Bhagavad-gītā 7.1 in [Hindi--final proofreading pending] , Vṛndāvana , 1975-08-26

Harikeśa: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees chant responsively] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

[01:39]

Prabhupāda:

The Lord Himself, Kṛṣṇa is talking about Himself, Śrī-bhagavān. Our sense organs eyes, ears, nose, tongue, touch, the ten sense organs and mind, all these, if we want to understand God internally it is not possible. Because our eyes are material and God is spiritual. Just like there are so many devotees who come to see the Lord here, some say that, look! They have made a statue out of stone and these foolish people come to see that. Because he does not have the eyes, he sees God as stone. And those who have the eyes, they spend thousands of rupees to come and see the Lord in Vṛndāvana. This is the only difference. The Lord has come to reveal Himself to us. Because we do not know about the Lord, He comes in the form of His incarnations as Kṛṣṇa and he left behind His teachings in the form of Bhagavad-gītā and He is sitting here as the deity so that everyone can see Him. So to understand God is not difficult. Just like, you are hearing someone’s teachings and also seeing him in the form of a deity, so then it is not difficult to understand about him. So that is why the Lord Himself, in the seventh chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, is explaining about Himself. Śrī-bhagavān uvāca, it is not that Vyasadeva is saying. Vyasadeva is writing Śrī-bhagavān uvāca, the Lord is talking about Himself. If you want to know about me, however much you may speculate about it, your knowledge will not be complete. Until I tell you myself that, I am like this, I have so many temples here, I have so much property, I have so many books, then you will be able to understand. That is why the Lord says, Śrī-bhagavān uvāca. What is He saying? mayy āsakta-manāḥ. For one who has attachment for the Lord, for one who has love for the Lord. Āsakti, just like you have attachment for your child, attachment for your husband, attachment for your wife. Similarly if you can develop attachment for the Lord then you can understand Him. Not by any other method.

If you have love for the Lord, then the Lord reveals Himself to you. And if we speculate according to our own whims and fancies, that the Lord is like this, the Lord has a form like this, or He is formless, or this and that. No one can understand the Lord in this way. It is not possible. So this attachment, if one wants to increase the attachment, then the solution is devotional service. That is why the Lord says,

To increase the attachment to the Lord, we have to take shelter of Him. mad-āśrayaḥ, take the shelter of the Lord. But you may say that the Lord is not in front of us! How do we take shelter of Him? So mad-āśrayaḥ means that we take the shelter of the Lord or you take the shelter of that person who has taken the shelter of the Lord. mad-āśrayaḥ, those who do not anything else but the Lord, mad-āśrayaḥ, they have taken complete shelter of the Lord, that’s all. We have to take shelter of such a person.

Those who take shelter of the Lord, they are seers of the truth! How is that? Who takes shelter of the Lord? The devotees of the Lord! Who else will take? And the Lord says,

Only the devotees can understand the Lord, not the empirical scholars or mental speculators or the yogis or the materialistic persons. The Lord says, No, those who engage in fruitive activities, "karmaṇā mām abhijānāti." No. "Jñānena mām abhijānāti." No. "yogena mām abhijānāti" No. He can know partially! The Lord is sac-cid-ananda vigraha. The karmis or the fruitive workers do not understand anything, the jñānīs or dry mental speculators realize a bit, that is sad-aṁśa, The Lord is om tat sat, that they realize. sad vastu, eternal, the dry mental speculators know this, not more. And the yogis realize the Paramatma feature of the Lord. The Lord is realized in three features,

So, Brahman realization, Paramatma realization and Bhagavat realization. So Bhagavat realization comes last. First is Brahman realization, impersonal Brahman. Then as we go further, the yogis realize this, dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ

They meditate and realize Paramatma in their hearts. They are called yogis. So the first realization is Brahman realization, then if we go ahead a little then it is Paramatma realization and if we still go further ahead it is Bhagavat realization. If one realizes the Bhagavan feature of the Lord, then that includes the Brahman realization and Paramatma realization also. He is in complete knowledge. Just like it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā,

Those who are impersonalists and those who are empirical scholars, that is those who have acquired complete knowledge of the Absolute Truth. 'aham brahmasmi. "I am not this material body. I am Brahman."- one who has this complete knowledge he is called a brahma-jñānī- an impersonalist philosopher. brahma-bhūtaḥ, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā, one whose soul is blissful. So in the Brahman realization, the Lord can be realized partially not completely. Knowledge will be complete only when, just like the Lord says, asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ. samagraṁ means complete, not partial. Partial knowledge is Brahman realization, if you advance further then Paramatma realization and [samagraṁ] complete knowledge,

For one who realizes Vāsudeva, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Why knowledge of Vāsudeva? Because he is the son of Vasudeva. In your Vrindavana, He is Vāsudeva, He is svayam bhagavān. And in Mathura, He is Vāsudeva. Lord Kṛṣṇa never leaves Vrindavana and all His pastimes are as Vāsudeva, Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti. Through His Vāsudeva form, He performs all His pastimes. In Mathura the killing of Kamsa was in His Vāsudeva form. And in Vrindavana in His pastimes with the cowherd boys and the gopis, He is Krishna, the Lord Himself. This is the line of thinkin[?]. So we have the Lord with unlimited pastimes, unlimited forms,

So this youthful Lord, you can see the deity of the Lord, all the time He is youthful. He looks like a fifteen- twenty years old boy. He is fifteen- twenty years old. When the Lord was the charioteer of Arjuna, He was a grandfather, great grandfather but even at that time He looked very youthful. This is the deity of the Lord, nava-yauvanaṁ ca, ever youthful, very beautiful to behold.

Vedeṣu durlabham, to have knowledge of the Vedas, it is difficult to understand the Lord. Even the great Vedāntists fail in their attempt to understand the Lord. vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. Although, the purpose of the Vedas is, to understand the Lord. But it is so difficult that even great scholars cannot understand this. Vedeṣu durllabham! Then how to understand the Lord? adurllabham ātma-bhaktau. For the devotee of the Lord, adurllabham, it is very easy, easily he can understand. The Lord explains to them and they accept His word. The Lord says,

Who will understand this? The Lord says, there is nobody superior [para-tattva] to Him. Who will understand this? Other than a devotee! The non-devotees will understand that, "look, they are talking nonsense that there is no one superior to Him." And if one is a devotee he will understand that, "yes!"

A person who is a devotee of the Lord, he will understand that this Krishna, He is parameshwar, Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda, His body is sac-cid-ānanda. Sat, cit, ānanda body. By impersonal Brahman realization, you can get realization of his sat feature. And the Paramatma realization is realization of the cit feature. And realization of Bhagavan, is realization of sat, cit ānanda features. ānanda, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. So the final stage of realization of the all-blissful nature of the Lord is ānandamaya, blissful. ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis.

To understand the deity form of the Lord which is ānanda-cinmaya,

This can be achieved only through devotional service, there is no other way. And how should the devotional service be? That is also explained by the Lord, mayy āsakti, we must develop attachment [āsakti] for the Lord. Just like you come to the temple, so if you come daily then your attachment will increase. Here when the ārati is being done and you come to see the Lord, someone plays the kartals, someone sees the Lord, someone drinks the caraṇamṛta, in some way or the other you go there and your attachment will keep increase. That is why the temples are open, to increase the attachment of the ordinary living entity towards the Lord. Then we can get the vision of the Lord. That is why the Lord says mayy āsakta, one who increases his attachment for the Lord and his pastimes, his knowledge of the Lord is complete. asaṁśayaṁ, there is no doubt about this. asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ, and who is telling this? The Lord himself, asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ.

Everybody is doubtful. In other religions there is no clear knowledge about the Lord. And in our Vedic knowledge also, we have, especially the brahma-jñānī, they do not have correct, clear knowledge. And the devotees , not only do they have knowledge about the Lord but they will tell you that, this is His name, His father’s name is this, His abode is this, they can tell everything. And for a non-devotee the knowledge about the Lord will be unclear because there is no attachment for the Lord. So we need to first increase our attachment for the Lord. mayy āsakta-manāḥ, one who has attachment for the Lord only he can understand the Lord, asaṁśayaṁ and samagraṁ. asaṁśayaṁ means there is no doubt.

Just like you are all devotees of Kṛṣṇa assembled here, none of you have a doubt that Lord Kṛṣṇa is God himself, asaṁśayaṁ. And samagraṁ knowledge, one who has knowledge about Bhagavan, the Lord then his Brahman realization and Paramatma realization is also complete. Brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇa. To increase the attachment for the Lord, Rupa Goswami a devotee of the Lord who discovered Vrindavana, this Vrindavana was a ground before. The Goswamis- Rupa, Sanatana, Bhatta Raghunatha, Sri Jiva, Gopal Bhatta, Das Raghunatha., these six Goswamis came here to Vrindavana and brought it to limelight. That is why the Madana Mohana mandir was built first. So, this Rupa Goswami who has the Govindaji’s mandir, he has explained how the attachment can be increased. In his Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu, he has given the way. What is the way? ādau śraddhā, you people have faith that is why you have come and those who do not have faith they get up and go away. If you explain to them about God, they don’t like it. If you talk about anything else they will sit and listen. But they don’t like God related topics or talks on devotional service. No attachment. So first of all faith, to listen to the pastimes of the Lord, that is faith. ādau śraddhā. tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo, after developing faith, we must associate with pure devotees or saintly persons. Who is a saint? If we say by wearing saffron clothes we have become a saint, no! That is not a saint! Who is a saint then?

He is a saint. This has been told by the Lord- who is a saint? "A saint is one who worships Me without any deviation [ananya-bhāk], they do not know anything other than Me. He is a saint." No one else is a saint. sādhava sadhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ, sadhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ. Sadhu, the Lord himself says, just like the Lord is himself explaining about his own self. Similarly Lord has also explained as to who is a saint, who is a mahatma. Who is a saint? bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, those who know nothing other than the Lord, other than Lord Kṛṣṇa he knows nothing else, he is a saint. Who is a mahatma?

The same requirement. ananya-bhāk and ananya-manaso. are the same thing. Those who are constantly engaged in devotional service only. That is why the process of devotional service, you are seeing these Europeans and Americans people who have come here, they do not know anything else, they have accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Lord, and are constantly, you can see,

These are the saints and mahatma. That is why it is appropriate to associate with the saints, to associate with these people. This is not a correct outlook that they are foreigners and should not go into the temples because they are Englishmen or American. No! we should not indulge in, vaiṣṇave jāti buddhir.

A Vaiṣṇava does not belong to any particular caste. Just like Hanuman! Hanumanji was not even a human being, an animal. A monkey is an animal. So why do we worship Hanuman? Do we worship monkeys? If by a caste mentality [jāti buddhir], we say that Hanumanji belongs to the monkey caste so why should we worship him, why should we respect him? No! we should not consider a Vaiṣṇava an ordinary person on the basis of birth, caste. [vaiṣṇave jāti buddhir]. arcye viṣṇau-śilā-dhīr, we have the deity [arca-vigraha] of the Lord and if someone thinks that it stone. And arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matiḥ, and the spiritual master, a real spiritual master and acarya if someone considers him to be an ordinary person and similarly if they consider a Vaiṣṇava to belong to a certain caste, the scriptures says that they have nārakī-buddhi, this outlook is not correct. Whoever engages in devotional service is a saint. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says kṛṣṇa-bhajane nāhi jāti-kulādi-vicāra. Those who are engaged in Krishna’s devotional service, there should be no consideration of caste, creed. God is open to everyone.

Even though born in the most lowest, lowest grade of family, in caṇḍāla family, there is no impediment in this. Just like in the river Yamuna everyone comes to have a bath, is there any impediment? Everybody can come, a sweeper can come and have a bath. What is the fault in that? He can also get purified. And a Brahman, priest, saint, sanyasi they can also go. There is no restriction on anyone. Similarly there is no restriction on anyone for executing devotional service, it is open for everyone because in reality the living entity is spiritual, a part and parcel of the Lord. If gold is lying in a dirty place, then will not anyone take it still? Definitely he will take. The gold is not impure. Canakya Pandit says in Nīti-darpaṇa amedhyād api kāñcanam. If in a very filthy place there is gold, we must take it, we must accept it. amedhyād api kāñcanam.

So to increase this attachment Rupa Goswami says, ādau śraddhā, first thing is faith, belief. There is God here. The people who come to this temple do not come to see a stone, they know that God is here. This is called faith, God is here definitely. ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo, they come here with faith and if they want to increase that faith then they must associate with saints who are engaged in chanting the names of the Lord.

When we have dealings with the saints we associate with them. Then when we advance further through the association of the saints, then there is bhajana-kriyā, then they think we should also chant in the same way the saints are doing. I will also chant the names of the Lord, bhajana-kriyā.

When we chant the holy names of the Lord all the anarthas, all that does not make sense, that which is not required, all that we have learnt from bad association, all that is discarded or given up. 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Just like smoking cigarettes, do we die if we do not smoke cigarettes? This is a useless activity that he learns from bad association. Similarly they can give it up by good association. Look at these Americans, their daily activities are illicit sex, meat eating, intoxicating and gambling but they have given it all up, 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Have given up, this is the result of association of saints.

Then his faith is strengthened, firm faith in devotional service, tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ, to have taste, he develops a taste for listening to the pastimes of the Lord. Athāsaktis, after developing this taste, then attachment. This attachment, the Lord....let us start from the beginning, before this- faith, association of saints, giving up unwanted habits, firm faith and taste--after crossing over these five stages then attachment, one cannot give up the Lord at all, he is intoxicated with that. He gives up the intoxications like beedis, cigarettes, alcohol, when one is addicted to this- that we cannot leave the Lord ever. This is called attachment. So, mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha

So for a person who is so attached to the Lord, it is a liberated stage. To have such attachment to the Lord is not an ordinary stage, not on a material stage. Because 'nartha-nivṛttih,

Devotion, if one is a devotee of the Lord has no interest in the unwanted activities at all, he gives it up voluntarily. This is the symptom of devotion. And if you are a devotee and are smoking a cigarette alongside, that is not correct. That is also ok sometimes but we should not happily get habituated to these unwanted habits. By practice a person gave it all up, but due to his old habituation he may become wicked. Even for him the Lord has said, api cet su-durācāro, doesn’t matter but is his devotional service all right or not? bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, is that all right or not! If that is all right then, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ, then he is a saint. If he does not give up the process of devotional service, and because of his old habit he sometimes smokes a cigarette, they are pardoned. But those who willfully indulge in these useless activities, it is difficult for them to atone for it. No!

So this yoga, we have to practice. What is the practice for bhakti yoga?

You can execute devotional service through these nine processes. If nothing else come here and listen, śravaṇaṁ. Just by listening constantly you will achieve everything. Sṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. The more you listen to the pastimes of the Lord, the more your sins will be destroyed and you will earn piety. And when all your sins are completely eradicated and you have only piety then you can understand God.

Only those whose sins are completely eradicated can be engaged in the devotional service of the Lord with firm faith. This is said by the Lord. The Lord is supremely pure and by being impure no one can reach the Lord. One has to be pure.

Arjuna understood the Lord, what did he understand , pavitraṁ paramaṁ. If we love God then we have to become pure also. It is not that we can remain impure and yet understand God. But by engaging in devotional service one is purified. Sṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. That is why, it is appropriate that you come to the temple of the Lord, see Him, listen to His pastimes, śravaṇaṁ. And not only śravaṇaṁ, after hearing you must do kīrtanaṁ. However much you have heard about the Lord’s pastimes, share it with others. That is called kīrtanaṁ. śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. Who should we talk about? Viṣṇu, not about anyone else.

These are the processes. So those who have come to Vṛndāvana it is appropriate for them to listen to the pastimes of the Lord and slowly become pious. Those who are not pious cannot understand the Lord. That is why we need to listen, those who are not pious but are listening to the pastimes of the Lord without faith or taste, but slowly it will happen, nothing happens in a day, but these are the processes.

There is no use in taking shelter of an outsider, mad-āśrayaḥ. Either directly take the shelter of the Lord or take the shelter of a person who is completely surrendered at the lotus feet of the Lord. Then we can understand the Lord, completely [samagraṁ], without any doubt [asaṁśayaṁ]. This is what the Lord is saying. We will discuss further.

Thank you very much! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Jaya! [end]