Bhagavad-gita 1.1. The Glory of "Bhagavad-gita"
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2022
Главы
Glories of the sacred text
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate nārāyaṇāya askṛtya. Naraṁ caiva narottamaṁ, naraṁ caiva narottamaṁ, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ, tato jayam udīrayet.
So since yesterday was Mokṣadā Ekādaśī or Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī as it is known in South India, perhaps the most important Ekādaśī in the year, which is the day of appearance of Bhagavad-gītā, I was asked to speak a little bit on the glories of Bhagavad-gītā for today's class.
And of course, you know you can speak about the glories of Bhagavad-gītā for half an hour or for one hour and feel that you exhausted the topic. This is inexhaustible topic.
But with your blessings, and I feel that you're very generous here, so please give me your blessings to say something worthwhile. I'll try to touch a little bit about
the essence of Bhagavad-gītā, about the meaning of Bhagavad-gītā, what we have to actually derive by studying, reading, distributing Bhagavad- gītā, what is the result?
How do we know whether our studying of Bhagavad-gītā is successful or not. Because so many people study Bhagavad-gītā, read Bhagavad-gītā daily.
I know one person, he lives in Govardhana, Govardhana town, near Govardhan Hill. He reads the entire Bhagavad-gītā every day, all 700 verses. He's an old man Sanskrit scholar.
But how do we know if our reading of Bhagavad-gītā, studying of Bhagavad-gītā or even distributing of Bhagavad-gītā has become successful.
Whether we imbibe the spirit of Bhagavad-gītā and manifest this spirit externally and internally on all.
Analyzing the opening verse
So that will be the topic of my class and to start, I will
start with an unusual maṅgalācaraṇa. The maṅgalācaraṇa for Bhagavad-gītā is the verse spoken by Dhṛtarāṣṭra. That's the first verse of Bhagavad-gītā, the only verse which is spoken by Dhṛtarāṣṭra.
And as some Acharyas explain, this particular verse serves in a very paradoxical way as Mangalacharana for the whole book, or the auspicious invocation, which prepares us to understand what is the essence of this very important book of Vedic knowledge.
So please repeat you probably all know this verse. Dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca, dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca, dharma-kṣetre kurukṣetre, kurukṣetre, samavetā yutsavaḥ, mamakaḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva kim akurvata sañjaya,
dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca: dharma-kṣetre kurukṣetre, samaveta yutsavaḥ, samaveta yutsavaḥ, māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva kim akurvata sañjaya, sañjaya.
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: O Sañjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pāṇḍu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra, desiring to fight, what did they do? What did they do? Purport.
Bhagavad-gītā is a widely read theistic science summarized in the Gītā-māhātmya, glorification of the Gītā. There it says that one should read Bhagavad-gītā very scrutinizingly
with the help of a person who is a devotee of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and try to understand it without personally motivated interpretations. The example of clear understanding is there in the Bhagavad-gītā itself.
In the way the teaching is understood by Arjuna, who heard the Bhagavad-gītā directly from the Lord.
If someone is fortunate enough to understand the Bhagavad-gītā in that line of disciplined succession without motivated interpretation, then he surpasses all studies of Vedic wisdom and all scriptures of the world.
One will find in the Bhagavad-gītā all that is contained in other scriptures, but the reader will also find things which are not to be found elsewhere. That is the specific standard of the Gītā.
It is the perfect theistic science because it is directly spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
The topics discussed by Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Sañjaya, as described in the Mahābhārata, form the basic principle of this great philosophy.
It is understood that this philosophy evolved on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, which is a sacred place of pilgrimage from the immemorial time of the Vedic age.
It was spoken by the Lord when He was present personally on this planet for the guidance of mankind.
The word dharma-kṣetra, a place where religious rituals are performed, is significant because on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead was present on the side of Arjuna.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the father of the Kurus, was highly doubtful about the possibility of his sons' ultimate victory.
In his doubt, he inquired from his secretary, Sañjaya: What did they do? what did they do? He was confident that both his sons and the sons of younger brother Pandu, of his younger brother Pandu, were assembled and then filled of Kurukshetra for a determined engagement of the war.
Still, his inquiry is significant. He did not want a compromise between the cousins and brothers, and he wanted to be sure of the fate of his sons on the battlefield.
Because the battle was arranged to be fought at Kurukshetra, which is mentioned elsewhere in the Vedas as the place of worship, even for the denizens of heaven, Dhritarashtra became very fearful about the influence of the holy place on the outcome of the battle.
He knew very well that this would influence Arjuna and the sons of Pandu favorably because the nature,
by nature, they were all virtuous. Sanjay was a student of Yasa, and therefore, by mercy of Yasa Sanjay was able to envision the battlefield of Kurukshetra even while he was in the room of Dhritarashtra.
And so Dhritarashtra asked him about the situation on the battlefield. Both the Pandavas and the sons of Dhritarashtra belonged to the same family, but Dhritarashtra's mind is disclosed herein.
He deliberately claimed only his sons as Kurus, and he separated the sons of Pandu from the family heritage.
One can thus understand the specific position of Dhritarashtra and his relationship with his nephews and sons of Pandu.
As in the petty field, the unnecessary plants are taken out, so it is expected from the very beginning of these topics that in the religious field of Kurukshetra, where the father of religion Sri Krishna was present, the unwanted plants like Dhritarashtra's sons, Duryodhana and others would be wiped out, and the thoroughly religious persons headed by Yudhishthira would be established by the Lord.
This is the significance of the words Dharmakshatre and Kurukshetre, apart from their historical and Vedic importance.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca: dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ, māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva kim akurvata saṁjaya. Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: O Sañjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pāṇḍu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukshetra desiring to fight, what did they do?
Nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale, śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe. Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca, patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. vānchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ.
Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupān Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Ramas Krishna Matesa Chiputramatras rokam rogam tassyadrajamarukurim Madhuriam Ghostavati Radha Kundagiri Varamaho, Radikamadhasam Prabdoya Siaprati Kripaya, Sri Guru tam Natu smi, yantah pravi, ma mava chimampra Suptam, Sandji vai te ki la shakti darh swadam, anjam charna, sravnat va gad, prhandnam Bhaga va dhi pur shaytubi.
Establishing faith through sacred words
Swasyas to viswasya kalak prasidha tam dayandu butani sivam mithodiya manascha badram bajatata doksaj Avisya Tamatirki. So, Srila Prabhupada called his version of Bhagavad-gītā, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, quite proudly.
Bhagavad-gītā Yathā Rūp in Hindi. And he explains why he is calling his version of Bhagavad-gītā, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, he has complete reason, he has all reasons to do it.
And he explains that why he did this because the original intention of the author of Bhagavad-gītā is very diligently and faithfully presented in the book.
The original intention of the author of Bhagavad-gītā is to create faith in our hearts. That is a very important thing.
And Prabhupada's version of Bhagavad-gītā is an amazingly powerful tool of creating faith in the words of Krishna and in Vedic culture. There is no other parallel in the history of humanity,
of this one book which would create, which would really transform so many people's heart. So Prabhupada definitely has this reason, and he says that
those who are fortunate enough to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is, in this purport which we read, those who are fortunate enough to understand Bhagavad-gītā as Arjuna understood it without any personal motivated interpretations.
These people will understand the essence of all the Vedas.
And this is very a uh you know not a small claim, it's a huge claim to say that just by reading this 700 verses you will understand the essence uh of the whole Vedic literature.
But there is a condition, you have to do it without any personal motivation.
So many versions of Bhagavad-gītā, as Prabhupada himself says in the introduction to Bhagavad-gītā, have been published even before Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and even after Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.
But hardly any of this, as Prabhupada himself says, really creates the faith in people's heart. Some versions of Bhagavad-gītā are very intellectually stimulating.
You can read this and you can enjoy the intellectual, you know way of thought.
Some versions of Bhagavad-gītā are inspiring, some other ideas within your heart, but hardly any other version of Bhagavad-gītā really does what Krishna wants to do.
Once I was speaking with Indian ambassador to Russia in Moscow. He was a very learned person. He was from Brāhmaṇical background, his family was very clear about this; he was Mr. Shukla.
And in a conversation with myself, he started criticizing Gandhi's interpretation of Bhagavad-gītā.
He was saying this Gandhi, you know, he completely misunderstood Bhagavad-gītā because he was trying to say that Bhagavad-gītā is about non-violence.
How is it possible that Krishna is always telling Arjuna: you fight, you fight, you fight, and Gandhi comes and says: actually, the whole idea of Bhagavad-gītā is not to fight.
I said, yeah, I completely agree, but what is Bhagavad-gītā all about according to your view? And he said, yes, of course, it's very clear.
The main idea of Bhagavad-gītā is to fight for our mother, whatever, for our country. He was criticizing Gandhi for misrepresenting the idea of Bhagavad-gītā.
But he himself also had very distorted, you know, Bhagavad-gītā is not a patriotic book of some nationalistic idea, let's fight for our motherland or whatever,
and therefore Prabhupada, when he says this, it's very rare to meet somebody who really understands Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.
But Prabhupada really facilitated our understanding by understanding Bhagavad-gītā himself and imbibing the spirit of Bhagavad-gītā.
And as the last verse of Bhagavad-gītā, spoken by Krishna suggests: Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekāṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ. Masuchaya Suchaha.
And actually when he said this, that the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is to instigate you to fight for your, for the cause of your nation, I said, how is that possible if the very last verse of Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, you just give up all our, all the dharmas, including your motherland dharma and uh all other ideas like this and just surrender unto me. And he says, really he said this? He couldn't believe it. He said, I will read it again.
So this little story illustrates how easy it is to read Bhagavad-gītā and completely miss the point.
Because what we do when we read Bhagavad-gītā, we as usually this is what we do when we read any other book. We impose our own ideas on the text. We filter out the ideas through our false ego
and whatever comes through the false ego through through the holes in the false ego. Uh that's how we understood. And which something doesn't fit with our ideas. We will never be able to understand.
But Śrīla Prabhupāda is very very meticulously bringing us to this proper understanding of Bhagavad-gītā.
And the proper understanding of Bhagavad-gītā is expressed in this last verse, Sarvadharman Paretyajama Kam Sharanam Rajat.
Meaning and signs of surrender
And this verse, as Prabhupāda explains in the purpose, is the you know is the definition or explanation of surrender. And surrender, what is surrender? Surrender actually is surrender to the will of the Lord.
Our desire to follow the Supreme Lord as properly as possible and feeling the protection of the Supreme Lord. So surrender is actually the external sign of faith.
This is what Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains in Amnaya Sutra: that what is that Sharanapati is the laksana of Sradha. Sradha is a certain certain function of our mind,
certain vritti, how to say this how to translate it into English certain vritis certain form of our consciousness of our heart which tends to reject any other Upayas.
There is no other upaya but Sharanagati, but to surrender of the Lord. We in this material world are trying to find some other means of salvation. We' allre desperately seeking some protection in this material world.
We want to feel this security and we want to feel that we are sae and ultimately the ultimate conclusion of this search is when we come to understand that the only one who can protect us is the Supreme Lord Himself.
And therefore, to gain this secure situation in this insecure world, we really have to surrender to Him. If we surrender to His will, we feel protected.
As much as Arjuna feels protected during this severe, you know, fierce battle of Kurukṣetra, Arjuna always felt protected.
And you know there was this little episode when Ghatotkacha was killed, when Karna by the instigation of actually Karna had possessed weapon which he had, Shakti weapon, which was given to him by Surya Dev himself.
And the benediction of Karna at that time, when he was given this weapon, Shakti weapon, that you know, he can use it only once. But against whomever he would use this weapon, he will kill this person.
And Karna knew about this benediction, and he definitely wants to use this weapon against Arjuna because Arjuna was his arch enemy and the most powerful fighter on the other side.
So Krishna he arranged the whole drama and and he instigated Bhima's son Ghatotkacha to fight very violently and ultimately, valiantly
and ultimately Ghatotkacha was killing hundreds and thousands and thousands and thousands of Kuru soldiers, of the fighters of Duryodhana. And Duryodhana he became very impatient and he said, Karna,
you have to use your Shakti weapon against this Ghatotkacha. And Karna was forced to use to basically waste his Shakti weapon against Ghatotkacha.
And when he did it, and of course Ghatotkacha was killed at that time, Krishna said, ooh, such a relief. He was there with Arjuna and he said, Arjuna, you can't understand how worried I was all this time.
Ever since Karna became the fighter on this battlefield, I knew that he would use this Shakti weapon against you and you would be finished. There was no chance for you not to be finished.
So I arranged this whole drama and this whole thing, you know, to force Karna to use Shakti weapon against somebody else and now I'm very relieved.
So you know the the point of this beautiful story is that when you surrender to the Lord as Arjuna was, you don't have to worry yourself. He will worry about it.
All your anxieties go directly to him. There is no need for you to be concerned or to be worried about yourself because you are surrendered. You did your part. The rest is his responsibility.
You don't have to do it, you know. You're doing what you're supposed to do, and Krishna will surely do what he's supposed to do, as he shows in this.
He was, you know, he said, you know, ever since Karna is fighting I was planning how do you know it was very difficult for me to figure it out how to do this. So that's uh that's a beautiful point.
And uh again this is the point, the main point of Bhagavad-gītā. The main point of Bhagavad-gītā is to help us to understand that the only thing which we should do is to surrender.
Any upaya, all other upaias, all other means of salvation, all other means of improving our condition in this world should be rejected. Because they ultimately not work. They ultimately bring about the opposite result.
But this is the only real means of gaining the secure situation in this material world.
And therefore, Krishna finishes Bhagavad-gītā with this verse, Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. And again, that's why Śrīla Prabhupāda calls Bhagavad-gītā
Bhagavad-gītā as it is, because Bhagavad-gītā creates faith. Bhagavad Gita as it is, because Bhagavad Gita creates faith. And faith means surrender. You know, if you say, I believe in Krishna.
Sometimes it's very common, you know, you go to some Christian and say, you know, I'm already saved because I believe in Christ. And you ask them, what does it mean that you believe in Christ?
They said, nothing, I just believe in him. You know, it means that I believe in him. You know, they think that belief, faith, is some mental disposition. But faith is not a mental disposition.
It has to manifest externally and the external sign of faith, how you can say that I have faith or not, is the extent of your surrender to the Lord.
And surrender means to do whatever is pleasing to the Lord and not to do anything which is displeasing to the Lord. This is the first condition of surrender.
You know, if before doing something you think whether this action will be pleasing to the Lord or it will be displeasing to the Lord and you decide accordingly, not according to your own interest, not according to your profit which you may gain by doing this way or that way.
You know if the consideration is there whether the Lord will be pleased with this or not, according to what I know from Bhagavad-gītā from other scriptures, then you're surrendered.
But if your way of thinking is the same as we usually think, you know, what will be the benefit uh for me, for my own personal interest, then you're not surrendered.
You're not even following the first condition of surrender.
If you always feel that you are protected by the Lord, if you really feel that there is a protection of the higher force which is next to you all the time, then you're surrendered. But if you feel that you have to fight for yourself, then you know why Krishna should be concerned with you.
You are, you know, you will you're protecting yourself.
If you feel that the doctors will protect you, that your money will protect you, that your nice house on the Bay Area will protect you, or your nice car or policeman, the police, the government, social security, all these considerations are there and you ultimately think that this is all the means of your protection. You're not surrendered.
You know, deep inside our heart, we have to understand that we are vulnerable in this material world.
No matter how much we try, how intelligent we are, how clever we are, how much we try to gain some secure position in this world, if we don't really understand that only security is coming from God.
You know, uh like it is said in uh in uh in uh uh American currency, in God we trust, you know, but uh you know, but money is very important. In God we trust, but the more money we have the better it is.
not really the trust in God. When you trust in God you you're not really interested in obtaining or accumulating some other means which will create some sort of false security in your life.
So that's the whole idea of Bhagavad-gītā, and therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda has 100% rights to call his Bhagavad- gītā Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. His purpose is to create faith and to invoke the spirit of surrender.
Which is the original purpose of Krishna himself.
Because the whole Bhagavad-gītā, if we analyze very meticulously what Bhagavad-gītā is, Bhagavad- gītā starts with surrender: śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam. Mam Twamprapanam.
I am prapanna. I am surrendered soul. You please teach me and tell me what I should do because I'm confused. I don't know what to do. I don't know what is dharma, what I am supposed to do in this horrible battle.
You please tell me, and I will do. Please tell me very definitely what I should do. So this is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. Because immediately after that, Krishna starts Bhagavad-gītā.
Before he was not going to start Bhagavad-gītā.
He was very reserved, he chastised Arjuna, he said, you know, you're just klība and you're just, you know, you don't understand anything, you're just talking high, highly sounding words, but actually you're a fool.
You know that's exactly what Krishna says. But he was not going to teach him Bhagavad-gītā.
But when he feels like Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in this purpose that the example of how to understand Bhagavad-gītā is presented in Bhagavad-gītā itself. Figure of Arjuna, his way of doing this is surrendering.
So surrendering is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā and surrendering is the end of Bhagavad-gītā. Sarvadharmān parityajya mām ekam śaraṇaṁ vraja.
And in between, Krishna always says this: Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā, mām eva ye prapadyante, whoever this illusory energy is very difficult to overcome because it's Daivi, it's divine. It's your, it's my energy, it's it's divine energy.
So, how you can understand how you can overcome something which is divine, which is totally beyond your capacity of dealing with even. You know, but uh whoever He will cross over this material energy.
Very easily he will cross over this material energy. So, this whole Bhagavad-gītā, beginning, middle, and end, is about this. Is to invoke in us trust in God. That He is there. He is not some mythological figure.
He is not some hero of the past. He is present right here. He is in fact right in front of us. He is Radha Madan Mohan. He is standing here and he's in a very relaxed posture playing flute.
And actually, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda used to say that this last verse of Bhagavad-gītā, sarvadharmān parityajya, is the call of Krishna's flute.
When Krishna under the Vamsivat, under the Banyan tree in Vrindavan, is calling God Gopis to come to him.
And this gopis, they are giving up all their duties. In real sense, they're really giving up all their duties and running towards Krishna. Krishna is actually playing in his flute.
He's saying, sarvadharmān parityajya mām ekam śaraṇaṁ vraja. And because they understand the sound of Krishna's flute, they did what he said. And that's exactly what he wants us to do.
This is the intention, the original intention of Krishna, to give us this sense of understanding what we are supposed to do in our life.
Significance of the first chapter
And this is very beautifully shown throughout the whole
Bhagavad-gītā, but perhaps you know there are so many important verses and important chapters of Bhagavad-gītā, but one of the most important chapters to understand Bhagavad-gītā is the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
Because if we don't understand the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, we will miss the whole point. And usually people they just, you know, they kind of browse through the first chapter.
And even some great Ācāryas they didn't even comment on the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. Because in the first chapter Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna doesn't say a word.
Krishna starts speaking from the second chapter, from the second verse of the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. And then the real Bhagavad-gītā starts from the 11th verse of the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
But why the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is so important? Because in the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, in a very roundabout way, but at the same time in a very beautiful way, our problem is being explained.
And unless we understand clearly the problem, we will never be able to understand the solution which is given by Krishna.
In real sense, we can understand the solution, we can appreciate the solution and understand how to apply the solution in our life if we understand the problem and if we understand that this problem which Arjuna experiences and graphically exposes or graphically shows in the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, or Krishna shows actually, demonstrates this problem is our problem.
In the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says to Arjuna, he points out in a very painful way. He basically points out in the heart of his problem. He says, klaibyaṁ mā sma gamaḥ. He says, the weakness of the heart.
How Arjuna, you are so powerful. You're boasting all the time that you are so powerful. I'm the most powerful. I'm I will, you know, I will kill all the soldiers which are there within just a few days.
And you know Krishna arranges this whole drama in the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā just to show to us to demonstrate to us that no matter how much we are trying to project ourselves, and the tendency in this material world is that to project ourselves as somebody who is very strong.
You know, it's not only Arjuna who is boasting himself that I can solve all this problem. Every one of us is of the same mentality.
I'm so intelligent, I'm so rich, I'm you know, I have so many different virtues, and I'm you know, and anyway, you know, somehow or other I will make a solution to all my problems, and Krishna brings Arjuna to the battlefield of
Kurukshetra, and he really exposes him. He really brings out of him all his weaknesses, which are there within our heart. We are weak people.
Material attachments as root weakness
We may pretend, we may pose ourselves, project ourselves as somebody who is strong, but in reality we are weak, and this first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā explains what is the cause of our weakness.
Unless and until we understand what is the real cause of our weakness, of our problems in this material life, we will never be able to appreciate the solution which Krishna gives.
In reality, we can only understand if we honestly admit that yes, I am also weak. And why we are weak?
You know, the first verse of Bhagavad-gītā shows this weakness. Mamakaḥ Pāṇḍavāś caiva kim akurvata Sañjaya. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out in the purport, what is the cause of our weakness? Material attachments.
Material attachments make us blind. As Prabhupāda will say further in Bhagavad-gītā, Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind, but not only physically blind, he was spiritually blind. What is blinding us?
What is this blindness which is common, which is actually throughout the world, everyone is blind. Why? We are blind because we are materially attached,
and this material attachment makes us blind. You know, they make us blind because we really cannot overcome this material attachment. And we don't see beyond these attachments.
What Krishna is showing in this first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, he is showing how the material attachment is the root cause of all our problems.
How the material attachment is actually the cause of all the violence which is there in the world.
It's amazing when you superficially read the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, and many people superficially do read the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
And you know, because they don't understand the idea of the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, they cannot really understand because, you know, they say Arjuna is so nice. You know, he's ready to give up, you know, fighting, and he's ready
to surrender, and he's a non-violent guy, and here's this bad Krishna who is standing in front of him and saying, fight, fight, fight. You know, and most of the people, they have this crazy idea about Bhagavad-gītā.
They don't understand anything because they don't understand this first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. But in the first chapter of Bhagavad Gita, actually, what Krishna shows, he shows that so-called compassion of Arjuna.
You know, because and this is very difficult to understand because we all very compassionate, right? We all like Arjuna, very compassionate. Sometimes we become so compassionate it's just unbelievable.
But in reality Krishna says it's not compassion. Because the c the so-called compassion which uh uh which you have is coming from your passion. You're not compassionate, you are passionate. You are touched.
Krishna is very clearly showing by making Arjuna speak honestly what is there in his heart. Arjuna is very honestly and very with very simple heart because the very word Arjuna means simple-hearted.
Arjuna means straightforward, from the root riju, which means straight. Arjuna is straight. Arjuna is honest. And that's his glory.
The glory, and this is again a very important lesson of this first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā: you can only overcome your problem if you're honest, if you are honest. Gita: you can only overcome your problem if you're honest, if you are honest.
And of course, honest doesn't mean you're completely honest because in the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna is trying to justify his weakness of the heart by all Gita Arjuna is trying to justify his weakness of the heart by all these arguments which sound very convincing.
You know, I'm very concerned, I'm a good person of a society. What will happen with all these women and with all the progeny?
And we all go to hell and this and that and Krishna is just you know standing there and nodding his head and he said yeah I have heard it so
many times you know becausecause whenever we have a weakness of the heart, weak moment, uh the instinct,
the natural instinct, the natural idea is to try to justify our weakness by camouflaging it and trying to present it as some virtue. That's exactly what Arjuna is doing. But you cannot really fool Krishna.
Krishna is not easily fooled. He says in the 10th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that out of all means of cheating, I am the most the greatest cheater. You cannot really cheat as the greatest cheater.
So Arjuna is trying to cheat Krishna. But still, he is honest. He is honest in a sense that he openly admits, you know, he just speaks out about his weaknesses.
Yes, he try he's trying to cover them up by different means, but still, nevertheless, he's doing it in an open way. He's not afraid. You know, this greatest warrior who is who was praised by everyone at that time.
He's just, you know, he openly says he's not trying to hide his fear. He manifests his fear openly and that's his glory.
If we understand that we are fearful inside, then we can only find, can find a solution for this fear. If we don't understand that we are fearful, we will not even seek the solution, real solution for this fear.
We will try to find some artificial solution for this problem. Krishna is showing in this first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā three different strategies of how to deal with fear, two of which are totally unsuccessful.
The first example of fear is Dhritarashtra. Dhritarashtra is fearful.
Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining in the purport that Dhritarashtra is just saying, "Dharma Ksatriya Kurukshetra, Hare Krishna! What is going to happen in this dharma kshetra, in this pious holy place? How this pious holy place will influence my sons and the sons of Pandu naturally by the presence in this holy place they will feel very strong,
and my sons will be very weak, because that's the nature of the holy place. You know, then holy place strengthening gives the additional strength to virtuous people and makes impious sinful people very insecure.
Reactions to fear under modes
So he expresses his fear, but his way of dealing with the fear is he's he's not really dealing with the fear. He's paralyzed. And that's a very common reaction, our reaction during fearful situations.
We sometimes we become stunned. We don't know what to do, you know. And we we like a ostrich try to put our head in the sand. You know did somebody behave this way sometimes in his life? You know?
Let us not do anything, you know, maybe maybe this cruel fate will not notice me if I if I become completely like immovable living entity.
So Dhritarashtra is paralyzed. He's not doing anything. He's just he's just worried.
You know, what sometimes what we do when we are in a critical situation, when some crisis comes upon us, we just become worried and worried and worried and not doing anything.
You know, that's a natural, natural response in tamas. You know, those people who are tāmasika, the influence of tamas makes us paralyzed when we are dealing with difficult situations.
And then the next you know Sanjay showing how Dhrita Rastri is dealing with oh sorry how Duryodhana is dealing with this situation. And Duryodhana is a typical representative of rajas.
And when you're dealing with the situation and you are a rājasika, you're trying to manipulate people, you're trying to acquire as many supporters as possible, you're trying to instigate the hatred in them. It's typical propaganda way of doing this.
Like you know, nowadays propaganda is so prominent.
And what propaganda is doing is just basically invoking in you certain emotions which will be helpful for those people who are arranging this, you know, to channelise this emotion in a certain way.
You know, the propaganda is invoking fear sometimes, sometimes invoking anger in you. Just to do something what they want you to do. You know, like now this war is going on. And that's exactly what propaganda is doing.
Just become angry, more angry, more angry, more angry. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. So this is what it is. And that's exactly what Duryodhana is doing.
When Duryodhana is coming, you know, Sanjaya, when, uh, Dhritarashtra is asking, what did they do, my sons and sons of Pandu, when they came together in this holy place, dharma-kṣetre kurukṣetre, samavetā yuyutsavaḥ, desiring to fight?
Then Sanjaya immediately says that raja, the king, the politician, very clever politician, Duryodhana, he goes by foot directly to? To Drona? Why to Dronacharya? He is not the Commander in Chief.
If he wants to, you know, to speak with the commander-in-chief, he should go to Bhīṣma. No, he goes to Dronacharya. Why? Because he wants to flatter him. Why?
Because he knows that Dronacharya has a soft corner in his heart for Arjuna, and he, Arjuna, is his favorite disciple, and he really wants to instigate Dronacharya. He says, Bhishma will fight no problem.
Let's motivate Dronacharya to do it. And he's doing it by going by foot. Uh you know, when the great king or you know ruler of the country is going by foot to somebody, let's say, you know, Joe Biden is coming to you, to your house and knocks on your door.
Would you be flattered? You know, I need your advice, you know. So that's exactly what Duryodhana is doing. He's flattering Dronacharya. He's flattering. He's manipulating.
He has this political mind and he's trying to manipulate people to do what he wants them to do. Instead of doing dharma, instead of you know uh inspiring them to do the proper thing, the right thing, he is just simple.
But it is some illusion is going on. So uh uh so that's that's the second second example when he just, you know, boasting and at the same time betrays his concern and his fear. He's also fearful. Why he's doing this?
Because he's fearful inside. He's totally, completely fearful, and he's not at all sure about the outcome. And why he's fearful? Because he knows that he is wrong.
You know, all people who are doing wrong things, who are creating sinful activities, they are fearful inside.
You know, if you want to be relatively fearless in this material world, at least try to understand what is morality, what is dharma, what is the law of nature, which is being explained here.
So Sanjay, from the very beginning, he shows how fearful is Duryodhana. And then you know of course Arjuna who is in the beginning is very enthusiastic and he says I'm ready to kill all the sons of Dhritarashtra.
Please show me what they are doing. You know, show them to me.
All of a sudden, he sees all his material attachments. And by seeing this material attachments and understanding that he will have to kill all these material attachments, he becomes extremely fearful.
Externally, he's more fearful than Dhritarashtra. Externally, he is more fearful than Duryodhana. But again, his glory is that he's not trying to hide his fear. Actually, Dhritarashtra is much more fearful.
Duryodhana is even much more fearful than Dhritarashtra because he knows he's wrong. And therefore he's very fearful.
And of course Dhritarashtra is very fearful because he knows that he's wrong and that his uh sons are wrong and that he's actually doing something illegal.
So they both the the three of these people they have fear and the reason for this fear is one, material attachments. Dhritarashtra manifests this material attachment. Mamakah. Mamakaḥ Pāṇḍavāś caiva. They are mine.
And this is Pāṇḍavas. They are opposite. You know, Duryodhana is definitely showing his material attachments by all this means of manipulation, by always calculating who is attached to whom.
You know, this Droṇācārya he's attached to Arjuna, so we have to make some you know quarrel between them and you know this.
And by the way, I have also to instigate Droṇācārya to fight because he's foolish enough to uh to teach Droṇa Dhṛṣṭadyumna about the means of his being how he could be killed and so many other things.
Overcoming ignorance and false ego
He's fearful because of the attachments and Arjuna is openly fearful because of the same reasons, because of the attachments. Whenever we are materially attached, we will be fearful.
And surrender to the Lord means to solve this root cause of all our problems, which is the material attachment. The only way the only means to really conquer over material attachments.
And by the means of conquering over material attachments, we are conquering over our false ego and ignorance. Because the material attachments is a result of ignorance.
Avidyā, asmitā, rāga and dveṣa. Rāga and dveṣa is the direct twin sisters or whatever, maybe sister and brother, I don't know how exactly, but you know, Raga is definitely feminine. But Dvesha is probably masculine.
So anyway, the false ego gives birth to these nice twins, rāga and dveṣa. And this is exactly what is being demonstrated in the first chapter. This is the root cause of all problems.
And it manifests differently, but you know somewhat honest people who are more under the influence of sattva-guṇa. And Arjuna is the representative of sāttvika person because the very vivid and uh direct
sign of sattva-guṇa is that you're honest. Saralatā. And it's not even the characteristic of kṣatriya. The kṣatriya is the kṣatriya nature, they are not really open.
But Arjuna is showing this because he wants to teach us how we can really solve this problem. We have to be very open that we have a problem. We have to admit, very honestly, I have a problem.
It's not that she has a problem or he has a problem or they all have problems. And they are because they have problems they are attacking me. No.
They can only attack me and I can only be very sensitive to their attacks if I have my problems inside. The problems are there. You know, there is a saying if you point out somebody's problem by your nice finger.
You know, the three fingers show the real cause of all the problems. By one finger, you show, you know, somebody else, but three fingers tell the truth. The cause of the problem is inside.
And that's fear, and the fear is caused by the attachments. And anger is also caused by the attachment. You know, anger and fear, anger and attachment, it's the same thing.
You know, if you have attachment, you will have anger. Because anger is the weapon against somebody who is trying to deprive you of something which you are attached for.
If you attach to something, then you know you will use and somebody is bold enough or dares somehow or other to encroach upon your attachments, then you say you know, I will show you.
And actually the point here, very beautiful point which we really have to clearly understand: that unless we have attachments, we have false ego. And when we have false ego, it means that we are ignorant.
Avidyā is there. The real cause of all our sufferings in this material world is ultimately avidyā, ignorance.
Not understanding of our real nature, not understanding of our spiritual nature, of our connection with the Supreme Lord and our real function in this connection of the Supreme Lord.
And when we have this avidyā and we have false ego, then we will become violent at one point. Because if we have attachments, if we have avidyā, then we will divide people. This is the friends and this is the enemies.
This mentality you cannot really get rid of this mentality unless you get rid of the ignorance. And if you have friends and enemies, you will do what? You will try to favor your friends and you will try to kill your enemies.
You may be killing them physically or you may be killing their reputation by blaspheming them in social media or whatever. But this violence, the root cause of violence, is ignorance.
And Arjuna is demonstrating this ignorance. And Krishna, and at the same time, he says, no, no, I'm very non-violent. And that's exactly what we all do. We have a problem and we camouflage this problem.
We try to cover it up by different means and trying to present this problem as some virtue. You know, that's that's the problem. And Krishna, Krishna knows.
He says, because when you attach to something, you know, the next moment you will be you will be hating this.
There is, I don't know if there is this saying in English, but in Russian there is a saying, from love to hatred, there is only one step difference, distance. You know, there is only one step between the two.
You know, the attachment, what we call love in this material world is nothing but attachment. It's not love. Let's become honest. You know, and today you love somebody, tomorrow you will hate the same person.
And the more you love him today, the more you will hate him tomorrow. This is how it works. This is what it is, because this is the twins.
This is two sides of the same coin: raga and dvesha, ichchha and dvesha, uh, attachment and hatred, which you have in the heart. And unless you have this attachment, you will have hatred in your heart.
And uh unless and until and uh you know until the time uh you eradicate ignorance you will have attachment and hatred, and it means that you will apply violence.
So, what this first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is showing is that Arjuna is really violent. Although he is trying to present himself as non-violent. And Krishna is really non-violent.
And he wants to free Arjuna from this violence which is deeply hidden within our heart. Within Arjuna's heart, of course, Arjuna, Arjuna has no problem.
Arjuna is just very beautifully playing the role Krishna wants him to play. But the problem is ours.
We have hatred within our heart. We have attachments within our heart. And we are trying to deal with it in different ways. But the only proper way of dealing with all these problems and attachments which are there within our heart is how Krishna teaches Arjuna.
Everything else will fail.
Realizing identity beyond the body
Every other means which we try to adopt to solve this very difficult problem will fail. You know, like now, as I said, war is going on. What is the cause of this war? False ego. Ultimately ignorance. Ignorance.
And, you know, we now little little our little sect. We have so much fighting internally also.
I don't know maybe your your beautiful community is an exception, but everywhere else where I go, people are fighting with each other. Why? Because again, friends and enemies.
When Prahlāda Mahārāja heard about this friend and enemy mentality, he was so surprised, he said, I heard that people think like this, but I never really believed that they think like this. Why? Because he was above this.
He was transcendental to this, because he was attached to God. You know, our real function of attachment is attachment to God.
We should apply our attachment by being attached to God and His representative, to spiritual master, to Śrīla Prabhupāda, to somebody who is really manifesting these qualities of attachment to God.
If we want to develop this attachment to God, we have to serve somebody who has attachment to God. There's no other way, there's no other way, there's no other way. This is the only way to learn how to be attached to God.
Otherwise, we will be naturally by our svabhāva, by our inborn nature attached to material things and material people, material ideas, material conceptions, you know, you know, and we will not really understand what is the soul.
We will think that you know there are some Republican souls and Democratic souls who are fighting with each other. Or some other crazy conception and ideas will come to our mind.
Inevitably, in a very natural way, spontaneous way. Because we are. Because that's the way we are. And Krishna is teaching us.
Krishna is teaching us how to gradually, gradually, first by theoretically understanding that I'm not this body.
It's a very significant step in the right direction. Just theoretically understand, uh, you know, uh I was a small child, I was a uh you know youth, I I was an adult, now I'm an old man, you know, but somehow or other I don't feel it like this.
I'm the same. You know, like recently we spoke with one devotee. He said, I always feel as if I am 14 years old. And he's 60. And that's true, you know.
Even to understand it theoretically or by this logic, by this important logic, uh, if we understand this logic, that already gives us a lot of a lot of proper understanding of how we should behave.
That we should really uh by understanding it theoretically, we should seek the means of how to understand it in reality so that we will be completely fearless at the end of the day.
What we should do to free ourselves from fear.
People are so confused in this material world nowadays that they don't really even understand that you know I'm not this body. It's such a difficult concept for people to understand.
You know, I remember once I was I was in a train and somehow I couldn't sleep because you know Russian trains are not very nice place to be, and you know so many strange activities are going on.
So I was there in the in this aisle, sitting trying to chant. And many people were sleeping, but one completely drunken person was also going back and forth in the aisle. So I thought, you know, let me preach to him.
It was a brilliant idea which came upon me at midnight. So and I I I tried to communicate with him and I and actually he he became he first became somewhat curious and he said what are you doing? Why are you sitting?
you know and I asked him why you're you know passing uh uh back and forth and uh and he started asking me some questions what are you doing I said I'm changing you know names of God he said for what?
And I said, because I'm so, he said, so what? What do you mean? And I decided to, you know, to exercise Krishna's logic upon him. I said, My dear sir, you are not this body, you're your spirit soul.
And the proof is that you know you were you were a small child, and then you grew a little bit and a little more, and now you are you know adult who is very drunk. So you know isn't it you were the same person?
You know when you were a small child and then you grew a little bit and little bit and weren't you the same person? Don't you feel that you're the same? And he became really puzzled.
For a long time he was singing, you know, and by you know making some face and then he said no no i i I was not the same person no when I was a child it was not me.
He couldn't he couldn't relate to this even to this idea at all. But for those who are not really habituated to drink some alcohol uh they may uh understand this and then gradually
gradually Krishna develops this philosophy uh to give us the complete conviction that this is the way to live.
Bhagavad-gītā is an amazing book which formulates the laws of universal laws of nature, which are equally applicable to our material life and to spiritual life.
Bhagavad-gītā is not only talking about the spiritual laws, how we should behave in spiritual life, but so many seminars are there. Bhagavad-gītā and management.
You know, Krishna didn't definitely have uh in mind you know uh Google Corporation by speaking Bhagavad-gītā. You know. But you can successfully apply the principles of Bhagavad-gītā in management. Why?
Because Krishna is teaching universal laws in Bhagavad-gītā. And if you understand these universal laws, you will be equally successful in this material life and ultimately in the spiritual life.
Universal application of divine principles
And that's exactly the idea of Bhagavad-gītā. Of course I cannot go further, I have already overdue my time, so I have to finish now.
But again, my point, my initial point was that the idea of Krishna who was trying to speak Bhagavad-gītā is to create faith. And surrender means faith.
Surrender, saranagati, saranapati, prapanata, it's all synonymous for faith. This is how real faith, real śraddhā, not just some external conventional śraddhā manifest. The real śraddhā manifest in the way we surrender.
Surrender to God and His representative, trying to follow what they say. And the surrender is a gradual process.
And actually, it's being shown again very beautifully in Bhagavad-gītā how initial surrender which is invoked, the spirit of surrender, initial spirit of surrender which invoked by facing so many problems, is gradually being matured during the process of our spiritual practice, how we become more and more surrendered until we reach the highest ideal of surrender, which is manifested beautifully in
the gopis of Vṛndāvana, or completely surrender to the Lord. So it's a huge field of activity. From initial surrender, which is very conditional surrender. Arjuna's surrender, initial surrender is very conditional.
He says, I'm your disciple, and the soul surrender unto you. You can teach me anything else, but don't tell me to fight. You know that's that's his initial surrender.
Till he says: you know that, naṣṭa-mohaḥ smṛtir labdhā kariṣye vacanaṁ tava. My illusion is completely cleared up, and I will do whatever you tell me to do.
So that's the idea, and Śrīla Prabhupāda, by writing this beautiful edition of Bhagavad-gītā, he's explaining, and he's he's basically explaining to any person, uh any lay person who will take this book and will overcome the initial resistance by reading
Dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca, because that's the first obstacle in understanding Bhagavad-gītā. When somebody who doesn't know who Dhṛtarāṣṭra is trying to pronounce this word he faces the first very severe difficulty in a spiritual path.
But if he overcomes this initial difficulty, then uh God knows what will happen to him. Maybe he will come here.
So, because now is uh uh marathon time, uh Christmas marathon and now this Bhagavad-gītā should be distributed. I was trying to glorify Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
I'm not sure we want to stop this um most successful and perhaps the largest in history therapy session were in Silicon Valley. Because even I am considering surrendering after hearing that.
Um we're deeply grateful, Maharaj, for you bringing us so clearly the purpose of the Bhagavad Gita in about an hour and fifteen minutes. It was amazing.
I have a uh a brief question, and that is that you had mentioned how Krishna makes arrangements even when we have uh daunting tasks before us or problems and then he already has it figured out as we surrender then he makes the arrangement he has to worry about it.
Can you say a few words about us uh since you brought it up, the marathon and just now uh we're um in the throes of trying to reach our goals which uh typically seem out of reach yet uh we also have faith 'cause we've seen it over and over again and we never know how it happens.
But we do we have always reached them. This time seems different though. As all the other times do too.
Could you say just a few words to encourage the devotees here who are uh putting their heart and soul into reaching a goal? Our goal right now is to distribute at least 66,000 Bhagavad-gītās in the next couple of weeks.
And perhaps you could just say something, what is it
like for a person who's unacquainted with the Bhagavad-gītā walking down the street somewhere and receiving one, what goes through that person's mind and what should we be thinking to cooperate with Krishna and reach the goal?
Cultivating sincere desire for outreach
Well, I'm not a big book distributor, I have to admit it. But uh Krishna says uh Śrīla Prabhupāda explains at Bhagavad-gītā that the only function of the soul is to desire, the rest is being done by somebody else.
So the only thing which we can do is to cultivate desire. And if this desire is pure, then Krishna will reciprocate with this desire. You know, we have so many material desires within our heart, but
if for a change we have some spiritual desire, then Krishna will be totally completely ecstatic by smelling this spiritual desire within our heart.
Srila Prabhupada explains that the desire is something like the smell of fragrance of a flower which you can feel from a distance. So Krishna is not really in touch with us, but he feels the smell of our desires.
And usually it's not a fragrance, it's a stink of our desires.
But when we have this beautiful desire, I want to please you, I want to please Śrīla Prabhupāda, I want to really manifest his compassion to the fallen conditioned souls because as I explained in my little talk, the real compassion is only possible when you are not identifying with this body.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda is writing his Bhagavad-gītā from this platform. And Bhagavad-gītā is the manifestation of his compassion, real compassion, not the false compassion which we sometimes manifest in our life.
So if I understand this, that I have a beautiful chance to manifest Śrīla Prabhupāda's compassion uh to uh these uh souls of this world and have desire the rest Krishna will arrange
you know uh Krishna is there in everyone's heart, in the heart of a person whom we approach by offering him this Bhagavad-gītā, and Krishna will you know make arrangements.
He will give us intelligence what to say and how to approach him and what not to say and um and even if we say something completely stupid, you know, it doesn't really matter because uh Krishna will cover it up and will give this person the idea that there is something special.
Actually, what there was one very beautiful devotee in Moscow, his name was Radik Raman. He unfortunately died very young.
He was uh from the snake bite in in the Yamun River. It's an amazing arrangement. He was so pure-hearted. So he was big, big book distributor in Moscow and
he was just you know approaching people and just smiling at them and being very friendly, sincerely friendly from the heart. You know, and uh people were so touched by his sincerity and friendliness,
then uh some seven or even eight, nine years later, people would still come to the temple and asking, "Where is he?" I met this beautiful person on the street.
And he touched my heart, and I still remember this person whom I met on the street. So it's not a question of tricks like you know or techniques,
it's a question of having very sincere desire to please Śrīla Prabhupāda and to help him to manifest his compassion. And that was what we want what we can cultivate. The desire we can cultivate.
By listening, hearing others, how they speak, their experiences. We can really, because desires are by nature contagious.
You know, when we hear somebody who has very strong desire to distribute Prabhupada's books, we become, you know, we become infected by his desire to do it. So and yes, it's uh absolutely impossible, uh but
as Śrīla Prabhupāda said, "Impossible is the word of the fool's dictionary." So So yes, it's impossible, but we will anyway do it, no problem.