, as soon as you try to somehow rather be happy in this world, something changes. And this is in itself is the cause of suffering.
Therefore, the Lord says that as long as you remain or belong to this law of karma, you'll never be happy. And therefore he says there is a special way or special kind of dealings which he offers to us.
And he says, somehow I'm Sarva Butishu, I'm a judge to ordinary people. But I do have special attention and I do manifest special care to those who want to surrender unto me.
And this is very interesting because we have to understand what it means. What it really means to have this special relationship with the Lord.
Because if I understand only this, that will give us guarantee that we will go out from this jurisdiction of law of karma.
Ultimately, this is the goal of human life to somehow rather to get rid of this jurisdiction of law of karma.
In the beginning of this chapter Krishna explains that the meaning of religious life, you know, so many people there are so called religious or they claim to be religious.
But for them the understanding of religion is just faith. But Krishna says that the meaning of religious life is not faith. That the meaning of religious life is the real experience.
And he says that if you take to this transcendental process which will take you from the law of karma, from this material world, then Susukam Kartuma Vyayam.
The experience which you have is the supreme bliss, is supreme happiness. Actually the religious life is about to make you happy. And this is the real meaning, you know.
If the religious life is just a ritual, if it's just boring, you know, you come to the church and, you know, there's some prayer and somebody the priest is there and he's mumbling something and you don't know what he's mumbling.
He doesn't know what he's mumbling. You know, there is no fun. But the religious life has to make you happy.
The religious life is only as long, can be called religious life or spiritual life, only as long as it is making you happy. Like, you know, I know one orthodox priest.
He's a big, you know, orthodox priest, they're usually big. And he said, you know, he has a big beard, you know, he has deep voice, you know, and he's doing this.
And he says that there are three qualifications to be the priest. To become the priest, the first qualification, you have to know the ritual. Because this is the main function of the priest.
The priest has to be very ritualistic and he has to be very showy. He's there and everyone is impressed how he's waving his hands and everything.
The second qualification is that he has to have deep voice because he has to... This is important. And the third qualification, he has to believe in God. But this is, you know, this is the third one.
And it's not even so necessary. If the first two is there, then, you know, the third is also good. Here Krishna says that the main point is that you have to experience something.
When you come to religion, you have to practice the religion and by the way of practicing the religion you have to get real spiritual experience. You have to understand that the Lord does exist.
And here he says, as soon as you do it properly, I will give special reciprocation to you. I will relate with you differently. And this is actually what the spiritual experience means.
It means that as soon as you relate to him properly you feel something different. You feel the difference. You feel that it's not anymore the mechanical reciprocation with the law of karma.
It's actually very interesting how Śrīla Prabhupāda, the commentator of this book, is explaining this. He says that the devotee is living. He says he's living transcendentalist.
But for that, you know, to relate to God properly you have to understand that he's the person himself.
As long as you are reciprocating or you're dealing with him as some mechanism, as somebody who has to give you, who has to reward you, who has to punish you, then there is not this personal reciprocation.
Here Krishna says that as long as you relate to me as a person, I will also relate to you as a person and you will become very dear to me.
Loss of personal connection in society
And this is very special, this is very unique and we have to understand what it really means to relate to Krishna as a person.
Like we here, especially in this part of the world, but actually in any modern world, we're very mechanical. People really, they forgot what it means to be the person, what it means to relate to others as a person.
You know, the person what means to be person. The person means feeling, but we are becoming more and more mechanical. There is a very interesting story in this regard from the Chinese tradition.
It's from this great sage of China, Kung Fu, who was living thousands of years ago. And he had a disciple.
And this disciple once saw a peasant, somebody who was working in a field, and this peasant was carrying water, and he was carrying it by hand. That was thousands of years ago.
And at that time hardly any machine was there. There was practically no machine. Now everywhere, wherever you see it, everywhere you see only machines.
So this disciple came to him and he said, Why don't you make this wheel and then you make this wheel and the water will come automatically by the mechanical way because he's carrying these heavy loads of water and he's pouring it on the field.
And this peasant looked at him and he said, my guru, my spiritual master, my teacher, he told me that if you use mechanisms then you will become mechanical in your dealings.
And if you become mechanical in your dealings then your heart will also become mechanical. And if your heart will become mechanical, your heart will become polluted.
And if your heart will become polluted, you will lose your happiness. So get rid of me. Get out of here. I don't want to hear you. But that's basically what happened to us.
Because we're so used in dealing with these machines, we ourselves became like machines. We don't understand this.
And we're dealing with other people like machines, you know, there is one machine and there's another machine and we're saying, Hey, do, hey, hey, you know. Even though these sayings are very mechanical.
Everything is in a mechanical way. You know, like before that when people used to plow the field, how did they plow the field? They had a bull, you know, and bull is a person, you know.
In order to get him to plow the field, you have to relate to him as a person, you have to pet him. You have to say a few nice words to him. And then the bull, if he wants, he goes. If he doesn't want, he stops. Right?
You know? But now he's a tractor, you know, bum bum bum bum bum bum. And you're there, you know, and you're boom bum bum bum bum bum there in the tractor.
And, you know, before that people even used to get up using, you know, some, you know, cock was there. The cock was the alarm clock. Now it's a little machine, alarm clock. And you get up.
Before that there was this, you know, person. The person would do this sound and, you know, if he wants he would do this sound, if he doesn't want he would not do this sound. There is some kind of personal reciprocation.
But now Prabhupada is explaining here that we're getting depersonalized because of this way of living, because of the way of mechanical. And therefore everyone is so kind of distant and remote from each other.
Everyone is so kind of, you know, separated from each other. And everyone is suffering because of this.
But here Krishna is explaining that actually if you want to have some special reciprocation you have to understand that you are the person and you have to understand that the Lord is the person.
Free nature of the conscious soul
And this is very difficult because we don't even know what it means for us to be the person.
And the person basically means, to be the person means, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this, that the person, he says, that the person is glittering. He gives a very nice and very deep philosophical explanation what it means.
To be the person means to glitter. You know, it's a little strange. He's comparing the person with the gold, and the gold glitters. So what he wants to say, what he used to say actually, that the person means consciousness.
And consciousness is like a glitter. The spirit soul, which we are, has this glitter. And this glitter means, this effulgence, means consciousness. And this consciousness basically means the desire, love and freedom.
So to reciprocate with the Lord we have to understand that we're persons. And we have to understand that he is the person. We have to understand that we are free. To be the person means to be free.
That's a very interesting point of the spiritual philosophy, the personal philosophy is that God created everyone free. We are not machines. You know, if machines means not free.
Machines you turn it and it works, you know, for some time till it breaks. And then you turn it off and it's not free. There is no consciousness. Like computer, people also sometimes they think that computers is living.
They're dealing with computer, they're writing something, reciprocating with the display. But computer is a machine. It's a mechanism.
It's not really, you know, when you turn it off, the computer doesn't plea you, you know, please don't kill me, you know, for him it's a death, right? You turn it off. But there is no personal consciousness behind.
But we're persons. And first, how Prabhupada explains here, the spiritual consciousness means to understand that we are conscious persons. And conscious persons means that we are free.
We have to understand where is our freedom and how our freedom should manifest. It's actually very interesting how Jesus Christ also describes it in Bible. He has this parable of sower.
The sower went out and he started broadcasting the seeds. And Jesus Christ says that, you know, seeds and basically what the seed means. The seed means the spiritual message. The message from the spiritual world.
And any preacher, anyone who comes to this world, he comes with this message. He's coming and he's saying, God is there and God is waiting for you. He's loving you and he's waiting when you turn to him.
But as Jesus Christ said, you know, the seeds sometimes they get on the bed, on the road, you know, on the path, and the birds come and they take it away.
Or sometimes, it's also very interesting, he says sometimes that the seed is placed in a rocky ground. And the rocky ground means it's a very shallow ground. And the seed sprouts.
But because the ground is so shallow, the seed is sprouting very quickly, but because the ground is so shallow, it's not for long.
So some people they do believe in God, but because their heart is so shallow, because their heart is so superficial, they quickly take this faith in God, this believing God and the spiritual practice, but they quickly give it up.
So basically the spiritual life is about understanding that we're persons and that we're free.
Free will in devotional service
And the freedom is manifesting in three ways. There are three ways of manifesting our freedom. The first way of manifesting our freedom is free will.
And in order to make our heart deep, we have to understand that I came to spiritual practice because of my freedom, because of my free will. Nobody forced me. I came because I wanted to do it.
Like sometimes in the religion, people want to force other people, you have to do this. And especially the victims of this is the children. If a child is brought up in a religious family, then the father forces him.
You have to be religious, you have to pray. And when the child grows up, he gives it up because he doesn't like it.
Like I know, one mother came to me - this is from our internal life, a little story - One mother came to me and she said, My child is so morose, you know, I don't know why. He's doing everything.
He's, you know, chanting 16 rounds every day and he's getting up at 04:00 in the morning and he's doing this and that and he's taking cleanly offered food and he's following religious life but he's so morose.
I asked, how old is the child? She said, five years old. This little five years old. She forces him to get up at 04:00, you know, forces him to chant prayers which he doesn't understand why.
You know, but the first the first understanding, the first actually the first condition which has to be fulfilled in order for you to get the spiritual experience is that you have to understand I'm doing this because I want it.
Not because somebody forces me, not because there is some social pressure, not because, you know, it has to be done like this, not because of some other reasons, because I need it.
This is very essential and very important teaching which is there. We have to understand when we come to religion life that it's not just a ritual, not just a mechanical kind of thing, but it's coming from the free will.
Because I want it, I do it. There is a very interesting story in this regard from our tradition. It's a story about one saint who was living in Bengal.
His name was Vamshidash Babaji, and he was living some maybe eighty years ago. Yes, something like eighty years ago. And he was very old. He was extremely old.
He was, when the story took place, he was something like 95 years old because the saintly people, because they're living such a religious life, they sometimes live very long life. So he had deities with him.
He had his deities. The deity is the personal God. We're worshiping the deity as God because we're trying to understand that God is a person. And person means desire.
And first we have to understand I'm doing it because I want it. So the story goes like this, that once he was something like 95 years old and somebody, one friend of his, much younger, saw him crying.
He was staying in front of his deities and he was praying to the deities and he was crying and he was saying, Please forgive me. I used to be young and I used to run here and there and I used to serve you nicely. Used to collect everything for you and now I'm so old and useless and I can hardly do anything. You know, I'm so slow and before I do something for you it takes, you know, eternity. And he was crying and the tears were flowing from his eyes.
And this young person, he said, I can help you because I have at home also a deity and the seva is going on, the service is going on. I have everything.
I'm a rich person, I can bring you flowers, I can bring you food, I can bring you everything which you need for the service of the deities. And what would you say if, you know, you would hear this?
You would probably say, Where have you been so, so long? I was waiting for you to offer this. But he looked at him and he said, No, this is my deity and I have to serve. It's not that you have to serve. I have to serve.
That's my responsibility. That's my service to the Lord. What happened?
Somehow rather, this younger person, he convinced him, I will bring you flowers every day. Every day I will bring you nice flowers. At least this little service I will do for you. And he reluctantly agreed.
So one day this younger person, his name was Haridas Shastri, so he was collecting flowers and he looked in the flowers and he saw very beautiful flowers.
And he thought it would be nice to offer to my deities, to bring to my deities. And immediately he caught himself and he said no, no, no. He checked himself, he said, No, I have to bring it to him because I promised.
So he brought all these flowers to this Vamshidas Babaji elderly person, and he looked at these flowers and he said, Take them away. This is for your deities, that's not for my deities.
He immediately saw this, that this thought which was there in the mind of this person was there in the flowers. And he said, Take it.
You know, I will do it myself. So basically, what Krishna is saying here is that, you know, if you do it from your heart, even if it's a little, you know, God, as I said, doesn't need our money. God doesn't need anything.
But what he needs, he needs our heart. And if we do something little but from our heart, that we immediately feel reciprocation from the Lord.
We will immediately feel that there is something special in our life, that he's taking special care of us.
Freedom of thought and emotion
And that's what he explains here. And then another aspect of freedom is the freedom of thought. That you have really to be free. It's not that, you know, sometimes people, they also, they mechanically take the scriptures.
They, you know, they think that this is some kind of brainwashing. But actually the freedom of thought means you take the scriptures and you read it and you try to understand it and you try to understand how it is truth.
And you will, after pondering over these truths, after thinking about these truths, you will have to understand that this is not the thought which is there in the book, that this is your thought, that you came with this conclusion, that this is your conclusion.
And ultimately there is this freedom of emotion, freedom of feeling. That the Lord is waiting when we manifest this freedom of feeling. There is another little story in this regard.
Sometimes we're also very mechanical that ultimately this is the highest perfection. That ultimately when we practice this religious life, then what should come to our heart is this free feeling of love towards the Lord.
And this is the highest achievement on the spiritual path. That's what Lord wants and that's what it means to be especially related to Him.
You know, like I know, like this our ritual which we are taking part in is this chanting of the holy name.
And sometimes it's done in a very mechanical way, but it's supposed to be the manifestation of our feelings, of our emotions. I know in one temple in Russia, the person who is in charge of this temple is a military man.
And sometimes people, manifest their emotions by raising their hands. So he issued an order.
From now on, everyone, while kirtan is going on, when the kirtan is, he has to raise his hands. And then he puts down the hands and raises it again and puts again and raises it again. So it's kind of, you know, physical exercise.
But ultimately the spiritual practice is the means. Just a means to express your feelings. And the feelings should be free. The feelings should flow from your heart.
I wanted to tell you again a little short story from our tradition. It's also about one saint, about Jagannatha dasa Babaji. He's here and on our altar. And he was, when the story took place, he was 120 years old.
He was very old, much older than the previous person. And he was so old and so invalid that he couldn't hardly even open his eyes.
You know, to open his eyes he had to use, to open the eyelid, he has to use the, you know, the hand, you know, he would, by hand he would open the eyelid to see. He could hardly see, he was so, you know, so old.
You can see he's, you know, completely old. And he had a servant, and the servant used to carry him in a basket. He was an old little Indian Bengali and he had a strong servant and the servant would carry him.
So he could hardly move. But there is a story once his servant was going along the road and in front of him, in the opposite direction, there was this Harinam party, the group of people who were chanting the Holy Name.
And his feeling and his understanding of the Holy Name was so deep and the emotions which overwhelmed his heart at that moment was so deep that he jumped out of his basket and he started dancing.
He was dancing for six hours in a row, you know. Nobody could believe it. But that's how it is, you know. This is when the feeling is there, then you feel the tremendous strength which is coming from the heart.
Choosing loving service over mechanical karma
And this is actually the strength which is coming ultimately from the Lord. So that's basically what Krishna is saying here. That if you want to be under the law of karma, you can be. You cannot avoid it.
Everyone is under the law of karma. Everyone is reciprocating with the Lord in a mechanical way.
They're doing something good, they're getting some good results, they're getting doing something bad, they're getting bad results. But this is is no fun.
But if you understand that you're the person and if you understand that you're free and if you understand that ultimately your freedom is given to you in order you can express your love to God because ultimately that's what the freedom is given to us.
The freedom is the ability which the freedom is the quality which gives us ability to love. And to love whom? The creator.
So ultimately Krishna says if you understand that you're the person and I'm the person, and person means that I have my desires.
You know, if you do this spiritual practice with your free heart, out of your free will, and if you reciprocate with the Lord in this way, then the Lord says that I take special care of him, And I'm in him and he's in me.
But for that you need to practice. For that you need to become the person. For that we have to really become the person otherwise, you know, we will not be able to do this.
And the spiritual practice which we do when we chant the Holy Name, when we get together, it's basically to help us to become persons. To help us to understand what is there deep down in our heart. What do we want?
Because everyone wants happiness. And this happiness lays in our relationship with the Lord.
And the Lord says, you know, as soon as you're awaken as a person, as soon as you understand that you're the person and I'm the person, and we're eternally connected, then this combination becomes very beautiful.
Like Śrīla Prabhupāda, he gives this explanation or comparison with the gold and diamond.
You know, as soon as the living entity becomes completely free in his relationship with the Lord, the very same moment the Lord comes to him and he runs to him and he starts serving him.
And he is not anymore under the law of karma because the Lord himself, God himself is helping him, guiding him in the way. So this is the secret of spiritual life. This is the secret of spiritual success.
And the secret of spiritual success is not very easy to understand. Therefore, Krishna calls this chapter the secret of all secrets. The most confidential knowledge which is there.
And the most confidential knowledge is to understand I'm the person and God is the person. And he wants something. Since he is the person he wants something and I want something.
And actually ultimately our desires they coincide but we have to understand what he wants from me and serve him accordingly.
And he says to us that I'm very pleased when you chant my holy name, when you come together, when you listen about me. And that's the meaning. So the choice is ours.
We cannot avoid reciprocating with the Lord, but we can choose how do we reciprocate with the Lord. In a mechanical way, through the mechanical means of karma or in a personal way, in a loving way, which is much nicer.
Overcoming mechanical influences in modern life
So this is the choice. And this is what, this is question that you were talking about mechanic, that we can be mechanical and we want to be mechanical. Is that because we identify ourselves so much with the body?
Because there is also this gap as body aside like a machine. Body is like machine, that's a fact. But it's not that we want to become, to be mechanical because everyone wants love, and love is never mechanical.
Everything else you can do in a mechanical way, but love means that you have to really engage your heart completely.
And everyone people don't like to be mechanical and people don't like when they're handled as a mechanism. You know, this is the worst thing, you know, when you're handled as a mechanism.
But unfortunately, it's the situation. First of all, of course, this is the influence of our body, which is like a machine. And then it's influence of other machines. Like in Russia, it's very interesting also.
Everywhere this, you know, waiting food. And because the food is produced by mechanical way, it contains so much this, you know, gross mechanical energy.
And because we're eating this mechanical food which is grown in a mechanical way, which is prepared in a mechanical way.
In some machines, you know, we also become very mechanical because this food doesn't really have this personal touch. You know, it's completely different when you bake the bread yourself and when it's baked by machine.
It's a gulf of difference. Or it's completely different if the vegetables are grown by your hands or if the vegetables are grown by machine.
So in Russia there was this usually they also do it with machine, and everything is done by machine. But there was one farm where everything was done by hand.
Everything was, you know, there was bulls, the bulls were ploughing, and the seeds were sown, and then there was this, you know, the wheat, and then it was by hand it was turned into the flour, and everything was, you know, and the horses would bring it somewhere.
But this bread and this wheat was only taken by the members of the government. You know, that was the special for them.
This is a special first class food because even they know that that has a different quality completely.
So our problem is that we're living in this mechanical world and we don't even understand how much mechanical we are in everything because we're eating mechanical food, we're listening mechanical music which is produced by mechanical, you know, there is no live music anymore.
It's all all, you know, synthesized. And it's all it's all dead. There is no heart there. And because of this, because of so many other things, we become also mechanical.
And what India is good, you know, India is special in this regard because still, you know, people are very personal. You go there and you feel it. The people are living there, you know.
They're still maybe they're not living transcendentalists, but at least they're living karmists, you know. Here we have mechanical transcendentalists in this part of the world.
But there you go to the street, see some people there, they have life, you know, still there is some life there in the eyes and in their reciprocation and their smiles. And it is difficult.
So, can't even understand that we are persons, how we will understand that God is a person. It's very difficult, but it's still possible. There is no other questions. Shall I stop now?