Bhagavad-gītā As It Is

Rotary Club Lecture Bhagavad-gītā 3.21

Prabhupāda: Rotarians and Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly inviting me in this important meeting of very respectable gentlemen of the city. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said,

yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad eva itare janaḥ sa yat pramāṅaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate [Bg 3.21]

[Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.]

Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ. There are leading men in every society—in government post and educational institution, in business, and so many other fields. In every field of activity, there are leading men. That is natural. And in the Vedas we understand the supreme leading person is God.

nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]

[The Supreme Lord is eternal and the living beings are eternal. The Supreme Lord is cognizant and the living beings are cognizant. The difference is that the Supreme Lord is supplying all the necessities of life for the many other living entities.]

Leaders must be accepted. Just like father is necessary, similarly, leader is also necessary, guru is also necessary. So according to Vedic verse, Vedic version, we can understand that the supreme leader is Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, God, a person. The conception of Absolute Truth, as given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate [SB 1.2.11]:

[Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.]

"The Absolute Truth is realized from three angles of vision—as the impersonal Brahman, the localized Paramātmā and the Supreme Personality of Godhead." The..., this Bhagavān, this word, is used at the end in the matter of describing the nature of Absolute Truth.

So those who are trying to understand the Absolute Truth by philosophical speculation, they can reach up to the impersonal Brahman effulgence of the Absolute Truth. Similarly, those who are trying to find out the Absolute Truth within the heart—dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ [SB 12.13.1]—they are generally called yogīs.

[Sūta Gosvāmī said: Unto that personality whom Brahmā, Varuṅa, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts praise by chanting transcendental hymns and reciting the Vedas with all their corollaries, pada-kramas and Upaniṣads, to whom the chanters of the Sāma Veda always sing, whom the perfected yogīs see within their minds after fixing themselves in trance and becoming fully absorbed in thoughts of Him, and whose limit can never be found by any demigod or demon—unto that Supreme Personality of Godhead I offer my humble obeisances.]

And the philosophical speculators, they are called jñānīs. So jñānī, yogīs.

So the jñānīs, they reach up to the impersonal Brahman effulgence, and the yogīs, they reach up to the localized aspect of the Supreme Person. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

Īśvara, the Supreme Person, is within your heart, everyone's heart. Sarva-bhūtānām. Not only human being, but also animals, trees, insects, aquatics. There are 8,400,000 forms of life. So in each and every living entity, within the heart, there is representation of God, who is known as Paramātmā.

So brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. At last, Bhagavān. Bhaga. Bhaga means opulence, and vān means possessing. So the possessor of the opulences in full is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is described in Vedic literature as Kṛṣṅa, "all-attractive." Kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam. There is a list of different incarnation of God. Even Lord Buddha's name is there.

So the con..., in the conclusive portion it is said, ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28].

[All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.]

All these description of the incarnation, they are plenary portion or portion of the portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But the name we find here as Kṛṣṅa, He is the Supreme. Kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam. Svayam. He is the original Personality of Godhead.

Similarly, we get information from other Vedic literatures, just like Brahmā-saṁhitā. It is written by Lord Brahmā. And when Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was present on this planet, He collected the copy of this book from South India, Ādi-Keśava Mandira, and presented it to His devotees, that "This is authorized book." There were hundred chapters of this book. Unfortunately, they're missing. This is only the Fifth Chapter. But it contains the essence of theology. So in that book, Brahmā-saṁhitā, the beginning is:

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṅa-kāraṅam [Bs 5.1]

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

The Supreme Person, or Īśvara... The word īśvara means controller. So everyone is controller. All of you are present here, to some extent, every one of us is a controller to a limited extent. But here it is mentioned, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. Parama means ultimate.

We are controller, every one of us, but we are controlled also. That is our position. Nobody can say... All the gentlemen, ladies present here, nobody can say that "I am controller absolute." That is not possible. Everyone is relative controller. But if you try to find out who is the absolute controller, then He's Kṛṣṅa.

That has been analyzed by great scholars in the Vedic śāstras, by the Gosvāmīs, and this is the statement of Lord Brahmā, who's supposed to be the first creature within this universe. So he says, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1]:

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

"Īśvara, the supreme, ultimate controller, is Kṛṣṅa, and He's vigraha." Vigraha means person, with body. Just like we have got body, similarly, the Absolute Supreme Person has also body. But His body is different from ours.

Sac-cit-ānanda-vigraha. His body is eternal. Our body, this material body, is not eternal. Sat cit: His body is full of knowledge. Our this body is full of ignorance. And ānanda: He's full of joyfulness. In the Vedānta-sūtra it is said, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt [Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12]: the Supreme Person is always joyful, abhyāsāt, naturally. So our this body is not ānandamaya; it is, rather, always miserable. Therefore we must distinct the body of the Supreme Person from our body.

When sometimes in the Vedic literature it is explained as God has no form, that does not mean He has no form. He has a form which is different from this form. Nirākāra. Nirākāra means not this ākāra. We can distinguish. Because in the śāstra it is said that sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1], "eternal, blissful and fully cognizant."

He knows everything. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, vedāhaṁ samatītāni [Bg 7.26]. Kṛṣṅa says, "I know everything, past, present and future." That is knowledge. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is also stated, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ [SB 1.1.1]. Abhijñaḥ: He knows everything.

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said also: kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata [Bg 13.3]. Kṣetrajñaḥ. Kṣetrajña means the proprietor of the body, the owner of the body. Just like you are a spirit soul, owner of your body. I am also a spirit soul; I am owner of the body. I know to some extent the pains and pleasure of my body. You know, to some extent, the... I say "to some extent" because we are not...

Although I am the proprietor of this body, still I do not know how the body is acting, functioning, why there is pain, why there is pleasure. So many things we do not know. Partially we know—although I am the proprietor. If there is some defect in the bodily function, I cannot detect it. I go to another person, a physician.

So although I am proprietor of this body, I do not know exactly what is functioning, how it is becoming in happy condition or in morose condition. So... But supposing that I know everything, but still, I do not know what is happening in your body. That is not possible.

Therefore it is concluded that we are individuals. We are individuals. I have got my individual pains and pleasures; you have got your individual pains and pleasures. So you are individual person; I am individual person. And the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is also individual person. Nityo nityānām. This is Vedic information. We are plural number, nityānām. Cetanaś cetanānām: He's the supreme living force amongst all other living forces.

So therefore... In the Bhagavad-gītā also, it is said that when Kṛṣṅa was advising Arjuna in the Battlefield, He said, "My dear Arjuna, all these persons, you and Me and all these persons, it is not that we did not exist in the past, neither it is so that we shall not exist in the future." This is... So these three things are pointed out: "You, Me and all these soldiers and kings." So all of them are individual. All of them are individual person. And Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Person, He's also individual person.

But what is the difference between Kṛṣṅa and ourself? That Kṛṣṅa, as it is stated in the Vedas, eka, that one singular number person, vidadhāti kāmān. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He's supplying the necessities of life to all these plural number living entities. So therefore He's the supreme controller.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṅa-kāraṅam [Bs 5.1]

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

And He's the cause of all causes. Just like I am born; the cause is my father. And the cause of my father—his father, my grandfather. And go on searching—his father, his father, his father—and then you'll have to reach the original person, Brahmā. Then if you find, or try to find out who is the cause of Brahmā, then you'll find that his cause is the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṅu.

And what is the cause of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṅu? Then you'll find Kāraṅa, Kāraṅodakaśāyī Viṣṅu. And Kāraṅodakaśāyī Viṣṅu, the cause is Saṅkarṣaṅa. In this way, you will find, ultimately, Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, cause of all causes. And Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā:

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate iti matvā bhajante māṁ budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ [Bg 10.8]

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

"I am the cause of all causes."

The Vedānta-sūtra says, "Who is the Absolute Truth?" Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The Vedānta-sūtra means to inquire about the Absolute Truth. This human form of life is meant for inquiring about the Absolute Truth. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. That is the duty of human form of life. It is a very big subject matter.

So this human birth, form of life, we have got after so many evolutions: aquatics, then trees, then plants, then insects, then birds, then beasts. Then we come to the platform of this human being, especially civilized human being. And especially born in India.

For this reason, Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that Indian people have got a special mission. He said, bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra [Cc Ādi 9.41].

[One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.]

Anyone who is fortunate enough to get his birth in Bhārata-varṣa, janma sārthaka kari' kara paropakāra. Paropakāra. Indian...,

Indians are meant for doing welfare activities to others. Because in India you have got the culture which is actually human culture. Human culture means to understand God, to understand Kṛṣṅa; that is human culture. Otherwise, if you simply improve the four principles of animal life, that is not culture.

Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etad paśubhiḥ narānām [Hitopadeśa 25].

[Both animals and men share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But the special property of the humans is that they are able to engage in spiritual life. Therefore without spiritual life, humans are on the level of animals.]

Eating: animal eats; we also eat. And if we make some improvement in the eating matter, that is not advancement of civilization. Similarly in sleeping matter. A dog lies on the ground; we lie down on very silk bed and very nice apartment. But we are thinking this is advancement of civilization. No. This is not advancement of civilization. The advancement of civilization is that "Why I am put under the material laws?"

Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu-darśanam [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

One must be complicated... Everyone is trying to live. Nobody wants to die. Nobody wants to take birth. He's afraid of dying and again entering into the womb of mother. But less intelligent class of men, because they cannot make any solution, they make a wash-off: "Oh, there is no life after death." No. That's not fact. That's not fact. There is life.

In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find:

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

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

Tathā dehāntaraṁ-prāptir. Just like we have got different types of body in this life. I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man, I..., I was a something else. Now I have got this old body. So as I am existing after changing so many different phases of body, therefore the conclusion should be that after annihilation of this body, I shall exist, and, which is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20]. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre.

After destruction of this body, actually we are not going to die. Our subtle body—the mind, intelligence and ego—that is, that is working. As it, the subtle body, works during my sleeping position, similarly, this body may be..., gross body may be annihilated, but my subtle body carries me to another gross body as I desire. Kṛṣṅa, or the Supreme Lord, is very kind. As we desire, He gives us opportunity.

Any kind of body, any kind of enjoyment we want, He gives us the opportunity: "All right, you take this body. And you wanted to enjoy like this. All right, you enjoy." Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca [Bg 15.15].

[I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.]

Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ. He is sitting in everyone's heart as the Supersoul, and even if we forget, He reminds: "My dear living entity, you wanted to do this; now you do it."

So this is the process going on. But unfortunately, there is no educational system throughout the whole world about the activities of the soul, how he is working in different evolutionary process, what is his ultimate goal of life, wherefrom he's coming, where he's gone, what is the relation. So many things we have to know. But we are placed in ignorance on account of blind leaders. We do not know the problems of life. We are blind, and we are led by other blind leaders into still blindness. Viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṅānām.

matir na kṛṣṅe parataḥ svato vā mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṅānām [SB 7.5.30]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Kṛṣṅa are never aroused, either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a combination of both.]

Adānta-gobhiḥ. Our senses are uncontrolled, so our senses are dragging to the darkest region of existence. We do not know that. But we are simply chewing the chewed. We do not try to solve the problem of life; we are simply chewing the chewed. The so-called sociology, politics or humanitarian work, it is simply chewing the... Just like we are trying to open hospital. We think it is very great task. But we can... We do not think that how to get out of the diseased condition of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bg 13.9].

So there are so many things, problems of our life; we are neglecting. And everything is very clearly described in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is being explained by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. We should take advantage of these lessons in the Bhagavad-gītā. Unfortunately, in the foreign countries, before me, many other svāmīs went, tried to explain Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is very well known book of knowledge. In America and Europe and other countries there are many translations. But the Bhagavad-gītā, such translation is taken as a mental speculation.

They do not take it seriously that "This..., this is the statement by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it cannot be commented with my poor knowledge. What I am in comparison to Kṛṣṅa? He is tri-kāla-jña. He knows present, past, future, everything. What do I know? So my interpretation..." Just like "Kurukṣetra means this body," or "The five Pāṅḍavas means the five senses." If we interpret in that way Bhagavad-gītā, according to our whims, we'll never understand what is the purport of Bhagavad-gītā. We have to learn Bhagavad-gītā as it is; otherwise, we'll miss the opportunity.

Just like Kurukṣetra. Kurukṣetra is still there, existing. Everyone, you know. While passing through Delhi to Punjab side you find the Kurukṣetra. The..., the field is also there. It is a very big field, and in the śāstra, in the Vedas, it is said, kurukṣetre dharmam ācaret. So people go as a place of pilgrimage. So you cannot interpret Kurukṣetra otherwise. Kurukṣetra should be accepted as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre [Bg 1.1].

[Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: O Sañjaya, after assembling in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukṣetra, what did my sons and the sons of Pāṅḍu do, being desirous to fight?]

Then you'll understand Bhagavad-gītā.

Everything is there. Our request is—you are all respectable gentlemen, ladies, present here—that kindly try to read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Then you will understand the problems of your life, the solution also there. The solution is there, and the ultimate end of Bhagavad-gītā speaking: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66].

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

That is the ultimate solution, that we have to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is our...

Because every one of us, in this material condition, we are trying to become master, ultimately to become God. That is māyā. That is illusion. We cannot become master. We are servant by constitution. Every one of us sitting here is a servant to somebody. Nobody can deny it. Either he may be servant of his family or his community or his country or... So many things... If one has no master, then he keeps a dog to become his servant. That is the nature. We are all servants. The, our thinking that "I shall become master," that is māyā.

So our ultimate goal of life is to become in our original purpose, servant of God. That is our perfection of life. That is called mukti. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that muktir hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṅa vyavasthitiḥ [SB 2.10.6].

[The merging of the living entity, along with his conditional living tendency, with the mystic lying down of the Mahā-Viṣṅu is called the winding up of the cosmic manifestation. Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies.]

Mukti means when we give up our artificial way of life. The artificial way of life is that we are trying to become master. That is artificial. We are not master. Constitutionally we are servant. But that servitude is interlinked in the service of the Supreme Lord.

Kṛṣṅa said that mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ [Bg 15.7]: "The..., all the living entities, they are My part and parcel." Just like this finger is the part and parcel of your body, similarly, we are also part and parcel of the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are so many descriptions. It takes a long time. I don't wish to take much of your time. The...

Just like our part of the body is this head, the part of the body is the hand, the part of the body is the belly and the part of the body are the two legs. So the head is considered to be the brahminical portion of the society, and the arm is considered as the kṣatriya portion of the society, and the belly is the vaiśya part of the social body, and the legs are śūdras. So in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, cātur-varṅyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṅa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ [Bg 4.13].

[According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.]

So as you require to keep your body completely fit—you require your head, you require your arms, you require your belly, you... Nobody is lower or higher. Of course, comparatively, when we see that the head is more important than the leg, but you cannot do..., deal also without leg. Neither you can do without head. Everything is required in the social body. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, cātur-varṅyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṅa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ.

So this scientific social system, a class, intelligent class of men, should be the head of the society. And the fighting class or the martial class of men, they should be the administrators. And the productive class, merchants and industrialists, they should be the belly of the society. And the laborer class, they should be the legs of the society. This is the idea we get from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So if we try to follow the already perfect statements in the śāstras, and if we apply in the..., our practical life, then the whole human society will be perfect. Otherwise, if we do not follow the instruction which is perfect, already there in the śāstras—we manufacture or concoction—the social order will never be perfect and there will be always a confusion.

And that is going on. I have seen. I have traveled all over the world, especially in America. They're the richest country, but there is a confusion now. The younger section, they do not like to live like their father or grandfather. They want a different body, different life. They, they are joining this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement because they are in search of such thing, perfect thing. They are fed up with this materialistic way of life. Therefore... It is not that I am playing something magic. It is the need of the present-day situation, present-day civilization, that people want Kṛṣṅa consciousness, spiritual advancement.

So if we can administer the spiritual advancement of life in the proper way, as they are in our Vedic literatures, so we can contribute greatest contribution to the world, and that will glorify India's name. If we simply imitate them, or beg from them, then India's position is always remain as beggar.

Because we are already known: "The nation of beggars." Because our ministers go there to ask, "Please give me this. Please give me this. Please give me." Nothing to contribute. Here is a thing, Kṛṣṅa consciousness. We can contribute to the whole world. Please help this movement.

Thank you very much. [applause] [end]