BG 4.2

Giriraj Swami: Today, we shall read from Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter Four, Transcendental Knowledge, Text Two.

TEXT 2

evaṁ paramparā-prāptam
imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ
sa kāleneha mahatā
yogo naṣṭaḥ paran-tapa

TRANSLATION

This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

It is clearly stated that the Gītā was especially meant for the saintly kings because they were to execute its purpose in ruling over the citizens. Certainly Bhagavad-gītā was never meant for the demonic persons, who would dissipate its value for no one’s benefit and would devise all types of interpretations according to personal whims. As soon as the original purpose was scattered by the motives of the unscrupulous commentators, there arose the need to reestablish the disciplic succession. Five thousand years ago it was detected by the Lord Himself that the disciplic succession was broken, and therefore He declared that the purpose of the Gītā appeared to be lost. In the same way, at the present moment also there are so many editions of the Gītā (especially in English), but almost all of them are not according to authorized disciplic succession. There are innumerable interpretations rendered by different mundane scholars, but almost all of them do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, although they make a good business on the words of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This spirit is demonic, because demons do not believe in God but simply enjoy the property of the Supreme. Since there is a great need of an edition of the Gītā in English, as it is received by the paramparā (disciplic succession) system, an attempt is made herewith to fulfill this great want. Bhagavad-gītā – accepted as it is – is a great boon to humanity; but if it is accepted as a treatise of philosophical speculations, it is simply a waste of time.

COMMENT

So, the process of receiving transcendental knowledge is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. The knowledge is given and the process for receiving the knowledge is also given. Srila Prabhupada gives the example that when you buy some medicine, there are directions on the bottle or in the package that explain how to take the medicine. So, the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā is like medicine for the diseased condition in the material world. And the Gītā itself tells us how to take the medicine. How to take the medicine is explained in the present verse. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam, we should receive the knowledge through the line of disciplic succession.

In the previous verse, Lord Krishna said:

TEXT 1

imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ
proktavān aham avyayam
vivasvān manave prāha
manur ikṣvākave ‘bravīt

TRANSLATION

The Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 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.

COMMENT

So, the original speaker of Bhagavad-gītā is the Lord Himself, and He instructs the knowledge to at least one direct student, who in turn instructs the same knowledge to his student, who in turn instructs the same knowledge to his student, and thus the same knowledge is passed down through disciplic succession. But over the course of time, the connection became broken. Instead of the knowledge being received by proper devotees and transmitted by proper devotees, the knowledge fell into the hands of non-devotees, or demons, who did not present the knowledge as it is.

Earlier in the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna explained, and again later, why He spoke the knowledge to Arjuna. And He tells Arjuna bhakto ‘si me sakhā ceti, “Because you are My devotee and My dear friend, I am instructing the knowledge unto you.”

So, the qualification for receiving the knowledge is to be a devotee in the line of disciplic succession, but when the knowledge is taken by unscrupulous non-devotees or demons and interpreted according to the whims of the commentator, then the original knowledge becomes lost. So, five thousand years ago, Krishna detected that the original knowledge of the Gītā as He explained it to Vivasvan had been lost. And therefore, the Lord Himself spoke the same knowledge again to Arjuna.

In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says that He is the father of all living entities, and as the Supreme Father, He desires the welfare of all of His children, in all species of life. He gives His instructions to His children in the Gītā so that they can be happy in the present life in the material world, and after leaving the body, they can return back home, back to Godhead, back to the spiritual world.

So, Lord Krishna is very kind to the living entities, and when He sees that the most important knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā is lost to them, He comes again and presents the same knowledge again so that His children can take advantage of the knowledge and come back to Him, back to their original spiritual home.

As Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport, the same phenomenon can take place at any time, and especially in recent times, as Kali-yuga has progressed and people have become more degraded, there have been more demons who have taken the Gītā and misused it. In other words, they have used the Gītā to present their own ideas, against the will of the Lord.

Srila Prabhupada says that such a mentality is demonic. Why? Because such unscrupulous commentators taking the property of the Lord for themselves, and here we think of the great demon Ravana. Ravana took Sita, who was the property of the Lord, the consort of the Lord, and he wanted to enjoy her, or use her for his own purposes, and the result was that he and his entire dynasty were vanquished.

So, the property of the Lord is meant for the service of the Lord. It is not meant to be ceased by demons and used by demons for their own purposes. But there are many people who use the Gītā for their own purposes, and thus, innocent people are misled, as to the real purpose of the Gītā. So, in order to save the innocent people from such unscrupulous commentators, the Lord Himself appears from time to time, or He sends His representative, or empowers His representative to give the correct understanding of transcendental knowledge.

Today is an especially auspicious day because it is the appearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, who is one of the great acharyas in the disciplic succession. We are coming in the disciplic succession from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is called the Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradāya, and in the disciplic succession, Krishna imparted the knowledge to Brahma, Brahma imparted the knowledge to Narada, Narada imparted the knowledge to Vyasa, Vedavyasa, Vyasa imparted the knowledge to Madhvacharya, and thus the knowledge was passed down through disciplic succession, until finally it came to Madhavendra Puri. Madhavendra Puri instructed the same knowledge to Isvara Puri, and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was pleased to accept Isvara Puri as His spiritual master.

Now, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself, and as such, He Himself has the authority to start His own disciplic succession, which is Krishna’s disciplic succession, because He is Krishna Himself. And in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami writes that just as Lord Krishna imparted knowledge within the heart of Lord Brahma, similarly, Lord Chaitanya imparted knowledge in the heart of Srila Sanatana Gosvami. But because Lord Chaitanya was playing the part of a human being, He wanted to set the example for us that each and every one of us requires a spiritual master. And therefore, to show the example to us, He accepted Isvara Puri as His spiritual master, although He Himself is the spiritual master of all the worlds, He is Lord Krishna Himself. And Lord Chaitanya instructed transcendental knowledge to Srila Sanatana Gosvami, and Srila Rupa Gosvami, and others.

In fact, we now have the translation of Srila Sanatana Gosvami’s Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, which was one of the most important books of Krishna consciousness, translated into English and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Then, the Six Gosvamis, headed by Sanatana Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami, who were actually the senior Gosvamis, they passed on the knowledge to Jiva Gosvami, and from the Gosvamis also, the knowledge passed to Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, and again, through disciplic succession, to Jagannatha dasa Babaji and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was in turn the spiritual master, śikṣā-guru of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was the spiritual master of our spiritual master—His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

So, Srila Prabhupada explains that it is the nature of anything in the material world to deteriorate. If you build a house, it may be very well constructed and very well appointed, but in the course of time, it will age and deteriorate. You will have to repair the house; it cannot remain in the same condition. And eventually, the house will become so old that you will have to tear it down and build another house, you or future generations. So, the same things happen with transcendental knowledge, by the course of time, its original strength becomes lost, as unfit persons receive it. And therefore, the Lord or His representative will come and re-establish the proper knowledge.

So, after the disappearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the different lines of knowledge coming from Him, some people took the knowledge and again misused it. And there were so many groups after the disappearance of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that claimed to be followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but actually, they were not proper followers. And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he listed about nine deviant groups who claimed to be followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but who were not proper followers.

The same thing has happened after the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada. There are many, maybe not many, but there are some individuals or groups that claim to be following Srila Prabhupada, but they have different ideas. And therefore, we require guidance to help us understand who is truly representing Srila Prabhupada and who is not.

So, the same situation occurred in the nineteenth century, there were so many so-called followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who were doing all sorts of things in the name of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, and they were bringing a bad name to Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura studied various scriptures of the world, not just Vedic literatures, and he also studied many Vedic scriptures, and after a thorough and detailed study, he came to the conclusion that the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, as recorded in books like Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta by Sanatana Gosvami, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by Rupa Gosvami, Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, that such books contained the essence of transcendental knowledge. They represented the highest and most elaborate discussion of theology of any scriptures of the world.

And he also concluded that the chanting of the holy names of the Lord was the best method to realize God, or to become God conscious or Krishna conscious, in the modern age. And he envisioned that very soon, an individual would come, who would fulfill the desire and prediction of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that the chanting of the holy names would spread to every town and village of every country of the world. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had predicted pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma,sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma, that in every town in village of every country of the world, His name or Krishna’s name would be preached and sung.

So, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, some 350 years later, envisioned that very soon, the day will come when devotees from England and America and Russia and Japan will come to Sri Mayapur dhāma and join with the Bengali Vaishnavas or Gaudiya Vaishnavas and chant Hare Krishna. Haribol!

And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s prediction was fulfilled, as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction was fulfilled by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. So, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he re-established the teachings of Lord Chaitanya in the proper way. And he inaugurated many programs, which had been carried down through disciplic succession to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, to Srila Prabhupada, and now to us.

We cannot discuss each of the programs in detail, although such a discussion would be worthwhile, but at least we can mention them. Of course, first, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura wanted that the holy name should spread all over the world. He wanted that the teachings of Lord Chaitanya should spread all over the world. He wrote one book called Lord Chaitanya: Life and Precepts, which he sent to universities and libraries all over the world, that was in 1896, the year of Srila Prabhupada’s birth.

He also established nāma-haṭṭa. Nāma-haṭṭa means the marketplace of the holy name literally. And nāma-haṭṭa in essence means that householder devotees, not only practice Krishna consciousness, but they also can preach Krishna consciousness. They can invite people to their homes, have hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, have kṛṣṇa-kathā, and distribute kṛṣṇa-prasāda, or they can join with the devotees in the temple to spread the message of Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the holy name of Sri Krishna. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura himself wrote many books and poems. He started one magazine.

And the same mood, the same process has continued through disciplic succession, through Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada also wrote books in English, and he emphasized the distribution of books, as one of the most important means to disseminate the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā and Krishna consciousness. He also founded Back to Godhead magazine. So, the same knowledge is being passed down through disciplic succession. The same knowledge that began with Krishna, most recently five thousand years ago, when He spoke Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, and the same knowledge presented for us in Kali-yuga by Sri Krishna Chaitanya just five hundred years ago, and passed through disciplic succession, through great acharyas like Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada’s disciples are distributing the same knowledge, and continuing the same mission.

So, we have a great opportunity to receive the knowledge through disciplic succession and apply it in our lives, and we also have a great responsibility having come in touch with the disciplic succession to carry on the work of the previous acharyas. So, we are glad to see, so many of you are here, hearing the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and therefore, we feel that Srila Prabhupada’s desire and the desire of his predecessors is being fulfilled to some extent. But we should not be complacent, we should not feel that we are doing enough. We should always feel that we should be doing more, we should be doing better, and actually, we should be.

And therefore, especially on an auspicious occasion like today, we should offer our humble obeisances to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and express our appreciation to him for all that he has done for us. It was actually he who specifically began the effort to preach Krishna consciousness outside India, all over the world. And therefore, we are benefiting directly from his efforts here. And we should pray to him to help us to become better devotees, to chant the holy name with more sincerity, more faith, and more humility, and pray to him also to help us in our efforts to bring others to Krishna consciousness, and our efforts to fulfill his desire and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s desire that the whole world be blessed by Krishna consciousness.

Every day, we read of more calamities in the newspapers, the situation is getting worse and worse; wars, crime, corruption, and natural disturbances also. So, we cannot think that we can be very peaceful or happy in the material world. The material world is a dangerous place, and our only real shelter is Lord Krishna.

So, we should take shelter of Lord Krishna, as He instructs us in the Gītā, but we should take shelter of Him through the method that He gives us, and that is that we don’t take shelter of Him directly. I mean, ultimately, we do take shelter of Him, but we take shelter of Him by taking shelter of His devotees or His representatives like Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and we follow Krishna’s instructions by following their instructions, which again are coming from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to us through them. And that is especially to chant the holy names and to distribute transcendental knowledge.

So, we will be chanting the holy names very soon, and we can have a little discussion now, if any of you have any questions or comments, and then we will proceed for more chanting.

So, are there any questions or comments? Yes?

Devotee: Maharaja, how does the disciple know that his master is not deviating from the knowledge that was given by his master in the disciplic succession?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, he asks how does the disciple know that his spiritual master is not deviating from the knowledge he has received?

Well, the first thing is whether the person is coming in a bona fide disciplic succession from Krishna. Because there are sort of disciplic successions that do not begin with Krishna. When I was a student, I read the Autobiography of a Yogi. He had his guru, his guru had his guru, and his guru had his guru, and the whole thing began with his guru in a cave. It did not begin with Krishna.

So, there are many traditions, even within India, where the person who began the tradition is not authorized to begin the tradition, only God is authorized to begin the disciplic succession because only God has all knowledge, only God has perfect knowledge, we don’t, we can’t. We can only receive the perfect knowledge and the complete knowledge from God through disciplic succession. And then if you know what Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, then you can see, is the person who is supposed to be representing Krishna or serving Krishna following the instructions given in the Bhagavad-gītā? And then, you can know whether he is a devotee or not, whether he is a servant of Krishna or not, or a competitor to Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:53:35]

Giriraj Swami: Well, he says that if disciplic succession begins from Krishna, why is there more than one? And then he says now there is more than one, they fight with each other.

Well, as I mentioned, Krishna is the Supreme Father, and He has instructed more than one of His children. In fact, there are four disciplic successions: one begins with Brahma, one begins with Shiva, one begins with Lakshmi, and one begins with the four Kumaras. Therefore, we have the Brahma sampradāya, and the main acharya there is Madhvacharya. Then we have the Rudra sampradāya, where Nimbarkacharya is the prominent acharya. We have the Sri sampradāya, where Ramanujacharya is the prominent acharya, and we have the Kumara sampradāya. But although there may be some differences in details, we accept all four sampradāyas as bona fide, and we actually don’t quarrel with them.

The quarrel is with the people who are not really in any bona fide sampradāya like the Mayavadis, or the pseudo incarnations that say they are God. And we do have to fight—like Krishna tells Arjuna, “You have to fight,” so we also have to fight, but we don’t fight with other Vaishnava sampradāyas, but we do fight with demigod worshipers, and impersonalists, and materialists, mundane scientists, other types of speculators, demons.

Are there any other questions? Was that all right? How many children do you have?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:56:34]

Giriraj Swami: No, all right. Did you have children? How many? Three? So, did you share your knowledge with only one of them or with all?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:56:47]

Giriraj Swami: Well, it may not be so different. Did you share your knowledge with just one, and say that there is only one and everyone should follow the one? No, you gave to all of them. So, okay, you are saying you are limited, you have limited knowledge, and you have limited children, but you did not deprive any one of your direct knowledge.

So, Krishna is unlimited and He has unlimited children, but still, He does not limit Himself to only one. The Christians say Jesus is the only way, but we don’t say that. Krishna is God and surrender to Krishna is the only way, but we don’t say that you can surrender to Krishna only through Brahma sampradāya, because we know from shastra there is also Sri sampradāya, and Kumara sampradāya, and Rudra sampradāya. So, we have to be tolerant. But in a way, the Gaudiya sampradāya is special, because in the Gaudiya sampradāya, Krishna Himself, Krishna Chaitanya, came. God Himself came and showed us how to worship God, but even then, Lord Chaitanya had many disciples and they have their lines, and that’s the Lord’s mercy. Even if there was only one line, it does not mean there wouldn’t be quarreling, because even then there would be people outside the line who would be arguing that they know better and people should follow them.

So, as long as we are in the material world, there will be quarrel, and especially Kali-yuga means quarrel. But we should be fighting for Krishna, that is our credit, and that is our glory. We should not be fighting against Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:59:30]

Giriraj Swami: Well, they are not in one of the four Vaishnava sampradāyas. But they do accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we encourage them to chant the holy names of God. In almost every religious tradition, actually, in every religious tradition, they do chant the name of God, or praise the name of God. So, we don’t tell Christians, “You have to convert and become Hindus,” but we say, “You remain Christian, but you chant the name of God, you can chant the name of Jesus.” There are Christian traditions that chant the name of Jesus. We say, “Chant the name of God and follow the orders of God.”

The Bible says, “Thou shall not kill.” But as Srila Prabhupada says, but it is not only the Christians, but still, the Christians have become very expert at killing. They are expert at killing each other, expert in killing other people of other nations, expert at killing cows.

So, we don’t have any complaints against the Hindus, or Muslims, or Christians. The complaint is that they don’t follow their scriptures. If they chant the holy name and follow their scriptures, especially beginning with the commandment, “Thou shall not kill,” then we are very happy. We are not trying to convert anyone, but rather, we say, “If you add the chanting of God’s name, add the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, you will become a better Christian, or a better Hindu, or a better Muslim.”

But, I mean, everyone has become an expert in killing now, I don’t mean to say just the Christians, everyone wants to become an expert at killing. The idea is that people who follow or who are supposed to follow a particular scripture like the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, should actually follow. That’s the idea. “Thou shall not kill.” Now they have translated it, since recent years, they have said, “Thou shall not murder,” but when I grew up, it said, “Thou shall not kill.” So, that way, there is a general deterioration of religious values all over the world.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:03:03]

Giriraj Swami: Well, I must admit, I haven’t really studied the Bible or the Quran, so I can’t say if they say that you should kill people who follow other religions. Well, I take your word for it. But I have met many Muslims and Christians, and they did not feel that it was their religious duty to kill me, fortunately. So, I can’t really comment. Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:04:37]

Giriraj Swami: He says it is very difficult not to kill, and what he said is true. There is one community in India, the Jain community, who wants to avoid killing. So, they don’t light fire after sunset because they feel insects will be consumed in the fire. And the strict Jains, they wear masks on their faces so that they don’t breathe in any germs that they might kill, and they sweep the road in front of them as they walk, so that they don’t step on any insect. But the fact is that we cannot avoid killing, and as soon as we kill, there is a sinful reaction that we have to suffer.

So then, what is the way out? Because the only way we can be free from suffering is if we don’t commit sin. And killing is sin, even if we do it unintentionally. So again, we come back to the point of surrender to Krishna and following Krishna’s instructions, especially when it comes to eating, because although we are vegetarian, just being vegetarian is not enough, because even plants have life.

Therefore, in Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says that those who prepare food just for their own bodily nourishment and enjoyment, they are simply eating sin. In other words, their eating is sinful, and their eating will bring sinful reactions. But then, Lord Krishna says that those who eat the remnants of food that has been offered to Him in sacrifice, they are purified of all sins. So therefore, we offer our food to Krishna and take the remnants as kṛṣṇa-prasāda, and by eating kṛṣṇa-prasāda, we can become freed from sinful reactions. Otherwise, even being vegetarian, we are implicated in sinful reactions. And therefore, we offer our food to Krishna, that is the only way to be free. And therefore, Srila Prabhupada said that we are not vegetarians, and we are not non-vegetarians, but we are Krishnatarians. We only eat food offered to Krishna.

And as far as killing insects when we walk, by the way, again, if we are walking for Krishna’s service, then we are protected, but if we are walking for our own purposes, then we are not protected. And therefore, the only protection is to surrender to God and to do everything only for His service and not for ourselves separately.

And there, Srila Prabhupada gives the example that if an ordinary person runs through a red light, he is guilty of a misdemeanor and he can get a ticket. But if a police car goes through a red light, he does not get a ticket because he is authorized, he is working on behalf of the government. So, as long as we are working on behalf of Krishna, our activities are authorized. And therefore, if by accident we kill an insect, then we are protected. But we should not unnecessarily kill.

Once, when Srila Prabhupada was living in New York City when he first came to America, the owner of the building began to fumigate the building, some sort of pest control. So, I don’t remember what type of creatures, but Prabhupada wouldn’t allow them to do pest control in his apartment. So, all the creatures from the other apartments ran to Srila Prabhupada’s apartment, and Srila Prabhupada said, “Just see, they are taking shelter of Krishna consciousness.” So, we have to tolerate. And of course, if we are clean, there are ways to avoid having to kill insects or rodents. We should try to avoid killing as far as possible.

All right. So, now we will have announcements.

Devotee: His Holiness Giriraj Swami ki jaya!

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.