Srila Prabhupada speaks on: Hearing The Gita As Arjuna Did

January 25, 2008

" Hearing The Gita As Arjuna Did " Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.30Los Angeles, December 8, 1973 listen

Pradyumna: Translation: " Because of the Lord's pastimes and activities and because of His absence, it appeared that Arjuna forgot the instructions left by the Personality of Godhead. But factually this was not the case, and again he became lord of his senses. "

Prabhupada: Hmm. So here it is explained what is Bhagavad-gita. Gitam bhagavata. Bhagavata means " by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, " and gita means " spoken. " They say " sung, " you can say. But gita means " spoken by. " Therefore it is called Bhagavad-gita, " the instruction given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead personally. " Therefore it is called Bhagavad-gita.

Now Arjuna said that science was spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we read Bhagavad-gita, then we must follow the person of Arjuna, because Arjuna directly heard Bhagavad-gita from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And he says that this science, gitam bhagavata. So why there should be interpretation? Because the person who heard directly from Bhagavan, the Supreme Per..., he said that this is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So one who is hearing directly, he's saying something, but you are saying something. You have no right. This is called parampara system. The person who heard Bhagavad-gita directly from Krsna, whatever he says, that is to be accepted. You cannot interpret. This is the parampara system.

So if you want to understand Bhagavad-gita, then we must understand in the same way as the person who directly heard from. This is called parampara system. Suppose I have heard something from my spiritual master, so I speak to you the same thing. So this is parampara system. You cannot imagine what my spiritual master said. Or even if you read some books, you cannot understand unless you understand it from me. This is called parampara system. You cannot jump over to the superior guru, neglecting the next acarya, immediate next acarya. Just like our, this Gau..., Caitanya Mahaprabhu's cult; we cannot understand Caitanya Mahaprabhu directly. It is not possible. We have to understand through the Gosvamis. Therefore you'll find in the Caitanya-caritamrta and at the end of every chapter, the writer says,

sri-rupa-ragunatha-pade yara asacaitanya-caritamrta kahe krsna-dasa

This is the process. He does not say that " I've understood Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu directly. " No. That is not understanding. That is foolishness. You cannot understand what is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore repeatedly he says, rupa-ragunatha-pade... " I am that Krsna dasa, Kaviraja, who is always under the subordination of the Gosvamis. " This is parampara system. Similarly, Narottama dasa Thakura also says, ei chay gosai jar mui tar das, " I am servant of that person who has accepted this six Gosvamis as his master. I am not going to be servant of any other person who does not accept the way and means of... " Therefore we say or we offer our prayer to our spiritual master, rupanuga-varaya te, rupanuga-varaya te, because he follows Rupa Gosvami, therefore we accept, spiritual master. Not that one has become more than Rupa Gosvami or more than... No. Tandera carana-sebi-bhakta-sane vas. This is the parampara system.

Now here, the same thing is repeated: Arjuna, who directly heard from Krsna. Sometimes some people say that " Arjuna heard directly from Krsna, but we don't find Krsna in our presence, so how can I accept? " It is not a question of direct presence, because you have no idea of the absolute knowledge. Krsna's words, Bhagavad-gita, is not different from Krsna. It's not different from Krsna. When you hear Bhagavad-gita, you are directly hearing from Krsna because Krsna is not different. Krsna is absolute. Krsna, Krsna's name, Krsna's form, Krsna's quality, Krsna's instruction, everything Krsna's, they're all Krsna. They're all Krsna. This has to be understood. They're not different from Krsna. Therefore Krsna's form here, He's Krsna. He's not a statue. " He's a marble statue. " No. He's Krsna. He has appeared before you because you cannot see Krsna. You can see stone, wood; therefore He has appeared in that form. You think that it is stone and wood, but He's not stone and wood; He's Krsna. This is called Absolute Truth. Similarly, Krsna's words are also not different from Krsna. When Krsna's words are there in the Bhagavad-gita, it's Krsna.

Just like the South Indian brahmana. As soon as he opened his... He was illiterate, he could not read Bhagavad-gita. But his Guru Maharaja said that " You shall read every day eighteen chapters of Bhagavad-gita. " So he was puzzled, that " I'm illiterate, I cannot... All right, take me the..., the Bhagavad-gita. " So he was in a Ramanatha temple. He took the Bhagavad-gita and went like this. He could not read. So his friends who knew him, they were joking, " Well, brahmana, how you are reading Bhagavad-gita? " He did not answer because he knew that his friends are " Joking me because I do not know... I'm illiterate. " But when Caitanya Mahaprabhu came, he was also puzzled, " Brahmana, you are reading Bhagavad-gita? " He said, " Sir, I am illiterate. I cannot read. It is not possible. But my Guru Maharaja ordered me to read. What can I do? I've taken this book. " This is trying follow guru's word. He's illiterate. He cannot read. There is no possibility. But his Guru Maharaja ordered, " You must read Bhagavad-gita daily, eighteen chapters. " Now what is this? This is called vyavasayatmika buddhih. I may be quite incomplete. It doesn't matter. But if I try to follow the words of my Guru Maharaja, then I become complete.

This is the secret. Yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau [sU 6.23]. If one has strong faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and as much faith in the guru, yatha deve tatha gurau, then the revealed scriptures become manifest. It is not the education. It is not the scholarship. It is faith in Krsna and guru. Therefore Caitanya-caritamrta says guru-krsna-krpaya paya bhakti-lata-bija [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. Not by education, not by scholarship, never says. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, guru-krsna-krpaya, by the mercy of guru, by the mercy of Krsna. It is a question of mercy. It is not a question of scholarship or opulence or richness. No. The whole bhakti-marga depends on the mercy of the Lord. So we have to seek the mercy. Athapi te deva padambuja-dvaya-prasada-lesanugrhita eva hi, janati tattvam... Prasada-lesa, lesa means fraction. One who has received a little fraction of mercy of the Supreme, he can understand. Others, na canya eko 'pi ciram vicinvan. Others, they may go on speculating for millions of years. It is not possible to understand. So Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Therefore we are presenting because we are presenting Bhagavad-gita as it was understood by Arjuna. We do not go to Dr. Radhakrishnan, this scholar, that scholar, this rascal, that ra... No. We do not go. That is not our business. That is parampara.

So Arjuna here says, bhagavata, " What I heard from that personality, Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavan. " Bhagavan means full of six opulences. I've described it many times. So here is the direct hearer, listener. He says bhagavata. How you can say that Krsna is not Bhagavan -- ordinary person? How you can say? One who heard the message, he says directly. This is called parampara system. This is called parampara. Evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh [bg. 4.2]. So if we understand Bhagavad-gita, as Krsna..., as Arjuna understood. that is perfect. That is Bhagavad-gita As It Is. And if you try to understand Bhagavad-gita as some rascal commentator says, then you are reading somebody else; rubbish. There's no meaning. You're simply wasting your time. He may be such scholar, such big politician, like this. In our country, big politician, they have commented; big, big yogis, they have commented; big, big scholars they have... They're all useless. Take it: useless. If you read such commentary of Bhagavad-gita, it is simply waste of time. If you actually want to study Bhagavad-gita, then as Arjuna understands. Arjuna directly listened from Krsna.

So in Bhagavad-gita Arjuna says, after understanding Bhagavad-gita from Krsna, he said, " You are Parabrahma. " Param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan [bg. 10.12]. Bhavan. Bhavan means " Your Lordship. " " You are Parabrahma, the Supreme Brahma. " He's the Supreme Brahma. Brahma means spirit and brahma means the greatest. So he has explicitly explained that spirit soul, we are all spirit soul, every one of us. But He is the supreme spirit soul, param. Param means the supreme. He's not ordinary. So He comes as ordinary, not ordinary, as human being, but He is the supreme human being. That is the difference. Supreme human being. But one who cannot understand, one who thinks, " Oh, Krsna is like us. He has got also two hands, two legs, one head. We have got also. He is like me, " he is a mudha, rascal. Therefore it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, avajananti mam mudhah: " These rascal fools, they deride. " Manusim tanum as... Param bhavam ajanantah, " They have no knowledge of the param bhavam. " So the param bhavam, that is understood by the devotees. That is the difference. Budha bhava-samanvitah, Krsna has said. Budha bhava-samanvitah. Param bhavam, this bhava... Bhava means assimilation -- " Oh, Krsna is so great. " This is called bhava. That is real understanding, when you understand really this bhava stage. Bhava-bhakti. Bhava-bhakti. Simply engaged in Krsna's service. Param bhavam. Person who has not come to this stage of bhava, he cannot understand Krsna. Param bhavam ajanantah. The bhava stage comes.

Everyone can attain that bhava stage. There is process. This process is described by Rupa Gosvami how to come to the bhava stage. Bhava stage means just prior to perfection. One must come to the bhava stage, next stage is perfection. Next stage is full perfection. So how to come to this bhava stage, that is Rupa Gosvami has described, adau sraddha. First of all little faith. Just like many outsider also come here, " What these people are doing, these Krsna consciousness men? So let us see. " So sraddha. That is called sraddha. Sraddha, real sraddha means complete faith. That is described by Caitanya-caritamrta. Sraddha-sabde visvasa kahe sudrdha niscaya. One who has got this much faith, strong faith, that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this faith, not flickering, firm faith, " Yes, Krsna is the Supreme Personality... " That is called sraddha. That is beginning of sraddha. If you have got still doubt, then you have not come to the stage of sraddha even. Superfluous. You may come, but when you actually believe that " Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and if I engage myself in Krsna's service, I am perfect " -- two things -- that is sraddha. And the more you increase this sraddha you become advanced. The beginning is this sraddha. Adau sraddha.

So how this sraddha, this faith can be increased? Sadhu-sanga. If you keep yourself associated with the devotees, then this sraddha can be increased. If you simply believe, " Yes, Krsna is Supreme Personality, " but you do not live with the sadhus or devotee, then it will drop. It will finish. So just to keep the standard, the temperature right, you must keep always yourself warm. If you go away, then your (indistinct) is gone. Again you become cold. You see. This is the process. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sangah. Everything is perfect. The first thing is that you must believe that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yes. And to keep this faith strong and going on, you must keep association with devotees. Otherwise whatever little faith you got, it will be lost. It become again under the clutches of maya. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sangah. And if you actually associate with sadhu, then the next stage is bhajana-kriya, initiation, how to worship Krsna. Then anartha-nivrttih syat. If you are actually engaged in devotional service, anartha, which are not required, things will vanish. Just like we ask our students, " No illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating. " Simply by hearing it you cannot follow it. It is not possible. If you make bhajana-kriya, if you're actually following -- chanting sixteen rounds -- then you can follow the others. Otherwise, if you are spiritually weak, you cannot. The government is spending so much money to stop this intoxication, LSD, in your country. They're all failure. But here, with our pure association, a person can give up immediately. Just see how much the association is strong. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu..., bhajana-kriya. Anartha.

Then after one is free from these sinful activities, then he comes to the understanding stage. So long one is sinful, he has no possibility of understanding. Yesam tv anta-gatam papam. One who is completely free from all sinful activities, anta-gatam, finished, yesam tv anta-gatam papam jananam punya-karmanam. And how you can become free from sinful activities unless you act piously? Because we must have some engagement. If you have no pious engagement, then you cannot become free from sinful activities. You must act. If you do not act piously, then you must act viciously. This is the way. The Mayavadi philosopher, they simply wants to stop impious activities. But they do not engage themselves in pious activities. Therefore they fail. They fail. You must have side by side. Param drstva nivartate. If you get something better, then you can give up inferior. But if you do not get better, you cannot give up the inferior. That is not possible.

So you can give up this impious activities provided you are engaged fully in devotional service. Otherwise it is not possible. Simply by moral instruction, that " Stealing is very bad. Don't steal, " nobody likes it. Nobody likes it. It is practical. One man has stolen, and he's arrested and he's going to the police custody. So everyone has seen, and he has heard also that the government says that if you steal, you'll be punished. In the Bible or in any other religious scripture it is said that stealing is not good. So he has heard it, and he has seen it that a man who has stolen, he is going to jail. So these two things are experienced: hearing and seeing. In spite of all his experience, why does he steal? Because he has no good association. He knows that stealing is bad; otherwise why he steals at night? Nobody can see. He knows he is doing some bad thing. But why he cannot give up that bad thing? Because he's not associating with good person. That is it.

So association is so... Therefore we have named this Krsna Consciousness Society. Not Krsna consciousness only. Krsna Consciousness Society. A society's so beneficial we should understand. So, in this way, atha bhajana-kriya anartha-nivrttih syat. If we prosecute our devotional activities and keep our association with the devotees, then we can be free from sinful activities. And when you are completely free from sinful activities, then we get nistha. Yes, it is full faith. Nistha means full faith. Tato nistha. Tato rucih. Ruci means taste. Why you are hearing about Krsna daily, the same thing? We are speaking nothing new. " Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and you have to surrender. " This is our daily business. But why you are coming to see..., hear the same hackneyed words? Because it is very pleasing. This is called ruci, taste, " Yes, I want to hear this repeatedly. Yes. Krsna is the Supreme Lord, I am the eternal servant. " You have got a taste. Unless one gets the taste, then you'll say, " What is this hackneyed word? " Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, twenty-four hours you can chant because you have got the taste. Others cannot do. This is called ruci. And ruci means asakti, attraction: " I must go. I must chant. I must do. " Tato nistha, tato rucih, atha asaktih. Tato bhavah. Then bhava: " Ah, Krsna. I will associate with Krsna. Then Krsna's love, that is perfection. "

So those who are not attained to this stage, first stage is how to become free from sinful ac..., anartha. Anartha you don't require, but you are habituated. And maya is so strong, you don't require to smoke, but the maya is advertising, " Here is one cool cigarette, or this hot cigarette, or this... " This is called maya. You don't require it. It has no existence. There is no pleasure, but still you are attached to it. That is called maya, illusion. That is called illusion. So we have got so friend, so nice friends all over the world, that we... You do not require... They are simply illurimous(?), " Here is whisky, here is this wine, here is that wine, here is this woman, here is this illicit sex, here is this cigarette, here is meat-eating, here is... " This is going on.

So therefore this Krsna consciousness movement is the only humanitarian work who can save the human society. All are helping them to go to hell. This is a fact. All are helping simply... So many innocent human beings are being slaughtered by education, by culture, by so-called society, friendship... It is very vicious cycle. Therefore here it is said, Krsna sai... Arjuna said, yatha..., sangrama-murdhani, kala-karma-tamo-ruddham. This nice instruction of Bhagavad-gita becomes choked up by the time, kala. The time, you know, everyone, time's business is to destroy. You construct very nice house -- ten years or, say, five years after, you have to again replace it because the time has destroyed it, so many things. The time..., time destroys. This is the business of time, kala. And karma, our karma, because we are always engaged in sinful activities, karma. Kala, karma, and tamas, ignorance. Ignorance. Tamas means darkness, and the symptom of tamo-guna is laziness and sleep. Those who are lazy and sleeping, you must know he's under the influence of tamo-guna. And rajo-guna, always acting foolishly. Just like these people are running. They're rajo-guna. But actually in this world there are two gunas -- rajas and tamas, ignorance and foolishly active. Foolish active is very dangerous. There are four classes: lazy intelligent, busy intelligent, lazy foolish, and active foolish. The active foolish is a fourth-class man. So at the present moment they're very active, but they're all foolish. Therefore the world is in danger. Active foolishness. Foolish, if he stops, he does not work, it is better. But as soon as he becomes active he becomes more dangerous.

So this rajas-tamo-bhava is prominent. There is no sattva-guna, goodness. It is very rare. The symptom of goodness is that he can see everything right. That is goodness. Prakasa. Just like in sunshine you can see everything clearly. Similarly, one who sees clearly things as they are, they are in the goodness, mode of goodness. There are three modes of the material nature. One who's acting foolishly, he's in rajo-guna, and one who does not know what is the meaning of life, simply laziness and darkness, that is tamo-guna. So those who are in the tamo-guna, jaghanya-guna-vrtti-stha adho gacchanti tamasah. So they will go to the again to the animal kingdom. They'll go again animal kingdom. Rajo-guna may have their human birth again, but that is also very difficult. But if you stay in the sattva-guna, then your life is successful even if you do not get Krsna in this life; you'll get next life if you keep yourself sattva-guna. Urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah, they will gradually be promoted to the higher planetary system or in the spiritual world.

Therefore we are trying to keep ourselves, our students always in the sattva-guna. Cleanliness, sattva..., to remain a brahmana. If you remain a brahmana then you'll not fall down. You'll not fall down. Otherwise, if you remain in tamo-guna, then you are going to be next animal. This is the process of nature. You cannot check. You may be very great scientist, but you cannot check the process of nature. That is not... Daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya. That is not possible. That is natural. I've given the instance that if you contaminate some poisonous disease you must suffer. That is natural way. Not that why you shall suffer. No, you must suffer because you are already contaminated. Therefore the contamination of the material world is going on, sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamo-guna. If you contaminate with the tamo-guna, then you must suffer. If you contaminate rajo-guna, you must get disease. That is not in your hand. You cannot say. But people are so foolish they do not know how nature is working. They're puffed up with little knowledge and thinking they're master of the thing. That is not possible.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! Hari bol! (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.30 -- Los Angeles, December 8, 1973

-- ChantHare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare II Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare II

--is the sublime method for reviving our Krsna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but due to our asociation with matter since time immemorial, our consciousness is now poluted by material atmosphere. In this polluted concept of life, we are all trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in our complexities. This illusion is called Maya, or hard struggle for existence over the stringent laws of material nature. This illusory struggle against the material nature can at once be stopped by revival of our Krsna consciousness.

And Be Happy