730722 - Lecture BG 01.28-29 - London

Lectures by Date, 1973

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

730722BG-LONDON - July 22, 1973 - 40:27 Minutes

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (devotees repeat) (leads chanting of verse)

arjuna uvāca

dṛṣṭvemaṁ svajanaṁ kṛṣṇa

yuyutsuṁ samupasthitam

sīdanti mama gātrāṇi

mukhaṁ ca pariśuṣyati

(BG 1.28)

Prabhupāda: Next verse.

vepathuś ca śarīre me

roma-harṣaś ca jāyate

gāṇḍīvaṁ sraṁsate hastāt

tvak caiva paridahyate

(BG 1.29)

(leads chanting of synonyms)

arjunaḥ—Arjuna; uvāca—said; dṛṣṭvā—after seeing; imam—all these; svajanam—kinsmen; kṛṣṇa—O Kṛṣṇa; yuyutsum—all in fighting spirit; samupasthitam—all present; sīdanti—quivering; mama—my; gātrāṇi—limbs of the body; mukham—mouth; ca—also; pariśuṣyati—drying up.

Translation: "Arjuna said: My dear Kṛṣṇa, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up."

vepathuḥ—trembling of the body; ca—also; śarīre—on the body; me—my; roma-harṣaḥ—standing of hair on end; ca—also; jāyate—is taking place; gāṇḍīvam—the bow of Arjuna; sraṁsate—is slipping; hastāt—from the hands; tvak—skin; ca—also; eva—certainly; paridahyate—burning.

Translation: "My whole body is trembling, and my hair is standing on end. My bow Gāṇḍīva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning."

Prabhupāda: So dṛṣṭvā imaṁ svajanam. Arjuna is a great warrior, fighter, and for a kṣatriya, to kill one is not very difficult task. The kṣatriyas are trained up, hunting. Hunting is allowed for the kṣatriyas. Just like medical practitioners, they are trained up how to practice surgical operation on dead body. It is not possible to, of course, for a gentleman, to push knife in someone's body. It is naturally very difficult thing. Rogues and thieves, they can stab. So as the doctors, medical men, surgeons are trained up to operate their knife on the dead body to see where are the nerves, similarly, kṣatriyas are also allowed for being trained how to kill.

Kṣatriya means . . . kṣata. Kṣata means injury; and tra means trāyate, saves. A kṣatriya has to save the citizen from being injured by others. He is called kṣatriya. Brāhmaṇa means one who knows Brahman, the supreme. So brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, these divisions are there according to quality. Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). By guṇa. Guṇa means quality. And karma means actual operation of the guṇa.

So Arjuna was a kṣatriya, trained up by Droṇācārya how to kill. This is the . . . nonviolence is not the business of the kṣatriya. That is cowardice. They are taught how to become violent. Otherwise, they cannot rule over. Formerly, the judgment was given by the king, immediately finished. Not go to the court and wait for the judgment for ten years; in the meantime, everything is finished. Not like that. Anything, there was regularly, the king used to sit in his assembly, and all the criminals, culprits, they were judged by the king himself. Sometimes the king had to kill personally with the sword. Even in European countries, the royal orders were trained up.

Nowadays it is constitutional, democratic government. The king has no power. But this is not good for the people. The democracy is a farce. At least, I do not like it. Because so many rascals, simply by getting votes, go to the government, and what do they know how to rule over? Therefore, at the present moment, all over the world there is no good government. There is no good government. The America was considered to have very good government. Now we can see the behavior of Mr. Nixon. It is not possible.

Formerly the kṣatriyas, they were trained up how to govern. They were trained up by military men, just like Droṇācārya trained Arjuna, Duryodhana. All the royal princes were trained up how to kill. Not only killing—also, according to śāstra, how to rule over. The king's business is to see that everyone in the country, they are properly employed and engaged in his own business. That is king's business. There was no question of unemployment. This is government's first business.

Because if a person is unemployed, then the devil's workshop. Devil's work . . . if he hasn't got to do anything . . . that is being done now. Rich man's son, he hasn't got to do anything, so his brain is devil's workshop. They are manufacturing so many "isms." But everyone should be engaged. This is government's first business to see—a brāhmaṇa is engaged as a brāhmaṇa, a kṣatriya is engaged as kṣatriya.

So Arjuna was not a coward. He was a competent warrior. But still, dehātma-buddhi, the bodily concept of life is so strong that Arjuna admits, dṛṣṭvā tu svajanaṁ kṛṣṇa (BG 1.28): "My dear Kṛṣṇa, I have to kill my own men." What is that "own men"? "Own men" means this bodily relationship. Why others are not own men? Everyone is own men, because everyone is Kṛṣṇa's son. So when one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, he can see everyone own men. And when he is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he simply sees own men where there is bodily relationship. This is the defect. They are advertising humanitarian work, philanthropic work, Communism, this "ism," but when there is question of bodily relationship, immediately everything is changed.

You know, the Communist country, the Khrushchev was driven out because he was patronizing his own men. That was the defect. So you can advertise that, "I am for everyone," but there is affection for own men. Nepotism. Nepotism. It's called nepotism. So many big, big leaders. Our Jawaharlal Nehru, he was sending his own men as ambassador. Vijaya Lakshmi, a woman, she was being sent as ambassador. She was high commissioner here. So this "own men" question is very prominent everywhere.

So Arjuna is a great warrior. He could fight all the soldiers, all the fighting men, yuyutsu. The other party, they were also, they were assembled, yuyutsu, with fighting spirit. Other men, even they are not fighting spirit, we can kill very easily. But own men, although they are fighting spirit, still he hesitates, because own men. So this "own-menship," in relationship with the body, is the barrier for spiritual understanding.

So long this conception of life will exist that, "I am this body, and anyone who is related with this body, they are my own men, kinsmen, relative . . ." This conception of life is the greatest barrier for advancing in spiritual consciousness. Therefore the Vedic civilization is so planned that one has to give up this rascal "own men" conception. That is the vairāgya. It is called vairāgya. Jñāna-vairāgya.

Two things required in human life: knowledge and vairāgya, detachment. The attachment increases. First of all it increases, puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etam (SB 5.5.8). This whole world is based on sex life. A man has got attraction for woman; a woman has got attraction for man. This is nature's bondage, shackle. And when they are actually united, either by the father, mother, or by their own way, that shackle, that attraction, increases. Puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etaṁ tayor mitho hṛdaya-granthi āhuḥ. Hṛdaya-granthi, knot in the heart. "She is my wife," "He is my husband."

Of course, now that knot is very slack. Formerly it was very strong, because the woman was not allowed to mix with any other man, and the man was also not allowed with any other woman. This intermingling has slackened even that knot, hṛdaya-granthim. Therefore, even trifle cases, quarrel between husband and wife, there is divorce. Because that unity is not very strong now. That is good. Some way or other, it is slackened. So this "own-menship" comes from bodily concept of life.

So Arjuna is preparing the ground, how to receive the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. Because spiritual instruction will begin to separate the soul from the body. Unless one understands that there is a soul different from this body, there is no spiritual education. This is the basic principle. If you do not understand what is soul, what is spirit soul, then where is spiritual education? So Arjuna was affected. He says frankly, dṛṣṭvā tu svajanaṁ kṛṣṇa yuyutsuṁ samupasthitam: "What is this? I have to kill my own men?" Svajanam. Svajanam means own men. "No, no." Sīdanti mama gātrāṇi: "Oh, I am shivering." Mukhaṁ ca pariśuṣyati: "My mouth is being dried up." We have got this experience. When there is danger, these things happens, so many symptoms.

vepathuś ca śarīre me

roma-harṣaś ca jāyate

gāṇḍīvaṁ sraṁsate hastāt

tvak caiva paridahyate

(BG 1.29)

As these things, these symptoms, different transformations of bodily constitution, appears in times of danger, similarly, such symptoms appear in times of spiritual bliss. That is called aṣṭa-sāttvika-vikāra (CC Antya 14.99), eight kinds of transformation of the body. So there is so many reserve energies within our body. They become manifest in due course of time when the mind and intelligence work in different way. This is the study, how things appear. It is appearing from intelligence, mind. The soul is there, and the intelligence and mind creating the situation of the bodily symptoms.

Therefore body or the senses are not all. The modern education, they think this body is everything. No. Real study is body means the senses. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ. On gross vision we see this body. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyas tu paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). But the bodily symptoms are acting because the mind is there. And mind is working because the intelligence is there. And the intelligence is working because the soul is there.

(aside) You can stand.

So this is the process. The basic principle is the soul. The soul is acting through intelligence, and the intelligence is acting through mind, and the mind is expressed through the senses. This is the position. So as my mind is absorbed in something, some subject matter, my bodily symptoms also will work, or the senses will work according to that mind. Therefore for spiritual advancement also, you have to train your mind. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (SB 9.4.18). If you use . . .

First of all fix up your mind. yoga, yoga means indriya-saṁyama. yoga practice means that controlling the mind and the senses. That is yoga practice. Because our mind is very flickering and changing, something accepting immediately, something rejecting immediately, very flickering. Therefore we have to train up the mind, and when the mind is trained up, then automatically your senses will be controlled. If you are strong-minded that, "I will not accept any foodstuff which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa," naturally your tongue is controlled. Naturally.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung, śarīra avidyā-jāl jaḍendriya tāhe kāl jīve phele viṣaya-sāgare (Prasāda-sevāya I). Our this body is a network of nescience, or ignorance. This body, why we have got this body, material body? Because we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa and we wanted to lord it over the material nature. This is our position. Therefore, according to our different desires, we have got different body. Here we are sitting, say fifty or hundred men. Nobody's body will tally with other's body. Face and everything, different.

Because every one of us has got different desires. Therefore their facial expression, bodily construction, everything is made according to the mind. So at the time of death also, the constitution of mind will transfer me to another, different type of body. The mind will carry the soul. These are all explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6).

So if you train up your mind, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness—always remembering Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. Then it may be possible that at the time of death you remember Kṛṣṇa and your life is successful. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Immediately you are transferred to Kṛṣṇaloka. This is training.

So we have to think of Kṛṣṇa always, twenty-four hours. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended. Taror api sahiṣṇunā . . .

tṛṇād api sunīcena

taror api sahiṣṇunā

amāninā mānadena

kīrtaniyaḥ sadā hariḥ

(CC Adi 17.31)

Because our aim is . . . if we are serious of being transferred to the loka, to the place, where Kṛṣṇa is, then we have to train up the mind so nicely that at the time of death I can remember Kṛṣṇa.

Therefore one great king, Kulaśekhara, he is praying to Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa tvadīya pada-paṅkaja . . . what is that verse? Tvadīya . . . kṛṣṇa tvadīya pada-paṅkaja. I am just forgetting. The idea is, Kulaśekhara, King Kulaśekhara is praying to Kṛṣṇa, adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ. Adyaiva. Prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ smaraṇaṁ kutas te. He is praying, "Kṛṣṇa, I am now in good health. So kindly award me death immediately." Adyaiva, "Immediately, so that my mind, who is just like a swan, he can take pleasure by entering into stem of Your lotus flower feet."

Kṛṣṇa's feet is always compared with lotus flower, and the lotus flower has got a stem. And the swans, they take pleasure being entangled with that stem. They go and dive into the water. This is their very good sporting. So he is taking that sporting; he is comparing his mind as the rāja-haṁsa, "So as the rāja-haṁsa takes pleasure by entangling him in the stem of the lotus flower, similarly Your lotus feet, there is a stem. So my mind, which may be compared with rāja-haṁsa, let it be entangled now, immediately. Otherwise I do not know." Prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ: "When everything bodily function will be mixed up," kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, "ghahn-ghahn," there will be some sound, "how I will be able to remembering Your lotus feet? So let me die immediately, immediately. Now I am quite fit. Otherwise I may not be able."

This is the point. The mind should be kept in healthy condition. Saṁjñā. Therefore one who dies with full sense remembering Kṛṣṇa, oh, he is successful. In Bengali it is said, bhajana kara sādhana kara mūrti yāṅre haya. Means you may be very great devotee. That's all right. But it will be tested at the time of your death how you remember Kṛṣṇa. That will be the test examination. At the time of death, if we forget, if we become parrotlike . . . just like parrot, he chants also, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." But when the cat catches the neck, "Tyanh! Tyanh! Tyanh! Tyanh!" No more Kṛṣṇa. No more Kṛṣṇa. So artificial practice will not help us. Then "Tyanh, tyhanh." That kapha-pitta-vātaiḥ, kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaṁ kutas te (MM 33).

So from the very beginning we have to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness if we are actually serious to go back to home, back to Godhead. Not that let it be left for two or three years before death. Oh, it is not so easy. It is not so easy. Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends, therefore:

kaumāra ācaret prājño

dharmān bhāgavatān iha

durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janmam

tad apy adhruvam arthadam

(SB 7.6.1)

He was five years old, Kṛṣṇa conscious from the womb of his mother. He heard instruction of Nārada. Nārada was instructing his mother. He was in the womb. Fortunately, by God's grace, he heard all the instruction of Nārada when he was in the womb of his mother. And the result was, from the beginning of his life he is Kṛṣṇa conscious. From the beginning. As soon as he took birth, he was Kṛṣṇa conscious. So he was advising his class friends, preaching. Just see. He was five-years-old boy, but he was taking the opportunity of preaching. Because the teacher, he is born of demon family.

So all those class friends, they were also sons of demons. So there is no question of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But he learned Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the womb of his mother. So he was trying to preach. Because he was king's son, there was no other opportunity for preaching, and he was a five-years-old boy, he took the opportunity in the classroom. As soon as the teacher is away, he would preach. He would preach.

This is preaching spirit. As soon as you get some opportunity, preach. What is that preach? Preaching, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has advised us, yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). This is preaching, "Whoever you meet, simply speak of the instruction of Kṛṣṇa." So if you are advanced, if you know what is the instruction of Kṛṣṇa by reading Bhagavad-gītā, you can preach to others. And if you have not read anything, suppose you do not know anything, then you can also preach. What is that? "Just become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, my dear sir." That's all. This is also preaching, "Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa." You go door to door. If you cannot do anything, simply say: "My dear sir, you are very good man. Oh, you are very intelligent man. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Sakalam eva vihāya dūrāt.

This preaching was taught by Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī. Dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor nipatya kāku-śataṁ kṛtvā ca ahaṁ bravīmi. This is the preaching process. Dante nidhāya tṛṇakam. According to Vedic civilization, if one wants to become very humble and approach another person, then he has to take one straw in the mouth. Tṛṇa. So the preaching process is to take a straw in the mouth, dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor nipatya (Caitanya-candrāmṛta 90), and falling down on your feet, dante nidhāya tṛṇakaṁ padayor, kāku-śataṁ kṛtvā ca ahaṁ bravīmi, and flattering you, "Sir, you are so great man, you are so intelligent man." This is flattering. Although he is fool number one, we have to flatter like that, "Oh, there is no greater man like you. You are so intelligent, you are so rich, you are so beautiful." So all these things. Just like the beggars. Sometimes, "You become king." And one thinks, "Oh, he is blessing me. All right, you take one paisa."

So this flattering is also required. So kāku-śataṁ kṛtvā cāhaṁ bravīmi. So the man may ask that, "Why you are so humble and flattering? What is your intention? Tell me." So he is now telling. He sādhavaḥ, "Oh, you are great sādhu." He sādhavaḥ, sakalam eva vihāya dūrāt: "You have learned so many nice things. I know that. But kick them out, please." Sakalam eva. "Whatever you have nonsense learned, rascaldom you have learned, please kick them out. This is my request." Sakalam eva vihāya dūrāt caitanya-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāgam. "Just hear what Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says. This is my request." This is preaching.

This is preaching. Flatter, fall down on his feet, and eulogize him as great sādhu, as great intelligent, great rich. Do, so that he may little hear. And when he says: "What do you want?" "Now, I want this, sir. Whatever rascaldom you have learned, please forget. Because I know you are rascal number one. (laughter) You have got so many hodge-podge thing in your brain. So you kick them out, please." Sakalam eva vihāya dūrāt. "Kick them, throw away, long distance. Don't look upon them." "Then what to do?" Caitanya-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāgam: "Please hear what Caitanya-candra says." Caitanya-dayā karaha vicāra, vicāra karile citte pābe camatkāra (CC Adi 8.15): "Just try to understand the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and you will feel so sublime." Caitanya-candra-dayā karaha. "Don't take it blindly. If you are intelligent, just make a judgment, what Caitanya-candra is." Tell him. So this is preaching. This is preaching.

So Arjuna has to be a preacher, practical preacher. What is that preaching? That he has to sacrifice everything for Kṛṣṇa's sake. That's all. This is preaching. Sakalam eva vihāya dūrāt. Arjuna will be the greatest example, how he became Kṛṣṇa conscious, in the last, Tenth Chapter. He will say, sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yad vadasi keśava (BG 10.14): "My dear Kṛṣṇa, Keśava, whatever You say, I accept in toto," without any interpretation, or "This is like this, this is like that, this is not very good." Ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya (CC Adi 5.176). All rascals, they accept this Bhagavad-gītā on the principle of ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya.

In the nyāya, in the logic, there is a logic, ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya. What is that ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya? Kukkuṭī means the hen. So hen gives one egg every day. So the man, proprietor of the hen, he is considering that "This hen is very good, giving every day one egg. But the . . . it's mouth is expensive. It eats. So let me cut the mouth, simply take the egg." So there are rascals, they study Bhagavad-gītā on this principle of ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya. "Cut this, take this; cut this, take this." So if you cut the head, there will be no more egg. The rascal does not know. If you cut the head there will be no more production of egg. So similarly, if you try to study Bhagavad-gītā according to your whims—cut this and take this— that is not study of Bhagavad-gītā. That is something else. That is something else. That is something else.

Therefore we have to take from Arjuna how he accepted Bhagavad-gītā. He said, sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye (BG 10.14): "Kṛṣṇa, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Whatever You are speaking, whatever You have spoken, I take them as it is." This is study of Bhagavad-gītā. So the hindrance is this svajanam. Now he is presenting. He is presenting himself as fool number one, although he is not so. But he is creating the ground for Kṛṣṇa's speaking on Bhagavad-gītā. This is the principle. Therefore he is not at all affected by the svajanam, but he is presenting, "This is my problem, that I have to kill . . ." Dṛṣṭvā imaṁ svajanaṁ kṛṣṇa. "By seeing my own kinsmen, because I am fool number one . . ." Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tridhātuke (SB 10.84.13).

I am calling them svajana. In śāstra it is called svajanākhya-dasyu. Svajanākhya-dasyu. "They are all thieves and rogues, but they are claiming as my kinsmen." Suppose in your pocket there is one hundred dollars. If some pickpocket takes it and if you capture him, then you give him immediately to the police. And when you come home after hard-earned money, and when your wife takes away, oh, you laugh, "Oh, you have taken all my money! Ahhhhh!" But the same pickpocket, but the same pickpocket, but because he's svajanākhya-dasyu, "pickpocket in the name of svajana," he is very much pleased, "Oh, my wife has taken, my son has taken. Never mind." That's all. And others? As soon as takes, he, "Give him to the police." The same business is being done. He is working hard day and night, and they are plundering. Still, they are thinking, "They are my svajanam, they are my kinsmen." This is called illusion.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Haribol . . . (cut) (end)