Introduction to the Bhagavad-gītā | Rus-Split | 23.9.92 | Śrīla Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī Mahārājā

Regular visitors to the temple, is that right? Is there anybody coming here for the first time today? That's pretty good. So we're going to— going to lecture today on the Bhagavad Gita. All of you have heard about Satguruji, I guess. How many of you have a copy of this book? Most of you also have a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is a very, very ancient book of knowledge. It forms a part of the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is a very voluminous book which contains the history of the world. Actually, it's a history of the whole planet, and the Bhagavad Gita forms a part of the Mahabharata. So the Mahabharata contains history till the commencement of the age of Kali. Kali Yuga, the age in which you're presently passing, started 5,000 years ago, and Mahabharata contains the history till 5,000 years ago. Actually, the name India, the country of Bharat, was given Punjapata, the bachelor. Previously, the whole planet was known as Bharat Varsha. So the story of the Mahabharata briefly as it follows. This Arjuna and Pandu were two brothers born in the Kuru dynasty, and they were both descendants of King Bharata. King Bharata was the son of another great king called King Rishabdev, and it was after the name of King Bharata that the whole planet was named Bharat Varsha. Dhritarashtra was the elder, was the eldest brother in the family, but he was born blind. So when Vichitraveerya, the father of Dhritarashtra and King Pandu, died, Dhritarashtra normally should have become the king, but because he was blind, his younger brother Pandu became the king. The younger brother Pandu had 5 sons: Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. But Pandu also died at a young age, and when Pandu died at a young age, his sons were all too young to take over. Actually, both the sons of Pandu and the sons of Dhritarashtra, they all grew up in the same household because they were all cousins. In the ancient days, the Kshatriya kings would also be trained up in military warfare. So both the Pandavas and the Kuru, they were both trained up in these military warfare by Dronacharya. Dronacharya was a very experienced general. So the Pandavas were being brought up by their uncle Dhritarashtra on the understanding that when they became old, they would be given the kingdom which was previously being ruled by King Pandu. However, while Daksharatha and Duryodhana were taking care— Duryodhana was helping taking care of the young Pandavas— they gradually became greedy. Greed is one of the eternal enemies of the living entity. And their desire developed that the kingdom should never be returned to the Pandavas but kept with the sons of Daksharatha. Actually, they proved They tried several tricks, plans by which the Pandavas may be killed. They were administered poison. They were put in a house which was made of lac, and the lac— and the house was set on fire. But they were able to escape all the time because ultimately the Pandavas had the protection of the Supreme Lord. In the material world, we are all aiming to get the best protection. And we are hoping to get this protection by a bank balance, military development, and other material things. But the Vedic scriptures explain that the best means of protection is to take shelter of the Supreme Lord by surrendering to His instructions. Vikṣṇudha Pandavas were completely under the protection of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who also happened to be their cousin. King Pandu had a wife whose name was Kunti, and Lord Sri Krishna was also the nephew of Queen Kunti. So the Pandavas ultimately were sent on exile for 13 years. Actually, Duryodhana challenged the Pandavas to a gambling match, and in the gambling match, the Pandavas were defeated. Actually, there was cheating involved on the part of the Kauravas. So the Pandavas, when they returned after 13 years in exile, they requested that the kingdom be returned. But the Kauravas and Duryodhana had no plans to return the kingdom. And in the end, there was a battle. But that battle was a religious war. It was not a war like that is fought today by the present-day political leaders around the world. Krishna, Hare Krishna, was on the side of the Pandavas. And the core was, they opted to select Kṛṣṇa's infantry and ammunition. And the Lord is so kind, He agreed to become the chariot driver of His eternal devotee, Arjuna. So Dṛṭarāṣṭra, the Bhāgavad-gītā opens with Dṛṭarāṣṭra had a secretary called Sanjaya. And Dṛṭarāṣṭra asked his secretary Sanjaya, to please describe to him what was actually taking place in the Battle of Kurukshetra. These days we're very proud of the technology we have, but Sanjay, he was sitting thousands of miles away from where the battle was taking place. Still, Sanjay was able to see the battle just like he watched things on television. That's like sitting here in St. Petersburg by satellite, you You can watch a TV program coming from anywhere else in the world. Just like when you have the Olympic Games, you have the Olympic Games in one location, but people all over the world see this via satellite. So similarly, Sanjay was able to see the progress of the whole battle and describe it to Dhritarashtra. Because Dhritarashtra was blind, he was in anxiety to know what happened, how the battle was developing. So he asked his secretary, please describe to me the development of the battle. So Sanjay was able to describe this because he had with him something that is known as mystic television. He was able to see from a distance everything that was developing on the Battle of Kurukshetra. So the Bhagavad Gita is also known as the Song of God, and it contains doctrine by which entire humanity can be perfected. The Bhagavad-gītā is also the oldest known scripture on this planet. If I were to ask you how old the Bhagavad-gītā is, most of you would say 5,000 years old. And your answer is partially correct. But in the Bhagavad-gītā, 4th chapter, Kṛṣṇa also says that He imparted this knowledge to the sanga of Vivaśravaṇa. And Vivaśravaṇa imparted it to Manu, the father of mankind. So just in human society, this knowledge has been in existence for over 2 million years. So what are the basic elements of the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita? What we did so far was give you a little introduction to the Bhagavad Gita. We gave you a little background that led to Arjuna being spoken the great philosophy by Krishna on the Battle of Kurukshetra. One important point before we discuss the Gītā is that in every page of the Bhāgavad-gītā, it is said, Śrī Bhāgwanu vācā, not Kṛṣṇa vācā. So Bhāgwanu vācā means the Supreme Lord speaks. Sanskrit word Bhāgwan, Bhāg, Bhāg means ultimate. So these days there's so many people who claim to be God. In countries like India, you see people doing a little bit of magic and they claim they're God. But who is really God? How do you identify God? How do you recognize the genuine God from the false God? That you ascertain on the basis of the scriptures. Only that individual could be considered to be God who is in possession of 6 opulences to unlimited degree all at the same time. Aishwarya karma, aishwarya samadhiya, samadhiya vivechaya kutashraya, jnana viragya vashraya, ananda abhaya saminara. One who is the wealthiest of all, who is the most famous, may be most beautiful, most knowledgeable, the strongest, and the most rich. So you may find one person, Mr. Rockefeller, who may be the richest man in the world, but he need not be the most beautiful man. He need not be the strongest. I saw a picture recently of one of the kings of the kingdom in Italy. He's considered the richest man in the world. But when I saw his picture, I could see he definitely was not the most handsome man. And he also definitely wasn't the strongest man. He looked so skinny that one of our Gurukuls graduates could probably knock him down. But he's the wealthiest man in the world. So the point I'm making is this: you may have a rich man, you may have a strong man, you may have a famous man, but you're not going to have one person who possesses all these 6 opulences in unlimited degree all simultaneously. "Krishna possesses the six opulences to an unlimited degree. Therefore it is concluded by the learned sages that he is Atman." There are many quotes that we can give you in support of this statement, but we don't have time to do it at the moment. So in every page of the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, "Supreme Lord speaks." That means Krishna, the Supreme Lord, is speaking. So Krishna is presenting doctrines That is true eternally. Therefore it is also known as sanatana-dharma, or the eternal duty of the living entity. So what is this philosophy? There is a God in control. That God is the cause of all cause. You may have all the technology you desire, but unless you have cooperation of God, technology cannot do anything for you. The other day I was talking to a very prominent farmer of your country in Moscow. So that farmer was telling me that this year the rains have failed in our country. I just came back from Poland, and in Poland also they were telling me the rains have failed, and therefore there's a big food shortage. Can anybody live without food? You may have all the technology, and you may be able to produce spacecraft, aeroplanes, balls. But when you're hungry, you can't eat the aeroplanes or the spacecraft or the nuts and bolts. Maybe in the circuses that you have in your town, they show that they're eating the plane, but an ordinary man can't. So you can only eat food, and the food can only be provided by the will of the Lord. So therefore, Bhagavad Gita says that God is the cause of all causes, and material nature is also being controlled by the Supreme Lord. The materialist scientists can never explain to us how great God's care, how many planets there are. There are thousands of planets floating in space, just like you have hundreds of planes flying in the sky at any one time. And these planes never crash, never collide, these planets. In some planets like Cittālokā, the individual there can even fly. But in our planet, only the birds can fly. So The Vedic scriptures give us information about the vast creation of the Lord. When you get an understanding of the vast creation of the Lord, you understand one thing, that this whole show cannot exist without there being a creator. That creator may be known by different names in different parts of the world, but there is a creator who's known as God or Boga or Krishna. So having obtained this rare human body, We must realize that this material world is nothing but a place of suffering. Suffering is there both for the animals and for human beings, but there's one big difference. The animal doesn't recognize suffering, but you and I can. A spiritual master once gave a story that once he saw in Calcutta a goat was being slaughtered. He was being slaughtered to be offered to Goddess Durga by some unintelligent man. And right next door there was another goat just standing there eating grass. But in a natural situation, if you see somebody being murdered, the other man will run away. If you see somebody else being killed, either you're gonna fight or you'll run away. You just won't stand over there eating your sandwich. But the animal is standing in front of the slaughterhouse and the animal inside is being slaughtered, and the animals outside are just eating grass and doing nothing. So suffering is there. Animals cannot recognize it, but you and I can. Now why is the suffering there? Why is it that in the material world everybody is suffering and in the spiritual world nobody is suffering? Some of you may say, you mean there's another world beyond this world? Yes. No one told you that? Did they tell you in school and colleges that there's another world, the spiritual world? Is there any school or college in your country that teaches you, or in secular information on the spiritual world and which tells me about the difference between life in material world and spiritual world? No. So what's there? So there's no material institution, but there is one institution that's TikTok. TikTok is also in your country. So in the spiritual world, there is no misery, and everyone there is happily situated. There are no doctors, no hospitals, no electricity. No sunshine. No old age, no disease. Isn't that amazing? And no death, no cemeteries over there, no funeral home. Does it sound too good to be true? Does it sound too good to be true? I said to my workers, is it too good to be true? So yes, there is such a spiritual world. But the material world is also described as a prison house where there is nothing but misery. And this misery we realize through Sevenfold Agencies. There is birth, growth, you know, protect, grief, old age. Birth is definitely a painful process. Your scientist friends cannot confirm it, but the Vedic scriptures can confirm it. That is why the child always comes out of the mother's womb crying. Then there is disease. Nobody likes to fall sick, he gets disease. Old age. Is there anybody here who likes old age? Nobody likes old age. Doesn't matter where you go, which part of the world, nobody likes old age. That is why they always try to hide their old age. If you ever want to insult a young man, just tell him how old he looks. And if you ever want to flatter an old man, tell him how young he looks. Nobody likes the old age. The old age symbolizes the approaching death. And then ultimately there's death. Certainly nobody likes death. Even the sick man begs the doctor, please, come on, the others, stretch my life. And in addition, There are 3 other types of misery. Misery is caused by the mind. The mind is troubling everyone. Krishna himself says in the Bhagavad Gita, everybody is struggling with the mind and the sixth sense. Many people were living under communism, your mind was troubling you. You know how? You would say, oh, these people in other countries are so rich, why are we not so rich? So you said we must have capitalism. But even with capitalism, it doesn't seem that everyone is satisfied. The mind is always troubling. Close friend, relative dies, again the mind troubles you. Then material nature is troubling us, and then other entities are troubling us. So Krishna says, "Bhukhālayāmaśāśatam." This material world is nothing but full of misery. Therefore, take advantage of the Vedic knowledge which is summarized in the Bhagavad-gītā and return to the spiritual world. But you can only return to the spiritual world if you understand the basic elements of your existence on this planet. Otherwise you cannot— you must understand who you are. In the absence of spiritual knowledge, everyone identifies with the body. What does it mean, bodily identification? It means that you think that this body and the senses are your real identity. But are they your real identity? Are they? Then what is your real identity? If this body is not your real identity, what's your real identity? So the real identity is not this body. Just like the clothes cover the body, the body covers the dūṣa. And regarding the dūṣa, it never takes birth, never dies. All it does is transmigrate, move on from one body to another body. And this human body is the result of a long process of transmigration in the different species of life. So Bhagavad-gītā concludes, Since the living entity is eternal, because dosha is eternal, the body is perishable, will be destroyed with the passage of time. We must cater to that which will help the eternal dosha. If you don't take care of what is good for the eternal dosha and just take care of this body which is going to be perishable, then he will not be able to achieve real happiness. So this is the difference between a spiritualist and a materialist. The materialist is intoxicated with unlimited material desires, and he thinks that pleasing the senses is the goal of life. The spiritualist also believes in pleasing the senses, but he believes in pleasing the senses through legal, bona fide means. Just like under capitalism, the government allows you to make money, but the government says make money through legal means, not through illegal means. So the scriptures say, fine happiness but find it through the right process rather than the incorrect process. Because the living entity is spiritual by nature, he can only be satisfied with some spiritual endeavor, not with the material endeavor. Just like the car moves due to the presence of a driver, the plane flies due to the presence of a pilot, the living entity is moving due to the presence of the jīva, that is the soul. And when the soul leaves the body, the living entity is pronounced dead. You may have a very beautiful cage made of gold, and you may have the bird inside the golden cage. But if you do not feed the cage, if you do not feed the bird, will the bird be satisfied? You may get a— you may have a very nice costume to wear. I'm sure all of you have nice costumes at home. You may even have a nice car to drive, and you may also get a sandalwood garland on your neck. But if you don't get food to eat, don't just to eat, it is provided, we can't provide. So similarly, unless you cater to the needs of the spirit souls, you cannot be happy. Now, no one should think that spiritual life means lack of happiness. Spiritual life means real happiness. Just like people like to dance and sing, there's Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there's plenty of music, plenty of dancing. In fact, sometimes people say, "All these people do is dance and sing." But we sing, we sing God's name. People in order to dance, they have to go to ballroom dancing, but they dance for no one and then they get tired. So we chant and dance, but chant and dance with reference to God. Then we also eat, but we eat foodstuff that is offered to the Lord. And when you eat foodstuff that is offered to the Lord, it is called Krishna prasad. And anybody who has tasted Krishna prasad will testify that it is irresistible. You can't avoid it. I've met people who don't agree with our philosophy or may have a different opinion, but when you give them Krishna prasāda, they have nothing but smiles on their face. I remember a short while ago I was preaching in one of the Muslim countries in the former Soviet Union, and one very fanatic man came and said, "Why are you preaching all this here?" Anyway, instead of arguing with him, we just fed him very nice Krishna prasāda. And after Krishna Hṛṣṇa prasāda, he was completely achieved. Instead of closing up, he came back next day for the lecture again. So Krishna doesn't say star. Krishna said eat. But in Krishna prasāda, paśyam putpam phalam toyam yo me paśyapreyaḥ. Krishna said, offer me fruits, vegetables with love, and I will accept it. So the point that we are making is this, that if we practice God consciousness, then in whatever situation we are, we will be able to realize real happiness. So in the Bhagavad-gītā, we also have information about how to make the mind our friend. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa explains the position of the living entity, the position of the Lord, the position of material nature, the nature of karma. Karma— for every action there has to be a reaction. Now the word karma is also in the English dictionary. I don't know if it's in Russian dictionary, but it's in the famous Oxford dictionary. The karma means for every action there's a reaction. And Bhagavad-gītā also tells us the nature, the eternal nature of this creation. So Bhagavad-gītā says utilize the rare human body for achieving the goal of life or ending all miseries. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dhama-prasād-yamā-may-kam-cana-mā-dhāmaṁ tom sarva-pādvi-vaibhūkham yasmārtha-kāraṇa Give up all writings of religiousness and just surrender unto me. So we have to surrender to somebody or the other. Please understand, if you don't surrender to God or a pure devotee, then you will have to surrender to your mind, senses, friends, and they will all cheat you. The friends are ready to cheat you, the mind is cheating you at every stage. And if you don't use this rare human life, you may not get a human birth again, or hundreds of thousands of years. So this Krishna consciousness movement is presenting the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gītā that enables one to perfect one's existence. In order to succeed spiritually, the Bhagavad-gītā also cautions us to control the mind. The mind plays a very important role in fulfilling the goal of life. So similarly, the senses are manifesting the desires from the mind. So the whole process of yoga is aimed at controlling the mind. Krishna says in the 6th chapter, make the mind your friend. The mind that helps you to understand the goal of life, that helps you to follow the scriptures, is your friend. And the mind that does not help you to do this is actually your enemy. So Krishna gives us some guidelines how to control the mind in the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna says simplicity— so this is spiritual philosophy, simple living, high thinking. Keep your lifestyle simple so that you have time for self-realization. So spiritual philosophy is simple living, high thinking, and capitalism philosophy is high living and simple thinking, and communist philosophy is simple living, simple thinking. So simple living, minimize the bodily needs so that you can focus on the goal of life. So that is one of the guidelines. Satisfaction. Be satisfied by what is provided by the will of the Lord. In the absence of spiritual knowledge, one is driven by greed, and greed is so powerful. To get money, people are ready to do anything. If you only knew the type of dangerous activities that people are doing to make money, it would surprise you. Today they're ready to do anything— kill animals, kill children, smart, smuggle drugs, anything, as long as they can make money. Then self-control. Self-control means control yourself, control the unnecessary desires of the senses and the mind. Don't become a slave of your senses. Have you seen a snake charmer? No, no, I don't think in your country. In India you can see snake charmers. So what the snake charmers do, they have even the cobra snake around their neck, and an outside man He's just amazed, how can this man keep a cobra on his neck? But there's a trick. The snake charmer has broken the teeth of the snake. Because of the tooth, the teeth are broken, the snake doesn't have poison left anymore. Because all the poison of the snake is stored in the teeth. So similarly, the poison in the senses is in the form of different lusty, the lusty desires. So self-control means Don't engage the senses in activities detrimental for achieving the goal of life. Engage the senses in activities conducive to the goal of life. And purification of one's existence. Purifying one's existence means making the impure heart into pure. The heart is presently impure, so you have to make it pure. And how can you make it pure? By chanting the names of God. So by following this simple guideline, the mind can be brought under control. And when the mind is in control, it is easy to make spiritual advancement. And the process of controlling the mind is mantra yoga. You've all heard of the word yoga. So there's hatha yoga, dhyana yoga, sankhya yoga, mantra yoga, dhyana yoga, karma yoga. Actually, yoga means to meditate on the Supreme. So by chanting the names of Krishna, by chanting the names of God, you're practicing mantra yoga. And by chanting names of God, You can bring the mind in control. The mind begins to get attracted to God, Kṛṣṇa, just like an iron bar gets pulled to a magnet. So our request to everyone assembled here is to please understand the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā. Chant the names of Kṛṣṇa and experience real happiness. This false happiness that you get by drinking, intoxication, gambling, etc., it is temporary. It is materially destructive because when you smoke too much, you eat meat, you take drinks, you have illicit sex, all that gives you diseases. Smoke too much, you get cancer. Drinking gives you diseases. Meat eating gives you cancer. Unrestricted sex life gives you AIDS and so many diseases. So these activities give you material pain and spiritual pain. Spiritual pain because you have to go and suffer in the hellish planet for all these Whereas the path of God consciousness is sublime, honest, truthful, and one of real happiness. And the nature of this happiness is that it is always increasing, increasing, increasing. It never goes down. And you're gonna have it for free. There's virtually nothing you can have for free today. Even if you want to breathe fresh air, you have to go to the mountains by spending a lot of money. But here you can have real happiness for free. All you have to do is chant the name. So chant the names of God, chant the Hare Krishna mantra, read the Bhagavad Gītā, and thereby perfect your existence. Whenever you attend a Kṛṣṇa conscious program, devotees are always talking to you about the real truth, Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Why? Because they know that this is the only means by which you can be satisfied. They know that nothing else will satisfy you. Therefore, they continue to reveal the wisdom that Kṛṣṇa gave. To take this path and be happy. This is a humble submission to all of you. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. I was told we have to stop at 9 o'clock. I can take on questions for 10 minutes. Yes, because Jesus Christ himself said I'm Son of God. Is your question to the audience or to me? There is no problem if you want to practice Christianity and your wife wants to practice Krishna consciousness. What is the problem? You, you follow Lord Jesus Christ and follow Jesus Christ's original teaching. Follow his Ten Commandments. You on the rosary, please chant the names of Lord Jesus Christ and don't offer meat, fish, and night. And you let your— let's look at— and you let your wife chant Hare Krishna. There's no problem. Why are you making such a big Tell them I'm going to start the program early in the— in the— yes. Okay, there's no problem. If you are Krishna conscious, you're automatically a good Christian. Why do you people have this understanding? If you're, if you're in Krishna conscious, you're not a good Christian. What is the meaning of Christian? Christian means a servant of God. So what are we teaching you? To serve God. Okay, I'll answer your question later. Fall into the material world. How, how did he fall? He fell down by taking a birth, coming down in the form of rain.