04.29.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 7:41 am by David Bruce Hughes
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In Bhagavad-gita Kṛṣṇa is advising Arjuna. Arjuna accepts His advice and addresses Kṛṣṇa as Acyuta, the Infallible One. Kṛṣṇa is acyuta, infallible, because He never falls down . Cyuta means those who are fallen in the material world. They are cyuta, fallible, because they have failed to avoid the trap of material existence.
We are fallen in the material world; therefore we have accepted this material body. And because we have accepted the material body, we are afflicted by so many undesirable material qualities:
iccha-dvesa-samutthena
dvandva-mohena bharata
sarva-bhutani sammoham
sarge yanti parantapa
“O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.27]
Iccha means desire. And dvesa means envy, hate. Iccha-dvesa-samutthena. When we become envious of Kṛṣṇa and we want to enjoy this material world, then we come to this material creation. But because we are constitutionally not enjoyers but servitors, we cannot satisfy our desires. Therefore we become envious, spiteful and hateful, and because of this the material world is a hellish place of suffering and death.
So all of us in this material world, having material bodies, from Brahma down to the ant, are required to enjoy or suffer the resultant action of karma.
yas tv indragopam athavendram aho sva-karma-
bandhanurupa-phala-bhajanam atanoti
karmani nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhajam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
“He impartially ordains for each living entity the due enjoyment of the fruits of their activities, for all those who walk in the path of work, in accordance with the chain of their previously performed works, no less in the case of the tiny indragopa insect than in that of Indra, king of the devas. I therefore adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who burns to the roots all the karma of those who are imbued with devotion for Him.” [Brahma-samhita, 5.54]
There is an insect called in indra-gopa Sanskrit. It is a microbe so small that you cannot see it with the naked eye. This microbe is called indra, and there is another Indra, the King of Heaven. So the Brahma-samhita says, yas tu indra-gopa. Beginning from this indra-gopa, up to the King of Heaven, everyone is subjected to enjoy or suffer the resultant action of his karma.
By the resultant action of karma, material cause and effect, one jiva soul has become the King of Heaven, and by karma, another jiva soul has become a microscopic indra-gopa. This is material existence. There are 8,400,000 species or types of material bodies, and we are wandering through the different planets in many different forms. This is the material world, samsara.
And in the material world, whatever form we may have, we have got attachment and identification with this body. Therefore we are under the impression that “I am this body.” That is the material conception of life or the material ontology.
So in the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna was apparently overwhelmed by material consciousness. In the battlefield, he identified himself as the body. He thought that he belonged to the Kuru dynasty, and all his family and relatives were there to fight, on one side his brothers, and on the other side his cousins, nephews, grandfather and guru.
He become very much disturbed that “I have to kill the other side, my cousins and my nephews, my grandfather. No, no. Kṛṣṇa, I cannot. No. This is impossible. I shall not fight.”
So he refused to fight, and this set the stage for Kṛṣṇa to speak Bhagavad-gita. Arjuna played the part of a conditioned soul under the impression that he is the body. That is animal life, material consciousness. In the Esoteric Teaching it is said:
yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke
sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih
yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij
janesv abhijnesu sa eva go-kharah
“A human being who identifies this body made of three elements with his self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of birth worshipable, and who goes to the place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered like an ass or a cow.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.84.13]
Anyone who is identifying this, himself, with this body, which is made of tri-dhatu—kapha, pitta, vayu or mucous, bile and air— such persons are called go-khara: cows and asses. And people travel to religious places of pilgrimage because one can get transcendental knowledge. So if one travels to a place of pilgrimage to bathe in the sacred river and perform rituals, but has no interest to associate with persons who are expert in transcendental knowledge, then he is simply a fool, wasting his time.
So Arjuna played the part of a go-khara, an ordinary person, a fool who is identifying the material body as the self. Therefore he required instruction from Kṛṣṇa. This is the set-up in the first chapter of Bhagavad-gita.
Now the second chapter opens with sanjaya uvaca. Sanjaya is speaking to Dhrtarastra, the father of Duryodhana, the cousin of Arjuna who has stolen the Vedic Empire from its rightful heirs, the Pandava brothers. Sanjaya is seeing the battlefield within his heart by spiritual television. Dhrtarastra was blind, but his secretary Sanjaya was narrating the activities in the battlefield to him.
In the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, Dhrtarastra inquired from Sanjaya:
dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre
samaveta yuyutsavah
mamakah pandavas caiva
kim akurvata sanjaya
“O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?” [Bhagavad-gita 1.1]
Kim akurvata sanjaya: “What did they do, Sanjaya?” Sometimes Bhagavad-gita is misinterpreted that the battlefield of Kuruksetra—dharma-ksetra kuru-ksetra—means this body. The Esoteric Teaching does not misinterpret in that way. We are presenting Bhagavad-gita as it is. We do not change the meaning by our whimsical imagination or concoction. We do not interpret the words of the Bhagavad-gita according to our own desire.
Actually, from literary point of view, interpretation is required when things are not clear. In a court of law, when the terms are not very clear, the lawyers try to interpret the law before the judge passes a verdict. In same way, amongst learned scholars, interpretation is required when the original text is ambiguous.
But interpretation is unnecessary when the things are very clear. Just like there is no need of a light to see the sun. The sun is self-effulgent. Similarly, Bhagavad-gita is perfectly clear and self-effulgent. Kuruksetra is a real place in northwestern India where traditionally the Kuru kings would go to perform religious sacrifices. So there is no need of interpretation. This misinterpretation has kept the spirit, and the real essence, of Bhagavad-gita from the minds of most Western readers.
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04.25.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 12:19 pm by David Bruce Hughes
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This talk begins a series on the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita. The first chapter of the Bhagavad-gita is the set-up. According to Arjuna’s request, Kṛṣṇa placed the chariot in between the two armies: senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthapaya me acyuta [Bhagavad-gita 1.21].
Arjuna looked over all the relatives and friends that he was going to fight with, and he began to have second thoughts about the battle due to his feelings of compassion. He presented his case to Kṛṣṇa, but was unable to resolve his difficulty by himself. In the second chapter, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa and asks Him to solve his problem definitively. Kṛṣṇa then delivers a wonderful summary of Vedic spiritual wisdom.
The second chapter begins:
sanjaya uvaca
tam tatha krpayavistam
asru-purnakuleksanam
visidantam idam vakyam
uvaca madhusudanah
Sanjaya said: “Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming with tears, Madhusudana, Kṛṣṇa, spoke the following words.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.1]
Here, Sanjaya is narrating the description of the battle of Kuruksetra to the blind king Dhrtarastra. Arjuna is playing the part of the conditioned soul, and Kṛṣṇa is giving him the same advice that He would give to any conditioned soul who is bewildered by the difficulties of material existence and suffering. In other words, by advising Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa is advising all of us.
There are two kinds of souls: the Supreme individual Soul, Paramatma, and the atomic individual souls, jivatma. And there are two kinds of jivatmas, the materially conditioned souls and the liberated souls.
Actually when we speak of materially conditioned or liberated, we are referring to the quality of consciousness of the soul. The soul, being spiritual by constitution, is never affected by the modes of material nature. But because he fills his consciousness with material impressions, the soul dreams that he is under the control of material nature, and therefore although he is transcendental, he becomes subjected to the suffering of material existence.
The liberated souls, whether in the material world or the spiritual world, are always in spiritual consciousness. There are five kinds of liberation, but in the West the most commonly known type of liberation is sayujya. Sayujya liberation means to become one with the Supreme. The Mayavada philosophers or monists aspire after sayujya-mukti.
But the devotees, Vaiṣṇavas, do not accept sayujya-mukti. In fact they hate sayujya-mukti, because it is committing spiritual suicide by merging into the impersonal Brahman and losing one’s individuality. This means that one ceases to exist as an individual person, nor can one render devotional service to the Lord. So the devotees never accept sayujya-mukti, which is usually bestowed upon the demons who are killed by the Lord.
For the devotees there are four higher kinds of mukti:
And those who are still further advanced do not want any kind of mukti, not even these four higher kinds of mukti. Caitanya Mahaprabhu prays,
na dhanam na janam na sundarim
kavitam va jagad-isa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare
bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi
“O Almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor to enjoy beautiful women. Nor do I want any number of followers. What I want only is the causeless mercy of Your devotional service in my life, birth after birth.” [Siksastaka 4]
This is pure devotional prayer. The pure devotee does not approach the Supreme for any material or even spiritual gain. Pure devotion means love and service without any aspiration for personal gain.
anyabhilasita-sunyam
jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena Kṛṣṇanu-
silanam bhaktir uttama
“One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11]
Anyabhilasita-sunyam: without any kind of desire than to please the Lord. This is uttama-bhakti, first-class bhakti or pure spiritual love. In the Esoteric Teaching it is said:
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati
“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which everyone can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6]
Parah means transcendental, beyond this material conception. Kṛṣṇa, or the Absolute Truth, Narayana, is para. Even the great Mayavadi impersonalist Sankaracarya admits in his Gita-bhasya that narayanah parah avyaktat: “Narayana is beyond this material world.” Narayana, Kṛṣṇa, Visnu, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is not of this material world.
When the Vedas use the word nirakara to describe the Absolute Truth, that does not mean that He is formless, but that His form is not a thing of this material world. He has a transcendental form, described as sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah: “His form is eternal, full of unlimited consciousness and bliss” [Brahma-samhita 5.1].
The spiritual form of the Lord is sat-cit-ananda, but this material form is asat, acit, and nirananda. Therefore, when in the Vedic literature or in authorized statement we find the Absolute Truth described as nirakara, that means His form does not belong to this asat, acit and nirananda material world. But He has His divine spiritual form:
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ’rjuna
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities, upon leaving the body, does not take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.9]
Divyam, He is transcendental. This world is a creation of the material nature. But beyond this material nature, there is another nature. That is spiritual nature or spiritual world. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita:
paras tasmat tu bhavo ’nyo
’vyakto ’vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati
“Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.” [Bhagavad-gita 8.20]
So Kṛṣṇa advises us in Bhagavad-gita to attain to our original spiritual nature, accept liberation and return to the spiritual world. Then we will be happy.
There is no question of perfect happiness or perfect anything in this temporary material world. Perfection is unavailable here. But in the spiritual world, everything and everyone is perfect. So we should transfer our existence there. This is liberation from all material conditions and suffering.
Attaining liberation is as simple as changing our consciousness, and changing our consciousness is as simple as changing our ontology. Changing our ontology means instead of filling our minds with information, desires and impressions of this material world, to fill it with spiritual information, desires and impressions.
Therefore the path to liberation begins with hearing from a self-realized soul, and the next step is chanting the Holy Names of God, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, or whatever mantra or name you accept as indicating the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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04.22.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 12:10 pm by David Bruce Hughes
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“Everything that has a beginning has an end.” We are born, therefore we have to die. There are no exceptions to this law. No one can live forever in this material world. The inevitability of death is something we all have to deal with.
How will we meet death? Unconscious, shot full of painkillers, our life processes regulated by machines? Violently in an auto accident, a plane crash or war? Or peacefully, happily, gratefully and gladly? There is another saying: “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” In other words, we will probably die pretty much the same way we live our life.
In the material conception of life, youth is wonderful, and old age and death are horrible: nectar at the beginning and poison at the end. This is because the material conception of happiness is based on sense gratification. In youth, there is ample facility for sense gratification, but this gradually dries up with age, until at the end, there is no material sense enjoyment at all, only suffering.
However in the spiritual conception of life, the real source of enjoyment is the spirit soul. Just as the soul is the source of the life energy that powers the body, the soul is also the source of all pleasure and enjoyment. In material consciousness, this enjoyment seems to be coming from the senses, but the real source is the soul.
Have you ever been in love? When you are in love, you experience great happiness and pleasure just from thinking of the beloved. Even when you’re not together, you feel pleasure from your love. This pleasure is coming from the soul, and the proof is that the pleasure is present even when physically separated from the beloved.
Of course, in material life, love eventually loses its transcendent sparkle and becomes mundane. Why? Because we mistakenly identify the beloved as the source of the love we feel. As soon as our beloved misbehaves or otherwise fails to meet our expectations, we cover our warm loving feelings with judgment, which can even turn into hate. Just see the delusory quality of the material conception of life.
Actually the love we get so much pleasure from is coming from our real self, the soul. In spiritual life, our beloved is Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Since He is perfect in every way, there is never any reason for our love to end. In fact, unlike an ordinary person, the more we get to know Him, the more our love for Him increases, because He is a bottomless ocean of good qualities.
Thus by loving Kṛṣṇa, we can experience the wonderful pleasure of transcendental love in any condition of life: young, old, healthy or diseased. Even on the brink of death, we can bask in the warm rays of spiritual love and be comforted by Kṛṣṇa’s personal presence. Instead of the greatest tragedy, death can be the greatest triumph: permanent liberation from material existence and suffering.
But to achieve this, we have to live our life in such a way that we cultivate spiritual love from the beginning. This may be a little inconvenient when we are young, but youth is the very best time to begin spiritual life. In India it is said, “A saint in youth is a saint in truth.” The older we get, the harder it is to change and develop spiritual habits. Therefore begin your spiritual life wile you are still young, even though it is difficult.
Most people expect young people to be engrossed in material enjoyment—especially other young people. So to ignore the opportunities for the material happiness of youth to cultivate spiritual life often seems odd, against the grain, especially to your peers. Material happiness is available now, the logic goes, so one should take advantage immediately.
But in spiritual life, the enjoyment is at the end. Or rather, one’s spiritual pleasure just keeps on increasing regardless of one’s material situation. Everything spiritual is eternal and unconditional. Self-realization has nothing to do with one’s material situation. So Kṛṣṇa advises us in Bhagavad-gita:
yat tad agre visam iva
pariname ’mrtopamam
tat sukham sattvikam proktam
atma-buddhi-prasada-jam
“That happiness which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar, and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.37]
In the pursuit of self-realization, one has to follow many rules and regulations to control the mind and the senses and to concentrate the mind on the spiritual self. One must regulate eating and sleeping, become celibate and give up all kinds of sense gratification.
All these procedures are very difficult, bitter like poison, but if one is successful in following the regulations and comes to the transcendental position, one begins to drink real nectar, and one enjoys transcendental life in association with Kṛṣṇa. ‘Nectar’ in Sanskrit is amrta, which also means immortality. In the next verse, Kṛṣṇa says:
visayendriya-samyogad
yat tad agre ’mrtopamam
pariname visam iva
tat sukham rajasam smrtam
“That happiness which is derived from contact of the senses with their objects, and which appears like nectar in the beginning but poison at the end, is said to be of the nature of passion.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.38]
A young man and a young woman meet, and the senses drive the young man to see her, to touch her and to have sex. In the beginning this may be very pleasing to the senses, but at the end, or after some time, it becomes just like poison. They are separated or there is divorce, there is lamentation, there is sorrow, or even death of one or both. Such is the inevitable course of happiness in the mode of passion.
Happiness derived from a combination of the senses and the sense objects is always a cause of distress and if possible, should be avoided by all means. Why? Because we are spirit souls, and any contact with the material senses is inharmonious with our real nature. We are meant for eternal transcendental happiness, perfect enjoyment in relationship with God, Kṛṣṇa. So the temporary, imperfect enjoyment in this material world can never make us happy. And finally:
yad agre canubandhe ca
sukham mohanam atmanah
nidralasya-pramadottham
tat tamasam udahrtam
“And that happiness which is blind to self-realization, which is delusion from beginning to end and which arises from sleep, laziness and illusion is said to be of the nature of ignorance.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.39]
One who takes pleasure in laziness and in sleep is certainly in the mode of darkness, ignorance; and one who has no idea how to act and how not to act is also in the mode of ignorance. For the person in the mode of ignorance, everything is illusion. There is no happiness either in the beginning or at the end. For the person in the mode of passion there might be some kind of ephemeral happiness in the beginning and distress at the end, but for the person in the mode of ignorance there is only distress, both in the beginning and at the end.
So by Kṛṣṇa’s grace we have free will, and we can choose how we will live. In the same way, we also choose how we will die. We always have the existential choice to select activities in the mode of ignorance, passion or goodness. From that existential choice, everything else is determined as a consequence, even our death.
If we choose to live in ignorance, then there is really no happiness, only a futile attempt to escape suffering through intoxication, sleep and laziness. If we choose passion, then a little transient happiness may be there in the beginning, but there will be poison and defeat in the end. If we choose goodness, and follow the rules and regulations of pious life, religious life, and walk the spiritual path, then we can expect to experience ever-increasing spiritual pleasure.
So what will it be? The choice is up to each and every one of us. Nectar in the beginning and poison at the end? Or a little poison in the beginning, and then ever-increasing immortal spiritual nectar at the end?
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04.19.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 12:18 am by David Bruce Hughes
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Kṛṣṇa, God, is transcendental. It is stated in the Vedas: Narayanah paro ’vyaktat. Kṛṣṇa is transcendental and immanent, unmanifest; He is not of this material world. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa’s body, Kṛṣṇa’s activities, His Holy Name, His abode, His associates—all are transcendental. They are not of this material world. They are para—transcendental; divyam—divine.
Kṛṣṇa instructs Lord Brahma in the Esoteric Teaching, aham evasam evagre: “Before this material creation, I existed.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.33] In the Vedas also, it is said, eko narayana asit. “Before the material creation, only Narayana was there.”
So Kṛṣṇa, God, is always transcendental. He is not a creation of this material world. But because he comes to this world and apparently acts just like a human being, those who are avajananti, less intelligent, they think of Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary human being. Kṛṣṇa says, avajananti mam mudhah [Bhagavad-gita 9.11]. Mudhah means asses, or the less intelligent class of men. They cannot understand Kṛṣṇa’s position. Kṛṣṇa’s position is always transcendental.
Similarly Bhagavad-gita, Kṛṣṇa’s words, is also transcendental. The purpose of Bhagavad-gita is bhakti-yogam, to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So the Vedic literature is transcendental, and bhakti-yoga is also transcendental.
Bhakti is not an activity of this material world:
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ’rjuna
“One who knows the truth about the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities, upon leaving the body, does not take birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.9]
So bhakti is also transcendental because it is activity in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it cannot be material.
mam ca yo ’vyabhicarena
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate
“One who unfailingly engages in full devotional service in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.” [Bhagavad-gita 14.26]
Bhakti-yoga is transcendental, because its purpose is to understand Kṛṣṇa. And because Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa by any material method. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktya mam abhijanati: “One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.55]. The bhakti-yoga method also is transcendental, not of this material world.
So if we can simply understand these facts, that Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, Kṛṣṇa’s name is transcendental, Kṛṣṇa’s form is transcendental, Kṛṣṇa’s activities are transcendental, then we can begin to understand Kṛṣṇa as He is:
isvarah paramah Kṛṣṇah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
“Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His transcendental body is eternal, full of unlimited consciousness and bliss.”
[Brahma-samhita 5.1]
Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental body is sac-cid-ananda, not material like this body. This material body is just the opposite: asat, acit and nirananda, temporary, full of ignorance and suffering. This material body is asat. Asat means temporary. In a few short years, it will not exist. But Kṛṣṇa’s body is not like that. Kṛṣṇa’s body is eternal, without beginning or end. And consciousness is cit. Sat-cit. Eternal and full of knowledge, or consciousness.
So foolish people, the less intelligent class of men, cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the Esoteric Teaching says,
atah sri-Kṛṣṇa-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah
“No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Kṛṣṇa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234]
These dull material senses cannot reach to the transcendental realm to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is not possible.
dharmah svanusthitah pumsam
visvaksena-kathasu yah
notpadayed yadi ratim
srama eva hi kevalam
“The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.8]
Srama eva hi kevalam: that is simply hard labor for nothing, wasting time. Kṛṣṇa should be understood as Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself in Bhagavad-gita. He can explain Himself; nobody else can explain Him, because our senses are imperfect.
We human beings are deficient; we are covered by four kinds of faults. We commit mistakes; we are illusioned; we have imperfect senses; and we have a tendency to cheat. For example, scientists explaining a theory will say, “Probably,” “Maybe.” This is the so-called scientists’ language. That means they have imperfect knowledge. Still, they want to teach. This is cheating. Knowledge must be perfect. Then you can teach others.
So our process in the Esoteric Teaching is to receive perfect transcendental knowledge from the perfect transcendental source, and distribute it. We don’t manufacture anything. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gita as it is. The Bhagavad-gita is already perfect. Why shall I interpret with my imperfect mind and senses? That is cheating.
But people want to be cheated. Vancita-vancaka-sampradaya. The whole world is full of cheaters and cheated. Because we want to be cheated, there are so many cheaters. They don’t want the real thing. Here is the real thing: Bhagavad-gita is the Supreme Personality of Godhead speaking personally about Himself. Why should we interpret? Does it mean that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the supreme authority, left something unexplained to be interpreted later on by some rascals?
No. But the rascals dare to interpret Kṛṣṇa’s explanation of Himself. That is cheating. There are something like 645 editions of Bhagavad-gita available, but none of them explain Bhagavad-gita as it is, without interpretation or speculation. This is simply cheating. They pose themselves as scholars, and people want to be cheated, so they accept their words. They will not accept what Kṛṣṇa says, they want some interpretation. As a result, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. They take the shelter of cheaters, therefore they are cheated. And people flock there because they want to be cheated.
But what does Kṛṣṇa actually say?
sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
“Give up all other kinds of religion and just surrender to Me in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.66]
Sarva-dharman parityajya: give up all other dharma, all other religions and spiritual paths. Why? Because any dharma which is not approved by the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa is not really dharma.
Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam: “Real religious principles are enacted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.19] Human beings or even demigods cannot manufacture dharma. That is not possible. Real dharma is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa, and that real dharma is stated in the Bhagavad-gita: sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bhagavad-gita 18.66]. “Just surrender unto Me.”
This Esoteric Teaching is real dharma. Surrender to Kṛṣṇa and follow His instructions, and your life will be perfect. Kṛṣṇa is perfect and transcendental, and His instruction is also perfect and transcendental. If you follow the perfect instruction, then you will also become perfect. The Esoteric Teaching is a simple process. To become perfect, we have to follow the perfect instruction.
So in Bhagavad-gita there is perfect instruction. And if we take it as it is and follow it, then by this transcendental association, we also become perfect. To become perfect is not very difficult job. But because we don’t want to become perfect, because we want to be cheated, we do not become perfect. This is the difficulty. So we should know from the very beginning that although Kṛṣṇa appears just like ordinary human being, Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, and He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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04.16.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 11:21 am by David Bruce Hughes
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Our spiritual teaching work, spreading the Esoteric Teaching, is often a thankless task. We have to say that anyone who is not a devotee, who is not following the Esoteric Teaching, is an animalistic fool. It is very harsh, but we have to say it. As soon as we see that someone is not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, then he’s a fool.
Why do we say this? Are we misanthropic? Do we hate everyone? No, we are not anyone’s enemy; we have to say it because it is stated by Kṛṣṇa, and we are simply repeating His message. We are actually everyone’s friend, because we may be the only one who can offer them the Absolute Truth.
A Master Teacher’s duty is simply to repeat the message of Kṛṣṇa. The representative of Kṛṣṇa simply repeats what Kṛṣṇa says without addition, subtraction, evasion or diplomacy. Kṛṣṇa’s words are the Absolute Truth because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If you simply repeat His words with firm conviction, you will also become a Master Teacher.
Kṛṣṇa says, “Give up all kinds of dharma and simply surrender unto Me.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.66]. So one who has accepted this order is Kṛṣṇa’s representative. Just like Arjuna said [Bhagavad-gita 10.14], sarvam etam rtam manye yan mam vadasi kesava: “O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me.” He does not criticize, does not quarrel with Kṛṣṇa.
A bhakta knows that “I am insignificant, a small spark of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is an individual person. I am also an individual person. But when we consider His power and my power, I am most insignificant.” This is the correct understanding of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa addressed Arjuna as bhakto ’si.
So this is the mystery of Bhagavad-gita, and this is the mystery of the Esoteric Teaching. Understanding the mystery of God is not possible without becoming a devotee, a bhakta. And Kṛṣṇa has said in the Bhagavad-gita how one can know Him:
bhaktya mam abhijanati
yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva
visate tad-anantaram
“One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.55]
Kṛṣṇa says, “Only by devotional service.” He did not say, “By jnana, the highest knowledge” or “By the highest yoga process” or “By becoming a very great karmi, fruitive worker, one can understand Me.” No: He has said, “Only by devotional service.” The path of the Esoteric Teaching is like that:
tarko ’pratisthah srutayo vibhinna
nasav rsir yasya matam na bhinnam
dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam
mahajano yena gatah sa panthah
“Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated, self-realized person. Consequently, as the sastras confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahajanas, the great souls, advocate.”
This is a verse spoken by Maharaja Yudhisthira, dharma personified [Mahabharata, Vana-parva 313.117].
Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah: a Vaiṣṇava, a student of the Esoteric Teaching, should follow his previous mahajana, his authoritative Master Teaching in the line of disciplic succession. That is the Esoteric Teaching, the path of Vedic wisdom, the Absolute Truth. We don’t manufacture anything. We simply accept the behavior and the message of the previous Master Teachers.
So this is the path of the Esoteric Teaching, to follow the previous Master Teacher. This is Vaisnavism; this is Vedic wisdom. Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah: by logic you may defeat a neophyte devotee, but sastra says by becoming a big logician, you cannot understand transcendental knowledge. Transcendental knowledge you have to understand by submission:
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah
“Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.34]
First of all surrender. Tad viddhi. If you want to know this transcendental science, then you must fully surrender. This is first qualification. Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya. First surrender; then if you cannot understand, you inquire. Otherwise you have no right to question from a Vaiṣṇava.
So we should be very careful to accept only a qualified spiritual teacher. If we actually are interested in understanding God, it is not so easy. In the Bhagavad-gita you will find. Manusyanam sahasresu kascid yatati siddhaye [Bhagavad-gita 7.3]. Out of many thousands of persons—manusyanam sahasresu—kascid yatati siddhaye: one person may become interested how to make his life successful.
Because the people in general do not know what it means to have a successful life. They simply know how to work, day and night for sense gratification. Simply eating to get strength of the senses, and then enjoying sense gratification. But this human life is not meant for that purpose, it is meant for cultivation of spiritual advancement. Therefore it is said in the Esoteric Teaching that a person without God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is no better than the dogs and hogs.
So Vedic civilization means to apply our intelligence and effort to self-realization, God realization, the Esoteric Teaching. Without this quest for spiritual realization, there is no human civilization. They are simply polished animals engaged in sense gratification. Anyone who is following the principles of Vedic spiritual life is worshiping Lord Visnu with his body, mind and words, because the whole human life is meant for worshiping Visnu.
The present materialistic civilization does not understand this. They do not know that the aim of human life is to attain God, to attain our perfect spiritual body. The aim of human life is to become a Vaiṣṇava, a servant of Visnu. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita the name Hrsikesa is used, for He is the guide. Arjuna was strictly following the Vaiṣṇava principles, and therefore he inquired from Hrsikesa because he knows, “Hrsikesa will guide me.”
This is bhakti. Hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate [Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya 19.170]. This is the simple definition of bhakti. When you engage your senses only for the service of Kṛṣṇa, then you become perfect devotee. Your human life is perfect.
You simply see Kṛṣṇa nicely decorated in the temple. That is bhakti. You simply prepare foodstuff for Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. You simply chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. In this way we can utilize all the senses. We can utilize our hands in collecting flowers, in cleansing the temple. Simply engage your senses, hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam [Cc. Madhya 19.170]. Engage your senses for the service of Kṛṣṇa; then you become perfect.
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04.11.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 9:08 am by David Bruce Hughes
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Many times in the Bhagavad-gita, Kṛṣṇa is addressed as Hrsikesa. Why? According to the Esoteric Teaching, bhakti is defined as follows:
sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-
sevanam bhaktir ucyate
“Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects: one is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.”
This verse quoted from the Narada-pancaratra is found in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu [1.1.12].
“Freed from all material designations” here means that we no longer identify with the material body. Normally we think that we are a man, a woman, from this country or that country, old or young, rich or poor, wise or foolish, and so forth. These are all material designations.
But when we are engaged in the transcendental activities of bhakti-yoga we think, “I am an eternal spirit soul, a servant of Kṛṣṇa.” This is freedom from material designation, and it is the beginning of the higher spiritual dimensions of our ontology. As we increase the spiritual dimensions of our ontology, we become more spiritually conscious.
In material consciousness, we cannot understand what God is, or what we are. Then as we enter the path of the Esoteric Teaching, we can begin to understand that we are not this body, we are spirit soul, and realize God as the impersonal effulgence of Brahman. Then when we become a little advanced, we realize God as the Supersoul within the heart, and begin to have a direct personal relationship with Him as Paramatma. Finally in the highest stage we realize the personal form of Kṛṣṇa as Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and also realize our perfect spiritual body in eternal relationship with Him in the spiritual world.
“Purification of the senses” means that we no longer have a taste for polluted material things. We no longer crave meat, fish, eggs, onions, garlic and other food in the mode of ignorance. We no longer relish lust, anger, envy and hate, but we develop a taste for purity, simplicity, spiritual service and love. This is the purifying effect of bhakti.
Bhakti, and indeed the whole program of the Esoteric Teaching, is simply hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam: engaging the senses in the service of Kṛṣṇa, Hrisikesa, the master of the senses and the indwelling Supersoul.
As a devotee, Arjuna was meant for serving Kṛṣṇa, because he is bhakta or practitioner of bhakti-yoga. Kṛṣṇa addresses him as bhakta:
sa evayam maya te ’dya
yogah proktah puratanah
bhakto ’si me sakha ceti
rahasyam hy etad uttamam
“That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend, and therefore you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.3]
Bhakto ’si me “My dear Arjuna, My devotee”; sakha ceti “And certainly My friend”; rahasyam hy etad uttamam: “therefore you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science of Bhagavad-gita.” It is a mystery.
Mystery means very secret, arcane, recondite; no ordinary man can understand. Only initiates can understand. Therefore it is called mystery, rahasyam. And not just an ordinary rahasyam: rahasyam uttamam. Uttamam means transcendental, ultimate; not covered with the darkness of material nescience. Bhagavad-gita is a brilliant transcendental mystery: rahasyam uttamam.
The ordinary person cannot understand the mystery of Bhagavad-gita, therefore they foolishly misinterpret, speculate, and demonstrate their foolishness. Even big academic scholars cannot understand Bhagavad-gita or this Esoteric Teaching properly. They cannot understand because they are not devotees, and this mystery is meant for the devotee: bhakto ’si me.
The Bhagavad-gita and this whole Esoteric Teaching is a transcendental transaction between God and His devotee. That is the secret. Just like if you go to the market and see two businessmen talking. You don’t even have to eavesdrop to know the subject they are discussing. They are businessmen, so naturally they must be talking about business. It is a natural conclusion. Whenever two businessmen are seen talking seriously, they must be talking about business, investment and profit.
Similarly, whenever there is talk between the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa and His devotee, the discussion must be about bhakti. It can’t be anything else. The devotees and the Lord derive ever-increasing transcendental pleasure from talks about bhakti, devotional service activities. But only pious people can understand these transcendental discussions:
yesam tv anta-gatam papam
jananam punya-karmanam
te dvandva-moha-nirmukta
bhajante mam drdha-vratah
“Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.28]
Punyanam, pious men, can understand. But people addicted to impious life cannot inquire about God or understand talks about God. Papis, sinful men, cannot understand. They misunderstand, thinking that “I am also God.” This is the conclusion of the abhaktas, non-devotees and sinful men. So you should know that anyone who declares himself God, is the greatest sinful man. And if you study his private life, you will see that he is a very sinful man, according to the standards of Bhagavad-gita.
This is the test. Without being sinful, nobody will dare to say that “I am God.” No pious man will do it. A pious man thinks, “Who am I? I am an ordinary human being. How can I claim to take the position of God?” Only a sinful fool will claim to be God. But they become very famous among the foolish sinful people:
sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih
samstutah purusah pasuh
na yat-karna-pathopeto
jatu nama gadagrajah
“Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from evils.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.19]
In this world we see there are many so-called great men, and they are very much praised by the general people. But the Bhagavatam says that anyone who is not a devotee, who never chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, he may be very great man in the estimation of fools, but he is nothing but an animal: purusah pasuh. Sva-vid-varaha-ustra-kharaih: dogs, hogs, camels and asses.
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04.06.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 8:51 am by David Bruce Hughes
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The other day we revealed a very confidential spiritual secret, that the key to purifying the consciousness, experiencing transcendental ecstasy and liberation from material existence is controlling the tongue. This is almost unknown in the West, because people are so attached to different polluted material tastes. It is actually very difficult to control the tongue. But the rewards of this practice are very great.
In the Bhagavad-gita 4.9 Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti. You can avoid taking
birth in a material body. Taking birth means to accept another material body. Tatha dehantara-praptih [Bhagavad-gita 2.13]: After giving up this body, we have to accept another material body. One whose consciousness is not purified, who does not practice the Esoteric Teaching, cannot understand how to avoid taking another material body.
There are so many defects in materialistic civilization. The problems are increasing every day. The leaders are very foolish, full of ignorance; but still, they are passing themselves off as great scientists, great philosophers and great politicians. But they haven’t got any real knowledge. So our duty as students of the Esoteric Teaching is to educate them, give them real spiritual knowledge.
Tatha dehantara-praptih. This is the crucial point, dehantara-praptih. One has to accept another material body. Thus the chain of birth and death, of material suffering, continues. Because as soon as you accept another body, janma, birth, then where there is janma, there is also mrtyu, death. And between janma and mrtyu, birth and death, there is disease and old age.
If you can find out a means so that you do not have to accept another material body, then you are delivered from all suffering. So Kṛṣṇa says [Bhagavad-gita 4.9], tyaktva deham punar janma naiti: “One can avoid accepting another material body.” How? Janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah:
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.9]
Simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa: what is Kṛṣṇa, why Kṛṣṇa appears, how Kṛṣṇa appears, why Kṛṣṇa takes part in politics, why Kṛṣṇa protects His devotees—all Kṛṣṇa’s activities. Just try to understand. This is the core of the Esoteric Teaching.
The Esoteric Teaching means: try to understand Kṛṣṇa. Simply if you even try to understand, you can be relieved from the necessity of taking another material body. It is not possible for us to understand Kṛṣṇa fully. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. But we can understand Him to the limit of our intelligence, whatever is possible for us. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, we should try to understand Kṛṣṇa as far as we can. If we simply try our best to understand Kṛṣṇa, His transcendental nature, His transcendental activities, then, as stated in Bhagavad-gita 13.9, you become free from this janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi: birth, death, old age
and disease.
Kṛṣṇa’s appearance and activities are not ordinary or material. They are divyam… Janma karma me divyam. Divyam means transcendental. Tattvatah, in truth, in fact. If you can simply understand the facts about Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental nature, appearance and activities, you do not have to take another material body. Anyone can do it, simply by hearing from someone who is self-realized.
Therefore try to understand Kṛṣṇa. How you will understand Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is so great. Here is a beautiful Sanskrit verse from the Esoteric Teaching:
atah sri-Kṛṣṇa-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah
“No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Kṛṣṇa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234].
You cannot understand Kṛṣṇa by these blunt material senses. That is not possible. You have to purify them first. Here is another important verse from the Esoteric Teaching:
sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-
sevanam bhaktir ucyate
“Bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects: One is freed from all material designations, and, simply by being employed in the service of the Lord, one’s senses are purified.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.12]
Simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, all your senses will automatically be purified. This is the process. Sevonmukhe hi jihvadau. And you begin this process with your tongue.
Now, this is also very surprising. By utilizing our tongue, we can become perfect. This is also completely unknown and unsuspected by modern science. By utilizing the tongue, one can become perfect. This is the process given in the Esoteric Teaching: sravanam kirtanam visnoh: hearing and chanting about the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
If you engage the tongue to chant the dvadasaksara-mantra, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, and use the tongue to taste prasadam, pure vegetarian food offered to God with love and devotion, you will become perfect simply by executing these two things. Do not accept anything, do not allow the tongue to touch anything which is impure, which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. This is one engagement of the tongue. And the other: engage the tongue always in chanting the Holy Names of God. By this simple process you can become perfect in yoga.
Is this a very difficult task? No, anyone can do it. Anyone can chant; and anyone can take nice prasadam. Our students are making great spiritual advancement. They are becoming self-realized simply by the process of controlling the tongue: chant and take prasadam. So we are introducing this process all over the world via the Internet.
If you can do this, maintain this process steadily for some time, Kṛṣṇa will appear to you. In material consciousness you cannot see Kṛṣṇa. You cannot order Kṛṣṇa, “Please come, I want to see You.” No, that will not work. When He is pleased with your service, He will come. “Yes, I am here. See Me.” That is the history of all the great Master Teachers. Just like Dhruva Maharaja. Dhruva Maharaja was meditating, chanting om namo bhagavate vasudevaya and controlling his tongue very strictly; and within six months, he saw Kṛṣṇa, face to face. We also experienced the same thing; and if we can do it, so can you.
So everyone can see God, but you have to know the method. You will be able to see God, provided you utilize and control the tongue. We quoted earlier, sevonmukhe hi jihvadau. Jihvadau means “beginning with the tongue.” We have got so many different senses, and all the senses—eyes, ears, touch, smell—can be engaged in yoga. But begin with the tongue. Try to control the tongue and engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service, and everything else will come to you.
Therefore our predecessor Master Teacher Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, sarira abidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal: “This body is material body and the senses are our greatest enemies,” jodendriya tahe kal. “So out of all the senses,” ta’ra madhye jihwa ati lobhamoy sudurmati, “of all the senses, the tongue is most formidable.” Lobhamoy, it is very greedy. And sudurmati, it very difficult to control.
So if you can control the tongue, the other senses will automatically be controlled. Simply for the sake of the uncontrolled tongue, so many slaughterhouses are being maintained. People cannot give up eating meat, because they are addicted to the taste. But what is the difficulty? You can create the same taste with milk curd. Prepare milk curd or farmer cheese and deep-fry it in ghee with salt and spices. You’ll get the same taste as meat. But let the animal live, take its milk, and prepare so many nice milk preparations.
But the materialistic rascals will not do even this. They are willing to kill simply for the sake of this tongue. It is so strong, this tongue. The tongue is demanding, “You must give me meat.” So to satisfy this desire, they are committing so many abominable sinful activities. And as a result, they become bound by the law of karma to accept another material body.
But if take up this process of the Esoteric Teaching seriously, control your senses beginning with the tongue, you can be relieved from all material miseries. Simply if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa will take care of you, and you will be saved from samsara, the horrible process of material birth and death.
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04.04.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 6:09 pm by David Bruce Hughes
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The Kingdom of God, the spiritual world, is perfect. There is no unhappiness, no suffering, no scarcity, no ignorance, no sin, no illness, no old age, and no death. Every one of the citizens in God’s kingdom is a perfectly self-realized soul. Therefore even though each one has his or her individual desires and activities in ecstatic love of God, everyone lives together in complete harmony.
This material world is also part of the Kingdom of God, but in this part there is suffering, ignorance, old age and death. These different kinds of suffering exist because of the temporary nature of the material world.
Bhagavad-gita 8.16 calls this material world duhkhalayam asasvatam: a temporary world, full of miseries. Why? You will be surprised at the answer: Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not visible in the material world or by material vision.
We come to this material world because we are envious of God; we do not want to love or serve Him, and we want to live separately from Him. Therefore everyone from the highest to the lowest in this material world is selfish, full of lust, envy and violence against others.
And the leaders of this material world are the most envious, the most violent. In past ages the kings and leaders ruled according to God’s injunctions in the Vedas. Therefore even though they were envious and lusty for power, their material tendencies were controlled to some extent, and people were more or less satisfied under their rule.
But in this fallen age of Kali-yuga, the leaders are not ruling properly according to the Vedic injunctions. Therefore the citizens are suffering. Political leadership requires military power for subduing the thieves and rogues who would attack and plunder the citizens. Military strength is required to keep the kingdom peaceful, but not for aggression against others’ country or property. Misusing military power for self-aggrandizement is not allowed in the Vedic injunctions.
Therefore the political leaders are creating so much bad karma by abuse of their military power, and the citizens are suffering. Because the military power of the government is being misused, so many violent storms are causing far more devastation than any terrorist attack. This is karma. But because the leaders are spiritually ignorant, they do not realize the change in the weather is the effect of their policy.
Because the rulers are not self-realized, they are fighting unnecessarily. It is natural that if a leader has no God consciousness, no spiritual wisdom, then he will misuse his strength and opulence. But one who is a self-realized, God-conscious soul will use his strength and opulence properly to protect and benefit the citizens under his care, so that no one is in anxiety.
According to the instructions of the Vedas, the rulers of the state are meant for giving protection to the citizens, to train them to the Vedic conception of spiritual life. But they are not doing that; in fact they are doing the opposite. According to the Vedic conception of society, the government leaders are meant for representing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But instead they are doing the opposite because they ignorantly consider themselves to be the proprietors.
Actually, Kṛṣṇa or God is the proprietor of everything, sarva-loka-mahesvaram [Bhagavad-gita 5.29]. He is the proprietor of everything: sarva-loka. Sarva-loka means all the planets, all the universes. He is the proprietor because they are emanated by His bodily effulgence, the brahmajyoti. Just like so many planets are created by the sun, similarly, innumerable universes are created from the brahmajyoti, the bodily effulgence of God.
Here is a beautiful Sanskrit verse from the Esoteric Teaching:
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is endowed with great power. The glowing effulgence of His transcendental form is the impersonal Brahman, which is absolute, complete and unlimited, and which displays countless variegated planets, with their different opulences, in millions and millions of universes. [Brhama-Samhita 5.40]
So according to the Esoteric Teaching, everything is the creation of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate: “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me.” [Bhagavad-gita 10.8]
Everything has emanated from Kṛṣṇa’s body, therefore He is the proprietor of the universe. If I have created something, then I am the proprietor. It is very easy to understand; it is repeated in every scripture. In the Vedas also, it is said eko narayana asit: “Before the creation there was only Narayana.” In the Esoteric Teaching also it is said, aham evasam evagre, “Before creation there was only Kṛṣṇa.”
When we speak of only Kṛṣṇa existing before the material creation, it does not mean Kṛṣṇa was alone or that there was nothing. The spiritual world is eternal; therefore Kṛṣṇa exists eternally with His form, His pastimes, His paraphernalia, His entourage, in the unlimited variegatedness of the spiritual world.
When we speak of a king in this material world, it does not mean the king alone. As soon as we speak of the king, we must understand the king’s form, the king’s kingdom, the king’s secretaries, the king’s ministers, the king’s queen, the king’s palace, and so many other things associated with him.
Similarly, when the Vedas say that eko narayana asit, “Before creation there was only Narayana,” they mean Narayana with His paraphernalia, with His expansions, associates, pastimes, qualities and innumerable spiritual abodes. Narayana or God has innumerable expansions in the spiritual world, vaikuntha jagat, and innumerable spiritual Vaikuntha planets. The opulence and power of God is unlimited.
In the spiritual world, all the planets are called Vaikuntha planets. Kuntha means anxiety. So all the planets in the spiritual world are Vaikuntha, without anxiety. Here in this material world, there are only kuntha planets. On any material planet, anxiety will be there. This is material.
Why anxiety? The Esoteric Teaching says, sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat. In the darkness of materialistic life, one is always full of anxiety because of having accepted a temporary body. We are in anxiety because although we are eternal, we have accepted something asat, which will not remain. But we are eternal; our natural position is eternity. Therefore we try as much as possible to save the body. But it cannot be saved. We are suffering because we have accepted something temporary, which is not compatible with our real existence.
The materialistic leaders of modern civilization do not understand this. They think that death is normal. Of course, death of the material body cannot be avoided. But for the soul, death can be avoided by practice of self-realization. The materialists do not know how to avoid death, although how you can avoid death is clearly mentioned in Bhagavad-gita and other literature of the Esoteric Teaching.
Birth, death, old age and disease, anxiety and suffering: these are the real problems of life. They materialistic leaders do not know how to solve these problems. They are simply engaged in some temporary business of politics. They are making so many big plans, big diplomacy, and so much unnecessarily fighting, simply increasing the problems in the material world. They do not touch the real problems of life, because they do not know how to solve them.
The leaders claim that they are working on solutions to problems like crime, poverty and terrorism. But this is a false promise, a post-dated check. If they really knew how to stop these things, they would have stopped them already. The materialistic leaders have had more than enough time to stop these problems, but they are not stopping them. If anything, the statistics show that they are making them worse.
This proves the materialistic leaders are incompetent to stop the problems of life. The leaders want to solve these problems, but because they are ignorant and materialistic, they cannot understand how. We students of the Esoteric Teaching are non-violent; we do not want to overthrow the leaders, but we want to educate them. This is our value proposition: They are wasting so much time, effort and money on ineffective solutions. We want an opportunity to show how this Esoteric Teaching can solve all the problems of material existence.
In God’s kingdom there is no scarcity, no crime and no anxiety. If one wants to free oneself from anxiety, one should immediately take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Vaikuntha by chanting His Holy Name, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. You should understand this fact: this Esoteric Teaching is not an ordinary sentimental religion; the Esoteric Teaching is the application of the Vedic science of consciousness to solve all the problems of life. Take these instructions seriously, experience it for yourself and see.�
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04.02.07
Posted in Bhagavad-gita, Podcasts at 8:04 am by David Bruce Hughes
Listen
We continue our commentary on the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, explaining the eternal nature of the soul. Because these comments are extemporaneous, they are only included in the podcast. If you are reading the blog, please download the podcast to get the complete material.
It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body. [Bhagavad-gita 2.25]
If, however, you think that the soul is perpetually born and always dies, still you have no reason to lament, O mighty-armed. [Bhagavad-gita 2.26]
All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation? [Bhagavad-gita 2.27]
Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all. [Bhagavad-gita 2.28]
O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any creature. [Bhagavad-gita 2.29]
Discussion Topics
To make this blog/podcast more interactive and to build our spiritual community, leave a comment or discuss the topics below on our public forum:
- Why should having knowledge of the soul cause us not to grieve for the body?
- What kind of philosophers think that the soul is born and dies with the body?
- Can anyone stop the cycle of manifestation, where beings are “unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated.”?
- Why is ti difficult for some people to understand the soul?
- Why does the fact that the soul is eternal mean that one “should not grieve for any creature”?
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