In this live lecture delivered in Chelyabinsk, Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī opens with a Sanskrit kirtan and then focuses on Bhagavad‑Gita verse 8.7. He argues that contemporary societies misinterpret the Gita, believing that spirituality requires total renunciation of material life. He explains the Vedic varṇa‑āśrama system—four social orders (Brahmana, Kṣatriya, Vaiśya, Śūdra) and four stages of life (Brahmacharya, Grihāsta, Vānaprastha, Sannyāsa)—using body‑part analogies to illustrate each varna’s duties. He details the responsibilities of each class: Brahmanas guide spiritually, Kṣatriyas protect, Vaiśyas produce food and manage commerce, and Śūdras serve the other three. He then connects these duties to the Gita’s teaching of Karma Yoga: performing one’s prescribed work while remembering Krishna, offering the fruits of action to the Lord, and emphasizing sacrifice (yajña) as essential for societal welfare, food production, and spiritual liberation. He critiques modern civilization for abandoning sacrifice, highlighting issues like food and water scarcity, and asserts that Vedic knowledge remains eternally relevant, offering a regulated, harmonious way of life.
Chapters
Om Jai Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram. Śrīrūpam sagrajatam sahākhanā rāgunā tanvitam tam sajevam. Sadveitam savadhūtam prajñāṣaitam Kṛṣṇa-cetanya-devam. Śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-padānta sahākhanā lalitā śrī-śrī-kṛṣṇa-cetanya-prabhu-nitānanda śrī-adveitā-gadādhārṣuvaśa-dhigōr-bhaktam indraḥ. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. So ladies and gentlemen, we are happy to be back in your city of Chelyabinsk. I was here about 3 months ago. Actually, I had no plans of coming to Chelyabinsk on this trip, but due to some reasons I had to come here. And this program today was intended more as a program just for the local devotees. But in Chalabans, they don't do anything in a small way. So even it's a program for the local devotees, it's in a big grand auditorium. Actually, they didn't invite the public. It's just for the local devotees and some devotees from Silos. So we'll be here till tomorrow. So we'll do a short lecture today, and we'll have a Prabhupada Guru Puja and Bhagavatam class tomorrow morning, and then in the afternoon we will leave for Moscow. So we have written text 7 from the 8th chapter on the board. We will first chant the Sanskrit and then explain this verse. You can try repeating the Sanskrit after me. Tasma sarveshu kaleshu Ma Anusmara Yudhya Char Mai Aapeta Mano Buddhi Ma Evasyas Esham Sanyam. Tasma sarveshu kaleshu. Tasma sarveshu kaleshu. Mammanusmarayudhacha. Mammanusmarayudhacha. Mayarpitamano buddhi. Mayarpitamano buddhi. Mamme vachasya shamshaya. Mamme vachasya shamshaya. Tasma sarveshu kaleshu. Bande ham Śrī Guru Śrī uttāpada-kamlaṇa Śrī Gurūṇavaīśṇava-nāśṭha Śrī Rūpaṁ sagrajatāṁ sahāgana rāguṇa-dhanvitāṁ tam sajevāṁ sadveṭaṁ savadhūtam parijana-sāitāṁ Kṛṣṇa-cetanya-devaṁ Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-padaṇa sahāgana lalitā Śrī Viśākāṇitāṁ śaḥ vi-kṛṣṇa-karna-sindhu-dīnā-bandhu-jagad-pate Gopī-sa gopī-kānta-rāda-kānta-nāma-sattvute. Tattakāñcana-gorāṅgī-rādhē-bhrindāneśvari. Rīśabānu-sūte-devī-pranamāni-hare priyaḥ. Vānta-kalpatāribhyāśca kripa-sandhu-bhayāivacāḥ. Paditāna-paśnevya-pāvanavya-nivau namaḥ. Śrī Kṛṣṇa-cetanya-prabhu-nityānanda Śrī Advaita-gadādhaḥ śivaśadī-gol-bhaktavindaḥ. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Tasma sarveshu kaleṣu, mam manuṣmara yuddhacā, māyirvitaḥ manobuddheḥ, mam ivāśyas aśaṁ sayaḥ. So Krishna in this verse is giving all of us a very practical instruction. Many times people misunderstand the teachings of the Gita and the meaning of religion. Like in countries like India, there's a great fear that if you become religious, then you will have to abandon the society and retire to the mountains. So when young boys and girls want to take to spiritual process, their parents almost get a heart attack. Every day you have one parent or the other coming and crying, please, please, please let my son go back, let my daughter go back. And in different parts of the world also, people think that religion is not for them as long as they're not ready to completely renounce everything in the material world. According to our Vedic philosophy, society should be divided into 4 varnas and 4 āśramas, which in other words are known as 4 social and 4 spiritual orders. Then this in Sanskrit is known as varnāśram. These social orders are Brahman, Śātya, Vaiśya, Sudra. And the āśramas are Brahmachari, Krihastha, Vanaprāśta, Sannyāsa. Just like in a human body, for the body to be considered healthy, You must have the hands, legs, stomach, and the head. And if the hand, leg, stomach, and, um, hand is not there, then one is not considered healthy. Thanks to modern science, you can live without the hand, you can even live without the legs, you can even live with an artificial stomach, I think, but you certainly can't live without a head. Can they live without a head in your country? Da? No. So these four parts of the body are compared to the four varnas or social orders of society. The brahmanas are compared to the head, the kshatriyas to the hand, the vaishyas to the belly, and the sudras to the leg. Now, the four varnas they have different duties to execute. The Brahmana is compared to the head because the head is the most important part of the body. You think through your head, you can't live without the head. So you must have the Brahmanas. The Brahmanas are supposed to guide the society on the spiritual path, on the path back to Godhead, on the path by which the goal of life can be realized. The Kshatriyas They're compared to the arms, the hands. What do you do with your hands? Stove with the lighter. What do you do with your hands? Defend yourself, isn't it? And you do the administration. So the Kshatriyas, they are also known as a warrior class, and their business is to defend the society, defend the weaker sections of society like women old people and children. The Vedic society offers protection to everyone, especially the weaker sections of society. Today, all over the world, we see the old people are left to rot in the parks. You go to parks all over, you find all the old people sitting over there. I do not know in your country, but I know in North America they have old age homes And all the old people stay in those old age homes, watch television all day and play with toys because there's no one to talk to, no one bothers to take care of them. Similarly, in Vedic society, the woman is always protected and the children are also always protected. So that's the duty of the Kshatriya, to protect the society, especially to protect the weaker sections of society. Then you have the Vaishyas. The Vaishyas are compared to the stomach. Why are they compared to the stomach? What do you put in the stomach? Prasad. So you put in the stomach prasad. Devotees call it prasad and karmis call it food, producti. So Vaishyas, their business is to take care of cows, agricultural production, and and look after the business. The echo in this hall is very loud, so my translator is becoming deaf. I told you, everything in Chelyabinsk is always above everybody else in Russia, so the translator has to have special equipment. So, so the vishyas, their business is to protect the cows, looking— look after agricultural production. And do the business. That is why they're compared to the stomach. And the sudras are compared to the leg. What is the function of the leg? To support your stomach, hands, and head. Is that prabodha? So similarly, the sudra, he's supposed to serve the kshatriyas, vaishyas, and brahmanas. So this is briefly the four varnas. Then you have four ashramas: brahmachari, kshatriya, vaishya, sudra. Brahmachari means one who begs on behalf of the spiritual master. Actually, most of the sound systems we use, it is so soft we have to shout to make ourselves heard. At the end of the— this is so loud that we'll have to start whispering. So the brahmachari, the brahmachari, his business is to beg on behalf of the spiritual master and lead a life of celibacy. Then the grihāsta. One may enter into the grihāsta-āśrama with permission from the spiritual master after attaining the age of 25. And in the grihāsta-āśrama, one may engage in business or whatever, but the goal is still to serve the Supreme Lord. Then you have the vāyśya— that, I'm sorry, the vānaprastha. That is when the husband and wife begin to detach themselves and increase their renunciation. And then ultimately of the sannyāsa stage, that is the stage where one is socially dead. One has no social duties, but his only duty is to travel and preach the glories of the Lord. So regardless of which varna or āśrama you may belong to, Kṛṣṇa is saying in this verse that we are reading that you can do your duty with your mind focused on Him. Kṛṣṇa says, tasma sarve śukadeśu mama nusmara yuddhacā, With your mind focused on me, Arjuna, do go and do your prescribed duty and fight in this battle of Kurukshetra. So naturally in society we all have different duties. Arjuna was artificially thinking of abandoning his duties, but Krishna told him, no, you cannot abandon your duty as a Kshatriya. Of course we should understand that there's a big difference between the Battle of Kurukshetra and the thousands of wars that are going on all over the world today. The Battle of Kurukshetra was a religious war fought for a divine purpose. It was meant to establish the supremacy or the victory of virtue over vice. Sometimes people say, what type of God do you worship? The God who ordered the Battle of Kurukshetra? The god in which millions— the battle in which millions of soldiers died? Our answer is yes, because all those who died on the Battle of Kurukshetra, they had the great fortune of seeing the Supreme Lord before dying, and hence they were all liberated. Just like a surgeon— a surgeon, when he performs surgery, your militia doesn't come and arrest him, but when an ordinary man commits a murder, he gets arrested. So all those that died in the Battle of Kurukshetra were fortunate in that they had the opportunity to see the form personality of Godhead before dying. So Krishna told Arjuna, you engage in this battle, renounce the fruits to me. In the Bhagavad Gita, out of 18 chapters, 2 chapters are on a theme called karma yoga. Different people interpret Karma Yoga in different ways. But Krishna explains Karma Yoga to be action in Krishna consciousness. Action which is performed for the pleasure of the Lord is Karma Yoga. Krishna says in the third chapter, yajnas dat karmanaya natha lokayam karma bandhana, that if one doesn't offer the fruits of one's result to Lord Vishnu, then one becomes entangled by the results. Just like now that you have capitalism in your country, you also introduced a system of taxation. So by material laws, if you don't pay the taxes, you become liable for punishment. Of course, in the material world, hardly anybody is honest. So even when you don't pay your taxes, you still manage to survive. But it doesn't work like this in the spiritual world. When you don't offer the work, results of your work to Lord Vishnu You become entangled, you become liable for the punishment. So Krishna has explained in the 3rd chapter, sa yajñaprajāśaśtvā purvocāprajāpati. That is, in the very beginning of creation, the Lord sent forth different living entities and told them, be thou happy by the performance of sacrifice. The Lord said that if you perform sacrifice, then he will get everything desirable for living happily and peacefully. Because the material creation of the Lord is a chance offered by the Lord to the living entities to become free from the miseries of birth and death. So without sacrifice, one cannot live peacefully or happily. So what is the problem of today's civilization? They don't believe in sacrifice. The word sacrifice doesn't even exist in their dictionary. Sacrifice for the pleasure of the Lord doesn't exist. But sacrifice means when you perform some activity for the pleasure of the Lord under bona fide direction. Just like in the Vedic system, the citizens would voluntarily give 25% of their income to the government. And because the government was very honest with that 25% that would come from the, of the By way of taxes, the government would protect the citizens completely. So Krishna says, perform sacrifices in this human form of life, because without sacrifices, this life is no better than that of animals. Just like we all know that presently there's a big shortage of food on this planet. You know that very well in your country, and There's also big shortage of water in many parts of the world. Actually, the prediction is that in 20 years from now, in many parts of the world, water is going to be sold the way you buy benzene. Now Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita how you can have good food production. Krishna says, annad bhavanti bhūtani prajnanānā sambhavā yajnād bhagvati prajñayo yajnākarma samudbhavah. He says all living entities have to subsist on food grains. Just like we are living today in an age of technology and everybody's after technology. They call it high-tech. And when you use the word high-tech in speaking, they think, oh, you're a very educated man these days. So let's say you have all the high-tech, you have all the technology, but can you eat nuts and bolts on your dining table? Dah? Yes, you can. Mojna, can you eat nuts and bolts on the dining table? Dah? You people must be supermen if you can. You can't eat nuts and bolts on your dining table. Can't eat the results of modern technology on your dining plate. You need food grains, and food grains come from rainfall, and rainfall comes from performing sacrifice, and sacrifice means religious duty. So the Vedic scriptures, the word Veda means knowledge. That is why Vedic scriptures are for the entire humanity and not for a sectarian portion of the world. Some people argue that the Vedas are foreign to our culture, and some argue that the Vedas are outdated because originally they were spoken millions of years ago. So people say it's outdated for today's modern-day civilization. But actually Vedas contain eternal wisdom for humanity. So the Vedas prescribe regulated action and they provide information how one can mold one's life in such a way that he can live happily and peacefully. So the Vedas explain that one who does not utilize the real human body to live by the words of the scriptures is actually leading a life of only sin. Lama Lama Ale Ale. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.
