Bhagavad-gita 18.5
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Москва · 1999
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Reading Bhagavad-gita chapter eighteen verse five
Omnamo Bhavateva Sudevaya, Omnaho Bhavateva Sudevaya, Omnamo Bhagavateva Sudevaya Sudevaya Omnamobhavate vas I'm very happy to see you here today. We'll speak from the Bhagavad-gītā as it is.
And we will read one verse from the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. From the beginning of the eighteenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, verse number five.
The verse reads Yagyadana Tapah Karma Natyajam Karya Maevatat Yagyadanam tapaschaiva pavanani manishinam So the translation of this verse is Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up.
They must be performed. Indeed sacrifice, charity, and penance purify even the great souls. The yogis should perform acts for the advancement of human society.
There are many purificatory purificatory processes for advancing a human being to spiritual life. The marriage ceremony, for example, is considered to be one of these sacrifices. It is called vivāha-yajña.
Sudha Sanyasi, who is in the renowned stoler of life and who has given up his family relations, encouraged the marriage ceremony. The Lord says that any sacrifice which is meant for human welfare should never be given up.
Vivāha-yajña, the marriage ceremony is meant to regulate the human mind, so that it may become peaceful for spiritual advancement.
For most men, this vivāha-yajña should be encouraged even by persons in the renounced order of life. Sannyasis should never associate with women.
But that does not mean that one who is in the lower stages of life, a young man should not accept a wife in the marriage ceremony. All prescribed sacrifices are meant for achieving the Supreme Lord.
Therefore, in the lower stages they should not be given up. Similarly, charity is for the purification of the heart.
If charity is given to suitable persons, as described previously, it leads one to advanced spiritual life.
Yajñādāna tapaḥ karma, nātyajjaṁ kāryaṁ mevātat, yajñānaṁ tapas chaivam pavanani manishinam Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up. They must be performed.
Arjuna's struggle between action and renunciation
Indeed sacrifice, charity, and penance purify even the great souls. So this is a very important verse for our understanding. And in fact, this verse refers to the main topic, or one of the main topics of the Bhagavad Gita.
Bhagavad Gita starts from this dilemma. Arjuna wants to know whether he should act in this world or he should renounce everything, go to Himalayas, engage in meditation, and stop working.
And then again and again Arjuna asks basically the same question. He asked, should he work or shouldn't he work? Should he be engaged in this mundane activity or shouldn't he be engaged in this mundane activity?
And his understanding, his intention and his hope is that Krishna will say, yes, you should renounce everything. Yes, you should go to Himalayas because after all, who wants to kill all these relatives?
Who wants to be engaged in this ghastly warfare? Nobody wants it. And Arjuna doesn't want it. He's the last one who wants it. He doesn't want to be engaged in worldly activities. And Arjuna, in this case is
not just a hero of some ancient topic. It's actually one of us. We all engage in this world. And we all engage in some kind of activities.
And when these activities are nice, when it's pleasant, when everything is good and when the result is coming, then we are very happy. We are very, very enthusiastic to perform this, we're completely into it.
But as soon as something goes wrong and something goes wrong for sure, sooner or later, then we start thinking, what is the use? What is the point of all these strange activities which anyway don't bring me any happiness?
And shouldn't I renounce everything? Should I go somewhere in a secluded place? Shouldn't I just, you know, give everything up, retire from these activities, and, uh, engage in something.
So this pendulum is going on in a human society. Sometimes people are into action and usually when they're young they're into action.
When they're not very young, they're little bit, uh, contemplative. They contemplate about the meaning of life, but then the life takes its toll and everyone gets into action.
Everyone gets into this mode of passion and starts working and working and working like crazy. But then at one point he becomes completely frustrated. And this frustration indicates this word tyag. Tyag means to renounce.
And sooner or later this renunciation spirit comes to a person,
but we should understand one thing, and this is the main topic of the Bhagavad-gītā, that if the renunciation is only based on this attachment to the same activity with the uh with the negative uh uh connotation which is the same actually one can be attached to the activity or one can be attached to the renunciation if the attachment is there that everything is useless? And tyag and bog is equally useless.
Sometimes one is into tyag, sometimes one is into bog, and it just goes on and on and on.
From one side to another side, from one side to another and the topic of the Bhagavad-Gita is very essential and very simple in fact.
What one shouldn't understand from the Bhagavad-Gita is that it's not the activity itself which defines whether it's proper or not. But the motivation behind this activity. How I do it, not what I do.
Historical debates on action versus renunciation
I can do basically everything, but motivation in fact, defines the result of my activity. And it's a big question in all philosophical fields.
Like in um in India in ancient India there were different schools of philosophy. And these different schools of philosophy they were represented by Krishna in the verse number three, few verses before.
Krishna says some learned men declare that all kinds of fruit of activities should be given up as faulty. Yet other sages maintain that acts of sacrifice, charity, and penance should never be abandoned.
So this is a very long standing and uh ancient dispute which never has resolution. There was a school. It's actually in in all fields. If we take uh ancient India, we can see it very clearly.
In ancient India there was two schools, Sankyakas, the school of Sankhya, and the school of Mīmāṃsā. And the school of Mīmāṃsā they would say that you should not renounce everything. That renunciation is sinful.
If you renounce activities, then you become sinful. And so much so Mīmāṃsakas are so much so against renunciation that they consider sannyāsīs those who renounce this life, they consider them the greatest sinners.
According to them, if you look at the sannyāsī, if you look at the shaven head of sannyāsī, you know if you renounce this world you shave your head. If you look at the shaven head you have to purify yourself.
You you you have to take a bath and you have to take Achan and something like this. And and according to uh Sankhyakas or those who are into renunciation,
those who belong to this school, the school of Mīmāṃsā, they're very sinful. Because they perform sacrifices, they kill animals and these sacrifices are very sinful and uh the so they they cannot really get it together.
They take the same letters, they take the same scriptures, they take Upaniṣads, and someone looks in Īśa Upaniṣad, Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, and says, look, here it is says that you should perform karma and by performing karma you will live hundreds of years and you will be extremely happy and that's what you should do. And others they look in another Upanishad and say, look, you should renounce everything as soon as possible and get out of this world which is con which consists of sin, otherwise you will incur sin after sin after sin.
So this is going on. Like uh there was an an interesting meeting between Śaṅkarācārya and Mandana Mishra. Mandana Mishra belonged to this school of Mimamsa and Shankaracharya he belonged to this renounced order of life.
He was a sannyāsī. He had shaven head. And uh Maṇḍana Miśra, he was the greatest Mimāṃsaka of the time. It was the seventh century. And he was extremely rich. He was extremely learned.
And in fact it says that he amassed so much piety, he was extremely pious. He was performing one sacrifice after another sacrifice after another sacrifice. He was totally rich. And this piety was spreading around him.
And the whole city where he lived was completely prosperous because of him only. He was so pious, he was doing everything according to the Vedas and he was totally into it.
So Śaṅkarācārya he decided to fight with this Mīmāṃsakas. And he decided if I win over this man, then I will win over everyone. So he came.
But the problem was that his door, the door of this Maṇḍana Miśra, was closed, and there was a guard in front of this door and this guard was specially
instructed to drive away all the sannyāsīs so much so that they wouldn't wouldn't contaminate this whole atmosphere and the sannyāsīs but not allow So Śaṅkarācārya he had to learn a trick from a thief.
The thieves, in the Vedic times, in the ancient times, the thieves were very clever. The thieves, they knew mantras. Now even Brahmins don't know mantras but at that time thieves were into mantras too.
So they knew special mantras, which special mantras which is going uh according to the thief's parampara you know thief father to the thief son. Very secret mantras. So this mantra by these mantras they can bend the tree.
So i it's very handy if you're a thief. You know, if you know a special mantra and there is a coconut tree standing somewhere there, and you know you chant the mantra and the tree bends.
So then you catch the twig of this tree, and then you chant another mantra, and the tree stands erect.
And then you chant the first mantra and tree bends into the courtyard or into the yard of the man you want to sneak in.
Anyways Śaṅkarācārya had to learn this special mantra. He found a thief and he asked you please give me this mantra. So he was initiated into this thief's mantra.
And he sneaked into the house of Mandana Mishra and when Mandana Mishra and at that time Shraddha ceremony was going on in the Mandana Mishra's house and so many guests were there and everyone was into it and they were doing you know sacrifices after sacrifice and everyone was so happy and all of a sudden in the middle of them in the midst of them there
was you know shaven head Śaṅkarācārya and he spoiled the mood of everyone. Everyone looked at him and uh uh and Mandana Mishra was so angry at him and he started yelling at him, he said how did you how did you come here?
Get out of here, you sannyāsī, you know I don't want to see your face. So there was a there was a discussion between them and then Śaṅkarācārya said, okay, let's have a discussion. Let's have a dispute.
And if I win, you will become a sannyāsī. And if you win, I will become a householder. So and I will perform sacrifices if you win. And if I win, you will have to renounce this world.
So Manan Vishra had to accept this condition and ultimately he lost the dispute.
But this is this is just to show how much this this contradiction is actually it's very relevant. It it n it was not only relevant a few years ago, a few hundred years ago. It's still relevant now.
We can see that some people are preaching and propagating this way of renounced life. And some other people they are propagating the way of uh completely you know karmic activities, you have to work.
Renouncing false ego and selfish motivation
And Krishna here he is here to resolve this contradiction. And he says, What you should renounce, it's not that the activity you should renounce. No, you shouldn't the activity.
But what you should renounce, you should renounce the sinful or selfish motivation which drives you for this activity. Because it's actually the motivation which defines the result of your action, not the action itself.
You may perform this action or that action, but the result of this action is not what you perform, but how you perform and which consciousness you perform.
Like for example, a very simple example, you know, if if you are a military man and you kill somebody because the officer tells you you kill somebody and you kill somebody. So it's proper. There's nothing wrong with this.
You just go and kill, you go to Chechnya War and kill as many people as you like. Nobody will say boo to you.
But if the same military men take the same gun, you know, and goes somewhere on the street and starts shooting people on his own, then the result will be completely different. He will be punished, he will be put in prison, he will be hanged.
And this is this is how it is. So Krishna wants to say here, and he says it throughout the Bhagavad-gītā: that in fact, what you should renounce is your selfish motivation.
If you perform action for yourself, then you're entitled for the reaction to this action, and this reaction will be sinful. It may be pious, it may be sinful, but it further entangles you in this life.
And that's the point. So the point is not renunciation. Some people are into renunciation and they say that you know you should renounce everything.
You shouldn't renounce anything because first of all nothing belongs to us. The first mistake, the root mistake, if you think that something belongs to you.
What Krishna says here in Bhagavad-gītā, you should renounce your false ego. You should renounce your ahaṅkāra. And this ahaṅkāra consists of two parts. There is aham and mamata.
There are two parts of ahaṅkāra of our false ego: Myself, I am, and mine. I am and mine. Aham and Mamatā. And this is what you should renounce. You should renounce only the false motivation which drives you in this world.
And this is actually much more difficult than to renounce some material wealth or renounce something.
You know some people sometimes, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he used to preach, you know, it's it's crazy to renounce anything because nothing belongs to you.
If you go on the street, if you walk along the street and you see a car, and this is a nice car, very nice Mercedes, and you say I renounce you, Mercedes. No problem. This is crazy.
It doesn't belong to you in the first place, so how you can renounce it? So the first thing you you should we should understand, the first thing every one of us should understand that nothing belongs to me.
Like when Alexander the Great, his last will was he was the emperor of the whole world, you know, he won over lands and lands and countries and countries.
But his last will was when you take me to the burial ground, when you when I uh I die and when you take me to this burial ground, you please show everyone like this that my hands should be should be open like this. And when somebody asked what does it mean, he said everyone should see that I didn't take anything with me.
You know, I'm going there empty handed. So the first thing we should understand as it says in the Bible, in the Bible it is says that naked you come to this world and naked you go out from this world.
You know, you just you're here for some time. And uh something is uh under your disposal, but first thing one should understand this doesn't belong to me. Everything is the property of the Lord and everything is not mine.
But the tendency of the human being, as soon as he has something, as soon as he has something little he becomes very proud.
You know, like there is a saying in India, you know, if riksha gets one paisa, he becomes very proud. Riksha, they don't have much. But as soon as he gets something, you know, whatever he gets.
That that's the problem of a human being. That the possession makes one proud. And when one is proud, he uh forgets everything, he forgets his real position, he forgets his real situation, and he commits one mistake after
another after another. The pride is the problem. So the first understanding we should have very firmly established in our in our mind in our heart is that nothing belongs to me.
Like there was a story about one saint and this saint came to a palace. And as it was the custom, the king he got out of his way to receive the saint in a very nice way. And he showed him around.
He took this saint and he showed him this is my main room and this is my other room and this is my other room and this is another room and so many rooms I have and so much wealth I have.
And the saint he understood that this king is proud. This king is in trouble. And he decided to help him somehow or other. So he looked at him with a very concerned look. He said it's very nice.
You're living in such an opulent house and it's such a nice place you live and you're so happy and you're so pious you're so nice.
The only problem is that I see it on your forehead. And on your forehead your karma is written. And if you if somebody who knows how to read the karma looks at your forehead, he can say something.
And the saint says, I see that in seven days you will die. So this king, he was devastated. He said, Oh my goodness, what to do? He was totally completely so the saint says, but it's not a problem really.
You shouldn't be so much worried about it because I also see that you will go to heaven.
And in the heaven you will have a much bigger palace and much more happiness and you will live so happily. So the king became very enlightened. But then the saint says, but there was there will be one problem in heaven.
You know, the heaven you will have a very nice palace, but unfortunately in the heaven there will be so many mosquitoes that they will just drive you crazy there.
So the the king says oh this is not a problem, so what's what's the big deal, you know, mosquitoes I I will have my mosquito net.
It's um you know it's funny you may be in heaven but if you have so many mosquitoes you will live like in hell you know. Uh but uh the king said, you know, uh I will have mosquito net.
And um Saint says, yes, there will be mosquito net, but there will be a hole in this mosquito net. But the king says, What's the big deal? You know I will stitch it somehow or other, I will get my servants to stitch it.
And the saint says, Yes, there is a big problem. Because in heaven there is no needles. So if you really want to be happy in the heaven, you have to take a needle with you from here to there.
And the king says, but how will I take a needle from here to there. And the saint looked at him. If you cannot take even a needle from here to there, why you're so proud?
If even a needle you cannot take with you, if even you know, such a simple thing you cannot take with you. Why you become so proud? But the tendency is there, we become proud. No matter what.
Whatever we have, if we have some education we we found become proud. If we have this nice looking body we become proud. If we are young, my goodness we become so proud. As if this this use will long last long. It won't.
It will pass very, very quickly. But everyone, you know, whatever he has, this is the uh human psychology. Whatever he has, he becomes proud. Doesn't matter what. Why?
Because this because of ahaṅkāra, ahaṅkāra makes you proud, ahaṅkāra seeks and finds the reasons why you become proud doesn't matter what you know whatever whatever reason may be there. It may be quite stupid reason.
Like today I I went to bookshop. I was distributing books today and uh was little called so I went to a bookshop and there was a Heinous Record book there.
So I looked in this Hinous Record book, and this is the book which records the pride. This is the book you know everyone you know finds a reason why he should why he should why he's so special.
You know, somebody you know ate a car, you know. For one year he was eating a car, you know, little by little, little by little. Finally he ate a car, so to to make it into the to
become proud because because of this, you know, this is so crazy. Human beings are so strange. Why why they're so strange?
Because of ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkāra makes you strange. Ahaṅkāra makes you to do stupid things. Ahaṅkāra makes you to do mistakes.
And therefore the main uh the the main point of Bhagavad-gītā, the main philosophical explanation which Krishna uh gives here in Bhagavad-gītā is that you should renounce your ahaṅkāra,
which makes you proud, which forces you to identify with this body, with your artificial situation in this material world, and which forces you to forget your real situation as a spirit soul, as a servant of the Lord, and your real relationship with the Lord.
Modes of renunciation and gradual purification
That's the point. And but also Krishna is very practical. He doesn't demand it immediately. He doesn't say you immediately renounce your ahaṅkāra. After all, how you can do this?
You know, you sit there and you know, you scratch your head and you think, how will I all of a sudden you you cannot renounce your ahaṅkāra. So there is a gradual process for this. And this process is called purification.
Actually what we need to do, and uh this is exactly what Krishna says in this world in this verse.
He says in this verse that there is a special process, and this process enunciated in all the scriptures, not only in Vedic scriptures, but in all the scriptures of the world, there is a special process for purification.
And before that Krishna said that there is three types of renunciation. There is three basic renunciation.
And there is a renunciation in the mode of goodness, there is a renunciation in the mode of passion, and the renunciation in tamas. You know, you can be renounced in tamas. There are so many renounced people who are completely in tamas.
They usually go from one garbage pile to another garbage pile. They're quite renounced, you know. They don't have any house, they don't have anything, but they are into garbage.
So one can renounce in the in the lower modes of uh and there is a renunciation in the mode of fashion when one uh renounce uh something which doesn't belong to him and which uh he renounced it in a very passionate way.
Like sometimes people who join the Hare Krishna movement they renounce everything. They just completely get into this renunciation mode and uh you know they want to renounce everything.
I remember there was one boy who joined in eighty three or something like this. He was extremely renounced and he wanted to completely cross over his life.
And somehow rather the the symbol of his past life was his bath step.
So he took his bath from the bus room and who and he renounced this bath step from the balcony he just you know he threw it down the street in this complete you know uh but the renunciation in the mode of passion doesn't long li uh doesn't last long. doesn't last long.
It lasts just for a few days or whatever. And then you come back to the same uh thing. But the real renunciation is renunciation in the mode of goodness.
And the real motivation that what Krishna wants to teach us, ultimately he says, you should purify your motivation. But what does it mean to purify motivation? In the beginning, our motivation should be purification.
In the beginning, the motivating force which forces us to act should be purification.
We should continue our action, we should continue with yajna, we should continue with dana, we should continue with tapasya, we should continue with our normal course of action.
But what we should strive for is purification, purification of the heart. We should very clearly see this goal. Because only pure hearted person is actually happy.
We may have, according to the modes of material nature, we may have so many artificial conceptions of happiness.
We may think that, you know, to be rich is happiness, or to have a beautiful wife is happiness, or to have something is happiness, you know, so many conceptions of happiness are there according to the modes of material nature.
But uh any intelligent man can understand that only one who has a pure heart is happy, that someone who has dirty heart, no matter how rich he is, no matter how beautiful his wife is, no matter how how prosperous he is, no matter how many children he has, no matter what, you know, if he has a dirty heart, if his heart is contaminated by sinful activities, he will never be happy. He will he will spend sleepless nights because this heart will just burn, burn and burn.
All the sins which one commits gets there in the heart and it makes someone completely in anxiety, completely anxious, completely disturbed and you know but everyone understands that as soon as you become a little more pure, you immediately feel relief.
You know, like people, they get diseased. They usually get diseased and when they're really sick, they start seeking for some purification.
They understand there is a natural understanding in the heart that the disease, the result of the the cause of my suffering is the dirt. So they're trying to find some way of purification of the body. And as soon as the body is little purified, they feel some relief.
As soon as we do something which purifies our heart, we immediately feel relief. We immediately feel some happiness in our heart. You know, I I'm sure everyone has this experience.
As soon as you somehow rather counteract the sinful activities which is there in the heart, as soon as you give something away, then you become very blissful and happy. Why?
Because the happiness is the natural condition of the soul. And all this sadhana which is there, it's just it doesn't bring you anything new. It just uncovers the soul. The soul is by nature happy.
What you should do is you should just purify the soul, purify the heart. And as soon as the heart is purified, you become completely blissful, you become completely knowledgeable, and you become eternal.
Because this is the very nature of the soul. And Krishna recommends here a gradual process for purification. And he says uh there is a comparison. Actually the happiness is in our heart. The love of God is in our heart.
The only thing which we have to do is to purify our heart. Like it is said that if you take a match, the fire is already there.
But then there is a special process how to how to ignite the match, how to get the fire out of the match. You should take it and you should you know scratch it and then the fire will be there.
So this sadhana process, the process which we follow is the same process which actually doesn't bring anything new into your heart. It just purifies or reveals which is already there.
The love of God, the happiness is already there in the heart. So the only thing you have to do, the only thing which we have to do, which everyone has to do, is to purify the heart.
And Krishna here recommends, he says, there that yajñādāna-tapaś caiva pāvanāni manishinam.
He says, even for a very thoughtful man, even for a very wise man, for a very intelligent man who is on a very level high level of advancement, even for him, these three things, yajña, dāna and tapas, is purifying.
You shouldn't renounce this under any circumstances.
Sacrifices for regulating human society
You have to be engaged in yajña. And Śrīla Prabhupāda explains what is yajña. Yajña means sacrifice. And what does it mean, sacrifice? What, what you sacrifice.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda gives a very good example of sacrifice, what is yajña? Yajña, he gives an example of vivāha-yajña. Yajña means vivāha-yajña, he says. If you cannot do any other yajña, at least do vivāha-yajña.
What does it mean, vivāha-yajña? Vivāha-yajña means that you sacrifice all two billion other women, and you have only one. And this is a big sacrifice after all.
You know you could be engaged with all of them, but instead you concentrate your mind on one. This is a sacrifice. This is simple, but this has to be done.
If you don't do this, if you don't limit yourself, then you know like recently there was a lecture. Was it? No, it was yesterday in a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class in our temple, and somebody asked a question from a lecture.
You know the lecture was about renunciation, how we should renounce, how we should restrict our senses and how we should engage in devotional service.
And the question was uh wouldn't it be better first to satisfy our senses and then engage in devotional service in a peaceful mind, you know.
Because after all, if your senses are not satisfied, how can you be engaged in anything? But the the problem with this proposition, with this proposal, is that you can never satisfy your senses. But uh you will not satisfy.
What you should do, you should regulate. And for regulation uh regulations are there in the scriptures, you know, and uh
in the scriptures it is said, you should accept vivāha-yajña, you should accept your your wife and you should live peacefully with one wife and you shouldn't look at anyone else. No way you shouldn't look at anyone else.
And this is sacrifice. But then you should also engage in dāna, you should also engage in and, uh, tapasya. But also Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā explains what is the best sacrifice. He explains what is the greatest sacrifice.
Who knows how Krishna explains the greatest sacrifice? How he defines the greatest sacrifice in the Bhagavad-gītā. Power Pulsiu? No. No. No. He says uh of all the sacrifices Krishna says, I am what?
Of all the sacrifices I'm the chanting of the holy name. The greatest sacrifice, because when you are chanting the holy name, you actually sacrifice your false ego. Instead of chanting your own name.
Instead of chanting your own glory, you know our mind is constantly chanting our own glory. How glorious you are and how how nice you are and how pious you are and how you're the greatest.
It's it's natural, you know, it's understandable. But instead of chanting your own glory, you should chant the glory of the Lord.
And this is the greatest yajña because ultimately, if you are engaged in this yajña, you will sacrifice your false ego. Ultimately, your false ego will be dissolved if you are engaged in this in this
sacrifice, and this is the most purifying yajña. Therefore Krishna says, I am japa.
You should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. And besides it, it says that the
sacrifice of this age, the yajña of this age is saṅkīrtana-yajña, the chanting of the holy name, congregational chanting. And when we come together we should understand what we are doing.
We are doing the greatest sacrifice. When we chant the name of the Lord, we should understand this is the greatest sacrifice.
There is no need to pour ghee, there is no need to make fire. It may attract some people, you know, if you make, you know, a big firework, so many people will come.
But the real yajña, real sacrifice is chanting of the holy name.
And when we chant in this mood that this is the sacrifice, I am sacrificing my false ego, I am trying to glorify the Lord, then the result of this yajña will come. And uh it will be purifying. It is purifying on any level.
You know, no matter what your consciousness is, if you are engaged in this, it will purify you.
But if you do it in a proper mood, together with the devotees, if you come in a temple and you if you are engaged in this uh chanting of the holy name, it's extremely purifying.
It's it's the most purifying activity you can imagine.
Imparting spiritual knowledge as supreme charity
And then it says yajña-dāna-tapaś-caiva... What is the best Dana? What is the best charity? What do you think? What is the best charity? Hm? What is the best charity? Complete knowledge to others. Yes, exactly.
The best charity is the charity of the knowledge.
It is there is a there is a Christian saying uh or American saying I think it's not exactly vegetarian saying but anyways it says that if you give a man a fish he he will be satisfied for one day. But you know, we don't recommend to give anyone a fish.
Probably because at one point Jesus Christ he gave somebody a fish, you know, so they it's there, but then it is said that, but if you teach him how to fish, then he will be, you know, he will be happy his whole life.
So the point is not to give something, because if you give something to an unworthy man, to somebody who doesn't deserve it, he will anyway waste it.
If somebody is not according to his karma entitled to enjoy some fruits of actions or whatever, he will be poor. You know, people they're poor not because, no, not because of some unfortunate incident in their life.
They're poor because it's their karma. Because in their past life they didn't give any charity and therefore they're so poor now. All the suffering which we undergo. All the bad karma which is there.
The root cause of this is what? Why do we suffer? Why ultimately do we suffer? What is the reason for this? Because of lack of knowledge. Ignorance. It's only avidyā.
Ultimately it is said that all the sufferings is a result of our sinful activities. But the sinful activities is in turn a result of our ignorance. Avidya is the root cause of all the sufferings.
It's very in a very detailed way explained in Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali where he says different kleśas. But he said that the root cause of everything is avidyā. And finally, ultimately we will have to destroy that avidyā.
So the best sacrifice, the best charity is to give somebody knowledge. The best charity is to say that, like Śrīla Prabhupāda used to give an example, very nice example.
If you see a man on the street and he is a beggar, he doesn't have anything, but you know that he is actually the son of the king. So what is the best way to help this man?
To give him, you know, a few rupees or to tell him, "You're the son of the king"? You know, and we are all children of God. We are all children of the richest men in the world.
And the best charity is to tell, but we forgot about this. We are lost in this world. We're completely lost in this world. And therefore we are so empowered uh not empowered, impoverished.
We're so poor in this world, we're so fallen in this world because we forgot that we have an birthright to the to the riches of our father, to the riches of uh Lord Krishna. And that's the main point.
And therefore the best done, the best charity is to give some knowledge. Now we have this marathon.
Compassion as the highest austerity
And of course the best tapasya, the next is austerity, the best tapasya. What is the best tapasya? What is the greatest tapasya? What do you think what is the greatest tapasya? Austerity. Controlling the senses.
Yes, in one sense. But the greatest tapasya ultimately is uh is compassion. The greatest tapasya is uh not to be controlled by our passions by to be controlled by compassion to the living entities.
So ultimately this these three things, Yagya Dana and Tapa, they culminate when we practice this knowledge ourselves and when we give this knowledge.
When we give them when we give this knowledge, this is the manifestation of com uh compassion.
This is the greatest uh charity which we can perform and this is the greatest yajna which we can perform This is actually this is the greatest the greatest effect is there when we give this knowledge to people, when we remind people that they're children of God, that their natural position is to be connected with the Lord and is to love Him.
And when we do this, this is the the greatest thing which we can do and this is the best thing which we can do for us and for everyone else. Like Śrīla Prabhupāda today we heard it in the lecture.
When the spiritual master, our spiritual master Śrīla Prabhupāda, when he wrote, when he spoke with his spiritual master, his spiritual master gave him an order.
He said, You go to the West and you preach this message. And this will be good for you, and this will be good for everyone else.
So when we go to people and we when we tell about this Gita Sandesh, uh Gita Upadesh, the the message of Gita, when we uh tell people that they should chant the holy name, when we tell people that they should somehow rather be engaged in this process that this is very purifying for us and this is very purifying for everyone else. This is very purifying for everyone who comes in contact with this.
And today now we have this by tradition we have this December Marathon. And December Marathon means everyone goes out.
And everyone no matter what comes to people and uh tries to give them this knowledge, tries to give them this book. And the people don't want this book, you know. Like I was today, I was trying to give some books away.
And it's very difficult. It's very difficult even to stop people. You know, even if you say that may I present you a book, they they will say, no, no, no, get out, get away. They're so paranoid.
The people are it's it's amazing how they live. They're so completely engrossed into this bodily concept of life, and they it's very difficult to reach to their heart.
But what we should do, we should try to purify ourselves. When we purify ourselves, when we give something away, this is very purifying. This is extremely purifying and you you get relief from this.
And we should try to do something good for people because they don't know anything, they're engrossed in this material concept of life and they're not happy. They're trying to find happiness but they're not happy.
You know, they're trying to find so many solutions to their problems but the problems become more and more unsolvable. Trying to solve the problem by creating bigger and bigger problems.
The solution for the problem becomes the bigger problem. And it's just, you know, snowball. But the real problem is given here in Bhagavad-gītā. In Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna gives the real solution.
Ultimately you should purify your heart. Ultimately you should uh purify your motivation and ultimately you should serve the Lord because this is your natural position.
And when your heart is pure, you don't do anything, you just serve the Lord, you serve everyone else, and you're completely happy and everyone thinks you are crazy.
But it doesn't matter for you because because it is because it is your natural situation, because it is your natural condition. If we do this, this is the best way to help people.
And um this is my request to all of you you in Chaitanya Chaitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that whoever took birth in uh Bharata-varṣa, whoever has this privilege to take birth in the in this land of spirituality, in this
land of saints, in this land of this is uh a actually if we take India, India is the greatest country in the world, uh if you consider the saints and the number of the saints and number of spiritual goods which it delivered to the humanity.
You know any any country has its uh has its feature, you know s if you say Russia, then everyone immediately thinks vodka, right? You know. If if you say Japan, everyone immediately thinks you know Sony or whatever.
But if you say India, everyone immediately thinks about yogis and about some other strange people. You know, about some saints and uh sadhus. So So this is this what we should do.
We should give this this culture to people and this will purify our heart. This will make us happy and this will make happy everyone else who is somehow or other connected with us.
It was so interesting to see, you know, when people they get it, they get this this book, they somehow or other become very happy. And some of them they say I don't need this book, I don't need this book but then they smile like eh you know. They anyway take this book and they become very happy.
So we should try to help people to be happy by giving these books, by giving this knowledge, by talking about Krishna. And this is the real the real life. You know, this is the real life.
Just to talk about Krishna, just to preach about Krishna and just to be somehow or other engaged in his service which is very purifying and very nice.
So this is my request to you and I'm really sorry for giving such a long class. Hare Krishna. Is there any questions? they made a special program for you for Shastra Dan.
You can give little money and for this money we will give away these books for free and in this way we will give people the shastras.
If the shastras even even if people don't read shastras, even if they don't read Bhagavad-gītā, if they just keep it uh on the shelf, this is enough itself purifying. And ultimately, these people they will read this book.
You know, it is said in in one of the Purāṇas, it is said that if the scripture is there on the shelf. To have a scripture on the shelf is the same as to have uh Lord Nārāyaṇa living in the sh in your house.
You know if if Bhagavad-gītā is standing on somebody's shelf, it's the same, you know, Lord Nārāyaṇa comes to this house and he is there, and he will purify this house, this uh this uh soul.
So this Shastradhan is very very beneficial for everyone, and therefore Yagyanaa D Tapak Karmanat Yajam Karya Mevata. We should never renounce this Yagya sacrifice Dana Charity and Tapasya. We should always do this because it's very purifying for our heart and it's very good.
Lessons from the Yaksha Prashna dialogue
Is there any questions? Swami, I I wanted to know about this yaksha Prashnas uh which uh Yaksha will ask uh Dharma Raja, the lake of death. Uh if it will have time please. The whole thing. I can do this.
Maybe the next class, not in the next class, next. I can do this, no problem. Okay. Yaksha Prashna. How many questions have, uh, one hundred and one?
Don't you feel the that was very easy for us to understand than Bhagavad Gita also? Um Mahabharata is especially written for us and it's written in such a way that we can understand everything.
But Bhagavad Gita is a part of Mahabharata. And Bhagavad Gita is actually very simple. Especially when Srila Prabhupada explains it, it's very simple. But Yakshaprashana, we can talk about it, it's nice.
I will write it down for question and answer for the what is the basic difference between, uh, the religion and spirituality. Religion implies certain practice. Religion implies certain rituals.
Religion, when you say religion, everyone immediately thinks about some ritual, about some kind of mass, mass or some kind of service or whatever. Whereas spirituality means just you know more or less uh philosophy.
But Srila Prabhupada used to say that philosophy uh without religion is just speculation. It is mental speculation. If you think, and you know, you just think and think and think, there is no conclusion of the thinking.
And uh religion without philosophy uh is uh just either fanaticism or sentimentalism. We can see in this world that people who are very much into religion but
who don't have philosophical understanding of the religious belief, they either become fanatics, like some Muslim fanatics who want to kill
everyone because they don't belong to their religion, or they become completely sentimental, and it just becomes again useless. It should be, these two things should be together.
Religion, which means some ritual, some purificatory process, some service and some activity and philosophy should go together. And if they go together then the result is very nice.
If, uh, if they don't go together, then everything is useless, more or less.
Some people are into philosophy, some people are into religion, but, uh, they should be both, and therefore, um, Srila Prabhupada used to say that we are not preaching new religion. We are not preaching religion in fact.
We are preaching the science. This is the science and everything is scientific here. There is a scientific philosophy, philosophical knowledge and understanding, and there is also a very scientific process behind it.
Did I answer your question? And what is the spirituality then? Spirituality usually in, um, people's minds spirituality
means that, uh, it's, it's a very vague term, you know, if you ask, uh, somebody on the street what spirituality means, and they will say if somebody goes to the theater, he is very spiritual, you know, or something like this.
Or sometimes if if you if you read books by by Blavatsky, that's spirituality. That's the basic understanding of spirituality. If you read some new age esoteric books, something like this.
But uh the real spirituality the real spirituality is is devotional service. Real spirituality is when you act on the level of your soul. Because the soul is spiritual by nature.
If you act as the soul, this is spirituality, this is the spiritual process. Is it okay? Or not?
And then why are we telling that that this person is a very religious or what and not telling that this is and this person is a like like devotee.
And and we have to tell like this person is very religious and so so why we are what you what we tell What matters is what somebody does and how he behaves. It doesn't matter what we tell about him.
But as far as as as the real understanding is concerned, one has to have uh spiritual life and spiritual life means practice.
Spiritual life j doesn't just means reading, doesn't just mean you know some kind of speculation. But uh it doesn't matter how you call somebody.
In any way we're dealing with a very uh English language or Russian language they are not very scientific. They are very vague. So it doesn't matter what you speak in these languages.
The real language of the soul is Sanskrit. Sanskrit. This is the language of the soul. There in Sanskrit you can define everything in a very, very exact and precise way.
But because in the modern society there is no clear understanding what spirituality is, what spiritual practices is, so this term doesn't mean anything, it's more or less empty.
Everyone has his own conception of spirituality. But spirituality Krishna defines what spirituality is.
Consciousness and purity in book distribution
He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaḿ śaraṇaṁ vraja, this is spirituality. Just abandon all kinds of religion and surrender unto me. This is spirituality.
Yes, this regarding this marathon, and it is said that the response from the person whom śikṣām to a certain extent. Who whose level of consciousness? It's uh it's devotees. One who is proposing. To a certain extent.
To a certain extent. For the first time when I went out with some books, I got afraid to see my levels of consciousness. Sure. Sure, this is uh this is the only way how to improve it.
Uh because your level of consciousness depends on the purity of the heart and the purer the heart the better people can react to you and um if your heart is very pure that and it can reflect in the people's heart.
But there is no strong correlation. There is no such uh you know, definite correlation. You shouldn't expect that you know you shouldn't be too disappointed.
The first place it reflects the level of consciousness of the person who speaks.
And then in the second place, to a certain extent it uh it also reflects your your purity of approach, but it doesn't doesn't matter so much.
The thing is that you know if we approach somebody and if we don't want anything from him. If we want to give something, if we don't want to take anything from him, if we just want to give something, then they immediately understand it.
They understand that this is something really special because everyone else in this world wants to get something from me.
And this is somebody who wants to give me something. So this is this is the best impression we can leave after ourselves.
If a person will think something, something special. I met a very special person who didn't want to get anything from me but who wanted to give me something. So like this