BHAGAVAD-GITA 9:14

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 9:14

 

satatam kirtayanto mam

yatantas ca drdha-vratah

namasyantas ca mam bhaktya

nit ya-yukta upasate

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

satatam--always; kirtayantah--chanting; mam--about Me; yatantah--fully

endeavoring; ca--also; drdha-vratah--with determination;

namasyantah--offering obeisances; ca--and; mam--Me; bhaktya--in

devotion; nitya-yuktah--perpetually engaged; upasate--worship.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination,

bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with

devotion.

 

PURPORT

 

The mahatma cannot be manufactured by rubber-stamping an ordinary man.

His symptoms are described here: a mahatma is always engaged in

chanting the glories of the Supreme Lord Krsna, the Personality of

Godhead. He has no other business. He is always engaged in the

glorification of the Lord. In other words, he is not an impersonalist.

When the question of glorification is there, one has to glorify the

Supreme Lord, praising His holy name, His eternal form, His

transcendental qualities and His uncommon pastimes. One has to glorify

all these things; therefore a mahatma is attached to the Supreme

Personality of Godhead.

 

One who is attached to the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord, the

brahmajyoti, is not described as mahatma in the Bhagavad-gita. He is

described in a different way in the next verse. The mahatma is always

engaged in different activities of devotional service, as described in

the Srimad-Bhagavatam, hearing and chanting about Visnu, not a demigod

or human being. That is devotion: sravanam kirtanam visnoh and

smaranam, remembering Him. Such a mahatma has firm determination to

achieve at the ultimate end the association of the Supreme Lord in any

one of the five transcendental rasas. To achieve that success, he

engages all activities--mental, bodily and vocal, everything--in the

service of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. That is called full Krsna

consciousness.

 

In devotional service there are certain activities which are called

determined, such as fasting on certain days, like the eleventh day of

the moon, Ekadasi, and on the appearance day of the Lord. All these

rules and regulations are offered by the great acaryas for those who

are actually interested in getting admission into the association of

the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental world. The

mahatmas, great souls, strictly observe all these rules and

regulations, and therefore they are sure to achieve the desired

result.

 

As described in the second verse of this chapter, not only is this

devotional service easy, but it can be performed in a happy mood. One

does not need to undergo any severe penance and austerity. He can live

this life in devotional service, guided by an expert spiritual master,

and in any position, either as a householder or a sannyasi or a

brahmacari; in any position and anywhere in the world, he can perform

this devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus

become actually mahatma, a great soul.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.