BG 4.3 – Understanding Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Giriraj Swami: Reading from Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter Four, “Transcendental Knowledge”

TEXT 3

sa evāyaṁ mayā te ‘dya
yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ
bhakto ‘si me sakhā ceti
rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam

TRANSLATION

That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.

COMMENT

In this verse, the Sanskrit word for “the science of the relationship with the Supreme” is “yoga.” In other words, Lord Krishna is teaching the science of yoga to Arjuna. “Yoga” literally means “to connect,” and, specifically, to connect with the Supreme. The Bhagavad-gītā is the basic textbook for all types of yoga, and the different types of yoga are meant to help living entities on different levels to come closer to the Supreme.

Most people in the world have the mentality of working, earning money, spending money, and enjoying. Working for the sake of enjoying is called “karma.” “Karma” literally means “work," or “action.” But according to the Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic scriptures, every action brings a reaction. Therefore, every living entity is bound in an interminable chain of actions and reactions. But the basic principle of karma is that if one engages in pious activities, or activities that are beneficial to one’s self and to others, one will reap material enjoyment, and if one engages in sinful activity, or activities that are harmful to one’s self and to others, one will reap material misery. Most people are attached to work, and therefore the first level of yoga is called “karma-yoga.” In karma-yoga one learns to give the fruits of one’s work, or a portion of the fruits of one’s work, to the Supreme—to God, or Krishna. And thus one begins to re-establish one’s relationship with God.

Out of many thousands of karmis, one will be a little more intelligent, and he will see that although one works in order to enjoy, the result is not always that one enjoys. In fact, quite often the result is that one suffers. So persons who are a little more intelligent, or who are frustrated in the attempt to enjoy in the world, come to the conclusion that fruitive work does not bring happiness, but to the contrary it brings misery. Therefore, by knowledge, they try to detach themselves from the process of fruitive work. They analyze the self and come to distinguish the self from the body, which is made of material elements, and to detach the self from the world, which is also made of material elements, and to bring the self, which is spiritual, in contact with the Supreme Spirit.

The process of knowledge I just described is called “jnana-yoga.” In the stage of jnana-yoga the yogi does not have a clear idea of who the Supreme is. He just has an idea that the Supreme is spiritual and that he, as a soul, as a spiritual being, should unite with the Supreme Spirit or the Supreme Soul.

More advanced than the jnana-yogis are the raja-yogis or aṣṭāṅga-yogīs. They have the same idea—that the soul is distinct from the body, that the body and the material world are foreign to the soul, and that the soul can only find peace and satisfaction in relation to the Supreme Soul. But the actual goal of raja-yoga or aṣṭāṅga-yoga is to meditate on the Supreme Soul in the form of the Lord in the heart. The yogis understand that the Supreme has a form and is located within the heart, and by the process of aṣṭāṅga-yoga they train the senses and the mind ultimately to meditate on the form of the Lord within the heart. Therefore the shastra [scripture] says that the goal of the yogis is to see the form of the Lord in the heart, and therefore the yogis are considered more advanced than the jnanis, because the jnanis just have an impersonal idea of the Supreme, and generally they want to merge and become one with the Supreme.

There are different stages in aṣṭāṅga-yoga. “Aṣṭāṅga” means the “eightfold process” of yoga, which culminates in dhyana, meditation, the seventh stage, and then samadhi, the perfection of meditation, or spiritual trance, when one is fully absorbed in meditation on the Lord without any distraction or deviation. But even higher than the aṣṭāṅga-yogīs are the bhakti-yogis, because they have the most complete realization of the Supreme.

The Supreme is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā:

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

“Kṛṣṇa, 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.”

If we look in the material world, we find a chain of cause and effect. In fact, modern science deals with this subject of cause and effect. Scientists try to trace what the original cause of the universe is. What is the original cause of life? The Brahma-saṁhitā says that Krishna is the cause of all causes. If we take a simple example, who caused us? Our parents caused us. And who caused our parents? Their parents caused them. And who caused their parents? Their parents caused them. So if you keep going further back to the original cause, you come to Krishna.

I was sorry to see the cover of the latest issue of Time magazine, which suggests that the original cause of the human being is an ape. But according to Vedic scriptures, the original cause of the human being is the Lord Himself: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. “Sat” means “eternity,” “cit” means “knowledge,” “ānanda” means “bliss,” and “vigraha” means “form.” So Krishna is the form or the embodiment or the personification of eternity, knowledge, and bliss.

The karma-yogis cannot realize God, but by karma-yoga they can gradually advance so they can become jnana-yogis or aṣṭāṅga-yogīs or ultimately bhakti-yogis. The jnana-yogis can realize the impersonal aspect of God, which is the eternal or the “sat” aspect, the spiritual effulgence from the transcendental form of the Lord. The aṣṭāṅga-yogīs, who realize the form of the Lord within the heart, realize the eternal feature of the Lord as well as the conscious or the “cit” feature of the Lord. They have knowledge of the form of the Lord, of the personality of Godhead. But it is only the bhakti-yogis who have complete realization of God ("sac-cid-ānanda") to the extent that they can see the Lord face-to-face. The Lord reveals Himself to them not just within the heart but standing before them. So again, according to the Bhagavad-gītā (and more elaborately stated in other scriptures like the Brahma-saṁhitā), the original Personality of Godhead is Krishna. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual form, and He lives in an eternal, blissful, spiritual world. He lives there not alone, but with all the liberated bhakti-yogis who have become eligible to go to His abode and live there with Him.

When our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, first came to America, to New York City, one newspaper reporter asked him what his mission was. He replied, “My mission is to teach people that God lives and we can live with Him.” So the supreme perfection of yoga is bhakti-yoga, and the supreme perfection of bhakti-yoga is to actually realize the Lord face-to-face and, upon leaving the body, enter into the abode of the Lord and live in one’s own spiritual form with the Lord and serve Him.

In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says that He Himself comes to earth from His spiritual kingdom for the benefit of the fallen souls, to give them knowledge of the science of yoga. And Lord Krishna’s direct instructions are recorded in the Bhagavad-gītā. As mentioned, the Bhagavad-gītā gives the essential knowledge for all of the different types of yoga: karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, and bhakti-yoga.

Here, in the important verse we just read, Lord Krishna is explaining to His student Arjuna why He chose Arjuna to be His first student. From other places in the Bhagavad-gītā, and from other Vedic literatures, we learn that Arjuna was not a renunciant. He was a married man. He was not a member of the priestly class, or the intellectual class, but a member of the administrative class, or the warrior class. So why, of all the people who were present on the planet then, did Lord Krishna choose Arjuna to be the first student in the science of yoga? Lord Krishna gives the answer here: bhakto ‘si me, because you are My devotee, sakhā ceti, and My friend. Now we will read Srila Prabhupada’s purport to the verse that I just introduced. I will read the translation again and then proceed to the purport.

“That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the mystery of this science.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

There are two classes of men, namely the devotee and the demon. The Lord selected Arjuna as the recipient of this great science owing to his being a devotee of the Lord, but for the demon it is not possible to understand this great mysterious science.

COMMENT

I should explain the word “demon.” “Demon” doesn’t necessarily mean a monster with ten heads. “Demon” means one who is against the supremacy of the Lord, one who is against the orders of the Lord, one who is envious of the Lord and the Lord’s devotees. Once, one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples wrote an article in the Back to Godhead magazine called “The Demons Among Us,” saying the same thing. In other words, as I mentioned, a demon isn’t necessarily a monster with fangs and scales or whatever. He can be well dressed, he can wear a suit and tie, he can conceivably give lectures in the university, but because his attitude is against the Lord he is in the category of a demon.

PURPORT (continued)

There are a number of editions of this great book of knowledge. Some of them have commentaries by the devotees, and some of them have commentaries by the demons. Commentation by the devotees is real, whereas that of the demons is useless. Arjuna accepts Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and any commentary on the Gītā following in the footsteps of Arjuna is real devotional service to the cause of this great science.

COMMENT

Arjuna is Lord Krishna’s first student of the science of yoga, and Lord Krishna explains that He chose Arjuna to be the first student because he is a devotee. So the first requisite for a student of Bhagavad-gītā is to be a devotee. No one can become a teacher, except for God, unless he or she becomes a student first. So how could one pretend to be an instructor in the science of yoga when one is not even qualified to be a student? We should accept Lord Krishna as Arjuna did, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

PURPORT (continued)

The demonic, however, do not accept Lord Kṛṣṇa as He is. Instead they concoct something about Kṛṣṇa and mislead general readers from the path of Kṛṣṇa’s instructions. Here is a warning about such misleading paths. One should try to follow the disciplic succession from Arjuna, and thus be benefited by this great science of Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā.

COMMENT

Just prior to the verse we read, Lord Krishna explained that He had originally imparted the knowledge of yoga to Vivasvan some millions of years earlier. Vivasvan instructed Manu, Manu instructed Ikṣvāku, and thus the knowledge was passed on from master to disciple, master to disciple, master to disciple, in an unbroken chain. But through the course of time the chain had become broken. The Lord detected the break in the chain and descended to earth to establish a new chain. And He chose Arjuna to be the first recipient of the knowledge in the new chain. Therefore, anyone who wants to understand the knowledge should be connected to the chain coming from Krishna to Arjuna. And one should accept the knowledge in the Bhagavad-gītā in the same spirit as Arjuna, who accepted Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the knowledge in the Bhagavad-gītā as perfect.

The modern academic attitude is a little different. The modern academic attitude is that one should question. One should not accept on faith, but one should think for oneself. The science of Krishna consciousness is not opposed to such intelligent inquiry. In fact, we invite people to examine the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, to ask questions, to air their doubts, to see if their questions are answered, and we also welcome people to experiment, to see if what the Bhagavad-gītā says actually works.

If we were to discuss the actual practices of bhakti-yoga we would require more time than we have now. But I can say that the most essential process in the practice of bhakti-yoga is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord, especially in the form of a mantra. Mantra is another Sanskrit word composed of two syllables. “Man” means “mind,” and “tra” is derived from the word that means “to deliver.” So by mantra, by repetition of a mantra, by meditation on a mantra, one’s mind is delivered from the illusions of the material world and ultimately brought in contact with the Supreme Soul. So the most essential, most important, and most efficacious of all the practices of bhakti-yoga is the practice of chanting a mantra composed of sacred syllables which constitute the holy names, or the divine names of God. And of all mantras, the greatest is called the maha-mantra. “Mahā” means “great.” The maha-mantra consists of three words arranged in a scientific way to form a combined total of sixteen words or names: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

By repeating the Hare Krishna maha-mantra one can actually become purified. One’s mind can be delivered from ignorance and illusion, and one can come in contact with the divine and actually experience spiritual happiness and release from material bondage.

So we invite people to examine the philosophy critically, test the validity of the claims experimentally, and then come to their own conclusion. But after examination, if one does come to the conclusion that the knowledge in the Bhagavad-gītā is in fact true, and that Krishna is in fact the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one will naturally surrender to Krishna and become His devotee. And then one does not argue. One may question for the sake of clarifying one’ s understanding, but one will not argue with Krishna or challenge Krishna. Because Arjuna had already come to the point of surrender to Krishna, Krishna chose him to receive the knowledge because he would be receptive. And not only would he be receptive, but he would be able to understand the knowledge.

So, we should not misunderstand that following in the footsteps of Arjuna means that one must blindly accept the knowledge given in the Bhagavad-gītā. Following in the footsteps of Arjuna means that one studies, questions, tests, and then decides. But it is only when one actually decides to accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead that the full extent of the Gītā’s knowledge can be revealed, because the goal of the Bhagavad-gītā is to realize God, and God will reveal Himself in proportion to the person’s surrender. Therefore, to the jnanis He reveals Himself as spiritual life, to the yogis He reveals Himself as the Lord within the heart, but to the devotee He reveals Himself in His full sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha.

So we will stop now and give you a chance to ask questions or to make comments.

Guest: Is a karma-yogi God conscious?

Giriraj Swami: Oh yes, a karma-yogi is God conscious because he is giving the fruit of his work to God. Yoga means to re-establish one’s relationship with God. So a karma-yogi is God conscious.

Guest: Okay. And they view God as a personality? There are the karma- and then the jnana-yogis. The jnanis are for recognizing the eternal nature of God?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, the impersonal feature of God.

Guest: The impersonal feature. Okay. My understanding was that to understand the personal feature of God was a higher level than the impersonal feature.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Guest: But then the jnanis are higher than the karmis?

Giriraj Swami: The jnani is higher than the karmi. But the karma-yogi who knows that God is a person is higher than a jnani who has only an impersonal conception of God.

Guest: Then in what way is jnana-yoga higher than karma-yoga?

Giriraj Swami: Not all karma-yogis know that God is a person. Some may have only a sense that God exists and so they sacrifice some of the fruits of their work for the sake of God. Then too there are different categories of karma-yogis. In the lower stage of karma-yoga the karma-yogi basically enjoys the fruits of his work but he gives some of his fruit to the Lord. That is called sakāma-karma-yoga, “with personal desire.” And then there is niṣkāma-karma-yoga, where the karma-yogi is still attached to a particular type of work but is ready to give all of the fruits of the work to God.

I can give an example. A farmer has a mango tree, and the mango tree produces one hundred mangoes, so he gives one mango to Krishna. That’s karma-yoga. But he is 99 percent in the mood of enjoying the mangoes and only 1 percent in the mood of sacrificing for Krishna. That’s not very advanced. So because he is 99 percent in the mood of enjoying, whereas the jnanis have given up the mood of enjoying, he is considered lower. But as he progresses and his material attachment slackens he may think, “Well, I don’t need ninety-nine. I will give ten to Krishna and keep ninety for myself.” Then he may come to the stage where he gives fifty to Krishna and keeps only fifty for himself. And when he comes to the stage of giving all hundred to Krishna, thinking, “Let me just give everything to Krishna and depend on Krishna, not worry about myself. I have faith that if I give everything to Krishna, Krishna will do whatever is best for me,” that’s niṣkāma-karma-yoga. No selfish desire. But it is still karma-yoga, because he is attached to a particular mode of work: growing mangoes. If Krishna were to say, “I want you to give up growing mangoes and teach the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā,” he would say, “No, I cannot do that. I can grow mangoes. I will give all the mangoes to You, but let me continue to grow mangoes.”

But bhakti-yoga means that if Krishna says, “I want you to give up your garden and preach the message of Bhagavad-gītā,” or, “Now I need someone to clean the floor of the temple; someone else can give class, you clean the floor of the temple,” and one does it, that’s bhakti. That is surrender.

Guest: How does one go about giving one’s things to the Lord? In this world it is hard to live without money. You’ve got to work, you’ve got to pay rent, you have all these sorts of things. How do you give them? Krishna doesn’t just show up, like, “Here’s Your mangoes.” How do you give what you have to the Lord? If someone is a musician or. . . whatever it is that they have to offer, how do they give that to Him? Is it just a matter of mentally: “This is for You,” and then. . . or. . .?

Giriraj Swami: To serve the Lord properly we have to know who the Lord is what the Lord wants. There are so many ways in which we can give to the Lord. On the most basic level we can cut the mango, put it on a plate, and offer it to a form of the Lord through a process. But as in everything, there are different gradations. Even among devotees there are different gradations. In the lower grade one can think only of the Lord, basically. And most religious people, if we were to see them in this perspective, are in the lower grade. But when one becomes more advanced, one can recognize the connection between the Lord and the devotees of the Lord. As Krishna says in the Ādi Purāṇa, “My dear Arjuna, one who claims to be My devotee is not My devotee, but one who is the devotee of My devotee is actually My devotee.”

Srila Prabhupada gives the example that if you meet a very rich man and you want to give him something, what can you give? He already has everything. But if you give even a little sweet to his grandson and his grandson becomes happy, automatically the rich man will be pleased. So the devotees are like the children of the Lord. Of course, everyone is. But they are the dear children, obedient and faithful. So if one gives something to a pure devotee and the pure devotee is pleased, the Lord is pleased. And a pure devotee will not take what you offer him and use it for his material enjoyment, because by definition he is beyond selfish enjoyment. By definition he wants to give everything for the service of the Lord. But the difference between a devotee and the new person who is just trying to become a devotee is that the experienced devotee knows what the Lord wants, and he knows how to use material things to serve the Lord. For example, our teacher, Srila Prabhupada, was a devotee, and he had a book fund. If any of his students wanted to give him a contribution, he would generally ask them to give the money to the book fund. Then he would give the money in the book fund to publish books like Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. That is giving the money to Krishna, for the service of Krishna. One who is not very much engaged in the direct service of Krishna can give the fruit of his work to the devotees who are more directly engaged. And they will engage it in Krishna’s service.

Guest: Could you do that by helping someone who is not in the movement or is not a devotee of Krishna? Could you go out and help a child on the street and that be in the service of Krishna? Or how does that work?

Giriraj Swami: There is more direct service and more indirect. And that would really be indirect. Technically it would be considered charity. And charity comes in the category of karma-kāṇḍa, which is a lower stage than karma-yoga.

[Break in tape recording]

Say you see a poor person on the street and you want to help the person. You could bring him to Sarvātmā’s free. . . oh, it is not free! Oh well, anyway. (laughter) I am sure that if you brought him to Sarvātmā’s, Sarvātmā would give the person prasādam, because prasādam is not ordinary food. That would come in the category of devotional service. Or you could do it yourself. You could give some prasādam to the person. And even if you gave the person some money and then the person—this is a subtle point—became a little attached to you, you could take the next step and then tell the person about Krishna consciousness and help the person. In Bombay the devotees built a hospital. In strict terms, to build a hospital is not devotional service. But the hospital is vegetarian, and all the food in the hospital is prasādam. When people come to the hospital, they meet devotees and develop relationships with the devotees who are doctors and nurses, administrative staff, and so on. Then the devotees, according to the receptivity of the person, can explain something of the Bhagavad-gītā. So although building a hospital is not directly devotional service, if it is used as a forum to bring people to Krishna consciousness, then it becomes devotional service.

Guest: I understand.

Giriraj Swami: Like you might have an apartment. An ordinary person will decorate the apartment for personal sense gratification. And a devotee can also decorate the apartment, but he is thinking, “I want to create a nice atmosphere so people will feel comfortable in the apartment and learn about Krishna more easily.” Often it is not the activity that determines whether something is devotional service or not, but it is the consciousness.

Guest: I have another question. I don’t know if now is the time, but when you mentioned that one should ultimately take Krishna’s advice on something, wholeheartedly accepting every single thing, I think you are referring to the scriptures. Is that correct? Is that how we know what Krishna wants?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Guest: Okay. And I am thinking (and I probably shouldn’t, but it’s in the back here sometimes,) that many religions make the same sorts of claims about scripture, divine revelation, disciplic succession and all these things. So I am curious, what is the difference of this scripture versus this scripture versus that scripture? It seems unfair to put one above another. Either we should see them all as perfect or all as at least

potentially. . .

Giriraj Swami: We are not concerned with what the tradition of the scripture is. We are concerned with the content of the scripture. Even within Vedic scriptures, some deal more with karma-yoga, some deal more with jnana-yoga, some deal more with aṣṭāṅga-yoga, and some deal more with bhakti-yoga. There is an element of bhakti in any bona fide scripture, and if one takes the essence of the scripture, which is bhakti, and develops one’s love for God, then one has reached the perfection of bhakti-yoga. But the test is, “Is the person actually developing his love for God or not?” And if he is, then very good: we don’t say that one should follow the Bhagavad-gītā, and not this scripture or that scripture. We just say that one should develop love for God.

We are offering the Bhagavad-gītā because it is very scientific. But that’s for you to decide; we are not going to tell you. Still, if you asked me personally why am I following the Bhagavad-gītā when it wasn’t my inherited tradition, I would say because it is more scientific, because it has a rational answer for every question. It is consistent. It is harmonious. But if someone has faith in another scripture, and by following the other scripture is developing love for God, then we fully accept the person and encourage the person and embrace the person.

Even if we say that the Bhagavad-gītā is the perfect scripture because it was spoken by God directly, and it is very systematic and scientific, someone who is reading the Bhagavad-gītā may not be as advanced in love of God as someone who is reading the Bible or the Koran or any other bona fide scripture. There are so many other variables. The individual who is reading the Bhagavad-gītā might not be as sincere as the individual who is reading the Bible or the Koran. We are offering the Bhagavad-gītā: It is spoken by God Himself. It is scientific. It is rational. It is consistent. But we are not saying that it is the only book that contains God’s words, or that it is the only book that can help one to develop love for God. It is our service here to make this knowledge available to people, but we do not say that one can develop love of God only if one follows the Bhagavad-gītā, or only if one chants Hare Krishna. We never say that.

We simply invite people to hear the Bhagavad-gītā and chant Hare Krishna. And if one is satisfied with the experience, he or she may continue. And if not, he may not. But we have tasted something nice, and we want to share it with all of you.

Thank you. Hare Krishna.