Interpretations of Bhagavad-gita (PART FOUR)

(Part Four of an essay by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Click here for PART ONE)

This param bhāvam or transcendental nature of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is unknowable to the unlucky four classes of men as aforesaid. Some of them who are influenced by asurabhāva or demoniac nature especially consider that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is no better than an ordinary man and the extraordinary qualities that He possessed can be acquired by any ordinary man, or in other words, any one and every one can become a Śrī Kṛṣṇa or more than Him. But the mahātmās who are graced by Śrī Kṛṣṇa know Him otherwise. Such mahātmās know Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality bhūtamaheśvaram, while the asuras or rakṣasas (like Rāvaṇa and Hiraṇyakaśipu) who defy Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Being above everthing and thereby are baffled in their speculative work, frustrated in their hopes, befooled in their search of knowledge thus remain entrapped by the illusory laws of material nature which they are unable to conquer by any amount of speculative method. [margin note: (Nobody is at or above: (aśrama urdhva))] These asuras and mahātmās are definitely distinguished in the Bhagavad-gītā in so many words, as in Chapter 9, Texts 12-14:

moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo
mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ
rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva
prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate

"Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.

O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion." [Bg. 9.12-14]

The whole purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is to reveal Śrī Kṛṣṇa the Personality of Godhead as He is. The whole theme of Bhagavad-gītā is to preach the surrendering process of all living beings unto the Lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, because all living beings are His parts and parcels, and without this surrendering process, nobody can conquer the indefiable laws of Nature. Material existence of all living beings means a perpetual struggle struggle for existence and a continued fight with Prakriti without any success. [margin note (as done by induction)] Advancement of material science has undoubtedly discovered many weapons by the Asuras to fight with the laws of Nature, but without full surrender unto the Lord Kṛṣṇa, nobody can get relief from such perpetual struggle for existence. The fittest person who shall survive this struggle is one who has completely surrendered unto the Will of Śrī Kṛṣṇa the Personality of Godhead. This fact is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā in the following words:

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te

"This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it." [Bg. 7.14]

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te
pratijāne priyo 'si me

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

"Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.

"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear." [Bg. 18.65-66]

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māṁ
budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ 
yena mām upayānti te

teṣām evānukampārtham
aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ 
nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho
jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā

"I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.

The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.

To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance." [Bg. 10.8-11]

There are certain extraordinarily learned prospective mahātmās who try to understand Śrī Kṛṣṇa by the ascending process of acquiring knowledge, but such process is not only defective, but also troublesome. Such learned scholars attain the Lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa after many, many births and deaths. Such would-be mahātmās are stated in the Bhagavad-gītā as follows:

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ

"After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare." [Bg. 7.19]

avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ
manyante mām abuddhayaḥ
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mamāvyayam anuttamam

"Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme." [Bg. 7.24]

avyakto 'kṣara ity uktas
tam āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim
yaṁ prāpya na nivartante
tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

puruṣaḥ sa paraḥ pārtha
bhaktyā labhyas tv ananyayā
yasyāntaḥ-sthāni bhūtāni
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam

"That which the Vedantists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns—that is My supreme abode.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and everything is situated within Him." [Bg. 8.21-22]

jñāna-yajñena cāpy anye
yajanto mām upāsate
ekatvena pṛthaktvena
bahudhā viśvato-mukham

"Others, who engage in sacrifice by the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, as diverse in many, and in the universal form." [Bg. 9.15]

kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām
avyaktāsakta-cetasām
avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ
dehavadbhir avāpyate

ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi
mayi sannyasya mat-parāḥ
ananyenaiva yogena
māṁ dhyāyanta upāsate

teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā
mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt
bhavāmi na cirāt pārtha
mayy āveśita-cetasām

"For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.

But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotinal service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Prtha—for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death." [Bg. 12.5-7]

Preaching of Bhagavad-gītā is not, therefore, a proposition of mental speculation and putting in different mental interpretations of speculative empiric philosphers. It is one without a second concrete fact for the amelioration of the sufferings of humanity especially and animality generally. It must be presented in the bona fide method of spreading the knowledge, strictly in the line of transcendental chain of disciplic succession. Oṁ Tat Sat.

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Interpretations of Bhagavad-gita (PART THREE)

(Prt. 3 of an essay entitled "Interpertations of Bhagavad-gita by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, CLICK HERE FOR PART ONE), you may also Click here for part FOUR)

So, these ordinary men who are influenced by the three modes of Nature can work out a plan of their sensual pleasure, but it is not possible for them to give authentic interpretations of Bhagavad-gītā as it was spoken by the Personality of Godhead to Vivasvān or Arjuna. The whole thing is received in transcendental submissiveness by aural reception, which is not accepted by the mundane wranglers deliberately refusing to approach the bona fide spiritual master who has got the keynote of Bhagavad-gītā. It is therefore stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that one who actually wants to have an access to the essence of Bhagavad-gītā must himself engage in the service of a bona fide spiritual master by full surrender. In that position only, one can make bona fide enquiries regarding the Bhagavad-gītā, and in that posture only, the self-realized spiritual masters impregnate the submissive disciple with the knowledge of Gītā, because they have already seen the Truth of it.

tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

"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." [Bg. 4.34]

Mental speculationists can manufacture wonderful interpretations of Bhagavad-gītā by an intellectual activity, but such interpretation cannot be accepted as bona fide because that is not transcendental to the mundane senses, neither to the material mind in subtle state. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, such interpretations depending on the mind and senses are sure to be doomed like a boat on the troubled sea. It is said there:

indriyāṇāṁ hi caratāṁ
yan mano 'nuvidhīyate
tad asya harati prajñāṁ
vāyur nāvam ivāmbhasi

tasmād yasya mahā-bāho
nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas
tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ
tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī
yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni
sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭhaṁ
samudram āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat
tadvat kāmā yaṁ praviśanti sarve
sa śāntim āpnoti na kāma-kāmī

vihāya kāmān yaḥ sarvān
pumāṁś carati niḥspṛhaḥ
nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ
sa śāntim adhigacchati

eṣā brāhmī sthitiḥ pārtha
naināṁ prāpya vimuhyati
sthitvāsyām anta-kāle 'pi
brahma-nirvāṇam ṛcchati

"As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence.

Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.

What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.

A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego—he alone can attain real peace.

That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated, even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God." [Bg.2.67-72]

By these presents it is not however meant that we shall have to accept somebody who is a professional spiritual master or a social spiritual master. The transcendentalist is one who has known Śrī Kṛṣṇa as He is. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is never the person Who can be conceived by mental or physical adjustment. He can only be known by those who have full surrender unto Him. He cannot be understood by sense perception because He is behind a curtain spread by yogamāyā. Unless that curtain is removed by the process of transcendental loving co-operation with Him, one cannot know Śrī Kṛṣṇa as He is.

nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṁ
kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
mānuṣĪṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhūta-maheśvaram

"I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency." [Bg. 7.25]

"Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth." [Bg. 7.3]

"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be." [Bg. 9.11]

Śrī Vyasadeva experienced Śrī Bhagavān in the following way (Sanskrit quote).

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Interpretations of Bhagavad-gita (PART TWO)

(Part Two of "Interpertations of Bhagavad-gita" by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, click here for part one, you may also click here for Part Three)

A transcendental source of knowledge which was coming down in a chain of disciplic succession for millions of years before the battle of Kurukṣetra must have been studied by various scholars of the period, but still, we don't find more than one edition or interpretation of the Bhagavad-gītā as represented by Śrī Arjuna; but during the last two hundred years, we have so many interpretations of Bhagavad-gītā by different speculators. This advancement of speculative activities by different mundaners without any reference to the chain of disciplic succession, are all mala fide interpretations, and spread of such mala fide knowledge on the so-called basis of the Great Book of Knowledge, will do more harm than good to the people.

We find also in the last chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, that the Personality of Godhead has persistently advised that the essence of Bhagavad-gītā must not be disclosed to a person at any time who has not undergone any disciplinary method of austerity and penances, who is not a devotee of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is unwilling to accept the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā and, lastly, one who actually envies Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. The śloka which instructs the above procedure runs as follows:

idaṁ te nātapaskāya
nābhaktāya kadācana
na cāśuśrūṣave vācyam
na ca māṁ yo 'bhyasūyati

"This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me." [Bg. 18.67]

So, according to Bhagavad-gītā, the following four classes of readers are incompetent to understand the principle of Bhagavad-gītā, and therefore they are not able to make any bona fide interpretations whatsoever. They are:

1. Ordinary men who have no training in austerity or penance.

2. Those who are not devotees of Godhead but are either mundane workers, mundane philosophers or mundane mystics.

3. Those who do not come in the line of disciplic succession like Vivasvān, Manu, Ikṣvāku, Arjuna, etc.

4. Those who disbelieve Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Absolute Personality of Godhead.

And, these unlucky four classes of men are described in the Bhagavad-gītā as (a) Narādhamāḥ the lowest class of men, (b) mūḍhāḥ non-intelligent men of society, (c) māyayāpahṛta-jñānā persons who have sufficient mundane education, but they are robbed of essential knowledge by the illusory energy or māyā, and (d) the asuras who disbelieve in the very existence of Godhead. The śloka which describes the above fact runs as follows:

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ

"Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me." [Bg. 7.15]

These four mala fide classes of men have done tremendous harm to the society by making mala fide interpretations of the Bhagavad-gītā according to their limited sensual perceptions, and the result is that the whole atmosphere has been surcharged with mala fide poisons, which are eating the vital necessities of life. We can very well imagine how this process can do harm if we compare it partially with adulterated foodstuff or adulterated medicines. Foodstuff and medicines are concerned with the material body only, but the knowledge which is administered in the Bhagavad-gītā is concerned with spirit soul. In the very beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, the identity of the material body and the spirit soul has been elaborately explained, and the specific instruction of Bhagavad-gītā has always been stressed for the benefit of the spirit soul. The subject matter of the material body and mind has not been neglected in Bhagavad-gītā, but on the contrary, it has been nicely coordinated with the necessities of the spirit soul; but more importance and attention has been drawn on the subject matter of the spirit soul. Therefore, if we protest so much against spread of adulterated foodstuff and medicines which are concerned with the temporary material body only, we have to protest more vigorously against the spread of adulterated interpretations of Bhagavad-gītā because that concerns to the eternal vital power of the spirit soul.

avināśi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam

"That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible." [Bg. 2.17]

For ordinary class of men, the Bhagavad-gītā has enjoined "śāstra-vidhi", i. e. such men have been advised to follow the instructions as have been enjoined in the authentic scriptures. Because the outlaws who are reluctant to follow the instructions of the scriptures cannot ever be successful in all their attempts, and as such they cannot have any peace and prosperity or be elevated to the spiritual or transcendental plane. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā as follows:

yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya
vartate kāma-kārataḥ
na sa siddhim avāpnoti
na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim

"He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination." [Bg. 16.23]

Such ordinary men, when they manufacture spiritual procedure of austerity or penances for any such pseudo-spiritualistic method, do so according to the mundane quality they might have acquired in the course of their mundane activities. The mundane qualities being divided into three categories, such pseudo-spiritualistic methods are also divided into three categories, namely sattvic (mode of goodness), rajasic (mode of passion) and tamasic mode of ignorance). This is described as follows in the Bhagavad-gītā, namely, (Ch. 17.1-10):

arjuna uvāca
ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya
yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ
teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa
sattvam āho rajas tamaḥ

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
tri-vidhā bhavati śraddhā
dehināṁ sā svabhāva-jā
sāttvikī rājasī caiva
tāmasī ceti tāṁ śṛṇu

sattvānurūpā sarvasya
śraddhā bhavati bhārata
śraddhā-mayo 'yaṁ puruṣo
yo yac-chraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ

yajante sāttvikā devān
yakṣa-rakṣāṁsi rājasāḥ
pretān bhūta-gaṇāṁś cānye
yajante tāmasā janāḥ

aśāstra-vihitaṁ ghoraṁ
tapyante ye tapo janāḥ
dambhāhaṅkāra-saṁyuktāḥ
kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ

karṣayantaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ
bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ
māṁ caivāntaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ
tān viddhy āsura-niścayān

āhāras tv api sarvasya
tri-vidho bhavati priyaḥ
yajñas tapas tathā dānaṁ
teṣāṁ bhedam imaṁ śṛṇu

āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-
sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ
rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā
āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ

kaṭv-amla-lavanāṭy-uṣṇa
tīkṣṇa-rūkṣa-vidāhinaḥ
āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā
duḥkha-śokāmaya-pradāḥ

yāta-yāmaṁ gata-rasaṁ
pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat
ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ
bhojanaṁ tāmasa-priyam

"Arjuna inquired: O Krsna, what is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in passion or in ignorance?

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: According to the modes of nature acquired by the embodied soul, one's faith can be of three kinds—in goodness, in passion or in ignorance. Now hear about this.

O son of Bhārata, according to one's existence under the various modes of nature, one evolves a particular kind of faith. The living being is said to be of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired.

Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.

Those who undergo severe austerities and penances not recommended in the scriptures, performing them out of pride and egoism, who are impelled by lust and attachment, who are foolish and who torture the material elements of the body as well as the Supersoul dwelling within, are to be known as demons.

Even the food each person prefers is of three kinds, according to the three modes of material nature. The same is true of sacrifices, austerities and charity. Now hear of the distinctions between them.

Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one's existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.

Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease.

Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness." [Bg. 17.1-10]
(TO BE CONTINUED . . .)
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Interpretations of Bhagavad-gita (PART ONE)

An Essay By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (circa 1948)

It has become a luxurious fashion of the day, along with the progress of material civilization, that everyone can make his interpretation of the great Indian philosophy called the Bhagavad-gītā. This concise form of Vedic knowledge, known as the Gītopaniṣad, is acknowledged by all sections of transcendental scholars, in India especially, as the cream of all Upaniṣads and that of Vedānta-sūtras also. Scholars and ācāryas like Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya and some of his followers also could not leave out this very important book of knowledge, although such scholars of the Māyāvāda school did not acknowledge the bona fides of the Purāṇas. But the interpretation of Śrī Śaṅkarācārya differs from the interpretations of the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas headed by Śrī Ramanujācārya and Madhvācārya. There are innumerable interpretations of the Bhagavad-gītā in the market, and it is certainly a puzzling business to select which of the various interpretations shall be accepted as bona fide and which of them shall be rejected as mala fide.

In order to make a distinction between these two classes of bona fide and mala fide interpretations, we have to make an impartial study of the book, and such unbiased study only will make us able to discern the bona fide from the mala fide.

In this connection, we may first of all try to find out the origin of the Bhagavad-gītā. It is wrong to understand that The Bhagavad-gītā was first spoken in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra as it is a part of the great history of India, namely, the Mahābhārata. We can understand from the talks of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that long, long before the battle of Kurukṣetra, this philosophy was once spoken by Śrī Kṛṣṇa to Vivasvān (the Sun), and from Vivasvān the knowledge was transferred to Manu, and from Manu it was transferred to King Ikṣvāku. And, in that way of disciplic succession, the knowledge has come down to generations after generations, but in course of time, such disciplic succession broke, and therefore, Śrī Kṛṣṇa again repeated the same yoga or transcendental knowledge to Arjuna. In the beginning of the 4th Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, this fact is stated as follows:

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ
proktavān aham avyayam
vivasvān manave prāha
manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt

evaṁ paramparā-prāptam
imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ
sa kāleneha mahatā
yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa

sa evāyaṁ mayā te 'dya
yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ
bhakto 'si me sakhā ceti
rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam

"The Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvān, and Vivasvān instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikṣvāku. This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost. 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 can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science." [Bg. 4.1-3]

Ṛṣis and kings or the kings who were as good as the ṛṣis is the meaning of the word rājarṣaya, and, as such, every one, whether he was a householder or mendicant, knew Bhagavad-gītā before the battle of Kurukṣetra, or before the period of Mahābhārata, which is calculated to be at least five thousand years before, and as such, how it is hinted that the same knowledge was lost. That transcendental knowledge was lost because there must have been some mala fide interpretations of the knowledge, and such knowledge would do more harm than good to the people. It had to be repeated again by Śrī Kṛṣṇa before a bona fide king, and for this, Arjuna was selected at a critical moment because Śrī Kṛṣṇa acknowledged him to be not only a confidential friend, but also a bona fide devotee at the same time. We have to mark the words especially bhakto 'si etc.

bhakto 'si me sakhā ceti
rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam

"Because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science." [Bg. 4.3]

Śrī Kṛṣṇa had many friends and relatives at that time who might have been great scholars also, but He selected Arjuna as the bona fide person to grasp the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā only because Arjuna was a great devotee of the Lord. It may be concluded therefore that the principle of Bhagavad-gītā can be understood only by personalities like Arjuna, who was a completely surrendered soul to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and this knowledge (yoga) can be explained only by personalities like Śrī Kṛṣṇa (i. e. His bona fide devotees) or for the matter of that by the Personality of Godhead only.

Under such circumstances, the bona fide interpretations can be given only by those who follow the footprints of Arjuna, or, in other words, one who happens to come in the line of disciplic succession from Śrī Arjuna as it was formerly delivered from Vivasvān to Manu (and Ikṣvāku). That is the first condition of understanding Bhagavad-gītā. And, violations of this condition means breaking of the link of disciplic succession and thereby losing the real purpose of the great philosophy. Beside, Bhagavad-gītā is not a new thesis of speculative philosophy, but it is as old as the Sun is. Nobody can say what is the age of the Sun, neither can anybody calculate the age of Manu. According to authentic śāstras, the age of a Manu is 72 x 4,200,000 years. It is also understood that at the present moment, the Manu who has been referred to in the Bhagavad-gītā has been passing his age on the point of the 28th period, out of the above mentioned 72 periods of 4,200,000 years each, and because Manu was told by Vivasvān, it may be safely calculated that Bhagavad-gītā was spoken once before the battle of Kurukṣetra at least 197,600,000 one hundred ninety-seven million sixty hundreds of thousand years before.
(TO BE CONTINUED . . . , click here for Part Two)

Man is the Architect of His Own Fortune

 By: His  Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Shrila Prabhupada 

[This has been proofread against the original handwritten manuscript with corrections made for Folio.—Ed]

Man is the architect of his own fortune.

Man is the architect of his own fortune. That is an old well known English maxim and the good fortune that the man has evolved out for him at the present moment can be amply verified as soon as we receive our morning newspapers. The sample good news that we are receiving now in every morning are as follows:

(1) Bihar Government Deny starvation death. (A.B.P. 23.45)

(2) Rice selling at 55 and salt at 80/- per (?).

(3) People living on cotton & Potato leaves.

(4) 600 Viet Minh Troops Taken Prisoner.

(5) 500 mounds of food burnt in granary.

(6) Famine conditions in such and such places.

(7) Progressive decontrol urged in Conferences.

(8) Recovery of Abducted women.

(9) (?) on woes of Refugees.

(10) High Government official Arrested.

(11) Government Crisis in Britain.

(12) Troops Patrolling Streets of Cooch Behar

(13) Mob attacks ____'s House and injures son.

(14) Congress Office Raided

(15) Rationing Official Assaulted

(16) Present Administration (?) and compared with past

(17) 30,000 Nepalese migrate to India.

(18) Persian students defy Government Ban.

(19) Mile long procession in Sympathy with Killed oil workers.

(20) Red offensive Imminent.

(21) Principal Garg Killed by examinees

(22) Daring Robbery at Lloyds Bank.

(23) Rs. 12 lakhs taken away.

(24) Baroda Ex-Rulers Submission to President.

Thoughtful men must now seriously think how we are marching towards the progressive way of human civilization. The influence of modern civilizing process, by the highests(?) of planning commissions, is gradually leading us to a destination summarised as follows:

(1) Destruction of Faith, Truthfulness, cleanliness, Forgiveness, Mercy, Longevity, Strength and Memory.

(2) Accumulation of vast wealth is the standard of recognition for one's parentage, behavior and good qualities.

(3) Black-market in every business deal.

(4) Sexuality in conjugal love.

(5) Only a piece of thread on the body marks the sign of Brahmanism.

(6) Only a red garment as the sign of a sannyṛsî.

(7) No justice in the law Court without money.

(8) Impartinance as the sign of education.

(9) Poverty means dishonesty.

(10) Pride means honesty.

(11) Acceptance by contract means marriage.

(12) Keeping long hairs means beauty.

(13) Exaggeration means truthfulness.

(14) Filling the stomach means self-realization.

(15) Providing the wife & children means ability.

(16) Religiosity means to acquire some extraordinary name & fame.

When we have produced such a glorious sample of human civilization, certainly democracy will mean nothing but accumulating a large number of votes by hook or crook and then capture the political power. As a result of such unruly(unholy?) election heads of political power, will be by nature merciless, greedy and bestowed with the qualities of the plunderers. The unfortunate voters who have not much discriminating power as victimized by the chain of modern civilizing process become subjected to the plundering process of the political heads in the matter of their hearth and home.

These unfortunate people being too much harrassed by governmental taxes and famine, are forced to accept cotton and potato or other leaves as foodstuff. They become forced to accept meat and flesh instead of grains and vegetables and they are obliged to assimilate hydrogenated injurious oil in place milk and ghee. By such eating process they are attacked with cholera, typhoid, dysentry and tuberculosis to meet an end of miserable life.

They are subjected to the pangs of winter and summer, rains and sun besides hunger, thirst, disappointment, frustration. Thus they have to make a sad end of life by over anxiety due to all round scarcity.

That is the sum and substance of the advancement of material civilization. Undoubtedly we have produced by dint of advancement of having the motors, the radios, the cinemas, the railways, the airways, the (? ), the medicines, the toilets, the big buildings, the big mills, agricultural implements, big offices, (?), hodgepodge philosophers, industrialists, poets, scientists, politicians, iron men, statesmen and what not but the net result is no food, no clothing, no shelter, no peace.

Will any thinking and sober man with any sense of human reasoning call this status of human life as civilized? We think not. This unrestricted material progress of civilization must be checked if humanity has to exist at all and the big brains who pose to lead the people in general must now try to understand and recognise that matter is not all in all but it is subordinate to the spirit.

The matter is produced of inferior nature while the spirit is born of a superior nature. The living being whatever it may be is the particle of that spirit qualitatively one & equal with the Supreme Spirit. The living entities are parts & parcels of the Supreme Spirit. The ideology of material civilization must be changed into the ideology of spiritual civilization. Material civilization is based on the ideology of unsatiable desire for sense gratification which leads to anger when such sense gratification remains unsatisfied and from anger it turns to bewilderment which again turns into loss of memory. This loss of memory is complete destruction of spiritual consciousness which is the highest type of ignorance.

Leaders of material ideology came and gone after having enjoyed this material earth for a limited period. The material bodies of such leaders of ideology under various big big names are now turned into worms, stools or ashes and such materialistic leaders who fought so much on their different ideologies did not know what should be permanent basis of civilization. Most of them have gone to the lowest status of the kingdom of hell due to their unholy action of public nuisance. Such leader falsely thinks that this material world is now enjoyed by him and afterwards it shall be enjoyed by his generations without knowing what he is and what are his (?). Such false sense of proprietorship arises out of (?) ignorance by loss of memory of spiritual consciousness.

By falsely accepting this material body as the real self the foolish people engage themselves in the gross materialistic activities resulting in the conditions mentioned above but later on he goes away under the laws of higher authority leaving both the material world and material body behind them. They leave behind only a historical narration of their transient life without any (?) tangible benefit for the human being. The mother earth when the leaders and kings wanted to exploit laughs at these leaders and kings when she sees that the leaders and kings cannot go away but the earth remains where she is.

Dr. S.P. Mookerjee rightly observed in his address at Sri Aurobindo Memorial Convention (dated 24.4.51) as follows: "These spiritual efforts of the great master often defy common understanding. Yet the call of the times was never so imperious at it is now. What India is suffering from today is not so much poverty of the means of material existence. She is suffering much more from the bankruptcy of her spiritual resources. Her spirit has stooped low and is even now stooping low—not to conquer but to encompass a moral tragedy too terrible to contemplate.

"The Government moves in the same vicious circle. Moral standards are at discount. High purpose is resumed exclusively as an adornment of pontifical pronouncement from high offices. The same(?) is virtually littered with the debris of the spiritual achievements of a people that was once great."



Essays and Articles
EA 9: Man is the Architect of His Own Fortune

Life Forms & Rules of Nature

Devotee: Do you know? A scientific explanation of water?


Bali-mardana: H-2-O. Hydrogen, two molecules of hydrogen, one molecule of oxygen.


Prabhupāda: So in anywhere there is water, that formula is applicable?


Bali-mardana: Yes.


Prabhupāda: So, within the dob (coconut) there is water.


Bali-mardana: Yes.


Prabhupāda: So who supplied the chemicals?


Bali-mardana: Within the dob (coconut)?


Prabhupāda: Yes.


Bali-mardana: The chemist. The supreme chemist.


Prabhupāda: So that is our theologist's... What is their explanation?


Bali-mardana: They say the water is from the ground. By the roots, it is drawn up to the dob (coconut).


Prabhupāda: I understand that. But the chemical is being supplied from the root?


Bali-mardana: Yes. Just like when there is no water they say the tree will die.


Prabhupāda: Hm?


Bali-mardana: When there is no rain, the plant life cannot live. So they say that the water is drawn from the root to nourish the plant. [break]


Prabhupāda: ...water is drawn, then the question will be how the water is drawn?


Bali-mardana: Well, each tree has a system of, er, system of like tubes through which the water is drawn up.


Prabhupāda: Then as soon as there is system, system is done by somebody.


Bali-mardana: Hm.


Satsvarūpa: Nature, they say.


Bali-mardana: Nature, mother nature.


Prabhupāda: Yes, then mother nature why does not allow you to draw water from the ground? Then mother nature has got sense.


Sudāmā: Why mother nature doesn't let us draw water?


Prabhupāda: Yes, we cannot draw water.


Bali-mardana: But from the well we can draw water.


Sudāmā: We can find water.


Prabhupāda: No, no.


Satsvarūpa: In the mouth we have to drink it.


Prabhupāda: Not like the tree. Trees are called padapa. Padapa means it draws water from the leg. But why you cannot draw water from the leg, by the leg? Why you draw water by the hand?


Satsvarūpa: Because it's nature's arrangement.


Prabhupāda: That means nature has got sense.


Satsvarūpa: They say that nature has simply the desire to see that the species is propagated.


Prabhupāda: Anyway, when you see nature has arranged like that, just try to understand that the tree is made to draw water from the legs, but you cannot do. You have to draw water from the hand. Why different? As there is discrimination, there is sense. You should... It is nature's, I mean to say, order that, or arrangement that "You shall draw water from the hand, and the tree shall draw from the leg." So as there is different arrangement, there is discretion, why I am allowed to draw water by the hand and the tree is allowed to draw water from the leg.


Bali-mardana: They say that evolution.


Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, there is discretion. As soon as you say evolution, then evolution means there is also some arrangement that "You shall act like this, and he shall act like this."


Sudāmā: Some people already believe, "Well, we already have so much water." Just like when we sweat, there is already water there. There's no question of drawing it from the... like the trees.


Prabhupāda: Why do you draw water? Why you draw water from other source? If you have got water? If you haven't got water, that's all right. Is that sufficient?


Sudāmā: No.


Prabhupāda: Then?


Satsvarūpa: Their idea of the arrangement is that everything is meant for man, for his exploitation and enjoyment.


Prabhupāda: Eh?


Satsvarūpa: Everything is meant for man's, he's the chief living entity. That's their understanding of the arrangement. The tree may have to do this, but we can drink it another way.


Bali-mardana: Man uses his intelligence.


Prabhupāda: That means there is some superior supervision that "You must do like that. He must do like that." You call it nature. We accept that. We also say... Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa says, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ: [Bg. 3.27] "Everything is being done by the direction of prakṛti, nature." So nature is superior than you. You have to accept. Because you are being directed by nature.


Bali-mardana: Their hope is that they can become superior to nature.


Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom. That is rascaldom. There is the foolishness.


prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
[Bg. 3.27]


This rascal, is being dictated by nature, but he's thinking that "I am the Lord."


Bali-mardana: He wants to be the best.


Prabhupāda: Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Vimūḍha, rascaldom, ahaṅkāra, by self-conceit. Falsely he's thinking that "I am doing it." Or "I shall be able to do it, without." This is foolishness, this is rascaldom. (japa) Good morning.


Passers-by: Good morning.


Satsvarūpa: The scientists can give evidence that so much control has been gained. Now we can fly all over the world...


Prabhupāda: Then so much control, that is another thing. But not control. "So much control" means no control. (japa) [break] ...admitted that we are controlled by nature. That you cannot refuse. That is foolishness. Now, next, how nature is working? That is also replied in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: [Bg. 9.10] "The material nature is working..." Just like we are also taking the advantage of material nature, kṣity-ap-tejaḥ. Here is earth, but we can take this earth and make into brick and make a skyscraper building. So it is not that the earth itself is going to become a skyscraper building. I am living entity; I am utilizing. So nature means these five elements, eight elements. So that has been manipulated by another living entity. Just like the aeroplane is a combination of some matter, but it is being worked out by the manufacturer, by the pilot. Therefore that driver of the aeroplane or the manufacturer of the..., he's superior. So superior to the material nature is Kṛṣṇa. This is the conclusion. [break] ...our position is that we are being controlled by the material nature, and, and nature, material nature, is controlled by Kṛṣṇa. So the sense is that one who is at all sensible, that "After all, the controller is Kṛṣṇa. So why not directly under control of Kṛṣṇa?" This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Why through the material nature? I have to be controlled. I am being controlled by the material nature; and material nature is being controlled by Kṛṣṇa. So why not being directly controlled? This is good sense.

The Militarization of Modern Civilization

The man having forgotten himself as the son of Godhead, has forsaken his real constitutional nature. He has misidentified himself with everything non-godly and therefore manipulates a material existence conducted by the mind and the six instrumental senses. He is concerned only with his material coverings of gross body and the subtle mind but cannot see either himself or his so-called numerous fellowmen. This is what we mean by Nescience which is darkness. The man having designated himself with the relation of his vehicular body and the finer elements of mind and ego etc., like the motor-car driver who has identified himself wrongly with the motor-car itself, has manufactured a civilization which is self contradictory and self denial.

His so-called rationality having not gone far above the rationality of the lower animals, he laments at the death of his fellowmen or at the loss of his own things which he has never witnessed by real experience. This is what we mean by Nescience which is darkness. He slightly feels only and that after the death of his fellowmen that the body loses something that moves it just like the driver moves the motor-car, but still due to the darkness of Nescience he never concerns himself with the driver of the body but takes care superficially only for the body or the mechanical car.

The Militarization of Modern Civilization

In the darkness of Nescience he is fully amazed with mechanism of the gross body just like a boy who is amazed with mechanism of the motor-car, but he hardly tries to understand that without a driver any amount of astounding mechanical arrangement of the motor-car or that of the human body, it cannot move either of them even by an inch. This is what we mean by Nescience which is darkness.

The defect of the present day civilization is just like the above. This is actually the civilization of Nescience or illusion and has, therefore, civilization been turned into militarization. Every one is fully concerned with the comforts of the body and everything related with the body and no body is concerned with the Spirit that moves the body although even a boy can realise that the motor-car mechanism has little value if there is no driver of the car. This dangerous ignorance of humanity is a gross Nescience and has created a dangerous civilization in the form of militarization. This militarization which, in softer language, is nationalization, is an external barrier to come to an understanding of human relation. There is no meaning in a fight where the parties do fight only for the matter of different coloured dresses. There must be therefore an understanding of human relation without any consideration of the bodily designation or coloured dresses....

-His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada: Back to Godhead, Volume 1, parts 1-4, 1944

Where Is The Soul?

Now, we can see in our front, there is a tree standing for many years, and he has to stand in scorching heat, torrents of rain, pinching cold. He cannot move an inch. And if we think seriously, "Suppose if I would have been put into that condition, that 'Stand up here for five hundred or five thousand years. You cannot move an inch, and you bear all the sufferings, scorching heat, storm,' " would I agree to do that? No. I will not agree. But the tree is also a living entity. He is a living being. I am also living being. So I am put in a different condition of life and the tree is put in a different condition of life. Why? Why this distinction? Is there any upper hand superior judgment that one is put in the condition of standing tree and one is put in the beautiful human body, freely moving? There must be, because we are all living entities. We are all soul, spirit soul. We are simply put in different dresses.



Therefore, in the beginning of the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, this lesson is the first lesson. We have to understand.



dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
[Bg. 2.13]



Ninety-nine point nine percent, they do not understand this philosophy, especially in the modern age. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo [SB 1.1.10]. They are very, very dull rascals. This is the challenge. Mandāḥ. Mandāḥ means dull, no intelligence. A simple truth, Kṛṣṇa is explaining to Arjuna. It is authoritative statement because Kṛṣṇa says, and Kṛṣṇa says not unreasonably, very reasonably, "I am giving very common example that smin dehe, within this body, the proprietor of the body or the spirit soul is there. And on account of this," dehino 'smin yathā dehe [Bg. 2.13], "because the living entity is within this body, therefore the bodily changes are taking place." What is that changing? Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. "The body is sometimes child, and sometimes boy, sometimes young man, sometimes old man. So the body is changing." Who cannot understand this? The child, the small child, is dancing. Now, that child will get the body of a young man like you. Everyone knows it. This body will change. Where is the difficulty? And Kṛṣṇa is giving this common example, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg. 2.13]. As you are experiencing this change of body, similarly, you take it that this body also will change. An old man like me, the next body is there. Either farther old man or, after death, another body. This is to be understood. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means to get another body.
So we are experiencing in our this life. It is taking change so swiftly that we cannot understand how the body is changing, but it is changing. So similarly, this body will change. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. And we have to change that body after death according to my mental condition because we have got two bodies, the subtle body and the gross body. This gross body is finished; it is no more working. Just like at night the gross body does not work. We are thinking, "I am sleeping." Sleeping means the body is so much tired, it is no more working. But your another body, which is made of mind, intelligence, and ego—subtle body—that is working. Everyone has got this experience. The subtle body takes you to another place or another condition. You are dreaming that you have gone to the jungle. You are meeting some animals. The tiger is there coming to attack you, and you are crying, "Here is tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" And the man who is not dreaming, he says, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying?" But he's actually... The result is there. Don't think that the result is not there. In dream you are thinking your lover is there, you are embracing, and you get discharge, not that that you are not working and it is not, there is no result. There is result. I cannot see what is the result, what you are dreaming. I am fool. I do not know. But the man who is dreaming, he is experiencing. Similarly, change of body means we are carried by the subtle body to another gross body. This is the process, nature's way. You cannot say that "I will not change body." No, you will be forced. Just like a young man can say, "I will not become old man." No, nature will force you to become an old man, or change your body. This is the law of nature. You cannot surpass the laws of nature. Similarly, change of body, that is forced by the nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ [Bg. 3.27]. Prakṛteḥ, by the nature's law, we have to do. We are completely under nature's law. And we are declaring independence. This is our foolishness. This is our foolishness.


Srila Prabhupada, Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, June 15, 1975

Our Aims & Objects Are One & The Same

It's Krishna's mission to awaken man's original consciousness. At the present moment we have got designated consciousness. I am thinking "I am Indian," you are thinking Englishman, another is thinking American. But actually we are neither American nor Indian nor any that sort of designation. We are part and parcel of God. That is our real identification. If we come to that consciousness, then all the problems of the world will be solved. Now, due to our designated consciousness, we are thinking, "You are different from me, I am different from you," but if we come to Krishna consciousness, then we shall know that we are one, the same spirit soul, maybe in different dress. That is the explanation given in Bhagavad-gītā. Just like we are all human beings, gentlemen, ladies. Maybe in different dress, but our aims and objects are the one and the same. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is purificatory process. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc. Madhya19.170]. To make people free from all designations. Tat-paratvena nirmalam. And in Krishna consciousness they become purified. And when they're purified their activities by purified senses make them perfect. That is the ideal perfection of human life. And our process is also very simple. There is no need of becoming a great philosopher, scientist, or thoughtful man. Simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord we can immediately contact with the Lord, because the Lord as the person and His name and His quality are all absolute. So this is a great science. Unfortunately, there is no department of education for this science in any one of the so many universities. So we invite, therefore, all kinds of serious men for the welfare of the human society to understand this great movement and if possible take part in it and cooperate with us. That will solve all the problems of the world. That is the verdict of Bhagavad-gītā. Very authoritative book of knowledge. Most of you may know the name Bhagavad-gītā. So our movement is based on this Bhagavad-gītā,the authorized book of knowledge, and approved by big ācāryas in India, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Lord Caitanya. So you are all responsible representatives of papers. Try to understand this movement and ventilate it as far as possible for the good of the whole human society. That's all.
(His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, August 5, 1971, London)