Bhagavad-gita 9.14

Sri Chaitanya Mano Viṣṭam Stāpitam Yena Bhūdhale Swayam Rupā Kadāmahyam Dadati Svā Padāntikam. He Krishna Karuna Sindho Dīna Bhāndho Jagatpate Gopyaśa Gopya Kanta Rāda Kanta Namostute Taptakanchanagurangiradhevrindavaneshwari Vrishabhanu Vsutadevi Pranamami Haripriye Vanchakalpadharubyaśca Kripasindubyevacca Patitanam Pavanibhyo Paisnavebhyo Namonamaha Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhupada Nanda Shri Advaita Gadathara Shri Vasadigora Bhaktavrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Tantu Bhutani Sivam Mithodiya, Manascha Badram Bajatata Doksa Jaya, Havya Sheta Mnama Teer Abhyahaituki. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Again I would like to express my gratitude for inviting me to speak in front of all of you. And I would like to speak on the verse from Bhagavad-Gita, which explains the philosophical basis of Hare Krishna movement. Sometimes not very literate people say that you are chanting all this kirtan, the name of Krishna, where is it in Bhagavad-Gita? Of course it's there in Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna directly speaks about this in the ninth chapter, which is the most important chapter of Bhagavad-Gita. This chapter is called Raja Vidya, Raja Guhya Yoga. And this is the most important jewel among all the Ashtadi Shadhyaya of Bhagavad-Gita. In this chapter Krishna reveals the most important secrets of spiritual life. That's why it's called Raja Vidya, Raja Guhyya. This is the most important knowledge, the king of all knowledge, and this is the most secret knowledge at the same time, Rahasya. And in the middle of this chapter, Krishna speaks this verse. He says, Satatam kirtayantamam yatantashadhridhavrataha namasyantashamam bhaktayanitya yukta upasate. So let's chant this verse together. Satatam kirtayantomam yatantaś ca dridhavrataha namasyantaś ca mam bhaktya nitya yukta upasate. So I'll read the translation which was given by His Divine Grace, I see Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to this verse. Always chanting my glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before me, these great souls perpetually worship me with devotion. So I will speak a few words about the importance and the meaning of this very beautiful verse of Bhagavad Gita. Krishna, a few verses before, said that he actually began this chapter while explaining I'm God and I'm supervising all the material nature. I'm the intelligence behind this matter. Everything is being done under my supervision. Very clearly he says, I'm a dyaksha. I'm the main person who is making all the moving entities to move and all the non-moving entities to be stationed. but then immediately after that he says he says that mudas the not very intelligent people those people who have muddy intelligence they despise me they will look down at me when I come here in this human like form sometimes people believe in God but for them God is something which is very, you know, some energy or some force which is behind this and they don't believe that God himself can come to this world and be with us. They cannot understand how God can stand on two bricks in this posture and wait when his devotee will finish his business. and Krishna criticized them severely He says they are mudas they are not very intelligent they are fools and then he says even more heavier verse he says He says those people who don't believe that I, God, can come and take this human-like form for the sake of people for the sake of saving them, by manifesting my grace, those people, everything which they do is doomed. He says, all their hopes for the future, all their desires, they are unfulfilled. All their undertakings, ultimately futile, and they will be doomed. And all their jnan, all their so-called knowledge, ultimately will bring destruction to them. These people may believe in God or in some power which is behind this universe, but they don't believe in the mercy of the Lord. And the Lord without His mercy is nobody. He is Kripa Mai, He is made of mercy. So, basically what Krishna wants to say is that my personal form, my personal appearance, my personal manifestation in which I become like human being is the most important. And this is the very basis, the very foundation of bhakti. Because you cannot love some energy, you know, I fell in love with energy, you know. You know, that doesn't make any sense. You cannot love some force which is there or some intelligence. Sometimes people say he is universal intelligence. But you cannot love intelligence. You can only love God. Ultimately when Krishna says, Raja Vidya, Raja Guhyya, Pavitram Edamutamam, when he glorifies the knowledge which he gives in this Navamadhyaya, in the ninth chapter of Bhagavad Gita, he ultimately wants to say, now I will tell you the essence of all knowledge, which is bhakti. Bhakti is the sar of all knowledge, is the quintessence of all knowledge. Whatever other knowledge we may have, if we don't understand that God is most merciful and he can do anything which he likes for our sake, for the sake of the souls, and for the sake of love, to experience love and to give love, we don't have any knowledge because everything else is just useless. And then after that, after condemning these people who don't believe that God is a person, He says, Mahatma-nastumam partha-divim prakriti-ma-sritahat. Bhajan-dananya-mana-so gyatva bhutanam avyayam. So, you know, he contrasts these two categories of people. He says some people are foolish, but there are Mahatmas. And by Mahatma he doesn't mean Mahatma Gandhi, that's for sure. By calling these people Mahatma, he means to say that they have big heart. Mahatma means big heart. Yes, Vishallah Hriday. Why and how they have this Vishallah Hriday, this big heart? Because they can understand that Lord is a person, God is a person, and that his personal form, which is seemingly like human being, is the most important and the most loving form of all, and most beautiful form of all. In Simad Bhagavatam, in the beginning of Simad Bhagavatam, where Sukadev Goswami describes Dandots of the festival which Nandamaraj arranged in Gokul on the occasion of birth of Krishna, on occasion of his Janmashtami, he is also called Mahatma. Nandamaraj is called Mahatma also there. Who is Mahatma? Mahatma is somebody who can hold God in his heart. God is greatest. He is the biggest of all. And if somebody can hold the biggest of all in his heart, it means that his heart is the biggest of all. And it means that he is Mahatma. And Krishna very clearly says here, Mahatmanas to Mampartai. He says to, he says, which means, as opposed to other people who are not Mahatmas, who are Duratmas, Mahatmas, they take complete shelter of my spiritual energy, and by taking shelter of my spiritual energy, Daivim Prakriti, they really can remember about me. And then the natural question arises, what does Mahatmas do? How do you recognize Mahatma? It's especially relevant in this day and age where so many people call themselves Mahatmas. But Krishna gives a very clear sign or very clear definition, who are the Mahatmas? This is Krishna's definition, this is his opinion, and his opinion is supreme, it's the most important. Sometimes Supreme Court of India may call somebody Mahatma, but that's not that important. So, Krishna very clearly says, this is the verse where He describes how Mahatma behaves, how He lives in this world. And the first thing which He says, satatam kirtayantahamam, the one who always chants My Holy Name, My Glories. It's very, very clear, it's very, very inambiguous. Satatam Kirtayantamam, the one who chants Abhangas of Tukaram or other great bhaktas, one who chants Bhajans, one who chants Mirabai Bhajans, one who chants the holy name which is most important, he is Mahatma. That's the first sign of Mahatma. And he specifically says Satatam, which means always, Nirantaram. Obviously we cannot chant in a loud way all the time. Sometimes we have to eat, sometimes we have to sleep, sometimes we have to watch YouTube, I don't know. But how is that possible that Krishna says, satatam kirtayantamam. The only explanation, the only reasonable explanation of this is that always within his heart he is glorifying the Lord, no matter what he is doing externally. and to always glorify the Lord within the heart one has to have a very special condition of the heart. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in his beautiful Shikshastakam prayers he says He says that only those people can always glorify the Lord within the heart who are very humble, more humble than the grass, more tolerant than the tree, who are ready to respect everyone and who are not eager to accept respect towards themselves. That's the secret of this Nirantaram Kirtan which is going on within the heart of Mahatmas. When we are not humble, when we are proud, then we always want to chant our own glories. We want to glorify ourselves so we're waiting that somebody else will glorify us. Chant au kirtan. Yes, there is atma kirtan and there is hari kirtan. There's a big difference between the two. So, and therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says only if you humble, you understand that the only one who's kirtanya, kirtanya literally from Sanskrit means who is worthy of being glorified. who should be glorified. We are nobody. We are insignificant. But the Lord is only one who is to be glorified, who has to be glorified. Little conditioned soul, jivas, who live in this world, they have some sort of envy within the heart. And they sometimes think, you know, why they always glorify God, why they don't glorify me. They have this irshia, this little jealousy within the heart. But when people purify the heart, by spiritual practices, they become humble, and in a humble heart, satatam kirtayantamam, they always chant the glories of the Lord. And in this sense, this is the most important practice when we achieve the success of spiritual practice. We always chant the kirtan of the holy name, but to reach to this stage, there is only one mean, is to chant the holy name. So chanting of the holy name is at the same time sadhya and sadhana. It is the means to achieve the end. And it is the end itself. And that means that this is purely spiritual process because when there is difference between sadhana and sadhya, this process is not 7% spiritual. Spiritual process, there is no difference between the means and the end. therefore Sri Krishna says this is the first and the most important sign of Mahatma Satatam Kirtayantamam he always chants my glories sometimes our founder Acharya was asked you are chanting and what will you do when you achieve the perfection of your chanting and Srila Prabhupada would tell then when we achieve success we will chant even more and then Then Krishna says some other very important things here, yatanta-scha-dridhavra-taha. When the heart is pure, then the people will become very determined, dridhavra-taha. They will give vow and they follow the vow. They become like Druva in their determination to please the Lord. Yatanta literally means that they control their mind. they can completely control their mind and their senses. Yatantaha. These people who purify their heart, they become very disciplined. All the problems which we have in this world because of undisciplined mind and unruly senses which we have. Because we cannot really control our mind. We do all kinds of crazy things and then regret. But Krishna says, when the heart is pure due to Nirantarkirtan, due to chanting of the Holy Name all the time, then people become naturally in a very spontaneous way disciplined and controlled. In the modern world this problem of crime and of all kinds of strange activities of people is becoming more and more problematic and people are trying to solve this problem by making more and more police forces. Like in America there was this riots. Every now and then there are some riots and people go out in the street and start burning the cars, you know, burning or bulgurizing the shops and everything else. It's complete chaos. But in Ram Sayodhya, in Ram Skoshala, in his state, there was no police. There was only one Ram. Because people themselves were naturally disciplined. They didn't need this external force to discipline them. Which again comes only from the purity of the heart. And then Krishna says, Namasyantaha Chamam Bhaktiya. and they also bow down to me, they pay obeisances to me, they come to the temple, they prostrate themselves on the floor, and they behave in a very humble way. So again he explains that this is external behavior, but the external behavior is a result of their state of heart. They are very humble within the heart, they are not faking all these things. They just in a very natural way humble and very vinaya, very qualified and very educated people. But then in the last line of this verse, very important line, Krishna says something very He says, nitya yukta upasate. And you can translate this line, nitya yukta upasate, they always engaged in worship of me. But, acaryas who explain Bhagavad Gita, they explain very beautiful things about this. They say that past participle yukta, nitya yukta, means that they have aspiration to become eternal parikars of the Lord. So the implication, very important implication, is that within their heart they have very strong desire to become eternal associates of the Lord. They have this abhi pride, this intention that I want to become Nitya Parikar, Nitya, associate of the Lord in the spiritual world. On the way here, when we were driving in the car, I saw one shop and it was, the shop was called, they were, you know, selling some iron stuff and it was called Ultimate Solution for Your Roof. and I was thinking there is no ultimate solution for the roof sooner or later roof will just fall down no problem but ultimate solution is there the ultimate solution atyantika parikar is parikar yes atyantika parikar is there this is to become nitya yukta upasate become the nitya associate of the Lord because ultimate solution means you become free from death until we become free from death, from this samsara, from the circle of birth and death, it's not an ultimate solution. It's just a fake. But most of the people, they don't want ultimate solution. They don't want to solve the ultimate problems of the world, which is birth, death, old age and disease. their lagu-cetasat, their heart is so small that they cannot even understand that we have to solve this most important problem which is there. The problem of Janmamrityu Jaravya-dhi. So, and therefore Krishna says that those people who are Mahatmas, who are real Mahatmas, they have this aspiration. I want to come to the eternal spiritual world to eternally serve my Lord in love and the spiritual reality. And the best means to obtain this ultimate solution, according to this verse of Bhagavad Gita, is satatam kirtayantam. It's easiest and the most natural solution. It's easiest and the most natural way of spiritual practice. Sometimes people think that spiritual practice has to be something really weird, really crazy. You know, I once went to Kumbh Mela and I saw all kinds of very strange spiritual practices. Somebody for 40 plus years is raising his hands and not even during the sleep putting him down. Somebody is laying down in a thorny bush. Somebody is piercing his body with all kinds of stuff. And this is called spirituality. If spirituality is something natural to our soul, it cannot be expressed through very unnatural means. This Kretrimamaya, prakriya don't work. But the chanting, the singing is the most natural activity of a human being. Everyone sings, especially when he is happy. Those who know how to think properly, they think, and those who don't know how to think properly, they think even louder. But everyone thinks and it's the most natural expression of our heart. And therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, Kirtanya Sadahari, you should come to this stage when you always glorify the Holy Name of the Lord by chanting Hare Krishna mantra, or any other Rama, Krishna, Hari or whatever it is, Krishna has many names. You can chant vittal, vittal, vittal, you can chant Panduranga, Panduranga, Panduranga, you can chant Haribhol, Govinda, Jaya, Jaya, no problem. So that's the, as I said, the philosophical basis. This is a very simple and very natural process, but at the same time very sublime process to achieve a very elevated goal of the most highest goal of human aspirations to come to the spiritual world and to serve the Lord eternally. And that's why I'm here today to learn from you how to chant the Holy Name of the Lord. Thank you very much Hare Krishna. Thank you very much, Harigashita. Swami Nira, we understand that we have been staying in this Purandavan. We understand that. So we are very good. We want to know after coming to this Purandavan, whether you have this spiritual experience. We have to know that that place is so many things, and come to there and achieve that. So can you please... You know, I did have some spiritual experience, there is no doubt about it, But it's not a proper etiquette to speak about spiritual experiences too openly. Because we have to maintain the most important spiritual experience which we should all have is this feeling of utmost humility in front of the Lord. And when we start speaking about our experiences, unless it's absolutely necessary, it does create negative effect because it may, you know, make us proud about this and so many other unwanted things can happen. So I would rather speak about spiritual experiences of some other people than to speak about the about my spiritual experiences. We know the great spiritual experiences of Saint Tukaram, we know Saint Eknath, all these people, they do have spiritual experience. And if Krishna wants, he will reveal this spiritual experience to everyone else. But we ourselves should be very careful about this. How does the law of karma act on devotion? Because everybody has to go to their rarabhata karma, sanchi karma. How to overcome that? It is said, especially in Srimad Bhagavatam, this is a very difficult question. This is a very difficult question and when we take some other spiritual techniques or spiritual paths, they all say that if Prarabdha Karma is already there, you have to experience it. There is no other way. The only way to get rid of Prarabdha Karma is to experience it, to live through it. It is said in Padma Purana, prarabda palam papam kutam bijja palam mukam kramenaeva pralita vishnu bhakti ratatmana. And in this verse, every other spiritual past they say that a prarabda karma, the karma which is still sanchita karma, which is accumulated from the previous verse, if it's not prarabda, if it's not manifested, then it can be easily removed by all the spiritual practices. But in this verse of Padma Purana, it is very clearly said that Vishnu Bhakti Ratatmanam, when you become absorbed in Bhakti, in Vishnu Bhakti, then Apararabda Palam Papam Kutam Bijapalan Mukam, all stages, even including Prarabda Karma, can be removed due to absorption in Bhakti. And I will explain this. What is karma? How karma manifests? What is it in reality? Karma is nothing but samskaras which are there in our mind, all the accumulated impressions which are there in the mind. And at one point, according to our astrological chart, according to the influence of the planets, and you know, karma is symbolically described in our chart, The Mangal in this position, Guru in this position, Buddha in this position. So at one point all these samskaras which are sleeping within our mind, they become awoke and they start acting upon us. They start pushing us in different directions. And ultimately from these subtle impulses, from these subtle energies which are there in the mind, which is stored in the form of samskaras, the gross manifestation of our karma also starts revealing, you know, within our body and within the external situations. So our gross body, which consists of pancha, mahabhuta, prana and all other things, it's nothing but the gross manifestation of the subtle samskaras which are there in citta, in mahatattva, in a very subtle mental, informational, so to speak, sphere of our being. Even the modern doctors, medical practitioners, they say that all the diseases, they have psychosomatic nature. They start in the mind and then they manifest in the body. And we call it karma because it manifests and we say cancer is there or some other deadly disease or some suffering is coming. But ultimately, it's all there in a subtle form in our mind. And when you become attached to bhakti, it's not said Vishnu Bhakti is the means, but Vishnu Bhakti Ratatmanam, the somebody who becomes deeply engrossed in bhakti, whose bhakti becomes his second nature, he can completely purify mind from all these samskaras and from all this karma which is already prarabda, which already started manifesting. Bhakti changes your mind in a very radical way, in a very revolutionary way. It changes your mind, purifies your mind. Now the external situations which is also determined by our karma may not be changed. We may still go through some hurdles and difficulties in external world, but our reaction, our mental reaction on these problems will be completely different, will change. We have to be very clear that there are two different things. There is suffering and there is pain. You may experience pain but don't experience suffering at the same time. You may experience some difficulties in your life, but it will not really cause anguish or anxiety within your heart because your mind has become pure. So attachment to bhakti gives this stability in the mind and purity in the mind, which helps one to completely disregard or overcome difficulties of karma from our past life. And therefore in this verse there is a very important kram, a very important sequence. First, aprarabda karma is removed. Aprarabda palam papam, the unmanifested pap, the sins which we committed in the previous life. Then kutam bijam and palam mukam, these four stages. A prarabda, then kuta, then bija, and then palo unmukam. So kuta, bija, and palo unmukam, this is all prarabda karma. A prarabda karma is removed very quickly. But then kutam is removed, then bijam is removed, then palo unmukam is removed. Kutam basically means the traits of our character, which is the result of our previous karma. And we can see that people who start practicing bhakti seriously, who chant the Holy Name, their character changed. Their traits of character according to their prarabdha karma is becoming different. Bija is the next stage of manifestation. these traits or the character, our qualities according to our karma, then give birth to bijyā. Bijyā basically means desire to express this character. So then desire is also removed by practicing bhakti. And pala un mukham, pala un mukham basically means It's already almost ready to give the fall, the fruit of our karma. Even this is being removed. The karma in the most ripe way, bhakti can completely remove even this sort of prarabdha karma. Therefore, great devotees of the Lord, great saints, they don't feel any karma. Even though their life may be difficult, but they're happy anyway. We have to finish. We have to finish now, right? There is puja. Okay. So you can hear our Ketanons. Yes, sure.