20011018 Bhagavad-gītā 15.10

Bhagavad-gītā 15.10

Type Of Talk:

Evening Class

Location:

Auckland, New Zealand

Book:

Bhagavad-gita As It Is (BG)

Vedabase link:

http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/10

Date:

Thursday, October 18, 2001

Collection:

Enlightenment 9

Audio player:

2010118 BHAGAVAD GITA 15.10, NOBODY REALLY DIES, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita Gadaadhara Srivas Adi Gaura Bhakta Vrnda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaya Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaya Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaya

Narayanam namaskrityam naram chaiva narottamam Devim saraswatim vyasam tatho jayam udirayet

Mukha karoti vaachalam pangu langhaayate girim Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina taarinam paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Ishwaram Hari hi Om Tat sat

BG 15.10: Translation:

The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this.

Why is it the foolish cannot understand how the living entity is leaving his body? Prabhupad says here the foolish cannot understand. How is it that they cannot understand? What is their concept? No, their concept is that they are the body. So when the body dies they think that the person is dead. He has a soul that goes somewhere but that soul – they really do not understand what is the soul. People identify very much with the body, that is why they don’t see that living force in the body. The body dies, the living force goes on. Nobody actually dies. They quit their body. Externally it appears that people are dying but they don’t understand that how is it that they are actually embodied souls. They think that they are the body. So they are busy trying to enjoy the body, the senses, but they get entangled in so many sufferings and enjoyment on the basis of sense gratification. If you are trained in this transcendental knowledge you can see all these things. You know with a little training in Krishna consciousness one can understand the difference between the body and the soul. But so many big, big, erudite scholars even may not understand because they are not trained from the Bhagavad Gita and from a bona fide spiritual master. So Prabhupad, he gives a special message that those who are highly developed in Krishna consciousness try their best to give this knowledge to the people in general. The people in general their conditional life is very troublesome. So a devotee is para dukkha dukhi. He cannot see the other people suffering. Therefore, he wants to relieve that suffering by giving them this transcendental knowledge. There was a book distributor in New Orleans and she was having a very bad day in the airport – nobody was buying any books and then she was praying to Krishna that if somebody can be sent to me then I can give one book to. Another group of passengers came by and then she stopped one businessman but he told her no, today is the worst day in my life so don’t bother me, don’t talk to me. Today is the worst day in my life, absolutely the worst day. She said, sir, we are here to help people who are having a bad day! Tell me why is today the worst day in your life? He said, you see my whole life, everything I have been doing is to please my mother. I went to school for my mother, I got married for my mother, I am working for my mother, everything, the whole goal in life is mother consciousness, everything for my mother. And now I just got the news today, just a few hours ago that my mother is dead. So what is the use of my life? Why am I living? I don’t see any purpose any more. He was very upset. So then the book distributor explained to him, you see, we have this book Bhagavad Gita. It says dehino yasmin yatha dehe kaumaaram youvanam jara, thatha dehaantara praaptir, dhiras tatra na muhyati. The soul never dies, the body dies. Your mother is still alive. Just the body is dead but the mother is alive. She is the living force in the body. She is still alive somewhere. And the whole Bhagavad Gita is explaining the science of the self. So you don’t have to feel that your mother is no more, she is still there, she is still alive, but she is not in that old body, she has some better situation. Like that she gave some very simple explanation and said, take this book, read it, it will help you understand all these things about life. He was very happy, gave a nice donation and took the book. He seemed to be doing quite well but everything he was doing because of his mother. And he was so upset that his mother died. There was a Bengali lady who came out to Mayapur. We heard that she was a devotee and we heard that her son had just died swimming in a lake. In Bengal mothers are very famous for being very soft hearted. We were surprised to see her with her other children and other relatives but she looked very peaceful. We were not sure that the son may not have died. She was asked, is your son alright? She said, no, he left his body. She was asked, are you not upset? She said, what can we do? Krishna gives us someone to be our child and takes someone away. There is no use of lamenting. We are all here to do something practical for his wellbeing. We prayed to Krishna for his wellbeing and do poojas in his name. Then his soul will have a better destination. He is still alive but we don’t know where he is. There is no reason to lament. We were all surprised, shocked, to see how a mother was such a great philosopher and realized in the philosophy that even her own son perished a couple of days before and she has already got a control over her emotions and herself and she was very pragmatic and spiritual.

So this Bhagavad Gita is actually meant to equip people with how to deal with this situation. We are facing now in the world so many crises. Terrorism and horrible acts. People don’t understand why bad things happen to good people. They don’t understand what is happening. They get very fearful. So by the Bhagavad Gita we can help people prepare for all the dangers and difficulties that life possesses and help them to remain stable and steady in their God consciousness. This 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is a very powerful chapter. Every verse here is spoken by Krishna and is filled with transcendental potency. Lord Shiva told Parvati how this is one of the most powerful chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. Even by just studying this chapter alone, one can be delivered. So she was asking can you tell me the glories of the 15th chapter. Do you know that? So he explained to her that once there was a great king called Nrsingha maharaja and he was on a digvijay program, rajasuya to establish a one world government with himself as the emperor. In those days in India there would be quite often one world government in charge of the whole world. And when that happened they were ensuring that overall in the whole world there was peace. There was an advantage to having a one world government because at that time the void between the small states was kept down. And people can get on with a more progressive life. Spiritually and materially develop themselves. You didn’t need the passports anymore, can go anywhere all over the world. One country. Any way he had a general who was his chief of staff of the army and he was helping him a lot in winning all these wars and he finally consolidated an empire of the entire world and then for once there was peace in the whole world. Probably now the United Nations has the same goal as having peace in the world with something like forty wars going on in different parts of the world. In Africa, in Sri Lanka, and of course now everyone is focused on Afghanistan, the latest one which is spreading out everywhere because of this danger of bio terrorism. When I was in Perth we did Hari Naam in downtown Perth and then just after we left about an hour, we were told that actually a large portion of the downtown we went was cordoned off, because there was some suspicious packet in the toilet, and they thought it was a terrorist bomb or something. Probably somebody left their lunch box! But the people were frightened and very cautious. They evacuated several stores just because there was an unknown package. Somehow we just missed otherwise we don’t know where we would have been. So people are very tense right now, and with reason because some places they have been affected. It is very sad. So here in this kingdom, Nrsingha Maharaj, he created peace throughout the world and he rewarded his chief of staff with a small kingdom and a big palace and so many facilities because he had worked very nice. But the chief of staff, he was not happy. He said, I won all the battles, I should be the king! And he was conspiring a coup to assassinate the emperor and take over his position. But he did not have the karma nor the brain to manage an empire. He was only a good militarian. Any way just before he could, the day before he was going to do the coup d’clat he got cholera and died. The Yamadutas took him to Yamaraj and Yamaraj said you are rascal number one. You were planning to kill your emperor. You don’t have the good karma to be an emperor. You are ungrateful, he gave you so many things. So you wanted to be the greatest. Alright, I will let you be the greatest. You can be the greatest horse in the world and let him be born as a super horse! The greatest horse in the entire world! Gold medal horse! Olympic champion! The best! So one businessman was travelling and he saw this horse and he said this is the best horse I have ever seen. I am going to make a lot of money on this horse. Because this is the best horse in the world, it should only go to the emperor. So he paid two million rupees for the horse. With great effort he brought it back to the capital city of the empire. And he tried to take it to the royal assembly but they didn’t let him in, are you crazy to take a horse to the assembly! He said no this is the best horse in the world and the king, the emperor has to see it. So there was a big commotion at the door and the emperor asked what is the problem? And they explained to him that somebody said he had the best horse in the world. The emperor said, no problem we will check it out. Get my horse experts. Get the medic, the veterinarian, to check the horse out. This is a good horse. And they went and checked said this horse was a super horse! They had never seen a super horse, better have this horse. They went and reported to the emperor that this horse is the best horse we have ever seen. Maybe this is the best in the entire world! So then the emperor personally went to see and he was very impressed. So he purchased it. He asked the businessman how much he wanted. Sir, for you I don’t want to make any profit, with great difficulty I got this horse, I will give it you at my cost of four million! So the emperor paid for it. So then the emperor brought his four-million-rupee horse and after sometime he wanted to try it out. So they made a hunting expedition and he went with his party of princes and general and noble people and they went hunting in the forest. There was a stag and they went chasing the stag. Now one disadvantage of having the fastest horse in the world – you know what that is? Yes, nobody else can keep up with you! So when he was chasing the stag he was going so far ahead of all the others that after hours of chasing he was completely alone, deep in the forest. Alone, thirsty, hungry after riding so long! Then he came across a stream by a waterfall. So he could drink some water and give his horse some water. Then he saw that by the side of the river there was a palm leaf with a Sanskrit verse written on it. He tied up his horse under a tree and he was looking at the Sanskrit verse and he read it out loud. I don’t know exactly which verse he read but could have been something like this:

uttamaù puruñas tv anyaù paramätmety udähåtaù yo loka-trayam äviçya bibharty avyaya éçvaraù

No sooner did he say that, his horse died. But out from the horse came the subtle form of his chief of staff! Vishnudutas came from the spiritual world with the spiritual airplane and finally his chief of staff got a spiritual form, sat in the spiritual airplane and whoooosh… went back to Godhead! He said, what is happening here?! General, what is happening here? When he was saying like that the general was not paying any attention to him but got on to the spiritual airplane and whooooooosh… went away. He transformed into his sacchinandana roop and whoooosh… went back to Godhead. The king was amazed, what just happened. This is amazing! So he went with the verse from the palm leaf and walked up the street, went to the top where the waterfall was coming from and there he came upon a hermitage where there were all sadhus and saintly people. So then he asked them that you know, I found this verse and do you know what this verse is? They looked at it and said, oh, this is the missing verse from our 15th chapter Bhagavad Gita. This morning there was a gust of wind and it blew off. Then he told them what happened. The whole thing with the horse and the general. Then they had some psychic vision, they told him actually this is what happened – your general had wanted to kill you and because of his karma he took birth as a horse. That he was the best horse but because he read the 15th chapter Bhagavad Gita, he was lamenting so much that he was so stupid to be a horse. When he heard the Bhagavad Gita he immediately got liberated. Then he went back to Godhead. He went back to Godhead, what about me the king said, why did I not go back to Godhead? Well, you may not have been listening to the verse very carefully when you read it. You have to be meditating on it deeply. So can I have the whole chapter please? So he began to chant the 15th chapter regularly and he also eventually went back home back to Godhead. So this 15th chapter is a very special chapter. Do you know who it is spoken by? How many speakers are there in the 15th chapter? Arjuna, Sanjaya, Dhritarashtra, Krishna, how many? Who? Krishna, yes. Only spoken by Krishna. This particular chapter, the entire chapter just spoken by Krishna. It is His instruction to Arjuna about the material world and about the spiritual world and about the yoga of the Supreme Person. So for many reasons it is considered a very powerful shaastra. Every chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is a standalone potency as well as the whole Bhagavad Gita. Every verse is so powerful. So foolish people, they are not able to understand what is going on. How the soul is going from an animal body to another animal body to finally getting a human body. How from one human body to the next. Or back again or up. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, swarge uthaaya kobe narake dubaaya, janma janma aaje jano Nadite chuaaya – sometime we go to the higher planets, sometime we go to the lower planets like somebody in a dunking stool were put in misery and then given some breath of air and then again put into misery. Maybe previously somebody would have in his lifetime been more happy but now nobody is secure. Even very powerful people they are living in fear because if you are a powerful person then you are also under the risk of terrorists and envious people. So there is no security now. Everybody is in this situation. So we want to help the world to be a better place that people can actually achieve Krishna in this lifetime so that they can be peaceful while living here. And the best way is if they have a clear understanding of who they are and they put it to practice, they have the gyana chakshusha, the eyes of knowledge.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

So what would you like? You would like more discussion on this or do you want slide show of my travel since I was here in May and June? How many want the slide show? How many want just more class? Nandakumar you want to start it up? Meanwhile do you have questions or comments?

Somebody told me that – I had asked whether Nityananda in Caitanya Caritamrita was bona fide scripture and they told me that it wasn’t written by Vrindavan das Thakur and it was written by some other person. Apart from that even in Caitanya Caritamrita sometimes it mentions that Jahnava devi is simultaneously Ananga Manjari and Revati. What I understand from that is that within one personality two different divine personalities are manifesting their characteristics. When she is serving Lord Nityananda then her Revati mood is manifesting and when she is out preaching and spreading Krishna consciousness, her Ananga Manjari mood is manifesting. It is described that somebody is two souled but that two souls are manifesting through one body. We have people in this world who are schizophrenic, who have multiple personalities. So why not a spiritual, transcendental manifestation? Within Krishna all of the personalities are present, so exactly how they do that I don’t think anybody of us is qualified to state but the technique is transcendental feature that they have all the incarnations within Him. So whether Revati has the Manjari within her or vice versa or they are just sharing two persons at the same time and different manifestation according to the leelas but somehow in some cases there is the two in one. Because sometime they are acting such a way that what is not in the spirit of Revati but in the spirit of somebody else. And they are acting in the spirit of the other person. Exactly how they do that, how can we say? But it is not that two souls become one, but these two persons are manifesting through one person, one body or one lila. Those two personalities are manifesting. How exactly they do it, that is something we won’t know till we go back to the spiritual world. And even then we might not know. These are shaktis, they can do so many things. Any other question?

Question: Inaudible

GM: The people like the terrorists who do suicide bombing, they did this in the name of religion which is a very shameful thing. But then at the same time there are the mullahs who are well esteemed around the world, religious pandits of the Islam faith, they state that in the Quran there is no right for such activity – killing innocent children, women and innocent people, doing suicide bombing and things – this is not anywhere condoned by the Quran. So then one comes to the question that how in the name of religion people are doing such things. Because they are not actually studying their own scriptures, not getting the proper guidance. It is not because of religion; it is because of very superficial understanding of religion. People are not reading and knowing and then there is the same kind of fanaticism you get in various religions around the world. How many people know their religion? How many people know what is the actual spiritual science? Bhagavad Gita is beyond just a religion; it is the science of the self. Prabhupad presented and said we should present the Bhagavad Gita as a scientific treatise which is revealing to us the science of religion, science of the Supreme Person, science of the self. So if people had the understanding of the Bhagavad Gita then they would transcend that sectarian vision and that could create a better situation in the world. Just like we understand that there is one God and there may be different ways that people approach Him. We understand that the soul doesn’t die and all these things so therefore someone was asking me in South Africa, how is it that in all the religions here in South Africa, none of them even before or after apartheid, they are not able to integrate amongst the races. Even though them may say, they are not able to integrate. But you Hare Krishna devotees even in the midst of apartheid, all the different races were together, living together, working together, and even now they are continuing like that. So how is it possible? Because in the Bhagavad Gita it says that we are not the body, we are the spirit souls. Prabhupad, from that point of view trained us all that we are not the body, we should see everybody not according to their body. Like Prabhupad was very about that, he said if somebody is seeing a person just by their body, then he is basically like a leather worker, a cobbler. They are experts at skins, what kind of skin makes a good shoe, you know. Tanner, I don’t know what they are called in English. Moochi is what they are called in Bengal. They are not having any high understanding, just seeing the skin of people. So when Prabhupad went to the west and they said we are Americans and you are Indian – Mukunda maharaj can talk about that, he was there. So Prabhupad said I am not Indian, you are not American, you are not Chinese, we are the spirit soul, we are the part and parcel of Krishna. So we all understand that every human being is a part of God, every animal is a part of God. Then why should we cause the slaughter of innocent animals and the murder of innocent people? So this spiritual science is needed. But superficial and sectarian religious feeling where only thing we are taught, if you are a Moslem you should kill others, or if you are a Christian, whatever the fanaticism you are taught without knowing anything further in depth. Just like guys they are given, these terrorists, their meditation. They are going to show you how to meditate, they give you life today if you can massacre more people you go back to heaven, there are seventy ways of how God is waiting for you and all these things are told, you just take a bath, put on perfume and you are not going to get a second thought that this is not a good thing to do. If you don’t you just put it out of your mind, just pray again and remember God. That type of religion has no depth to it. There is no substantiation to that. That type of thing is dangerous but that is the same kind of thing in the name of nationalism, in the name of politics, why they just put the label, what does it have to do with God? If it doesn’t follow the scripture, only name is God. Any other question?

Mukunda maharaj, want to add something to that? (Mukunda Maharaj said something which was inaudible)

Haribol! When Lord Caitanya was preaching to the Chand Kazi or to the five peers on Islam then He showed them that in Islam it says you should love God, Allah, you should serve Him, that in the Quran it talks about liberation, about devotional service, about mystic power, about so many things. But both of them admitted it that actually all these things are there but our own scholars they don’t know that. You have brought it out now and we are convinced that it is true. In contemporary teachings nobody explains it like You are doing. They explained it in a different way. Many times in some religions they give political speeches in their meetings. So that type of religion causing lot of trouble – that’s why they need to read the Bhagavad Gita to establish what religion is. That is the real understanding of the self. Then people come and ask why this is called post graduate study for all the religions. Takes away all the misconceptions. My mother after coming and reading Bhagavad Gita and talking with me, she went back to her priest and went to one of the Bible studies and kept asking him questions. She looked at him and he said, talk to me after the class. Then he told her, what are you doing? What are all these questions? What are you saying? She said, my son is a Hare Krishna guru. He said, these are great mysteries you are talking about, we don’t talk about these things. Better don’t ask these questions in public because they would create confusion. He could not think about all these things. Just talk to me about everything in private. That is why people who go to Bible studies really only priests answer their questions. But like my mother she goes to church but she chants Hare Krishna. They have something called Jews for Jesus or something. In the future we may probably have – I have a nun who is initiated and my disciple, she is a Roman catholic nun. She chants her 16 rounds and follows the principles and everything. But she works with prostitutes and helps the children of the prostitutes and things. That is her work for the convent. She loves Jesus but at the same time chants Hare Krishna.

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi 13 March 2017