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Bhagavad-Gita
Class Given by His Grace Sriman Jayananda Prabhu
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Bhagavad-Gita
Class Given by
His Grace Sriman Jayananda Prabhu San
Diego, 1976 [Note:
Jayananda Prabhu was visiting the San Diego temple in late 1976 while
arranging for medical treatments in Tijuana, Mexico. This class was given
at that time, about 6 months before his passing in Los Angeles.] Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter Twelve, Texts 18-19 samah shatrau cha mitre cha tatha manapamanayoh shitoshna-sukha-duhkheshu samah sanga-vivarjitah tulya-ninda-stutir mauni santushto yena kenachit aniketah sthira-matir bhaktiman me priyo narah samah
- equal; shatrau
- to an
enemy; cha -
also; mitre -
to a friend; cha -
also; tatha -
so; mana - in honor; apamanayoh -
and dishonor; shita -
in cold; ushna -
heat; sukha -
happiness; duhkheshu -
and distress; samah -
equipoised; sanga-vivarjitah -
free from all association; tulya -
equal; ninda -
in defamation; stutih -
and repute; mauni -
silent; santushtah -
satisfied; yena kenachit -
with anything; aniketah -
having no residence; sthira -
fixed; matih -
determination; bhakti-man -
engaged in devotion; me -
to Me; priyah -
dear; narah -
a man. TRANSLATION
One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equipoised in honor
and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who
is always free from contaminating association, always silent and satisfied
with anything, who doesn't care for any residence, who is fixed in
knowledge and who is engaged in devotional service – such a person is
very dear to Me. PURPORT
A devotee is always free from all bad association. Sometimes one is
praised and sometimes one is defamed; that is the nature of human society.
But a devotee is always transcendental to artificial fame and infamy,
distress or happiness. He is very patient. He does not speak of anything
but the topics about Krishna; therefore he is called silent. Silent does
not mean that one should not speak; silent means that one should not speak
nonsense. One should speak only of essentials, and the most essential
speech for the devotee is to speak for the sake of the Supreme Lord. A
devotee is happy in all conditions; sometimes he may get very palatable
foodstuffs, sometimes not, but he is satisfied. Nor does he care for any
residential facility. He may sometimes live underneath a tree, and he may
sometimes live in a very palatial building; he is attracted to neither. He
is called fixed because he is fixed in his determination and knowledge. We
may find some repetition in the descriptions of the qualifications of a
devotee, but this is just to emphasize the fact that a devotee must
acquire all these qualifications. Without good qualifications, one cannot
be a pure devotee. Harav abhaktasya kuto mahad-gunah: one who is
not a devotee has no good qualification. One who wants to be recognized as
a devotee should develop the good qualifications. Of course he does not
extraneously endeavor to acquire these qualifications, but engagement in
Krishna Consciousness and devotional service automatically helps him
develop them. Jayananda:
Bad
association means... For one thing, a devotee doesn't engage in any sinful
activities. He follows the four regulative principles. But it is even by
bad association that one accepts this body as the self. So everybody is in
bad association or everybody is in the mode of darkness, tamas
means darkness, because everybody is accepting the body as the self.
And they're making no program for getting out of the bodily conception
other than simply trying to make so many temporary arrangements to try to
enjoy this body up until the final blow when death comes. So all the
energy, all the human energy is simply used for trying to make some kind
of an arrangement to minimize the pain and maximize the pleasure,
accepting the body as the self. Whereas a devotee, he's giving up this bad
association, he's not accepting this association. Rather he wants to get
free from bad association. He wants to understand the real position, the
real constitutional position that "I'm not this body. My real
identity is that I'm part and parcel of Krishna, I'm part and parcel of
that Supreme Personality." Therefore, this is the process. Krishna
consciousness means the process to get free from all bad association. And
to take up good association means to take up association with Krishna.
Because Krishna is all-good. And Krishna is sat-chit-ananda-vigraha.
So also we're sat-chit-ananda-vigraha.
But in order to realize our sat-chit-ananda-vigraha
nature, then we have to associate with Krishna because He is giving
instruction on how to realize Him. Otherwise, we don't find any place that
this science is being delineated. No other religion is giving this process
to understand the self and the relationship with Krishna. There's no other
religion, any other formula that's offering this reward that I again
re-establish my eternal relationship with God. So this is the process for
giving up bad association – become Krishna conscious. Of course, we follow... in the beginning, one
follows four regulative principles and so many things. All these different
principles and rules to follow, they're simply meant to bring you to this
platform so you can follow this one principle of always remembering
Krishna and never forgetting Krishna. And, of course, when the
relationship becomes re-established, then we'll never want to forget
Krishna because that relationship is so sublime and so satisfying that one
will never give up that relationship again once we re-establish it. Now
we've fallen into this material situation. But as we become a little
serious, we take shelter of the bonafide spiritual master and by accepting
initiation, by following his instructions, then gradually we're becoming
purified from this bad association of so many false designations and again
become situated on the real platform to understand my real identity, my
spiritual identity. Sometimes... I can't remember, did I read this
purport? I read the whole purport, didn't I? [inaudible] It's described
that one who has intelligence means that one has good discrimination and a
good memory. So it doesn't speak very highly of my intelligence! I can't
remember. So there's a lot of... there are so many nice points that
sometimes one is praised and sometimes one is defamed. But a devotee...
these are just all different qualities of a devotee that naturally by
practicing Krishna consciousness, automatically you'll develop these good
qualities that are mentioned here. I know one time... there's a nice example,
Praghosh gave an example when he was in the airport in New York,
somebody... he was distributing books. So there was a couple that was
walking toward him so he tried to step out of the way but she came over
and banged right into him. And then her husband came up, he was a big
bruiser, and right away he grabbed Praghosh and he said, "What's
wrong with you? Why are you pushing my wife? Why are you shoving my
wife?" And he shoved Praghosh up against the wall, and his wife was
standing there and she grabbed Praghosh's wig and threw his wig on the
floor. So Praghosh just started chanting... Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare
Rama... he was chanting like this. And the guy was furious, he was
grabbing him like that, "What's wrong with you?" And Praghosh
just kept chanting because he didn't know what else to do, he just kept
chanting. And finally he shook his head and [inaudible] and walked off and
left him there. A devotee is not so much attached that he's
receiving sometimes honor, sometimes... especially you that are going out
and doing, distributing the literature. You can, more than anybody else,
you can appreciate all of these different things, and there are so many
nice examples you're experiencing every day, how sometimes we're honored
and sometimes dishonored. But a devotee is not disturbed by this honor or
dishonor, he's not... Because we're trying to give them also this good
association. They have so much bad association. [inaudible] Actually, everybody is in the mode of
ignorance. Sometimes people are working a little bit in the mode of
goodness and passion. But actually, as long as they're... it's material
activity, it's all material activity so it's in the mode of ignorance. So
we're trying to give them this good association. And we ourselves, we are
blessed, we have this good association. By the causeless mercy of our
spiritual master, we have this good association of Krishna. Who could
speak such wonderful philosophy as we have in Bhagavad-Gita
on the Battlefield of Kuru-kshetra, and who can display so many
wonderful pastimes? We have no information of any personality like
Krishna, and what to speak of these poor people on the street. Who are the
personalities that they've had experience with? Somebody like President
Nixon, who gets the most lofty position in the country and then he's so
greedy that he's not able to even keep from trying to cheat the
government. You know the old saying that "don't bite the hand that
feeds you." Even we can see practically, even if President Nixon
would become a devotee and take the renounced life and begin to preach, he
would even become... by giving up that bad association, he would even
become glorified within society. People would become very much impressed
actually if a great person... even though he might have committed some
abominable activity in his material life, but once one becomes a devotee
and actually becomes sincere and pure, then anybody would appreciate that
lofty position. One who would be preaching very strongly Bhagavad-Gita,
how one is not the body, how one can get free from suffering, how one
can give up all nonsense activities, becomes purified. So actually,
devotional service for anybody in any condition of life, their life will
become glorious by becoming a servant of Krishna, by giving up the bad
association of material contamination. So many people fall victim. They
work very hard to attain some position and then they engage in some
abominable activity and they lose their reputation, everything is lost.
That's the nature of material effort. One can work so hard for something,
even he completes, even he makes so much progress, he makes so many goals,
but then if he does something, some abominable thing, then the whole thing
becomes lost. In devotional service, there's never any loss.
Whatever we have gained, whatever we have done on behalf of Krishna, that
will never become lost and we always pick up there at that same point and
start again. That just shows how wonderful... when one takes up the
association of Krishna, how he becomes free from honor and dishonor. As
long as one is not a devotee, if he's not associating with Krishna, then
he's always... we're always plagued by... because we'll have other
association. If I'm not associating with Krishna, that means that I'm
associating that I'm an American, that I'm a lawyer, that I'm the
president, or that I'm a cheater or that I'm a thief or I'm so many
different things. There was a nice article in Back to Godhead a couple of months ago that described this, how
we're so much conditioned by illusion. At the very time we come out of the
womb, everybody's sitting there and they're looking and they've all got
some conception about what... "Oh, there's Johnny, he's going to be
just like his father." Or "He's not going to be like his father.
He's going to be like his uncle." Or he's going to do this,
everybody's got their ideas, everybody's got their meat-hooks out there,
to get their two cents in. They all have some desire. So in so many ways
it described in this article, it was very nicely describing the
conditioning process, how one is gradually conditioned, so many different
things that one is conditioned into thinking how he's this body, he's the
product of material nature. He's not part of Krishna, no, he's the product
of this material nature, this society. So in that way, his false ego
gradually develops. Whereas if one is a devotee, then he
understands in the beginning that he's not this body, his real identity is
that he's part of Krishna. And that way he gives up this bad association,
so much association that simply places one in the bodily concept of life,
it places one in darkness, and he is simply eating, sleeping, sex life,
defending, trying to enjoy this body, and eventually everything is
finished, it's taken away. So his life becomes nothing more than the cats
and the dogs, nothing more than that, then the human form of life is lost.
The great value of the human form of life, the facility we have for
realizing the relationship that we have with Krishna, is destroyed. And
then one doesn't know what one's position will be in the next life. By our
activities in this life, we don't have any idea of what's going to happen
in the next life. That's the position of everybody in the material world.
They have no knowledge, they're in darkness. That means that they have no
understanding that there's any past and they have no understanding of the
future. Simply this life is the all-in-all. So whatever happens, I try to
make so many arrangements. But just see how precarious all these
arrangements are. They can be... the rug can be pulled from under us at
any moment. Any one of these arrangements, if it becomes disturbed, then
my whole consciousness can become disturbed, distressed. But if one is a devotee, then all kinds of
material difficulties can come but he's not disturbed because he's
accepting his real position, that he's not this body, that he has nothing
to do with all these various material calamities, with these various
material distresses. A devotee doesn't have anything to do with these
miseries that come upon him because he is understanding that he's not this
body. In that way, he becomes free. So I'll go on, there's some nice... The
devotee, he's always transcendental to this distress, happiness. It's
described... just like even in the Chaitanya-Charitamrita,
when Haridas Thakur was given so much trouble, they whipped him in 26
marketplaces. Or his sentence was that he was to be whipped in all of
these different marketplaces. And even at the end of this time, when he
was whipped in so many places, the men that were doing the flogging, they
were very distressed because Haridas Thakur still had not given up his
life. He was still alive and so they were feeling that they would be...
they were very much distressed because they were afraid of what the
magistrate would do to them if they failed to kill him. Nobody had ever
lived through three or four marketplaces. At that time, Haridas Thakur, he wasn't
feeling any distress but he was concerned about their distress. So a
devotee, the position of a devotee... actually Haridas Thakur went through
so much distress in the form of this whipping, but yet at the end of all
these marketplaces, he was simply concerned that they were feeling some
distress, and so he was trying to alleviate them. He asked them,
"What is the difficulty?" And they told him, "My dear sir,
we have whipped you in so many marketplaces but still you are maintaining
your life. What will we do? You should have given up your life a long time
ago." And Haridas said, "If that is what you desire, then I must
give up my life." So he feigned that he gave up his life and, of
course, they threw him in the river. That is another story. But the idea
is that a devotee, he actually can tolerate all kinds of distresses
because he's not on the bodily platform. He's situated on the spiritual
platform so he's not attached to the happiness and distresses that one
experiences with the body. [break in tape] ... trying to see Krishna
everywhere at all times in all places. That's his determination, a
devotee. The more we become fixed-up in our relationship with Krishna, the
more we understand we're not the body and the more we become fixed in our
relationship with Krishna, then the more we're always trying to taste that
relationship. The devotee is always trying to experience his relationship
with Krishna. He knows that that is the real treasure of life, that is the
real gem. So in all circumstances, he's trying to see how Krishna's mercy
is everywhere. And factually, Krishna is always giving the devotee...
there's always a sweet reciprocation between the Lord and His devotee.
Krishna is always protecting the devotee. It's just a matter of being able
to see. Krishna says that He is equal to everyone, He is not partial to
anyone. But whoever renders Him service in devotion, then Krishna says
that "He is a friend, he is in Me, and he is Mine." (Bhagavad-Gita
9.29) So this is the... everybody is a devotee of
Krishna, there's no question of that, because every living entity is part
and parcel of Krishna. It's just that the devotee is striving to remember
that relationship, the devotee is living in that relationship, and he is
seeing everything as Krishna's energy. And so by dint of our devotion,
then we become a friend to Krishna. And Krishna's position as a friend,
He's always protecting the devotee, even in the midst of what seemingly is
a very distressful situation. But still, because we are devotees, Krishna
will protect us. There's no doubt about it. In some way Krishna will...
Krishna's relationship with us is so strong that it overcomes any kind of
material impediment. Devotional service cannot be stopped by any sort of
material impediment. So, therefore, we can have faith that Krishna will
always protect us in any kind of situation. That's the potency of
devotional service, that it's transcendental to the bodily concept of life
even up to the point of death. Devotional service is more powerful,
because devotional service can even attract Krishna. That's the strength
of devotional service – the devotion can attract Krishna. So if we
have... if that devotion... even Krishna says it's not so much the service
– that's there, but it's the attitude of the devotee, the sincere desire
for Krishna's association. In that way, Krishna will protect us. Krishna
says in the Gita that for one
who does good, he is never overcome by evil. Here's some more of the different qualities
that are discussed. It says that "One, of course, that he does not
experience any endeavor to acquire these qualifications but engaging in
Krishna consciousness and devotional service automatically helps him
develop them." So, of course, that's our good fortune that we've been
able to contact, by Krishna's mercy we've contacted a bonafide spiritual
master or a pure devotee. Because in order to advance in Krishna
consciousness, the principle is that one has to accept a spiritual master.
And just like Krishna... the qualification for a spiritual master is that
one is a devotee. Just like Krishna revealed Bhagavad-Gita,
spoke Bhagavad-Gita to
Arjuna because he is a devotee as well as His friend – that is the
qualification of a devotee. So in the same way, Krishna... just like Srila
Prabhupada. Because Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee, therefore, he
becomes qualified to also speak Bhagavad-Gita,
to instruct according to time and circumstance. Otherwise, how is it
possible? How is it possible that we could take instruction from anybody
else who wasn't a pure devotee? It's not possible because Krishna can only
be known through devotion. So in order for one to fully understand
Krishna, the spiritual master has to be a pure devotee. If he has any kind
of material contamination, then he's not qualified to disseminate the
science of Krishna consciousness. He's not qualified to take on disciples.
He must be a pure devotee, of course. And Prabhupada meets all these
requirements. That is our strength that we had the fortune to have a pure
devotee. So everything... by simply following, by trying to please the
spiritual master, by trying to follow the instructions of the spiritual
master, then all good qualities automatically develop. Simply by following
the instructions of the spiritual master, then we're certain that our
success is guaranteed. We have a couple of minutes. Are there any
questions or comments? Mahatma:
What's
the relationship between the disciple and the spiritual master in regards
to the position at the time when he himself becomes a pure devotee...
because we understand now we can't render direct service to Krishna. At
the same time, we understand that when we become a pure devotee, we can
render direct service. But at the same time, we understand that the
relationship we have with the spiritual master is pure, it is eternal, and
that when we render service to him, we render service to Krishna. Does the
disciple still have a relationship of service to the spiritual master
[inaudible] serving Krishna when he's a pure devotee, and isn't it counted
as direct service, and how is that related with his spiritual master? Jayananda:
As
far as I understand, even... of course, Lord Chaitanya accepted a
spiritual master. He was Krishna Himself. And He always... before His
spiritual master, He took the position of a fool. So actually always our
position before our spiritual master is always that we are a fool before
our spiritual master. In other words, your relationship with the spiritual
master never changes from the quality of... the basic relationship is one
of awe and reverence. Of course, a Vaishnava... in the Mayavadi school,
the spiritual master surpasses his spiritual master. As everybody
becomes... once one becomes free from this, according to the philosophy of
[inaudible], he realizes that he is Narayana, he is God, he surpasses his
spiritual master. But a devotee, a Vaishnava, we always hold our
spiritual master in awe and reverence and we always... and that
relationship never changes. As far as... just like Prabhupada is always
giving credit to his spiritual master, to Bhakti-siddhanta Sarasvati. I
know one time he described that he is engaging us in helping him to serve
his spiritual master. One time he was speaking and described it like that.
He asked the devotees what exactly... what was our program. I forget now
what the question was. Did you ever hear that question? But he answered...
he said that "I am simply trying to engage you in helping me serve my
spiritual master." And the position never... it always remains a
position of awe and reverence and that the service always, as far as I
understood, the service always goes through the disciplic succession. As
far as our service to Krishna ultimately, it goes through the disciplic
succession, the parampara. Whatever
service we render, it's being... actually we are... it's being offered
first to our spiritual master and so on, even though we might... Somebody
is offering even prayers, prayers to Krishna or offering aratik,
there are so many different things, but it's going through the parampara.
Is that right? Mahatma:
Yes,
as far as our present position, it all goes through the disciplic
succession. I don't know about when we're pure devotees. devotee:
Can
you accept one of Prabhupada's predecessors as your spiritual master or
one of his successors as you get older and things change? Or do you always
have to revere Prabhupada as the spiritual master even if there's two more
spiritual masters after him and you're still alive? Jayananda:
I
don't understand the question. devotee:
If
right now Prabhupada is my spiritual master... Jayananda:
Yes. devotee:
...and
in the future there was a successor to Prabhupada and then another
successor and I'm still... even though there's two more successors, I'm
still alive myself. Then does Prabhupada remain my spiritual master
because he is now, or can one of his successors then become my spiritual
master, or then could I even choose one of his predecessors as my
spiritual master? Jayananda:
Well,
if any of you take a different spiritual master, diksha
means initiating spiritual master, is that right? Diksha
is initiating and shiksha is
the instructing. Just like now, you accept... the idea is that one becomes
a Vaishnava, one of the principles of becoming a devotee is that one
accepts a spiritual master and also takes initiation from the spiritual
master. So everybody here, you're now a devotee so if you take initiation
from Prabhupada, then he's your initiating spiritual master, you're his
disciple eternally. everyone:
Jai! [Deity
curtains open]
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