Bhagavad-gītā As It Is

Bhagavad-gītā 4.1

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse]

śrī-bhagavān uvāca imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt [Bg 4.1]

[break] [03:25]

Translation: "The Blessed Lord 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."

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt [Bg 4.1]

So we are beginning today speaking on Bhagavad-gītā, the preliminary scientific study of this science of God. Bhagavad-gītā means Bhagavāt, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhagavān means the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhaga, we generally know, bhāgya. Opulence, fortune, a man is called bhāgyavān. This bhāgyavān word comes from the word bhaga, Bhagavān. Bhaga means opulence, six kinds of opulences: wealth, strength, influence, education, wisdom, beauty and renunciation. These are opulences. If a man is wealthy, he's attract. He attracts. Any man, very wealthy, he attracts. Similarly, if he's very strong, if he's very influential, if he's very learned, wise, if he's very beautiful—he or she; it doesn't matter—or if he's a great renouncer, one who has renounced everything for public benefit, naturally we have got attraction. So in this material world we find some wealthy man, some rich man, from strong man, from beautiful man, from wise man, from..., one renounced man, but they are only fragmental. Fragmental, very small quantity. Any man you can take. A rich man, he may be very rich man, but in comparison to the other person in the material world, but nobody can claim that "I am the richest man." No. That is not possible. Nobody can claim. "I am the wisest man," nobody can claim. "I am the strongest man," that is also, nobody can claim. However one strong may be, he is under the rules and regulation of material nature. He cannot go beyond that. Therefore you cannot find Bhagavān, or the Supreme Person, possessing all these opulences. That is not possible.

But here it is said, bhagavān uvāca. That means He's the richest, He's the strongest, He's the most beautiful, the wisest, and the most renounced order of life—Kṛṣṅa. When He was present in this material world, on this globe, He proved by His actions. So far His richness is concerned... At this age, in this age, at the present moment, if a person can provide his family nicely—nice apartment or nice house, good dress, good food—he's considered to be very successful man. Because in this age... It is said in the śāstra, dākṣyaṁ kuṭumba-bharaṅam [SB 12.2.6]. Kuṭumba. Kuṭumba means family. If one can provide his family very comfortably, he is considered as very expert. But the family maintenance is done by the cats and dogs also. They also maintain their family, their wife, children, very nicely, according to their standard. But this age is so fallen that if one..., even one is not married, the preliminary necessities of life: eating, sleeping, sex life and protection from fear... These are the preliminary necessities. So the age is so fallen that people have no eating substance even. We know, everyone, how things are going on. People are hungry, no eating substance. And what to say of sleeping? Or what to speak of...? Nobody's married timely, either boys or girls. And nobody's secure. Nobody knows what will happen next moment. This is called Kali-yuga.

Kali-yuga means mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ [SB 1.1.10].

[O learned one, in this iron Age of Kali men almost always have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.]

Prāyeṅālpāyuṣaḥ kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ. Asmin yuge, kali-yuge, alpa āyuṣaḥ, they are living very short time. The duration of life reducing. Anyone can know. His forefather, his grandfather, lived for, say, hundred years. His father lived for eighty years. And he's going to live for sixty years. In this way, the duration of life will be reduced up to twenty years. That is already foretold. If a man lives for twenty to thirty years, he will be considered very old man. That day is coming. Because how they will live? There is no eating, there is no sleeping. There is no fixture of this program. These are required. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni [Bg 3.14].

[All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rain. Rains are produced by performance of yajña [sacrifice], and yajña is born of prescribed duties.]

Simply by dry lecture, how they will feel happy? There must be sufficient food grains so that people may live happily, the animal may live happily. Especially in India you will see, no animal is fatty, either cat, dog or cow. They have no eating. So annād bhavanti bhūtāni. They must be given sufficient food, annād. Kṛṣṅa does not say that "You fast and chant Hare Kṛṣṅa." He does not say. Kṛṣṅa is not so impractical. He says, "Eat very nicely, keep very nicely, and chant Hare Kṛṣṅa. Make your life successful." That is Hare Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is not one-sided. It is all-embracing. Sarve sukhino bhavantu [Everyone become happy.]. Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement wants to see everyone happy. Without being happy, how you can remain peaceful? That is not possible.

Therefore, bhagavān uvāca. You take lessons from Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, perfect, all-perfect. What he will do by hearing this rascal or that rascal? Try to hear from the Supreme Personality without any fault, without any deviation. There are four kinds of defects in conditional life: to commit mistake, to be illusioned... Bhrama, pramāda, vipra-lipsā. To cheat, propensity for cheating. And imperfection of senses. So we are all infected with these four deficiencies of life, material condition of life. Therefore mukta means one who is liberated from these defects. Those who are infected with these defects, they cannot give you perfect knowledge. That is not possible. Imperfectness of senses—how he can gather perfect knowledge? They can simply say, "Perhaps," "It may be," "Most probably." That's all. Theories. Nobody can say, "It is like this." Just like in the Vedas it is said how many different varieties of lives are there: jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ [Padma Purāṅa], exact number that so many varieties of lives are there. Nine hundred thousand species life in the water. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Two million varieties of trees, plants, like that. Kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. Eleven lakhs varieties of insects. Pakṣiṅāṁ daśa-lakṣaṅam. There are ten..., one million types of birds. Similarly, three million types of animals and four hundred thousand different types of humankind. Everything is exactly calculated. That is called Vedic knowledge. Because it is... How the perfection of knowledge comes? Here it is said, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham [Bg 4.1].

[The Blessed Lord 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.]

Kṛṣṅa says. Aham avyayam. The knowledge is perfect. Avyayam. Avyayam means "that cannot be diverse or deviated." Perfect. Avyayam. Without any deviation. Therefore if you want to know perfect knowledge, then you have to hear from Kṛṣṅa. Therefore bhagavān uvāca.

Bhagavān means the most powerful, most influential, the supreme wise, most beautiful, most learned, most renouncer. Just see Bhagavān's renouncer. If we construct a building, how much attached we become to that building. But Kṛṣṅa has constructed this whole universe. Whole universe means... We have no idea what is the universe. We have no idea what is this planet. We are trying to go to the moon planet. We have no exact idea even of the moon planet. And there are innumerable planets. Vasudhā. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam [Bs 5.40].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.]

Each planet is of different type, different climate, different facilities, different standard of life. And there are ananta, innumerable planets. You cannot count even. So this is only one universe, and there are millions of universes. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi [Bs 5.40]. So Kṛṣṅa, or the Supreme Lord, is creator of these all universes. Still, He does not come here. He comes occasionally. But He does not claim. You utilize. He has given to you: "You living entities, you wanted to enjoy this material world. All right, I give you. Enjoy." Beginning from Brahmā down to the ant, they're enjoying, and they're creating their own karma-phala. Karmaṅā daiva-netreṅa [SB 3.31.1].

[The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.]

And because he's creating his karma-phala, he's getting another body—sometimes the ant's body, sometimes Brahmā's body, sometimes cat's body, sometimes American body, sometimes Indian body, sometimes monkey's body. In this way, we are wandering all over the universes. This is called disease, material disease. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg 8.19]. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam [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.]

So one who is wise, one who is learned, he should try to understand how to get out of this cycle of birth and death, repetition of birth and death. Now you have got this American body, very nice—rich nation's body. And we have got Indian body. That's all right. But what is the next life? That the people do not know. Just like you prepare by education for the future life. What you are preparing for the next life? They do not know, there is no..., whether there is life or not. Such a fool we are that we do not know. Therefore we have to hear from the perfect person, Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe [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.]

That is the first instruction. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ.

So this is the beginning of spiritual education. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. We have to change this body, transmigrate from this body to another body. That's a subtle way. But no university teaches how the soul is transferred from one body to another, what kind of body you are going to get next. There is no such science. But that is the real problem. Therefore we have to hear from Kṛṣṅa, Bhagavān, the Supreme, the person who can give you perfect knowledge. That is the process. If you really want knowledge, you have to hear from Kṛṣṅa. And Kṛṣṅa is so kind, He came personally:

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham [Bg 4.7]

He comes. He's so kind. He comes, He gives personally instruction, and He leaves the instruction recorded, just like Bhagavad-gītā. This Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by Kṛṣṅa to Arjuna, and it was recorded by Sañjaya, by the grace of Vyāsadeva. And then Vyāsadeva put the conversation in the Mahābhārata. Mahābhārata means "The History of Greater India." That is Mahābhārata. The whole planet is called Bhārata, Bhārata-varṣa. And the history of the whole planet is called Mahābhārata. In this Mahābhārata, this Bhagavad-gītā is set in for the knowledge of the all human being. It is not meant for the Hindus, for the Indians, for the brāhmaṅas, for the... No. It is meant for everyone to take perfect knowledge from Kṛṣṅa and be happy. If you want to become happy actually, then Kṛṣṅa's instruction you accept. We are already fallen. Now if we want to save ourselves from this fallen condition, take instruction from Kṛṣṅa and do not try to deviate, do not try to interpret in your own whimsical way, in a rascal way. Simply try to understand what Kṛṣṅa says, that's all. Then your life will be perfect.

Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, "Try to understand this Bhagavad-gītā in this process." What is that? Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam [Bg 4.1]:

"I first of all spoke to the sun-god, Vivasvān." Vivasvān. The sun is there. Nobody knows what is there in the sun. The so-called scientists, philosopher... But there is possibility to talk with the sun-god personally. That is possible. You can also go. You can also talk, provided you become qualified, by Kṛṣṅa's grace. Kṛṣṅa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He can go anywhere. It is not that because the fiery planet... Sun planet is fiery planet. The body there, the body is made of fire there. Just like here the body's made of earth, similarly, there are planets where the body's made of water, the body's made of fire, because these are the material elements. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ [Bg 7.4].

[Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.]

Either earth, water, fire, air... They are all material things. So I may have got a suitable body to live in this material, or this earthly planet. The fish has got a certain body to live in the water. You cannot live in the water. The fish cannot water on the land. That does not mean that it is impossible to live in the water. Similarly, because you cannot live in the fire, that does not mean for others it is impossible. This is foolishness. This is foolishness. The sun planet is there. It is made of fire. The bodies are so suitably made that those who have got this body, they can live there. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam [Bs 5.40].

Vibhūti. The atmosphere is different in every planet. Just like the atmosphere in the water is different from the land, but we know there are living entities within the water, on the land, on the air, within the earth, within the ether. Everywhere there is. Sarva-ga. Therefore living entity is called sarva-ga. The body is differently made. The spirit soul is the same. Your spirit soul, my spirit soul is the same. But your body is called American body, my body is called Indian body. That is the difference. Just like you have got a different dress; I have got a different dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṅāni yathā vi... The body is just like dress.

So first spiritual knowledge is this, that "I am not this body." Then the spiritual knowledge begins. Otherwise there is no possibility of spiritual knowledge. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ [SB 10.84.13].

[One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.]

One who is thinking, "This body I am. This, I am, myself," he's a rascal, animal, that's all. This rascal animalism going on all over the world: "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṅa," "I am kṣatriya." This is rascaldom. You have to go above this. Then there is spiritual knowledge. That is bhakti-yoga.

māṁ ca 'vyabhicāreṅa bhakti-yogena sevate sa guṅān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate [Bg 14.26]

[One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.]

Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is required. So in order to understand this yoga system, bhakti-yoga... Because only by bhakti-yoga you can come to the spiritual platform, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Nāhaṁ vipra... Just Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, nāhaṁ vipra na kṣatriya... What is that śloka?

Devotee: Kibā vipra kibā nyāsī... [Cc Madhya 8.128]

[Whether one is a brāhmaṅa, a sannyāsī or a śūdra—regardless of what he is—he can become a spiritual master if he knows the science of Kṛṣṅa.]

Prabhupāda: "I am not a brāhmaṅa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya, I am not a śūdra. I am not a brahmacārī, I am not a gṛhastha, I am not a vānaprastha..." Because our Vedic civilization is based on varṅa and āśrama. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu denied all these things: "I do not belong to any one of these." Then what is Your position? Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ [Cc Madhya 13.80]:

[I am not a brāhmaṅa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brahmacārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the maintainer of the gopīs. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance.’]

"I am eternally servant of the maintainer of the gopīs." That means Kṛṣṅa. And He preached: jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṅa-dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]. That is our identification. We are eternal servant of Kṛṣṅa. Therefore the servants who have rebelled against Kṛṣṅa, they have come to this material world. Therefore, to reclaim these servants, Kṛṣṅa comes. And Kṛṣṅa says,

paritrāṅāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge [Bg 4.8]

[In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.]

Kṛṣṅa comes. He's so kind.

So let us take advantage of Kṛṣṅa's coming here, leaving behind Him this Bhagavad-gītā, and read it perfectly and make your life perfect. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. It is not a bogus movement. It is a most scientific movement. So outside India, these European, Americans, they are taking advantage of it. Why not these Indian youths? What is the wrong there? This is not good. Let us join together, start this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement very seriously, and deliver this suffering humanity. That is our purpose. They are suffering for want of knowledge. Everything is there, complete. Simply by mismanagement... Simply by the... It is being managed by the rogues and thieves. Take. You become perfect in Kṛṣṅa consciousness and take the management and make your life successful.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṅa.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]