20241210 Address on the Eve of Gītā-jayantī Celebration

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sa

Jayapatākā Swami: Tomorrow is the day of Gītā-jayantā, Ekādaśī. This celebration today is the adhivāsa, because tomorrow is Ekādaśī and Gītā-jayantā day. The day Lord Kṛṣṇa imparted the knowledge of the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. Tomorrow, we can chant the Gītā. Lord Kṛṣṇa put Arjuna on a spell of māyā and spoke the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is the essence of the four Vedas. We had been to Kurukṣetra. There, the tree under which the Bhagavad-gītā was spoken, that tree still stands there! Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that there should be a temple there in Kurukṣetra, at the place where the Bhagavad-gītā was spoken. We had acquired a place earlier, but there was some inconvenience so again we have another place. But Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire has been fulfilled. The temple is almost complete and will be ready soon.

Here Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that the Pañca-tattva and TOVP temples to be there. Therefore, His Grace Ambarīṣa Prabhu and his good wife and Braja-vilāsa Prabhu, and other devotees are trying to get the TOVP ready.

In Māyāpur, I had the instruction from Śrīla Prabhupāda that Bhagavad-gītā should be widely preached. This Bhagavad-gītā is therefore being distributed in this temple. This Bhagavad-gītā has many things in it. Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that if we wanted first initiation, we had to read the Bhagavad-gītā ten times. So I had noted down and I would mark 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and cross it out and then again 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and cross it out and thus I read the Bhagavad-gītā ten times. I did not finish college, instead I joined ISKCON! But I gave a class in a university on the Bhagavad-gītā, as an Assistant Professor! And for that class there were two credits awarded. In America, in the university to get a degree, we had to accumulate credits. Those who attended my class, they got two credits. My college education had not finished, but I entered the college of ISKCON!

Anyway, if we study Bhagavad-gītā, we get more knowledge than the knowledge we get in a college. So, before people used to get the books with Bhagavad-gītā in the middle of them. (Many things I say, Sujitendriya Prabhu speculates and says different). Now, tomorrow is the appearance day of Bhagavad-gītā. Lord Kṛṣṇa gets more pleasure in the vraja-līlā. He did the vraja-līlā and then He went to Mathurā to Dvārakā, from Dvārakā to Kurukṣetra where He recited the Bhagavad-gītā before the war. So, Gītā is for us, Kṛṣṇa did not need the Gītā. Kṛṣṇa took the trouble to recite the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. And Vyāsadeva, he wrote the Mahābhārata in which is the Bhagavad-gītā is contained. The Bhagavad-gītā is for women, for vaiśyas, śūdras, for everyone. Śrīla Prabhupāda has explained it in such a way that everybody has the right to study this literature. Some books are there which only brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas only can study. But Bhagavad-gītā is for everyone!

In the Bhagavad-gītā there are many topics or truths. It is not that the Bhagavad-gītā is very simple. One day, I went up to Śrīla Prabhupāda and saw that Śrīla Prabhupāda had a Bhagavad-gītā on his desk. I said, oh! is this not a beginning book? He said unless you know Bhagavad-gītā, you cannot preach. So the Bhagavad-gītā is the essence of the Vedas. And, if we study the Bhagavad-gītā, we can come to know many things. And after studying Bhagavad-gītā, where the Bhagavad-gītā ends, from there the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins. Where the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ends, the Caitanya-caritāmṛta begins. So how many times have you all read the Bhagavad-gītā? Five or ten times? By the desire of Śrīla Prabhupāda, now Bhagavad-gītā is available in many languages. Bengali, English, and many other languages. Anyway, it is practically available in all languages – Spanish, Portuguese, and all languages of South America. There is a system where there are steps in which the books are printed. A branch of BBT, where the books are edited, proofread and in stages they are translated. There is a branch in Northern Europe, one in Southern Europe and in Australia there is a branch everywhere. Australia includes Middle East. We are trying to make sure that the Bhagavad-gītā is available in all the languages. His Grace Ānanda Tīrtha dāsa in Mumbai said that they have brought out the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in an app called “Transcend”. And, in this app, one can read the scriptures and those who cannot read, they can hear the audio books. So the modern technology as it is advancing, the scriptures are also being made available through different media. And, I don’t know, with Artificial Intelligence, AI, the books can be published in a more enhanced manner. We have to give time to study or hear the Bhagavad-gītā.

So, we will probably have a yajña tomorrow where Bhagavad-gītā’s verses will be chanted. Kṛṣṇa is so merciful! He became the charioteer, sārathi of Arjuna and chanted the Bhagavad-gītā! We see on the Bhagavad-gītā there is the picture in Arjuna is standing on the chariot and in front of him, Kṛṣṇa as the charioteer is blowing the conch shell. Now since Kṛṣṇa has spoken the Bhagavad-gītā should we not be studying the Bhagavad-gītā? So, Kṛṣṇa, in the eleventh chapter, showed His universal form, Viśvarūpa. If someone says that they can do like Kṛṣṇa, then you can ask them to show the Viśvarūpa like Kṛṣṇa did! So I have said many things about the Bhagavad-gītā.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said the Bhagavad-gītā is real, and it was spoken at a place called Kurukṣetra which is real, and therefore everyone should accept that this is history. In the Western countries they say that the Vedas, the Purāṇas, Bhagavad-gītā, etc. are all mythology. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that this is history and is scientific. This has been proved and the Bhagavad-gītā is being reached all over the world.

Haribol! Bhagavad-gītā kī jaya!