BG 9.22

Giriraj Swami: We shall read from Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter Nine, “The Most Confidential Knowledge,” 

TEXT 22

ananyāś cintayanto māṁ
ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ
yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

TRANSLATION

But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.

PUPORT by Srila Prabhupada

One who is unable to live for a moment without Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot but think of Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours a day, being engaged in devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, rendering other services, cultivating friendship and surrendering fully to the Lord. Such activities are all auspicious and full of spiritual potencies, which make the devotee perfect in self-realization, so that his only desire is to achieve the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such a devotee undoubtedly approaches the Lord without difficulty. This is called yoga. By the mercy of the Lord, such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life. Kṣema refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to achieve Kṛṣṇa consciousness by yoga, and when he becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious the Lord protects him from falling down to a miserable conditioned life.

COMMENT

This important verse of the Bhagavad-gītā, spoken by the Lord Himself, known as Krishna, can be read both on the material level and on the spiritual level. On the material level, the Lord carries what the devotee lacks and preserves what he has, and the same applies on the spiritual level. In other words, one who worships the Lord with exclusive devotion, ananyā, having no other object or concentrating on Krishna, Krishna preserves what they have and carries what they lack. Sometimes, when people begin the practice of bhakti-yoga, they are afraid, or their family members are afraid, of what will happen to them, what will happen to their financial position. They think that time taken out of economic development and devoted to Krishna consciousness may result in some material loss or deprivation. But here, Lord Krishna says that those who worship Him with exclusive devotion, He preserves what they have and carries what they lack, vahāmy aham.

Srila Prabhupada told a story which may be found in the Puranas or some other supplemental Vedic literature about one brahman who was going through the Bhagavad-gītā and making notes. When he came to this verse and read vahāmy aham, that Krishna personally carries what the devotee lacks, he couldn’t believe that Krishna would personally do it. He thought that Krishna might send what the devotee needs through some other agency but not personally bring it. So the brahman took a red pen and cut the words vahāmy aham, where Krishna says, “I carry what the devotee lacks.”

Now, as a habit or as a routine, the brahman would go out in the morning to beg alms because, in principle, different occupations have different ways of getting income. So brahmans have six activities, beginning with accepting charity, studying the scripture, and worshiping the Lord. The other three are giving charity, teaching the scriptures, and engaging others in the worship of the Lord. Those are the duties of the brahmans. So the brahman accepts charity. Kshatriyas, they give protection to the citizens, and they get their livelihood from taxes. The vaishyas engage in agriculture and architectural trade, and they get their income from trade. Sudra, the laborers get their duties to work for a salary. So the brahman, whose name happened to be Arjuna, went out in the morning to collect alms because his life was dedicated to studying the scriptures and worshiping the Lord. The other members of society would support him by charity, and he, in turn, would teach them the scripture and engage them in the worship of the Lord. As far as possible, he himself would give charity.

One morning, he went out as usual, and after a couple of hours, a beautiful young boy came to his house with a pole that had baskets on either end. Those baskets were laden with grains, ghee, vegetables, and everything required for preparing the most opulent meal. The young boy, a very beautiful young boy, came to the door of the house, and the brahman’s wife invited him in. He said, “No, your husband has sent me with all of these provisions, but I will not come in the house. You can just take the provisions and cook for your husband.” She was very insistent, and the boy was not that big, but he was carrying a very heavy load. He was perspiring, and he looked tired. She insisted, “No, you should come in and wait for my husband. I will cook food, I will offer the food, and I will give you prasāda, and then you can go.” He said, “No, actually, I am very very afraid of your husband. He is a very cruel taskmaster. Just because I was a little bit late, he beat me very severely.” The wife said, “Oh, I can’t believe my husband would do that. Anyway, if he did that, I will chastise him when he comes home.” Anyway, she really insisted, so the boy came in. She said, “You wait here until my husband comes, and I will prepare food for both of you.”

When he came in, she saw on his back there was a line where apparently her husband had slashed him. There was blood along that wound. Time passed; usually, the husband would return home before noon. Time passed, and he wouldn’t come. He came home by three o’clock, and he was in a very morose mood. He said to his wife, “I don’t know what to say. I went out all day to beg alms, and no one gave me anything. You will have to fast today.” The wife said, “No, you sent the young boy with so many provisions. We have enough grains and vegetables and ghee and spices to last for a week.” The husband said, “No, I didn’t send anybody.” She said, “Yes, he is here; he is in the next room. We have everything.”

She led him to the next room to show her husband, and no one was there. The boy had left. So then the husband said, “Well, describe him.” She described his features, and then he had a doubt about who this young boy might be. She mentioned the strangest thing; he said he was afraid of you, and on his back, there was a slash mark where you had cut him. The husband went to the place where, with his red ink, he had cut those words, vahāmy aham and he looked at the page of his Bhagavad-gītā, and the red ink was gone. Then he realized that the young boy was actually Krishna, personally carrying what he lacked, and that by cutting those words from the Bhagavad-gītā, because on the absolute platform the Bhagavad-gītā is the same as Krishna Himself, by cutting the words in Bhagavad-gītā, he was actually cutting the transcendental body of the Lord.

Then he realized his mistake, and he had mixed feelings. The Lord was so merciful that He had come personally to show the truth of His statement in the Gītā, but at the same time, he felt very sorry that he had disbelieved the words of the Lord and actually wanted to cut them out. When we accept the scripture, when we accept the words of Lord Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā, we have to accept them as they are, and therefore Srila Prabhupada’s translation of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, just as Krishna spoke it and Arjuna understood, without any materially motivated interpretation, personal speculation, or compromise, as it is. People have a tendency to interpret the Bhagavad-gītā. I would say especially in India, people have been reading Bhagavad-gītā in India for thousands of years and making interpretations. The main interpretation they make is to remove Krishna. In other words, they are impersonalists, and they don’t want to accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They want to accept some impersonal light as the Supreme and say that that impersonal brahman has taken the form of Krishna, or that impersonal brahman is speaking through Krishna.

Although in the Bhagavad-gītā itself, Krishna says that those who think that I have assumed this form, that there is something higher than me, they are mistaken. He clearly rejects that idea. But still, because people are so used to interpreting, they don’t get what Krishna says clearly. There is another story we heard in India about how interpretation works or doesn’t work. There was once a wife who sent her husband into the market to buy ghee. So he went into the market, and the first merchant who was selling ghee said, “My ghee is as clear as oil.” And he thought, Oh no, oil must be better than ghee, so I will buy oil. So he went to the oil merchant, and the oil merchant said, “My oil is as pure as water.” He thought, “Water is better than oil,” so he brought home water. So it started with one thing and ended up with something else altogether. That is how they interpret Krishna. Krishna means black, black means dark, dark means unknown, unknown means unknowable, and finally, there is no Krishna, so it disappears. That is the impersonal tendency.

I even heard a very respectable man in India who organized, he formed a foundation to discuss Bhagavad-gītā, and who personally told me that he likes the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gītā, but as soon as you bring Krishna, it becomes sectarian. So they want the philosophy of the Gītā but no Krishna. But the whole Gītā, the whole conclusion of the Gītā, is to surrender to Krishna, to become Krishna’s devotee, to think of Krishna—that is Krishna consciousness. So they completely misunderstand, and they mislead innocent people. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada insisted on presenting the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, just as Krishna spoke it and Arjuna understood it, without any interpretation. Interpretation is required when the direct meaning is unclear, but if the direct meaning is clear, there is no need to interpret. For example, if I say, “Bring me a glass of water,” you can’t interpret and say, “No, no, don’t give Swamiji the glass of water, throw it on the wall behind him.” That is what they are saying. Krishna says, “Surrender to Me,” and the commentators are saying, “No, no, don’t surrender to Krishna, but surrender to the light behind Him.” So they mislead people; they get in the way. So here, through the story of the brahman, you get the message that you take every word that Krishna has spoken in the Gītā, and need be, Krishna Himself will come and demonstrate to us the truth of it if we have the qualification of exclusive devotion to Him.

On the subject of exclusive devotion, I think of a little incident in Chicago where Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk. Near where his car was parked, there was another car, and the name of the car or the model of the car was Thunderbird. Have you heard of the Thunderbird car? So when Srila Prabhupada saw the car, he asked the devotees, “Is there such a thing as a Thunderbird?” The devotees didn’t think so; they thought it was just a namesake for the automobile company. But Srila Prabhupada said that in our literature, we have a Thunderbird, which is actually called the chataka bird. Srila Prabhupada was taking a little poetic liberty, but the chataka bird is a very beautiful bird that will only drink water from the cloud; it won’t accept water from any other source. Srila Rupa Gosvami has composed a beautiful verse in Sanskrit that says that just as the chataka bird will not take water from any other source but always hovers with its beak open under the clouds, and of course, the cloud is a very good metaphor for Krishna because His complexion is like a dark cloud, similarly, I will not deviate from your lotus feet.

So the devotees asked Srila Prabhupada to explain what he meant. Srila Prabhupada explained that the devotee always waits for the mercy of Krishna, just like the chataka bird waits with its beak open for rain. Srila Prabhupada said that sometimes the cloud doesn’t give rain; sometimes it gives thunder and lightning and no rain. But the chataka bird will not go anywhere else. Srila Prabhupada said, in the same way, Krishna sometimes doesn’t give mercy; sometimes He gives thunder and lightning or difficulties. Sometimes it gets difficult, but the devotee will not deviate from the lotus feet of Krishna; he won’t go anywhere else for mercy. In other words, he won’t go to the material world for mercy but will wait for the mercy to come from Krishna. So, that is ananyāś cintayanto māṁ, having no other object of worship, no other object of hope than Krishna. When one is fixed in that mood of devotion, Krishna will take complete charge of the devotee and preserve what the devotee has, and give what is lack. And the same principle operates spiritually. Whatever advancement we’ve made, he will preserve, he will protect us, and he will provide whatever we need to make spiritual advancement as long as we remain fixed in our exclusive devotion.

Of course, in Kali-yuga, the main way to fix the mind on Krishna is through many ways. One is hearing about him in Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, another is worshiping the deity, but the main way in this age is to chant the holy names of Krishna. We all know,

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

One should chant the holy name, chant the holy name, chant the holy names of Hari, there is no other way, no other way, no other way for success. So let us all repeat:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Devotee: His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

Giriraj Swami: You are diverting them. we are talking about exclusive devotion to Krishna. But you are right in principle. Krishna doesn’t mean Krishna alone, but His devotees, His paraphernalia. So, you are right in principle but I can’t say about application; it does include his devotees.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

So now we will rise for the ārati ceremony. Oh, you will remain seated? Oh, okay, you will remain seated for the ārati ceremony, and then after the ārati, we’ll be prasādam. So, Krishna will provide what is required.