BHAGAVAD-GITA 3:10

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 3:10

 

saha-yajnah prajah srstva

purovaca prajapatih

anena prasavisyadhvam

esa vo 'stv ista-kama-dhuk

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

saha--along with; yajnah--sacrifices; prajah--generations;

srstva--creating; pura--anciently; uvaca--said; praja-patih--the Lord

of creatures; anena--by this; prasavisyadhvam--be more and more

prosperous; esah--this; vah--your; astu--let it be; ista--of all

desirable things; kama-dhuk--bestower.

 

TRANSLATION

 

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth

generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and

blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice]

because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for

living happily and achieving liberation."

 

PURPORT

 

The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Visnu) is a chance

offered to the conditioned souls to come back home--back to Godhead.

All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by

material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship

to Visnu, or Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic

principles are to help us understand this eternal relation, as it is

stated in the Bhagavad-gita: vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah. The

Lord says that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the

Vedic hymns it is said: patim visvasyatmesvaram. Therefore, the Lord

of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam also (2.4.20) Srila Sukadeva Gosvami

describes the Lord as pati in so many ways:

 

sriyah patir yajna-patih praja-patir

dhiyam patir loka-patir dhara-patih

patir gatis candhaka-vrsni-satvatam

prasidatam me bhagavan satam patih

 

The praja-pati is Lord Visnu, and He is the Lord of all living

creatures, all worlds, and all beauties, and the protector of

everyone. The Lord created this material world to enable the

conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajnas (sacrifices) for the

satisfaction of Visnu, so that while in the material world they can

live very comfortably without anxiety and after finishing the present

material body they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the

whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajna, the

conditioned souls gradually become Krsna conscious and become godly in

all respects. In the Age of Kali, the sankirtana-yajna (the chanting

of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this

transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the

deliverance of all men in this age. Sankirtana-yajna and Krsna

consciousness go well together. Lord Krsna in His devotional form (as

Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.32) as

follows, with special reference to the sankirtana-yajna:

 

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam

sangopangastra-parsadam

yajnaih sankirtana-prayair

yajanti hi su-medhasah

 

"In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence

will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by

performance of sankirtana-yajna." Other yajnas prescribed in the Vedic

literatures are not easy to perform in this Age of Kali, but the

sankirtana-yajna is easy and sublime for all purposes, as recommended

in Bhagavad-gita also (9.14).

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.