Month: September 2019

Is the desire for more complex and more powerful tools

1. the human condition?
2. the European political condition?
3. the male primate condition?
4. the post-Edenic condition?

I’ll take all of them, but mostly the fourth. There are many instances of human societies deliberately rejecting the “next step” in technological complexity. The best example I know of is the Tasmanians. At a certain point in their history, they decided to backtrack. They tossed out new technologies they considered harmful, and stabilized their culture where they wanted it. That worked for them – until the big ships arrived, of course.

Tim Flannery, in his book The Future Eaters, tells the story in detail. The Ojibway also seem like an instance of deliberately standing still in order to be in the right. We shouldn’t omit the Amish. On a lighter note, in London a few years back a group of aesthetes decided the 18th Century was their ideal. They stopped paying their electric bills, used (whale oil?) for light, rode around on horses, and so on. I don’t know if they’re still at it. Any number of individuals or small groups have lived a radically simplified life. Religious types such as the Essenes, or Himalayan yogis, or Franciscan monks, did it. The neo-Luddites do it. People everywhere have slammed the brakes on “progress” and have taken up the simple life.

However, most humans haven’t. Most humans have been trying strenuously to conquer nature. This goes not only for Europeans. For centuries, China and India were much farther along the techno trail than the Europeans. (Maybe we can blame our ills on the Asians. Modern technology would be impossible without the zero, and the Hindus invented it.)

Early human cultures in the Western Hemisphere also steadily made “advancement” in their tool-making. That’s evident from the archeological record. As their tools and weapons became more complex, the impact of humans on the rest of nature became more noticeable.

Within Western Hemisphere Paleolithic cultures, we see “progress” made, from hand-held flaked stones to bows and arrows. We’ll never know what sort of cultural evolution they would have had if the Europeans hadn’t intervened. But why would they have gone a different route from most other cultures on the face of the Earth?

What we do know is that when the Spanish brought horses, the Americans eagerly made use of them. Who wants to lug a travois across the plains when you can load up the noble beast? This “labor-saving” thought process is found worldwide. So I don’t think it’s just a European problem. Can we limit the drive for power to them? No. It’s the human condition. Or, better to call it the human conditioning. We’ve become conditioned to think and feel this way. I suggest it’s not the way we started out. But that was a very long time ago. Long before the Industrial Revolution – or the Agricultural one.

For my text, I take Andrew Bard Schmookler’s The Parable of the Tribes. He makes a convincing case: once the drive for political power started, there was no stopping it. Immediately, technology was pressed into its service. When was it? 10,000 years ago? 25,000? A million? Where was it? Europe? Africa? Pago-Pago? No matter. It started, and societies everywhere took it up. (With some exceptions, as noted above.) The problem is primarily political, a question of human attitude rather than human nature, and not restricted to any region of the globe.

Are we basically good or evil? Schmookler sets aside that terminology. He says we’re evolved to be good enough. Good enough to live happily on the planet that evolved us. When we forced a split between ourselves and the Earth by seeking domination instead of cooperation, that’s when we kicked ourselves out of “Eden.”

The problem is that people act politically. There is no political solution. Politics itself is the problem. Gaining power over others – the essence of politics – is the problem, whether it’s power over human beings or power over the rest of nature, or over God. When politics started, the problem started. It was a historical event. And history doesn’t move backwards. So we can’t return to the past. Instead, we can evolve into a new humanity centered on (dare I say it?) Love. We don’t need an act of Congress, we need an act of Consciousness. The politicans will trot along behind, as they always do. E. F. Schumacher said it: “The problem is metaphysical, and the solution must therefore be metaphysical.”

Meanwhile, here I am, moralizing via the most complex and potentially dangerous technology yet devised – the Cybersystem. Is it simply a coincidence that the Internet was built by the most powerful military establishment in the world? The techno-utopians think we’ve stolen the Net away from the bad guys. But if the proliferating dystopian novels about the near future are any indication, we have some sobering surprises ahead of us. The Net ain’t the answer. But we can use it to ask provocative questions.

All in all, I personally feel we humans went wrong when we started to use fire as a tool. Prior to fire, we were cool dudes. Nowadays we gather around glowing screens, having forgotten that our bodies are uniquely designed for another technology, that of self-awareness. The human body is a wondrous instrument we can use to direct spiritual energy in the most ingenious ways. But, to accomplish it, one must be free from the tyranny of materialists. No national government wants that freedom for us. Would a global government be any different? Not likely. A massive centralization of political power would probably be accompanied by an increase in the number of glowing screens seducing us into ignorance.

Wisdom, on the other hand, comes from folks like the Ojibway. What will prevail, reality or illusion? A faith in the power of reality motivates me. For an eco-mantra, I can’t do much better than Thoreau’s words: “simplify, simplify.”

To me, works like the Bhagavad Gita operate on three levels simultaneously – history, mythology, and metaphor.

I accept its battlefield dialog as an actual historical event.

But considering in particular the presence of Krishna, the “actuality” cannot be limited to our usual notions of time and space. The scene is also being acted out on a divine plane. In that sense, it is a myth.

And given this expanded view of the drama, anything specific can furthermore be understood as general. It’s a metaphor. For instance, the word kshetra (field) is used for the battlefield, and for the body – the field of the senses. Thus the body is a battlefield where the soul struggles against ignorance.

What’s more, we may read the Gita as a war story where Arjuna is being convinced to fight. But then it’s also a religious treatise promoting non-violence. Is that a contradiction? Not if you perceive that the same thing is being said, on different levels of discourse.

In the 1990s I constructed these diagrams for two reasons. First, to present traditional concepts I knew and loved. Second, to propose a new angle of vision on Vaishnava philosophy that I had come to favor. Reading them now, a couple of decades later, there are a few things I wish were stated differently. You may not agree with everything here. If so, I hope I’ve given you a worthy opponent to help you strengthen your debating skills.

This sound experiment features devotees at the Rama Navami celebration in the Iskcon temple, Alachua, Florida.

It’s a sound montage experiment.

I’ve been playing the tambura since 1966. In 2008 I tried out a non-traditional style for this recording.

Remembering Prabhupad

© 1998 Daniel Cooper Clark (Damodara Das)

Preface

For a more complete understanding of Prabhupad, read
Srila Prabhupada-Lilamrta by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
(Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Second Edition,
1993). That monumental work, almost 1800 pages in length,
conveys the essence of His Divine Grace far better than my
short reminiscence. The world remains in deep debt to the
Goswami for his remarkable book.

A Vaikuntha Man

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
my spiritual master, enacted his life’s activities from his birth in 1896 to his passing in 1977. I knew him for the last eleven years of his exemplary and remarkable pastimes. But for me to say “I knew him” is going too far. I watched him. I listened to him. I talked with him and corresponded with him. I followed him and obeyed him – and disobeyed him. I learned from him. I bowed down to him and prayed to him. I loved him, and still do. But did I know him? Do I know him now, 32 years after I first met him?

Not much, I think. But who could? Who could solve the riddle of this 20th Century saint who established a medieval Bengali religion worldwide in a dozen years? Who could really understand his personality or his behavior or even the true nature of his spirituality?

How to reconcile, for instance, his grandeur and his simplicity? How to integrate his liberality and his conservatism? He said that God is “harder than the thunderbolt and softer than the rose,” and we immediately applied it to him, seeing those traits in him. He was a vast being who embraced contraries. But no, he was a humble gentleman who had a specific personality. His view transcended everyday ethics of right and wrong. But no, he was a moral man whose behavior was beyond reproach. He disdained materialists and even average citizens. No, no, he felt deep compassion for everyone and made no distinctions in his dealings with people.

The paradoxes are endless. He resists all attempts to figure him out. We disciples of his often quote his words in support of our particular points of view. But usually the opposing view can be supported by some other statement of his. “He’s beyond me,” his personal assistant confessed on a Manhattan sidewalk in 1967. He was beyond all of us. Yet there was something definite and distinct about him.

That quality was what attracted us and enchanted us. It was a specific identity – who he really was. But that remained a mystery to us. And when we attempted to probe into it by asking him about his unique relationship with God, his eternal identity in the spiritual world, he (often sternly) refused to respond. Still, there was something there we could sense. It was what we wanted for ourselves.

Sometimes he described a great devotee as “a Vaikuntha man,” a dweller in the spiritual world. We knew that he lived there, and that if we stayed with him, we would too.

Through those 11 years, that person I first knew as Swami, then The Swami, then Swamiji, then Prabhupad, then Srila Prabhupad, guided my life.

How I did I come to meet up with him?

My Story

I grew up as a Unitarian. In Sunday School we studied many of the religions of the world. None of them were made to seem strange to us. Tolerance was the starting point. Beyond that, we were encouraged to appreciate them on their own terms. Really, we spent more time on other religions than we did on Unitarianism !

Later on, I took a class on Eastern Religions in college. More intensive than the Sunday School sessions (and presented by a teacher who showed little enthusiasm for his subject), it convinced me that I could never be a Hindu or a Buddhist. The obstacle for me was “the denial of the flesh.” I couldn’t conceive of myself practicing a religion that turned away from the bodily passions in order to contemplate a featureless, if peaceful, radiance.
But in the early 1960s the influences of Zen Buddhism and psychedelic drugs again changed my way of thinking about Asian spirituality – though not about the “flesh” problem. The lives and the words of the sages of the East now made sense to me as descriptions of the cosmic reality and of God. Still, there were many unresolved questions in my mind. In my metaphysical struggles, I tentatively cleared a place for myself: I declared that I was a Voidist. My slogan was, “nothing is everything and everything is nothing.”

It was in that context that I experienced my first contact with
Srila Prabhupad, in April of 1966.

I didn’t see him in person. It was a New York Times or Village Voice photograph with a long caption. The Swami, pictured sitting, was giving classes on the Bhagavad-gita in a loft on the Bowery. For the Swami, first and foremost, God is a person, the caption stated. The best way to attain God realization, he said, was through devotion – and specifically by chanting names of God in a congregational setting. The name of God preferred by the Swami: Krishna.

Since his theology was different from the viewpoint I’d worked out, I supposed my philosophical position was better. Still, I had great admiration for his courage and his authenticity. He was “the real thing,” I felt. He could have appealed to the vanity of wealthy uptowners, and satisfied their curiosity for the exotic. Other gurus from India had done just that. He hadn’t. He was speaking from the Bowery, the home of New York’s most hopeless outcasts. That gave me reason to trust in his integrity.

I lived on the lower east side of Manhattan, not too far from the Bowery. But I was involved in other matters. The little article had moved me, but more was needed.

During the late spring and early summer I got snarled in a metaphysical tangle. I was unable to decide which was the next level of reality after the Void – Love or Knowledge. I had reduced my book collection down to two: a Zen text called On the Transmission of Mind (representing Knowledge) and the Gita (the Love book). The Gita was winning the fight on points. But there was no knockout yet.

In July, Swami Bhaktivedanta and his students moved into a small storefront on Second Avenue. It was seven blocks south of my apartment. I often rode the bus south to a friend’s place. That took me by 26 Second Avenue, where a sign above the window bore the name “Matchless Gifts.” The first few times I went by I didn’t see anything going on inside.

But one early evening, the lights were on. Through the window I could see a half dozen people sitting on straw mats with their backs to the street.

Facing them and me, at the far end of the room, was a golden glow. That’s all I saw at first. Then, it was the Swami, in yellow or saffron cloth. Yet, he was a magnet, or a source of energy – more than human, I felt, more like a principle, or a goal.

I was scared. Scared because I was attracted, and I knew what that attraction meant. It meant I would have to stop having sex! I would have to give up all kinds of things. I would have to commit myself to a path that would lead me into an unknown world far more vast and more disconnected from my present understanding than anything I could imagine.

These impressions came to me in the three or four seconds allowed me by the fast-moving bus. I was shaken. The sex issue made an impact on me because of another article I’d read about the Swami and his band of followers. The celibacy requirement had been mentioned.

During the late summer and early fall the Krishna Consciousness people were the subject of many conversations around the lower east side. The artists and avant-gardists living there considered themselves “way out” (and I was no exception), but we knew that the Swami’s crew had gone way beyond our outness. Of course, most of the neighborhood beats kept their distance, for various reasons. In the interests of what I considered to be scholarly objectivity (it was abject terror, really) I too hesitated to walk through the storefront door into that other world.

One afternoon, though, I did walk by. And I stopped. I read the notices taped to the door and the window. One of them, written in the Swami’s hand, was an invitation. It said, more or less, “Any young man may live here if he agreees to follow these rules.” A list of abstinences and duties was then given. Two of the Swami’s books, Easy Journey to Other Planets and Who Is Crazy? were on a shelf. Taped to the glass was the dust cover of the Srimad Bhagwatam. I was transfixed by that cover. It was an illustration, or some sort of map, of the spiritual world, with deities drawn on planets shaped like lotuses. The central lotus was occupied by a dancing couple in colorful dress. What struck me first was the shape of the lotuses, or at least the central one. They weren’t round. They were oval. This may seem like a minor point. But in every Asian or occult metaphysical diagram I’d ever seen, realms were presented as circles. The circle is a logically consistent geometric figure, a depiction of mathematical perfection. In contrast, the elliptical planets, especially when framed with large, pink, soft lotus petals, came across as organic, tangible life forms. The implications were too stunning for me to consider. But in my astonished state of mind I was somewhat prepared to take in the dominant image in the window.

It was an oil painting, perhaps two by three feet in size, propped up for public display. Bare-chested, yellow-robed male figures with upraised arms and upraised eyes were dancing. Some swayed, with garlands of flowers draped down their fronts. One figure crouched slightly while beating on a drum hung on a neck strap. There were other instruments. All the worshippers were evidently in an ecstatic mood. They looked like they’d been transported into that other world – the one that used to scare me, but now, on looking at the painting, it called out to me – with a promise of deep satisfaction and divine enjoyment. I didn’t know what was going on inside me. All I could say was, “That’s what I need – juice!”

Even after that experience, for a few weeks I balked at actually making the move to attend sessions at the storefront.

Then a neighborhood avant-garde newspaper, The East Village Other, published an issue in mid-October, its front page filled up with a large photo of the Swami standing under a tree as he spoke to a crowd in Tompkins Park. The headline above the photo shouted SAVE EARTH NOW.

Under the photo was a mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Inside was a long article on Swami Bhaktivedanta and his disciples. Included was an announcement that the Krishna people would be holding outdoor gatherings every Sunday at the park. They would chant the mantra and the Swami would speak. It was only a block and a half from our apartment, so my wife and I decided to go the next Sunday.

The day was sunny and mild. As we entered the park, which as usual was busy with colorful bohemians celebrating the weekend, we didn’t know where the group could be found, or exactly what to look or listen for. I had imagined the chanting would be pronounced in a low-pitched monotone, like some Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies I’d heard on LPs. (This despite the joyful singing in the painting in the window!)

By now everyone knows what I saw and heard. Although the Swami was the only one dressed in a traditional wrapped cloth (and he was sitting down, batting on a little wooden bongo drum), the souls dancing at a stateinner circle of adepts next to him included several enraptured ly pace around and around in a circle perhaps ten feet in diameter. Their arms were raised in supplication, as in the painting. Some were concentrating on the words of the chant with furrowed brows, some were peaceful, some were smiling with a trembling abandon as if being swept away on divine wings. A few were dressed in the gypsy orientalia of the psychedelic subculture. Around the dancers sat two dozen or so cross-legged meditators buried deep in the sound of the mantra they sang. Around them stood a crowd of a hundred people. They were a cross-section of the lower east side population: students, Ukrainians, Puerto Ricans, bohemians, blue collar workers, and kids. Some jostled for a better view. Some stood solidly in place. Friends compared impressions. The merely curious stayed for a few minutes, and the personally interested hung out longer. Many of the onlookers, helped by leaflets passed out by a disciple threading his way through the assembly, sang along with the exotic spiritualists at the center.

I was stunned. My life changed at that moment. I was picked up and flung off to outer space. I was ripped to shreds and was everywhere and nowhere. Without taking a drug I was catapulted into a new world, an ancient world, a deep world, a high world. In my imagination I saw a silvery ramp coming up diagonally from – the past? – the pit? – and on up to a future that got better and better. I saw myself on the ramp, moving upward as I chanted the Hare Krishna mantra. Another leaflet was thrust into my hand. It was an essay entitled “Stay High Forever” by its author, Howard Wheeler. The daring title and the article’s radiant prose thrilled me. It was all I ever wanted there in the fall of 1966.

Political possibilities opened up. Here before me was a little
social group that could be the seed of a spiritual culture. Perhaps the seed would grow into a politics of love, to transform the world into a place of peace and happiness. As a pacifist vegetarian ban-the-bomber and war-protester, I spun out idealistic schemes while I chanted.

The Swami modestly kept himself out of the spotlight. He allowed the words and the music of the mantra to work its sacred effect on the people there. After a while he stopped the singing and stood up to deliver a speech. There was no public address system and I was too far away from him to hear much of what he said. Also, there was the matter of his thick Bengali accent. He spoke with intensity, though – that was clear.

I wanted to hear more.

My wife, however, had mixed feelings. She enjoyed the chanting experience. She liked its power as an agent of bliss. But she didn’t like its power as an agent of renunciation. Of course, we both shared a discomfort with the celibacy that was directly stated as a principle of the Swami’s – and, that was indirectly inculcated by the sound of the Swami’s magic mantra. For us, sex was an important part of our love. It held us together. If I were to get involved in this Krishna stuff, it would be a slap in her face. I knew this, and it troubled me. I loved her. I didn’t want to hurt her. Yet, the Krishna Consciousness people were holding out to me the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. How was I to live my life? What was the point of my life, or anybody’s?

The metaphysical, the religious, the mystical – I had seen these as the answer to humanity’s problems in relating to each other. Now in my life the spiritual dimension was becoming a hindrance to my marriage. Or was it that my marriage was a hindrance to my spirituality?

Now, 32 years later, I feel I’ve answered these questions. But then, I felt only agony – agony, as a result of ecstasy. “As God gets more possible, life gets more impossible,” I said to her. She agreed, though to her the emphasis was on the impossible aspect.

As we returned to our apartment, she asked me, “If push came to shove, who would it be, Krishna or me?” My response was awkward and certainly not diplomatic. “Well, Krishna is God, after all,” I blurted out. We were both too afraid and too threatened by Krishna Consciousness to behave well with each other. We started using Krishna as a weapon to push the other person away. The world revealed by the mantra was too dangerous to our well-founded preconceptions, too challenging to our relationship based on ethical but still materialistic patterns of behaving that we’d been taught in the mid-20th-century United States, too explosive for us to handle.

Because of my marriage’s deterioration, my early impressions of Swami Bhaktivedanta, founded on a sense of wonder, were tinged with sadness. The Swami was my hero, and yet I couldn’t deny I was angry at him for wrecking the affection my wife and I had shared. That competition between love of God and love of humanity was to occupy my thoughts and feelings for years afterward as I served the Swami in the context of his International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Despite the marital trouble I knew I was getting into, I attended the next regular evening meeting at 26 Second Avenue. Yes, I walked through the door and entered into Krishna’s world. Once again, the chanting, which I learned was called Kirtan, was deeply fulfilling to me.

After a Kirtan of 20 minutes or so, the Swami spoke. It was at that moment that I started to get to know him.

Preconceptions got in the way at first. I had expected a smiling, light-hearted wizardly fellow who would dazzle us with paradoxical wordplay while chuckling at the absurdity of existence. Instead, the Swami was dead serious. In fact, his face bore an expression that struck me as melancholy or sour. Furthermore, his lecture concentrated on the evils of sex, which he railed against with vigor and not the least subtlety. During the question and answer period, however, as his followers displayed the sincerity of their purpose with searching inquiries, he employed a quickness of wit and a startling perceptiveness in his responses. A repartee between the Swami and Mr. Wheeler, the essay’s author, delighted me as it progressed into a dialog not unlike many I’d read in classic spiritual texts. I felt privileged to be in the presence of the Swami and his disciples. No matter how much grief it caused me, I was determined to proceed further along this path.

I bought the two pamphlets of the Swami’s I’d seen in the
storefront window. During the next two days I read them. It was another revelation of the guru’s spiritual depth. The writings showed his ability to apply ancient teachings to current situations without losing sight of the flavor or the intent of the original. He was conservative and liberal at the same time. It was plain that he dwelled in a world of yogis, mystics, and saints who were completely real to him and whose nature he didn’t want to change or water down at all. He promoted the Vedic culture of thousands of years ago as the only culture worth considering for anybody anytime. But he was willing to adapt it to the present – as he put it, “according to time, place, and circumstance.”

Those two tendencies were contradictory, but he managed a subtle balancing act. He was faithful to the original, sometimes even to the point of what I thought to be dogmatism. But – as I found out during my successive visits to the storefront – he was also a practical and businesslike person who could be as clever as anyone while he wound his way through the necessities of life.

Many accounts of his expertise have been published elsewhere. One of my favorites is how he collected the final dollars of the first month’s rent money at 26 Second Avenue from none other than the real estate agent – by persuading the man to become a dues-paying member of the Society!

But even as he artfully negotiated the obstacle courses of a giant industrial metropolis, he relentlessly reminded us of the futility and the misery of life in the material world. He cited scripture. He gave examples. He recounted personal experiences of his. He narrated the lives of saints and the exploits of avatars. He made use of colorful and, to us, exotic vignettes from the jungles and villages of India. Who could forget the “cereal mixed with sand,” the “camel chewing thorny twigs,” the ever-present “hogs and dogs,” and each lecture’s chosen philosopher-villain, who was often saddled with the Swami’s epithet, “simply rascal number one!”

The Swami had a genius for balancing opposites. “The Absolute embraces all contradictions,” he taught us. And the best example of that was his skill at the art.

Once, a pychedelic group with a store in Greenwich Village decided that you could get high from smoking dried banana skins. Knowing that the Krishna Consciousness people used a lot of bananas in preparing free public feasts, they offered to contribute to our cause the bananas they’d peeled. Among ourselves, we discussed the ethics of us teetotalers accepting the “fruits” of their labors to intoxicate themselves. As I recall, the virtuous among us outvoted the pragmatists. But to our surprise, the Swami told us to accept the gift on Krishna’s behalf. He said the donation would “engage them in Krishna’s service.” Thus we learned one of the central principles of Krishna consciousness – active devotional service can spiritualize something ordinarily considered material. Service to Krishna can harmonize apparently dissonant worlds. The Swami had struck a balance between matter and spirit.

On another occasion, a similar discussion ensued among us as to whether the Swami should attend a rock concert a few blocks up Second Avenue at the Village Theater (later the Fillmore East). It was organized by Louis Abolafia, a beatnik running for some political office, promoting himself as “The Love Candidate.” Of course, as his ads made clear, he didn’t mean Love of God! He invited the Swami and the “Krishna people,” as we were sometimes called, to perform kirtan onstage. So we argued about ethics again. For some of us, it was a good advertising, or preaching, opportunity. For others, the sex-and-drugs motif of the gathering would pollute the purity of our message. Two disciples, Brahmananda and Rayarama, emerged as the leaders of the two parties. (I can’t remember which side each was on.) One of them went up to the Swami’s second-floor apartment to present his case. On returning to the storefront shortly thereafter, he reported that the Swami had agreed with his opinion. Then the other went upstairs and came down saying the Swami had agreed with his point of view. Back upstairs went the first lobbyist. On returning, he said the Swami had told him that we should decide it by ourselves, and the Swami would then go along with that conclusion. After a while, we voted to accept the invitation. And the Swami went along with that. As it turned out, however, something else came up and we didn’t go! (That’s as I remember it. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami writes that we did go.)

Nonetheless, the incident showed how the Swami was able to deal with contradictory points of view. To him, it was all personal. He related to each person as an individual and not as an abstraction. The “truth” of a situation included the person who was experiencing it. His concern was for the consciousness of the person before him rather than for some impersonal concept. This trait of his led one disciple (Gargamuni) to state, “nothing the Swami says is absolute.” That phrasing was bold, but it showed an appreciation for our guru’s dedication to personhood. Because of his personalism, he was able to integrate and balance apparent opposites.

Just as Krishna bewildered Arjuna (in the Bhagavad-gita) by simultaneously embracing apparent opposites such as action and inaction, so the Swami bewildered his disciples. I recall one devotee getting really annoyed at him, saying, “he never gives you a straight answer.” But then, that’s the same charge Arjuna leveled against Krishna. So the Swami was in good company!

As I attended more Kirtans and lectures through October and November of 1966, the Swami’s erudition and persuasive logic convinced me that the original reality was indeed a person with form, and not a formless void. But was my “conversion” only a rational and scholarly process? Not at all. The conceptual arguments had weight, but far more substantial was the force of the Swami’s character – the depth of his vision and the warmth of his love.

“He has Krishna painted on the inside of his eyelids,” we childishly used to say, trying to convey what we felt about the Swami’s closing his eyes while chanting. Or when his eyes were open, we felt we were looking into pools on Krishna’s lotus planet. He moved with physical grace, and his patience with our ineptitude revealed his divine grace.

The experience of being with him was unsettling. It forced us to question our assumptions about every move we made. Yet to be with him was also the most comforting andreassuring event of our lives. We used to say our beads, speaking the mantra aloud, in the courtyard right under his apartment window. Sometimes he would look out and smile. To be so close to him was like being at the center of the universe. We felt no fear or anxiety. It was safe. He was our eternal protector.

So my ideas changed from impersonalism to personalism.

What made the change permanent – and not just another philosophical phase – was the living example of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Unlike the usual exponent of a theory, the Swami was swimming in an ocean of realization that went far beyond the shores of the mind, beyond the horizon of our limited powers. And that magnificence was communicated to us in a simple, affectionate nod of the head or a little cracking of the voice when he spoke of Krishna’s woodland home.

Living Memories

Srila Prabhupad’s life, especially during the period of the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, has been recounted in great detail elsewhere. His written words are published in a hundred books and have been preserved on a huge digital database. His spoken words were captured on tape, then transferred to discs, and now can be found online.

What can I add to that? Not much. Still, I feel a need to share some moments with him, some words of his, with you. The memories will come to me of their own accord. I have no structure in mind. Please come along with me.

Do you wonder about his authenticity? One young man attending a lecture in New York did. He asked Prabhupad, in a rude, sarcastic tone of voice, “Can you see God?” The answer came swiftly: “Yes, but you’re in the way!”

The swiftness of his responses was astonishing. At an outdoor program at the New Vrindaban farm in West Virginia, a woman asked, “If the purpose of life is to be Krishna conscious, why is Maya so strong?” Right at the last syllable of her question, the answer: “Because your purpose is not strong.”

(Are these things written anywhere? I don’t know. Am I making them up? No, I remember them clearly. Maybe a word or two is inaccurate. I can only pray to God for help in conveying to you Srila Prabhupad as he is.)

Krishna Devi told me this story in 1969. She had walked into Prabhupad’s room in San Francisco as he was getting his daily massage. Since Prabhupad wore only his loincloth at these times, it was an unspoken rule that females should stay outside. She had more or less blundered in, but Krishna Devi wasn’t easily embarassed. She took one look at her guru and said, “Swamiji, you’re so skinny!” Whereupon he said, “Oh? You want me to be fatty?”

To contrast the spiritual world with the material, Prabhupad would say, “You never see Krishna playing with a machine,” or “You never see Krishna smoking a cigarette.”

He spoke of Krishna so vividly and intimately that we all felt we were in love with the Supreme Personality too. But Prabhupad cautioned us, “First you must know God, then you can love him.”

The movements of his hands were decisive yet supple. In 1966, before the Society had a treasurer, Prabhupad kept the meager fund of petty cash in his little snap-clasped purse. Brahmananda asked him for fifty cents. Prabhupad picked up the purse with a slow-motion sweep and elevated it to his eye level with his arms outstretched. He deftly unsnapped the clasp with one hand as his other hand descended into the purse, thumb and forefinger together like a bird’s beak, the other fingers straight out like wings. Somehow the beak immediately found a fifty-cent piece. The graceful bird flew out of the purse holding it as if it were a golden coin from a king’s treasure chest and released it into Brahmananda’s hand, a fragile egg placed in a nest. Are these metaphors? Not really. The coin, after all, was Krishna’s, and deserved special care. Prabhupad was a mighty eagle, flying in heaven, sheltering Krishna’s special possessions – including us – under his wing. In the spiritual world, one thing can be many things.

He could be controversial. In explaining the loving relationship between Krishna and the gopis, he said, “Sex is the hallmark of the spiritual world.” That stopped us! How could one resolve such a statement with his relentless attacks on sex in the material world? (Sex is a “linking of urinals.”) Or how could a teacher who demanded concentration exclusively on Krishna say, as he once did, “We worship everything.” Was he a hard-liner or a free-thinker? But then, it’s true that he often said, “We are not fanatics.”

Still, in 1968 when the first traveling chanting party was being planned, and a disciple asked Prabhupad how they’d get money to eat, he advised, “Let them eat Hare Krishna.”

Service was always his standard. A devotee was using a power saw, drowning out the lecture at a morning Bhagavatam class. Complaints about the noise were lodged to the Swami, who decreed, “That is also Bhagwat!”

He told us, “Actually, we have never left the spiritual world,” when asked what form we’d first have on returning back to Godhead. We puzzled over his answer. And the discussion is still going on.

While walking in Central Park, Srila Prabhupad saw a statue with the name “Webster” on its base. “Brahmananda, is that the dictionary man?” he asked. “No, Prabhupad,” Brahmananda answered, “that’s Daniel Webster, the politician.” “Daniel – Daniel has come,” Prabhupad said. What did he mean by that? Brahmananda asked him. “Daniel has come,” Prabhupad repeated. “That is from ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Don’t you know Shakespeare?” We mumbled ineffectually. “Yes, that is what Shylock says when he thinks Portia has ruled in his favor,” he continued. Our beloved guru then proceeded to give a concise synopsis of the play’s plot. He emphasized Shylock’s elation at apparently winning the court case, and then his dejection when he was outsmarted by the judge, who was Portia in disguise. Then he miraculously drew a lesson from the story. “So,” he said, “when Shylock thought he was successful, he thought God had favored him. ‘Daniel has come.’ What does Daniel mean?” My name is Daniel, so I said, “God is my judge.” “Yes, he thought God had judged in his favor. But then later, when he lost, he was angry and forgot about God. But,” Srila Prabhupad said firmly, “we must accept both the successes and the reverses as Krishna’s mercy.” Once again Gurudev had found Krishna where no one before had seen him – in an ordinary statue in Central Park.

“This typewriter is not different from Krishna,” he taught us in
his apartment at 26 Second Avenue. He patted the grey metal portable machine he was using to type out his purports to the Bhagavad-gita. We had no way of knowing that it would become the largest-selling English language Gita of all time. But he could see the immensity of God in the most humble of things. And his point for us was, as he’d stated so many times, that matter engaged in the service of God becomes spiritualized. “When you place an iron poker in the fire, it becomes just like fire.”

He suggested to me that I make a movie of the Bhagavad-gita. I immediately agreed. But then he wondered if it would be possible, saying, “It requires too many elephants.”

Or did he ever really wonder about anything? It seemed to us that he knew everything, either by himself or because Krishna told him. Nevertheless, he would sometimes pause in a lecture to ask, “What is that verse?” as if he’d forgotten and was casting about for help. There were times when he’d be sitting down on his mat, looking up at a disciple, and his eyes would be as big and vulnerable as a baby’s. Then at a lecture his eyes would seem to be shooting out fire as he verbally assailed the demons. At the La Cienega Boulevard temple, some devotees told him he was like a lion. “Oh, you like me like that?” he said. “Then I will always be like that.” Because he was humble and wanted to serve his students, he would act like a proud king. The paradoxes of his being knew no end.

Because this is a reminiscence, I’m using the past tense. But it could just as well be the present tense. The activities of the pure devotee aren’t limited by time, or by space. He was the one who told us, “There is no time. It is all just a flash.” He was indifferent to the duration of “this spot life.”

He lived in the eternal world with Radha and Krishna. Krishna’s birthday features a fast until midnight. In Montreal, Prabhupad said, “Radharani is not so cruel,” because her birthday’s fast is only until noon.

On the other hand, one of his favorite slogans was, “our fasting is feasting.” The spiritual benefit that others try to derive from refusing food can be gotten more easily by accepting delicious food offered to God.

He mentioned Radha again when he initiated a disciple as Mahamaya. The devotees laughed a little – her new name meant Great Illusion, and for us Maya was big trouble. But Prabhupad interjected, “Mahamaya is not all bad. She is another feature of Radharani.” In saying that, he taught us theology, reassured his new student, and made us say, “Aahh.”

The “Aahh” phenomenon got out of hand for a while in 1968. Some teenage girl devotees liked to sit right in front of the Swami’s dais, gazing up at him as he spoke, every now and then exhaling an emotional “Aahh” at the high points. The rest of us got to “Aahh”-ing along with them. Prabhupad didn’t say anything to us directly, but asked Brahmananda, the temple president, to tell us to stop emoting and exhibit more decorum.

A young woman in Los Angeles was dejected. Prabhupad had her come to his room, where he conversed with her for some time about turtles! The other devotees in the room were both charmed and surprised by his psychology. The woman went away feeling much better. (I wasn’t there. I heard about it third hand.)

Srila Prabhupad, for many years, acceded to our requests to name our newborn children. When my daughter was born in July, 1971, I called Rupanuga, who was in Los Angeles with Prabhupad at the time, to ask His Divine Grace to do the usual. But Rupanuga told me Prabhupad had just decided to give up the practice, not being a suitable activity for a renunciate. “But, I’ll see if he’ll do it once more,” Rupanuga said. Shortly, he called back. “I asked him if he’d name your new child,” Rupanuga said. “He was smelling a yellow rose someone had given him. He said, ‘Why not,’ and looked at the rose and said, ‘Her name is Gulab. It means Rose.'” To my knowledge, she was the last newborn child to be named by him. As of this writing (1998), she’s in her late 20s, and with her beautiful yellow hair, still chanting Hare Krishna with enthusiasm.

How did he come to be holding a yellow flower when he named a child who would have yellow hair? How did he know I wanted to be named Damodar? I never told anybody. Of course these are the things people can explain away easily. But when you were with Prabhupad, they happened so often that you got the feeling you were in another world. A world where there were no doubts. When he initiated Rupanuga, we couldn’t hear the name clearly. After the ceremony we asked Robert what his new name was. He said, “I don’t know. All I heard was, ‘Baarrooomm!'” – an explosion .

I was initiated a few months later. When I asked the Swami to accept me as his disciple, I forgot to bow down. But he was so kind that he never mentioned it. How many of our stupidities and offenses he overlooked! That was a big part of His Divine Grace.

But then he could be just the opposite. A servant of his tried to second-guess Prabhupad, whereupon the lion-like guru shouted at him, “You must know that everything I do is perfect!”

What constituted his perfection? Was he God? For a few days in 1970, some influential devotees were claiming that he was indeed Krishna. But Prabhupad squelched them. He said it was offensive to make that equation. After all, he’d always stated that a person who was a “pure devotee” derived the purity from surrender to God, not from any independent effort. The pure Vaishnava isn’t concerned about developing mystical powers. Loving God is all. Whatever remarkable abilities a pure devotee may possess are given directly by Krishna. Could Srila Prabhupad read our minds? Could he know the future? Could he see all events happening everywhere in the universe? There’s no guarantee. His magnificence resided entirely in his love of God. Still, many of Srila Prabhupad’s disciples tend to think of such extraordinary abilities as certainties. He certainly had his perfections, but the only one that really mattered was his devotion to Krishna, which was constant and unwavering in all circumstances. Whatever he did, he did it for Krishna. Whatever opinion one might have about something he did, there was no doubt that he was doing it for Krishna. That is his qualification as a pure devotee and a spiritual master.

Among his perfections was his gentlemanly behavior. In preparation for his return to New York in 1969, the devotees worked hard to fix up and paint his apartment on the second floor of the rear court building at 26 Second Avenue. As Prabhupad climbed the stairs and saw the rooms through the open door, he said, “This is my old home,” and melted our hearts. He knew we wanted him to stay there and never leave. He couldn’t give us that, but he gave us his love so deeply. And he did it in such a gracious and elegant manner.

At every moment he won us over again and again. We couldn’t resist him because he was such a gentleman.

“I am old man, and I could die at any time. So I want you my disciples to spread this movement.” He said that in many ways at many times. One winter morning as he entered the storefront (at least at the beginning, he didn’t call it a temple), he had a sour expression on his face. “It is quite bitter,” he said. Where he’d lived in India, it would get down into the 40s (F). But the ‘teens were probably an awful shock.

And later in 1967 he had a stroke.

That day, I went to the storefront after work to find the devotees in extreme anxiety. They said Swamiji was up in his apartment. He’d had a stroke. Most of the devotees were up there with him. A doctor, an Indian man, had come and said Swamiji should go to a hospital.

I went out to the rear court building and up the stairs to the second-floor apartment. The door was open. On stepping inside, I saw a dozen or so disciples in the front room. They were all looking through the open window in the wall of Prabhupad’s room, hesitantly reciting Sanskrit words I hadn’t heard before.

Someone told me it was a prayer to Krishna’s form as Nrisingha, the lion-man avatar. Lord Nrisingha would protect his devotee in a time of danger. I took up the recitation as well as I could.

Then I looked through the open window. Swamiji was lying down on the mat of blankets where I’d seen him sitting so many times, his head slightly propped up on a pillow. Brahmananda was massaging his legs, as I recall. There may have been one other person in the room.

Srila Prabhupad was talking about Krishna. He said that unlike our bodies, Krishna’s body is perfect. Any one of Krishna’s senses can perform the function of any of the other senses. He can eat just by looking at the food.
Swamiji was speaking slowly and quietly. He looked so drawn. Brahmananda asked him if it hurt. “Yes,” Prabhupad said, “very much.” Yet, other than that, he didn’t try to invoke our pity. He gave some instructions to Brahmananda, and kept talking about Krishna. Despite his weakened state, he didn’t stop telling us about Krishna. We kept chanting “tava kara kamala bare,” and he kept talking about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It went on for hours. Finally, he agreed to be transported to Beth Israel Hospital, about 20 blocks north of 26 Second Avenue.

It was clear to us that Swamiji was showing us what to do when death is near. Think about Krishna, talk about Krishna, pray to Krishna. But of course that’s what he wanted us to do all the time anyway. So in that sense death is no different from any other event. Once Prabhupad called death “the birthday of the soul.” He had no fear of it, as his name Abhay (fearless) indicates.

Since I worked at a job every day, I spent less time with Prabhupad at the hospital than most other devotees. It was obvious, however, that he didn’t enjoy being there. He particularly disliked the diagnostic machinery that got wheeled in regularly. As far as he was concerned, it was a waste of time to poke and probe in that way. His own prescription for his condition was simple: massage, day and night without stopping. The devotees took shifts. I got a chance one day. He told me to massage his temples. I started gently. “No, harder, harder,” he said. I applied more pressure. “Harder, harder!” I squeezed with all my might, and that seemed to be what he wanted. But how long could I keep it up? Fortunately, he told me to stop so he could talk to someone. The wonderful thing was, the constant massaging
was helping to revive our Gurudev’s strength.

A few days later, he was back in his apartment. But he still needed to recuperate. He went to Stinson Beach near San Francisco, but it was too cold. Back east, he and Kirtanananda rented a cottage on the New Jersey Shore. One day the rest of us drove down to visit. In the cottage, Srila Prabhupad complained that Kirtanananda was following the doctor’s orders and preventing him from eating whatever he wanted. But he laughed as he said it. Kirtanananda said, “You can see Swamiji’s improving, because he’s getting ornery again.” Outside in the sun, we sat in a circle and His Divine Grace spoke. He asked us all, one by one, how we were. I remember him talking about the elderly woman who owned the cabins. She lived there in her house. She liked the Swami and confided in him that she felt sad because she’d never had children. Prabhupad said he’d told her, “Just make Krishna your son.”

His compassion – how we loved him for it! His devotion to Krishna, and his concern for our devotion to Krishna, were never at odds. He always found a way to engage people in Krishna’s service. He wore a high school ring given to him by someone. (I never heard whose it was.) By wearing the ring, he kept that person connected to Krishna. And we loved his sense of humor. Interviewed by a TV talk show host, he demonstrated the benefits of a vegetarian diet by opening his mouth and saying, “See? I have all my teeth!” Because so many of his first students in New York came from Jewish families, he proclaimed, “I am Jewish Swami!” Once I asked him how a devotee could attain the position of Lord Brahma, the progenitor of all the living beings in the universe. “Oh?” he asked me pointedly, “You want to become Brahma?” And when I visited him at the La Cienega temple in Los Angeles, confessing that our Washington center was having financial problems, Prabhupad looked over at Gargamuni and said, “Gargamuni can give you money. Garga-money!” He laughed and laughed.

Srila Prabhupad often said that it was better to associate with him via his books than via his body. I think of that as an example of his modesty. To me there is no doubt about it: his physical presence, which was definitely not a “material” presence, was extremely significant for us as we developed our perception of what Krishna Consciousness is all about. That may have been because we weren’t sufficiently developed to begin with. Our spiritual vision hadn’t sharpened yet. We needed to start out at the point where we were situated. As Prabhupad once said, “we have these senses and we are practiced to use them,” so let us use them to serve Krishna. For the neophyte spiritualist, interacting with a teacher in the same physical space is much more demanding and inspiring than a relationship at a distance. Words on a page can have power, but a breathing, immediate person – a person who challenges you and maybe scares you sometimes – is strong medicine. The written words are attributes of that person. Of course, it
can be argued that the physical body of the liberated soul is also an attribute, as the printed words are. True. The eternal self remains hidden until ones’s eyes “are smeared with the salve of love.” Until then, we must make do with attributes. The more of them, the better, I say! The books are necessary – the books, the audio and video recordings, the reminiscences. And for most of us, the body is also necessary. Otherwise,there would be no need, according to the age-old tenets of Vaishnavism, to accept a living person as one’s spiritual guide.

Am I implying that with Prabhupad’s disappearance the Krishna Consciousness Movement came to an end? Not at all. He wanted all his students to grow so deeply in love with God that they also would be gurus. Then there’d be no shortage of qualified teachers to carry on his legacy. Sincere seekers would be able to find sincere teachers. That is always possible. “By the grace of Krishna one finds a guru,” Srila Prabhupad said. God is in everyone’s heart, directing our wanderings according to our desires. Do we doubt that if we sincerely want to serve a real spiritual master, that Krishna would not send one to us? Because “by the grace of the guru one finds Krishna.” It’s up to us to become pure devotees. Prabhupad never wanted any less from us. There’s no other solution.

If I had not been there with Srila Prabhupad for days and weeks and months, my life would be nothing but dry, tattered scraps. The sound of the words from his mouth was like a ripe, delicious mango, and it drove me mad for more and more. His eyes were like swans illuminated by flashes of
lightning. His hands danced, and his lotus feet protected the entire cosmos. There was nothing material about his physical presence. His body was not, in fact, in the material world at all. The sight of him blessed our eyes with spiritual vision, for on seeing him we gazed into the kingdom of God. That is why I bow down before him and offer him songs of praise.

Srila Prabhupad: A Principle or a Person?

Prabhupad passed away in November, 1977. From that time until the present (1998), the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has carried on his mission. Inspired by his example and following his instructions, his sincere disciples have had countless successes.

Yet it’s also true that ISKCON has been in turmoil.

The specifics of Iskcon’s post-1977 troubles are not mine to describe. I haven’t experienced them first hand. But I do read about them and hear about them, and I’m reminded of similar confusions from the early days. In the 1960s the stage was being set for the conflicts of the 80s and 90s. I express it this way: is Srila Prabhupad a principle or a person? Or both at once?

My answer is, he’s both.

The first time I saw him, when I was in a bus rolling by 26 Second Avenue, he was a principle. He was a spiritual force, a golden glow, a vision of truth. He was one with The One, a fixed and unvarying principle.

But as the months went by, I got to know him as a person. His purity never wavered. But it took on form and movement. It showed a variety of moods and colors and sounds. It deepened as I came to feel the Swami’s compassion. It broadened as I admired his erudition and his wit. Then I grew aware of his contradictions, and of the largeness of this great soul who could embrace his opposites within something vaster still.

Then I noticed that his students, myself included, tended to see him as the Swami that conformed to our own concept of who he should be. One devotee preferred the liberal Swami, another the conservative Swami. One liked the Swami who asked us to “dovetail” our propensities in Krishna’s service. Another liked the Swami who instructed us to renounce worldly contact. For some of us, he was friend of humanity. For others, he condemned the population to hell. A few saw him as affirming family life. Most saw him as an advocate of monasticism.

Meanwhile, His Divine Grace continued to be who he really was: someone beyond our convenient categories.

As long as he was physically present with us, he repeatedly
pulled the carpet out from under us and kept us from hardening our concepts into dogma. As soon as we thought he wanted us to have big buildings, he pronounced them an obstacle to spiritual advancement. When we were certain he wanted the society’s magazine to be topical and professionally laid out, he ordered us to print only articles on scripture and to reproduce photos without any cropping or size alteration – and to spend four hours a day going around the city chanting and dancing. When we thought we understood him to say that we could sell his books using unethical methods, he told us all our dealings must be above board.

He kept us guessing! And every time, he was showing us that spirituality includes the dualities, and goes beyond them too.

I believe that in my particular case, I can strengthen my devotional life if I consider my guru to be a person – at least as much, if not more than, a principle. He did urge me to “follow the principles,” but he also called Krishna Consciousness “personalism.”

Just as Srila Prabhupad was never embarassed about himself and his uniqueness, neither should I be about mine.

He told the devotees in the US to “use your American intelligence.” I’m an American. I’ll do that. Bengalis are Bengalis, but Bostonians aren’t. And neither are the British or the Burmese. We all have our God-given temperaments. We are different from each other. Yet we are all servants of Krishna. Even in the spiritual world, each person has a different relationship with God. Difference is as eternal as sameness. Perhaps this is beyond the comprehension of the rational mind. That’s why Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called Krishna Consciousness “incomprehensible difference and non-difference.” All I can do is pray to Krishna to help me balance myself on the narrow “razor’s edge” of spiritual life.

And play my hunch.

That’s what Srila Prabhupad did.

He was criticized in India for breaking certain long-established rules of behavior for a renunciate. He allowed men and women to sit together during temple services. He performed marriage ceremonies.

Most of all, he started his own corporation, ISKCON, rather than opening branches of his guru’s organization, the Gaudiya Math.

These bold moves earned him disfavor from many of the members of the Gaudiya Math. They considered him too loose. But most assuredly, from the point of view of his Western students, he was sufficiently strict. Srila Prabhupad, from our point of view, was orthodox. And that’s one reason we were attached to him. He was the real thing. He didn’t make up anything. He could ask us to “just repeat” because that’s what he did. Prabhupad laid down the law – an ages-old, orthodox law. He never wavered from that standard.

Clearly, he saw that his mission was to deliver the sankirtan movement of Lord Chaitanya to the West without any change. He then asked us to continue his work and also present it “without any deviation.”

Yet, he was obviously willing to accomodate some changes. After all, there are people in India who feel that Sanskrit literature has no effect when translated into other languages. There are those in India who feel that Westerners cannot be devotees of Krishna. And some say using industrial and technological machinery will taint their purity. Srila Prabhupad certainly ignored their warnings about those modern changes to the traditional path.

His teaching was that when matter is employed in Krishna’s service, it becomes spiritualized. When he was physically present with us, we regularly asked him, in effect, just how far we could go with that. Could we use rock music in Krishna’s service? Could we read newspapers in Krishna’s service? Watch movies? Eat pizza? His responses were not always consistent. He’d give different advice to different disciples on different occasions. Again, he was answering to the person as much as the principle.

Which brings me to say this. Srila Prabhupad too was a person. He took birth in Calcutta, India, in 1896. His parents were devotees of Krishna. He briefly sided with Gandhi’s nationalism, but soon was won over to the Vaishnavism of an orthodox guru. Furthermore, he had a specific personality. His boyhood friends recognized his position as a strong-willed leader. During his householder life, he held religious gatherings in his house despite the opposition of his wife. In later years, when he lived in the holy city of Vrindaban before traveling to the US, the residents there noted his insistent zeal. As the spiritual master of ISKCON, he often described the society’s activities in military terms and called on his students to oppose all scientists and “kick them in the face with boots.” He was a lion, a commanding general in the war against materialism. Against the falsities of Western culture, he vigorously advanced the truth of traditional Vedic culture. Of course, as I’ve already mentioned, in addition to being “harder than the thunderbolt” he could also be “softer than the rose.” But, even though the evidence suggests he had both qualities in equal measure, his thunderbolt aspect became predominant for most of his disciples.

Prabhupad never apologized for being the kind of person he was. He never apologized for having complete faith in the orthodox Vaishnavism of his upbringing. Nor did he apologize for asking others to become as orthodox as he was.

I can learn a lesson from that. I will not be ashamed of who I am. My specific personality may be a material personality for now, but it can be spiritualized by engagement in the service of Krishna.

If Krishna Consciousness is a non-sectarian and universal sanatan dharma, then can it not be lived within the terms and terminologies of any time or territory?

As Shri Krishna said to Arjuna in Prabhupad’s translation of the Bhagavad-gita , “Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature … Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can repression accomplish?” (3.5, 3.33) Arjuna wanted to imitate the renunciates. Krishna warned him that performing another’s karma, or duty, is dangerous for those in spiritual life. So Arjuna accepted his nature as a warrior, and achieved spiritual self-realization. Whether I’m a warrior or a poet, and whether I’m a native of India or Indiana, I too can achieve the same goal.

The master of my body, mind, and soul, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, has given that compassionate teaching to the world.

Jai Shri Guru

The Song of Bhagavan

© 2019 Daniel Cooper Clark (Damodara Das)
 

Dedication

I dedicate this publication to my beloved spiritual master His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

“The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master delivers the materially afflicted world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is an ocean of auspicious qualities.”
 

Preface

The Song of Bhagavan was originally spoken on a battlefield in North India ca. 3000 BC. Not long after, Vyas compiled it as part of the Mahabharata, which he dictated to Ganesh, who wrote it down. An introductory section with passages by Dhritarashtra, Sanjaya, and Duryodhana is followed by the main body of the text, a dialog between Arjuna and Krishna (Shri Bhagavan). Traditionally the scripture is known as the Bhagavad-gita, or sometimes, the Gitopanishad. It has been recited, discussed, analyzed, praised, commented on, and translated more than any other Sanskrit work.

In the 1960s, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada translated it under the title Bhagavad-gita As It Is, adding his commentaries to the verses. In 1967, he initiated me as one of his many students. He remarked to his disciples that they could reword the verses. But, he said, “Do not change my purports. They are my ecstasies.” In attempting a new translation of the verses alone, I naturally have respected that wish. But his purports have guided me throughout. Without being shown the way by the realization of a pure devotee of God, I would be lost in a forest of speculation, making arbitrary choices about which path to take.

My version depends mostly on my guru’s Gita, but also on the English versions of other scholars and poets. In contrast to most translators, I’ve retained many of the original Sanskrit terms. To help those who aren’t familiar with them, I’ve included a glossary at the end.

“Write according to your realization,” Prabhupad once advised us. I pray to Guru and God to help me realize how to serve them with Krishna-conscious devotion to their purpose.
 

The Song of Bhagavan

 
1.1

Dhritarashtra:

Sanjaya, my sons and the sons of my brother Pandu are intending to wage war against each other! They and their allies have gathered on the Kuru dynasty ceremonial field. What are they doing now?

1.2

Sanjaya:

Your son Duryodhana has been observing the ranks of your nephews’ army. He’s going to his teacher Drona to talk with him.

1.3

Duryodhana:

My teacher, look at the mighty military force of the Pandavas. Your student, the son of Drupada, has arranged their divisions so intelligently!

1.4

They have their heroes – the powerful archers Bhima and Arjuna, and others, equal to them in battle – and stupendous warriors like Yuyudhana, Virata, and Drupada.

1.5

There are Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana, Kashiraj, Purujit, Kuntibhoja, and Shaibya. The people adore them for their immense strength.

1.6

Yudhamanyu, who’s so powerful – Uttamauja, so strong – the sons of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi – certainly, they’re all great chariot fighters.

1.7

But, Best of the Brahmans, please be advised that the leaders of my soldiers are especially well qualified. Allow me to tell you about them.

1.8

You, Bhishma, Karna, and Kripa are always victorious in battle. Ashvatthama, Vikarna, and the son of Somadatta are too, definitely.

1.9

A multitude of other heroes are also prepared to risk their lives for my sake. They are all well supplied with weaponry. All of them are expert in military science and tested in battle.

1.10

Our strength has no limits! Bhishma protects us perfectly. But the others, though well protected by Bhima, have only limited strength.

1.11

Now, all of you! From every point in the ranks! From every division in the phalanx! Give your full support to Bhishma! Everyone!

1.12

Sanjaya:

Bhishma, the great valiant grandsire of the Kurus, increases Duryodhana’s happiness by blowing his conchshell loudly, until the vibration sounds like the roaring of a lion.

1.13

Following him, more conchshells, and bugles, and trumpets, are blowing – drums are beating – all the instruments are combining together to make a tumultuous sound!

1.14

Following that, stationed on their magnificent chariot drawn by white horses, Madhava and Pandava sound their divine conchshells.

1.15

Hrishikesh sounds Panchajanya. Dhananjaya sounds Devadatta. Bhima, the doer of great deeds, the voracious eater, blows his huge conch Paundram.

1.16

King Yudhishtir, the son of Kunti, blows his conch Ananta-Vijay. Nakula and Sahadev sound Sugosha and Manipushpaka.
1.17

That great archer the King of Kashi – Sikhandi the Maha-Ratha – Dhrishtadyumna, Virata, and Satyaki, who have never been conquered –

1.18

Drupada and the sons of Draupadi – the mighty-armed son of Subhadra – each of them, my King, is blowing his conchshell.

1.19

The tumult of that uproar is resounding through the sky and the land. It’s shattering the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra.

1.20

In his chariot with its monkey flag, Pandava looks at the sons of Dhritarashtra. He picks up his bow and prepares his arrows for shooting. Now, my King, he speaks these words to Hrishikesh.

1.21

Arjuna:

Between the two armies – I ask you to drive my chariot there, Achyuta.

1.22

Place it far enough so I can see everyone, as they stand in place in their desire to make war. I want to see the ones I will attempt to contend with in this conflict.
1.23

They’ve come here dedicated to fight in service to the madness of the son of Dhritarashtra. Let me look at them.

1.24

Sanjaya:

Descendant of Bharata, Hrishikesh is positioning the superb chariot midway between the two armies in response to Gudakeshana’s request.

1.25

He faces Bhishma, Drona, and the other great leaders of many kingdoms. “Look, Partha,” he says, “here they are before you: the Kurus.”

1.26

Partha can see the warriors in both armies standing there. Among them are fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, fathers-in-law, and people who always wished him well.

1.27

Kaunteya is overwhelmed by a deep sense of compassion after contemplating those relations of every sort. He’s lamenting.

1.28

Arjuna:

Krishna, now that I’ve seen my own people all here before me, ready to fight, my arms and legs are shaking. My mouth is drying up.

1.29

My whole body is trembling! My hair is standing on end! My bow Gandiva is slipping from my hand. My skin is burning.

1.30

No – I can’t stay here any longer! I can’t remember – anything. I’ve lost my mind! I foresee only evil coming from our actions, Keshava.

1.31

I foresee no good coming from killing our own people here. Nor do I long for victory, Krishna. And not for monarchy and its pleasures.

1.32

Govinda, what use is a kingdom, or enjoyment, or even life itself, when the very people we want to share these things with

1.33

are all located on this battlefield about to give up their prana and dhana – teachers, fathers, sons, yes, and grandfathers,
1.34

maternal uncles, fathers in law, grandsons, brothers in law, and other relatives. I don’t want them to be killed – even if I am killed, Madhusudana!

1.35

Even in exchange for the three worlds! Let alone for the earth. Janardana, what happiness will we get from killing the sons of Dhritarashtra?

1.36

We will take on great sin by slaying these aggressors. So we have no right to kill Dhritarashtra’s sons and our friends. How could we become happy by killing our people, Madhava?

1.37

Greed has taken over in their hearts. They can’t see the fault in quarrelling with friends or killing a family.

1.38

But we know about these things. We can see the sinfulness, the criminality, in the destruction of a family. So why shouldn’t we desist from taking part in it, Janardana?

1.39

When the family is broken, the family’s eternal dharma is broken too. When the dharma is ruined, then everyone in the family turns to adharma.

1.40

When adharma is on the rise, Krishna, the family’s women become corrupted. Corrupted women give birth to society’s rejects, Varshneya.

1.41

Those social outcasts make it hellish both for the family and for those who wrecked the family. Even the family’s ancestors fall down when the offerings of rice and water are stopped.

1.42

The faults of the family’s destroyers cause the outcasts to devastate the dharma of both the family and the community for all time.

1.43

Janardana, I’ve heard from those who carry on the ancient teachings that whoever spoils the family dharma goes to live in hell.

1.44

Alas! How strange it is! We have decided to commit a great sin. We will attempt to kill our kinsmen – out of our greed for a kingdom and its pleasures.

1.45

Rather than fight, it would be better for me to carry no weapons, and offer no resistance, and let myself be killed by Dhritarashtra’s sons.

1.46

Sanjaya:

Arjuna finishes speaking. He sits down on his chariot on the battlefield. He lays down his bow and arrows. His mind is tormented by grief.

2.1

He’s overcome by compassion and bereavement. His sad eyes are filled with tears. While he’s in this state, Madhusudana speaks to him.

2.2

Shri Bhagavan:

This is contamination!
Why has it settled in you now,
in a time of crisis?
Crude people, ignoble people,
this is how they act!
It won’t lead you to heaven,
but to dishonor, Arjuna.

2.3

Don’t allow this impotence
to enter into you.
It doesn’t suit you, Partha.
This petty weakness in your heart –
get rid of it!
Rise up, Parantapa!

2.4

Arjuna:

Madhusudana, if Bhishma and Drona attack, how can I wage war and send my arrows against them? I worship them, Arisudana!

2.5

They’re my gurus! Rather than kill those great beings, I should spend my life in the world begging for bhoga. They may be hoping that their aggression will bring them worldly profits. But they are my gurus. Could I enjoy bhoga tainted with their blood?

2.6

Should we conquer them, or be conquered by them? There’s no way for us to know which is better. There they stand, facing us – the sons of Dhritarashtra. If we take their lives, we won’t want to live!

2.7

I admit, I’m flawed. Krishna, I’m so troubled! Is it wrong for me to be attached to my family? Am I confused about my dharma? I ask you, tell me definitely. What is right? Instruct me. I am your disciple. I surrender to you.

2.8

This grief I feel is drying up my senses. I can’t find any way to get rid of it – even if I win unrivaled prosperity on earth, or supremacy in the kingdoms of the gods!

2.9

Sanjaya:

Having spoken those words, Gudakesha Parantapa says to Hrishikesh, “I shall not fight, Govinda.” And he falls silent.

2.10

Hrishikesh smiles at him, Bharata. Between the two armies, he speaks to the bereaved one.

2.11

Shri Bhagavan:

What you’re grieving for
isn’t worthy of grief.
You speak wisely.
But pandits don’t grieve –
not for those who have
lost their life, and
not for those who haven’t.

2.12

I have never been nonexistent.
Neither have you.
Nor have any of the leaders here.
And never in the future
shall any of us be nonexistent.

2.13

Just as the embodied endures
through the body’s childhood,
youth, and seniority,
it also endures
through the body’s demise.
A stoic is not bewildered by that.

2.14

Kaunteya, it’s only sense perception
that creates our happiness and pain,
our winters and summers.
These impermanent things
appear and disappear.
So learn to tolerate them, Bharata.

2.15

Yes, the best person is the stoic –
the one who’s never distressed by them.
For the stoic,
misery and joy are the same.
That person is eligible for immortality.

2.16

Death is temporary. Life is eternal.
The seers of reality have observed both,
and have come to this conclusion.

2.17

Understand the undying.
It pervades everything here.
No one is capable of killing
the unchangeable.

2.18

These material bodies come to an end.
But it’s said that the embodied is endless.
It is undying and immeasurable.
So fight, Bharata!

2.19

Anyone who thinks that this entity is a killer,
or who considers it to be killed,
is without knowledge in both respects.
It never kills or is killed.

2.20

It doesn’t take birth.
It doesn’t die.
It has being, but
it never came into being, and
it will never stop being.
It’s unborn, eternal,
ever-existing, and primeval.
It isn’t killed
when the material body is killed.

2.21

When one knows that this is
undying and eternal,
unborn and unchangeable –
Partha, how can that person
hurt anyone, or cause anyone else
to kill?

2.22

People get rid of old worn-out clothing
and put on new clothes.
In the same way the embodied
gets rid of old material bodies
and accepts new ones.

2.23

Weapons can’t cut it.
Fire can’t burn it.
Water can’t wet it.
The wind can’t dry it up.

2.24

It can’t be broken or burned
or dissolved or dried up.
It’s everlasting, all-pervading,
constant, immoveable, and eternal.

2.25

They say it’s unmanifest,
inconceivable, and immutable.
You know this very well.
So don’t give in to grief.

2.26

And even if you do consider
that this is always being born
and always dying, Mahabaho,
still you needn’t give in to grief.

2.27

Those who are born
will surely die.
Those who die
will surely be born.
So don’t give in to grieving
for the inevitable.

2.28

Bharata, all creatures
start out unmanifest,
have a middle period of manifestation,
and then are unmanifest again
when they are annihilated.
So why lament?

2.29

Some have seen this entity,
and to them it is amazing.
Others talk about it –
it is amazing to them, too.
And it’s amazing to those
who hear about it from the wise.
But even having heard what it is,
does anyone know what it is?

2.30

The embodied, this eternal entity,
is in everyone’s body, Bharata,
and can’t be killed.
So don’t give in to grief
for any creature.

2.31

Look closely at your svadharma.
Don’t hesitate to take it up.
There’s nothing better for a kshatriya
than fighting for dharma.

2.32

Kshatriyas are very happy
when a war like this comes to them
of its own accord, Partha.
It opens wide the doors of heaven.

2.33

If you don’t engage
in this fight for dharma,
you will abandon your svadharma.
You’ll abandon your honor.
You’ll take on sin.

2.34

People will always talk about your dishonor.
For one who has been respected,
dishonor is worse than death.

2.35

The maha-rathas
who now hold you in great esteem
will discredit you.
They’ll think
you’ve quit the battlefield
out of fear.

2.36

Your enemies will slander you
with many unkind words.
They’ll scorn your ability.
What could be more painful for you?

2.37

Either you’ll be killed and attain heaven,
or you’ll triumph and enjoy the earth.
So stand up, Kaunteya!
Be determined!
Fight!

2.38

Be the same in happiness or distress,
in loss or gain, in victory or defeat.
Fight for the sake of fighting.
That is how to avoid sin.

2.39

I’ve been talking to you about sankhya.
Now hear about buddhi-yoga.
When you’re yoked to buddhi, Partha,
you can release yourself from the harness of karma.

2.40

No effort here is lost or wasted.
Just a little dharma saves you
from the greatest danger.

2.41

Kurunandana,
the buddhi of the resolute
has only one purpose.
The buddhi of the irresolute
has many branches without end.

2.42

Those with no discrimination
cling to the rituals
and the flowery language
of the Vedas.
They claim that nothing else
has any value.

2.43

Filled with desires,
they endeavor to live with the gods.
They make plans to get a good birth,
with its powers, profits, and good deeds.
Their various elaborate ceremonies
are gateways to opulence and
sensual enjoyment.

2.44

The consciousness
of those who are so attached
to opulence and sensual enjoyment
is beset with confusion.
They don’t experience the samadhi
of those resolute in buddhi.

2.45

The subject of the Vedas is the three gunas.
Be free from the three gunas, Arjuna.
Be free from the dualities.
Always be situated in sattva.
Be free from thoughts of profits and security.
Be fixed in the self.

2.46

You can get something from a pond.
But a big reservoir will give you everything.
You can get something from the Vedas.
But a knowledgeable brahman will give you everything.

2.47

You have the right to karma –
but never to its fruits.
Never be the cause of the fruits of karma –
but never be attached to akarma.

2.48

Stand firm in yoga, Dhananjaya.
Perform your karma while giving up attachment.
Be the same in perfection and imperfection.
That equanimity is called yoga.

2.49

Dhananjaya, with buddhi-yoga
you can rid yourself of inferior karma.
Develop a desire to surrender to buddhi.
It’s the misers who are drawn to the fruits.

2.50

Yoked to buddhi, in a single lifetime
one can abandon both good and bad karma.
Therefore, take up yoga.
Yoga is the craft of karma.

2.51

Yoked to buddhi, thoughtful people
relinquish the fruits of karma.
Liberated from bondage to birth,
they attain a state beyond putrefaction.

2.52

When your buddhi passes beyond the jungle of illusion,
then you’ll come to pay no attention to
anything that’s been heard from the Vedas –
or to anything that will be heard.

2.53

When your buddhi remains unmoved,
in unflinching samadhi,
uninfluenced by the Vedas,
at that time
you will have achieved yoga.

2.54

Arjuna:

Keshava, those who are steady in stoicism, wisdom, and samadhi – what language do they speak? How do they talk – and walk, and sit?

2.55

Shri Bhagavan:

They stand firmly in wisdom, Partha,
when they let go of all the desires
that the mind creates.
Then the atman is satisfied by the atman.
So it is said.

2.56

They are called munis.
For them, the mind is not
upset by suffering
or delighted by pleasure.
They are free from
attraction, fear, and anger.
They stand firmly in stoicism.

2.57

Always and everywhere, they don’t care
if they meet with happiness or unhappiness.
They don’t glorify or hate anything.
They stand very firmly in wisdom.

2.58

They withdraw their senses
from the objects of the senses,
as a tortoise retracts all its limbs,
and stand very firmly in wisdom.

2.59

The embodied entity
can refrain from sensuous things
by obeying prohibitions.
The act of tasting can be denied.
But the urge to taste goes away
when one experiences superior things.

2.60

The senses are strong, impetuous,
and bewildering, Kaunteya.
They forcibly attack the mind – yes,
even when a purusha of discrimination
attempts to control them.

2.61

Restrain and subdue all the senses –
while steadily connected to me.
Stand very firmly in wisdom.

2.62

A person’s contemplation of sense objects
produces attachment.
Attachment creates desire.
Desire gives birth to anger.

2.63

From anger comes confusion.
From confusion, the distortion of memory.
From distortion of memory, loss of buddhi.
From loss of buddhi, ruination.

2.64

Prasadam can be attained by the atman
who is controlled and regulated –
and who is free from attraction and contempt
even while the senses
are in contact with the sense objects.

2.65

Prasadam causes the dissolution
of all miseries.
Very soon, one who is prasadam-conscious
is firmly fixed in buddhi.

2.66

Within those who are not yoked,
there is no buddhi.
Nor within the unyoked is there any power.
The powerless have no peace –
lacking peace,
where is their happiness?

2.67

Yes, the senses can ride herd
over a mind focused on them.
Like winds pushing a boat,
they can carry away your wisdom.

2.68

Therefore, Mahabaho, in every case
restrain your senses from the sense objects,
and stand very firmly in wisdom.

2.69

When it’s nighttime for the world,
the self-controlled are awake.
When the world is awake,
it’s nighttime for the perceptive munis.

2.70

If you desire desires,
you will have no peace.
Let all desires flow through you.
Be like the ocean –
always steady, and never moved
by the waters flowing through it.

2.71

Achieve peacefulness.
Set aside all desires.
Live without craving,
without possessiveness,
and without egotism.

2.72

That state is Brahman.
You never get bewildered there.
When you’re there, Partha,
at the end of your days,
you attain Brahman Nirvana.

3.1

Arjuna:

Janardana, you say you prefer buddhi to karma. Then why do you want me to take part in this horrible karma, Keshava?

3.2

Your ambiguous words are confusing my buddhi! For my benefit, please divulge at least one certainty to me.

3.3

Shri Bhagavan:

Anagha, I’ve already stated it.
In this world, there are two kinds of faith –
the jnana-yoga of the sankhyas
and the karma-yoga of the yogis.

3.4

The purusha cannot be freed from karma
by abstaining from karma. No.
Perfection can’t be achieved by sannyas alone.

3.5

Anyway, no one can exist for a moment
without doing some karma.
It’s clear that whether they want to or not,
everyone does karma.
They’re forced to do so
by the gunas of Prakriti.

3.6

Anyone who restrains the five karmic senses,
but whose mind recalls
the objects of the senses,
is known as a self-deceiving hypocrite.

3.7

Far superior to that, Arjuna,
is a person who’s detached
from the sense objects,
who uses the mind
to regulate the senses,
and who engages the five karmic senses
in karma-yoga.

3.8

Do the karma that is proper for you.
Yes, karma is better than akarma.
You can’t even manage to keep your body going
without karma.

3.9

Do karma for the sake of yajna.
Otherwise karma binds you
to the material world.
Act for that reason, Kaunteya.
Do it well, and it will liberate you
from material association.

3.10

In ancient times, when Prajapati
populated the universe,
he told the people
how to conduct yajnas and said,
“By doing this you will
grow ever more prosperous.
It will be like the Kamadhuk cow
who fulfills all desires.

3.11

“This will enliven the devas.
And the devas will enliven you.
Everyone will be enlivened
and will receive the supreme benediction.

3.12

“When the devas are enlivened by the yajnas,
they’ll reward you with all the bhoga you want.
But you will certainly be thieves
if you enjoy what is given
without first making an offering.”

3.13

Spiritualists eat food after offering it,
and get relief from every sin.
But materialists,
who prepare food for their own sake,
are eaters of sin.

3.14

Creatures live by eating food.
Food is produced by rain.
Rain is generated by yajna.
Yajna is born from karma.

3.15

Karma comes from Brahman – understand that.
And Brahman is born from the Imperishable.
Therefore the all-pervading Brahman
is always situated in yajna.

3.16

Whoever does not enter into
that well-established cycle
leads a useless life of sin, Partha,
finding pleasure only in the senses.

3.17

But no duties obligate people
who are stimulated by atman,
illuminated by atman,
and content in atman.

3.18

They have no reason
to do anything,
or not to do it.
They depend on no one.
They have no reason to.

3.19

As for you,
perform karma
as a duty,
while being detached.
The purusha who discharges karma
with detachment
reaches the Supreme.

3.20

Yes, even Janaka and other kings
stayed perfect by executing karma.
Consider it your duty to teach the world.

3.21

Anything and everything a respected leader does,
the general public does – they’ll do it too.
Whatever standard is set, the world follows.

3.22

There’s no duty prescribed for me
in all the three worlds, Partha.
I lack nothing that can be gained.
Still, I engage in karma.

3.23

If I don’t scrupulously engage in karma,
the whole population will follow along
every step of the way.

3.24

The world would be wrecked
if I didn’t perform my karma.
I’d be the cause of misdeeds.
I’d destroy all the people.

3.25

Bharata, the uneducated do their karma
with attachment to the results.
The educated must act similarly,
but without attachment,
in their desire to protect the world.

3.26

Without disrupting the buddhi
of the ignorant people attached to karma,
the educated people spiritualize all that karma
by showing the others how to yoke it.

3.27

“I’m the one who’s doing this,”
thinks the ego-bewildered atman,
all of whose activities
are done by the gunas of Prakriti.

3.28

But Mahabaho, someone who knows what’s real
can discriminate and see that guna-karma
is just the gunas relating with the gunas.
With that in mind, you’re never attached.

3.29

People who are fooled by the gunas of Prakriti
are attached to guna-karma.
They don’t know how to behave properly,
and they’re lazy.
Those who do know how to behave properly
shouldn’t agitate them.

3.30

Relinquish all your karma to me.
Be conscious of yourself as atman.
Be free from profiteering and possessiveness.
In that state,
fight off weakness and fight the battle!

3.31

Those persons who constantly
obey my instructions,
faithfully and without envy,
are indeed released from karma.

3.32

But those envious persons
who disobey my instructions
are unconscious, ignorant fools.
They’re ruined.

3.33

Creatures proceed
according to their own prakriti.
Even the knowledgeable
act out their prakriti.
What’s the use of repression?

3.34

As you walk along your path,
attraction and repulsion await you
in the senses and the sense objects.
Don’t let those deterrents attack you!

3.35

Better a svadharma in the gunas
than somebody else’s high-standing dharma.
Better a svadharma that destroys you
than the perils of following another’s dharma.

3.36

Arjuna:

Varshneya, what is it that tightly yokes the purusha to sinful activities, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?

3.37

Shri Bhagavan:

It’s desire. It’s anger.
It’s born from raja-guna,
the big eater, the big sinner!
Recognize that to be
the enemy of the world.

3.38

Like a fire obscured by smoke,
or a mirror by dust,
or an embryo by the womb,
this purusha is obscured by that.

3.39

Knowledge is obscured by that, Kaunteya.
The knower has a constant enemy
in the form of desire, the insatiable flame.

3.40

It stands firmly in the senses,
in the mind, and in the buddhi.
It obscures knowledge and it
confounds the embodied entity.

3.41

So first regulate the senses,
best of the Bharatas.
Slay the sinfulness that destroys
knowledge and realization.

3.42

The senses are superior to their objects.
Mind is superior to the senses.
Buddhi is superior to mind.
But the entity is superior to buddhi.

3.43a

Realizing this superiority to buddhi,
the atman is steadied by the atman.

3.43b

Desire is the form of your insatiable enemy.
Conquer it, Mahabaho!

4.1

I taught this changeless yoga to Vivashvan.
Vivashvan told it to Manu.
Manu spoke it to Ikshvaku.

4.2

In that way, Parantapa –
disciples receiving it from masters –
it was learned by the raja-rishis.
But as time went by in the world,
the great yoga fell into disuse.

4.3

You are my bhakta. You are my friend.
Today I am teaching you that same ancient yoga.
It is certainly the highest of mysteries.

4.4

Arjuna:

Vivashvan’s birth was long ago. Yours was more recent. How am I to comprehend that you were the first instructor?

4.5

Shri Bhagavan:

Many births of mine,
and yours, have passed by.
I know about all of them –
you’re not aware of them, Parantapa.

4.6

I am an unborn and undying atman.
I am the Ishvara of the created beings.
I’m situated in my own prakriti.
Nevertheless, I advent myself in the world
through my personal energy.

4.7

Yes, whenever and wherever dharma declines
and adharma is on the rise, Bharata,
then and there I manifest myself.

4.8

To protect the sadhus,
to annihilate the miscreants,
to establish the standards of dharma,
I advent myself from yuga to yuga.

4.9

When those who know
the divine reality
of my birth and activities
give up the body,
they don’t have another birth.
They have me.

4.10

Free from attraction, fear, and anger,
fully in me, depending on me,
purified by the knowledge from their penances,
many have attained my being.

4.11

However they surrender to me,
I serve them so.
Partha, all people proceed
along my path.

4.12

Yearning for success in their karma,
people make offerings to the devas.
Yes, such worldly karma
quickly produces success.

4.13

I created the four varnas
according to the gunas of karma.
However, understand
that even though I did it,
I never do anything.
I never change.

4.14

No karma affects me.
I don’t aspire for the fruits of karma.
Whoever knows that about me
is never bound by karmic reaction.

4.15

With this knowledge, the ancients
performed karma and achieved liberation.
So do your karma, as those ancients did
in ancient times.

4.16

What is karma? What is akarma?
Even the scholars are confused about it.
I’ll explain to you what karma is,
and when you know,
you’ll be liberated from iniquity.

4.17

to realize what karma is
to realize what akarma is
to realize what vikarma is
yes, the entrance to karma is obscure

4.18

the realized human being
proficient in practicing karma
sees karma in akarma and akarma in karma
and is yoked

4.19

pursuit of desire absent from all plans
karma burned up by the fire of knowledge
the realized ones declare, “that is a pandit”

4.20

giving up attachment to the fruits of karma
ever satisfied, independent
busily engaged in karma
yet really doing nothing at all

4.21

when there’s no yearning
when atman and consciousness are controlled
when all proprietorship is cast off
when karma is only for the body’s sake
such activity takes on no harmful reactions

4.22

satisfied with random profits
beyond duality, free from envy
the same in success and failure
although active, never bound

4.23

liberated and free from attachments
consciousness fixed in knowledge
being active for the purpose of yajna
that karma is wholly suffused

4.24

The person who makes an offering is Brahman.
The thing offered is Brahman.
The fire is Brahman, the butter is Brahman.
The goal is Brahman –
when one’s karma is absorbed in Brahman.

4.25

Some yogis, with excellent worship,
make offerings to the devas.
Some worshippers, with superb sacrifices,
make offerings to the fire of Brahman.

4.26

Others offer their senses,
such as their hearing,
to the fire of restraint.
Others offer sense objects,
such as sounds,
to the fire of the senses.

4.27

Some, striving for knowledge,
offer all the actions of their senses
and the actions of their prana
to the fire of the yoga
that steadies the atman.

4.28

Some are enlightened
by taking strict vows in this way –
they sacrifice their possessions,
they do penance as a sacrifice,
they perform yoga as a sacrifice,
and they gain knowledge by
the study of scripture as a sacrifice.

4.29

Some, who practice pranayama, stop their breathing
by offering the downward breath to the upward,
and the upward breath to the downward.
Some limit their eating
and offer the upward breath to itself.

4.30

Although seemingly different,
all these practitioners of sacrifice
know the meaning of yajna.
Yajna cleanses them of their sins.
By performing yajna,
they taste its nectar
and go to the eternal Brahman.

4.31

What use is this world or the other
without yajna, Kurusattama?

4.32

The many varieties of yajna
pervade the face of Brahman.
Understand – they’re all born from karma.
When you know that, you’re liberated.

4.33

It’s better to offer knowledge
than to offer material things, Parantapa.
All karma of every kind, Partha,
reaches its conclusion in knowledge.
4.34

learn about it by humbling yourself
in service and polite inquiry –
those who know, who see reality
will initiate you into knowledge

4.35

knowing it, there’s no more illusion
wherever you go, Pandava –
you’ll see every one of the creatures
in atman, that is, in me

4.36

even if, of all the sinners
you’re the biggest sinner –
the boat of knowledge will
carry you across all that evil

4.37

as blazing fire makes
ashes of wood, Arjuna –
so the fire of knowledge makes
ashes of all karma

4.38

yes, nothing existing in this world
compares with holy knowledge –
perfect yourself with yoga and
in time you’ll discover it in atman

4.39

intently controlling the senses
the faithful attain knowledge –
having attained knowledge
they quickly achieve supreme peace

4.40

without knowledge, without faith
the doubting atman loses its way –
not in this world, not in the next
is there joy for the doubting atman

4.41

yoga gets rid of karma
knowledge slashes doubts –
be self-possessed and don’t
let karma bind you, Dhananjaya

4.42

the origin of ignorance is in the heart
but knowledge is atman’s sword –
so cut away your doubts, stand up
and be firm in yoga, Bharata

5.1

Arjuna:

You praise the renouncing of karma. And then you praise yoga. Which one of these two is better, Krishna? Tell me definitely.

5.2

Shri Bhagavan:

Renunciation and karma-yoga
both result in betterment
of the best kind.
But of the two, karma-yoga
surpasses the renouncing of karma.

5.3

Mahabaho, the constant sannyasi
can be recognized as the one without dualities,
who never detests or hankers.
Yes, the one who easily escapes from captivity.
So it is said.

5.4

Sankhya and yoga are separate for the stupid.
But the pandits don’t say that.
When you’re deeply involved in either one,
you receive the results of both.

5.5

The position you reach through sankhya
you can also attain through yoga.
Sankhya and yoga are the same thing.
A seer is one who sees that.

5.6

But without yoga,
sannyas is afflicted with distress.
The muni yoked to yoga
achieves Brahman without delay.

5.7

Yoked to yoga,
the purified atman
controls atman
and controls the senses.
That atman is one with the
atman of every creature.
Despite being active,
it is never polluted.

5.8

“In fact, I never do anything,”
thinks the person who’s yoked
and who knows what reality is.
“The senses are seeing, smelling,
eating, traveling, dreaming, breathing,

5.9

talking, giving, taking.
The eyes are opening and closing.
Despite that, in my estimation
it’s just something between the
senses and the sense objects.
It’s their business.”

5.10

working without attachment
surrendering karma to Brahman
never stained by sinfulness
like a lotus leaf above the water

5.11

the yogi shuns attachments
doing work to purify atman
with body, mind, and buddhi
and even with the senses

5.12

yoked, you abandon karmic fruits
winning unadulterated peace
unyoked, you work by desire
attached to the fruits, in bondage

5.13

When using the mind to renounce all karma,
the embodied entity joyfully inhabits
the city of nine gates.
It does nothing and causes nothing.

5.14a

The prabhu doesn’t act,
and creates no karma in the world,
being disconnected from the fruits of karma.

5.14b

Action has a source, though –
in the material nature itself.

5.15a

The pervading entity doesn’t take part
in anyone’s sin or piety.

5.15b

People are bewildered
when their knowledge
is covered by ignorance.

5.16

But when knowledge destroys
your ignorance of atman,
that sun-like knowledge
casts its light on the Supreme.

5.17

In the Supreme – with buddhi there, atman there, your striving there,
your purpose there, you travel to a state beyond return.
Your transgressions are washed away by knowledge.

5.18

A pandit sees the same thing in
a dog, a cow, an elephant,
an outcaste scavenger, and in
a brahman of learning and good manners.

5.19

Those who’ve overcome birth in this world
possess minds fixed in sameness.
Yes, they’re fixed in flawless Brahman –
since Brahman is constant sameness.

5.20

When they get something pleasant,
they don’t rejoice.
When they get something unpleasant,
they’re not upset.
Steady in buddhi, not confused,
they know Brahman and are fixed in Brahman.

5.21

The atman with no attraction for external contact
finds happiness in atman.
That atman, yoked in yoga to Brahman,
enjoys unlimited happiness.

5.22

Enjoyments derived from contact
give birth to pain.
They begin and they end, Kaunteya.
Those who are realized
never take delight in them.

5.23

In this world, who is yoked, who is happy?
The person who resists desire, anger,
and the material urges –
even before casting off the body.

5.24

The yogi whose happiness is within,
whose pleasure is within,
whose illumination is within,
achieves the Brahman nature, Brahman Nirvana.

5.25

Banishing sinfulness,
excising doubt,
mastering atman,
inspired to give assistance
to all creatures,
the rishis attain Brahman Nirvana.

5.26

Released from desire and anger,
the ascetics control their consciousness
and confront atman.
They soon will have Brahman Nirvana.

5.27

Shutting out all external contact,
the munis focus their eyes between their brows
and equalize the breaths
that move upward and downward in their nostrils.

5.28

Intent on deliverance,
they control their senses, mind, and buddhi,
and dispel their longing, fear, and anger.
Always in this state,
they are truly liberated.

5.29

I am the consumer of all offerings and penances.
I am the great Ishvara of all the worlds.
I am the dear friend of all creatures.
To know this is to achieve peace.

6.1

Who’s a sannyasi? Who’s a yogi?
Not the one who burns no sacrifical fire or does no work,
but the one who does the karma that’s to be done,
without concern for karma’s fruits.

6.2

Understand this, Pandava –
what they call sannyas,
that is yoga.
Yes, without renouncing willfulness
no one becomes a yogi.

6.3

It’s said that karma
is the thing to do
for a muni just growing up in yoga.
And for one who has grown up,
the thing to do
is be still.
So it is said.

6.4

Yes, to become mature in yoga
one must be disengaged from
sense objects and from karma,
renouncing all willfulness.
So it is said.

6.5

let atman raise up atman
let it not degrade atman
atman is atman’s friend
atman is atman’s enemy

6.6

atman is friend to atman
for one whose atman
subdues atman
but atman is an enemy
an enemy indeed
for one without atman

6.7

with atman conquered
the supreme atman
is tranquil in perfect concentration
whether in cold or heat
happiness or misery
whether honored or dishonored

6.8

A yogi is a yoked atman,
satisfied by knowledge and realization,
with senses under control –
above it all.
Clay, stone, and gold
are the same for the yogi.
So it is said.

6.9

It takes a special person
to realize the sameness
of comrades, close friends, and enemies –
of those who are indifferent
and those who negotiate –
of the envious and the pious –
of saints and sinners.

6.10

A yogi stays isolated in seclusion,
always concentrating on atman,
restraining the consciousness,
without possessiveness or hope.

6.11

In a clean place,
one prepares for oneself a firm seat,
not too high, not too low,
covered with cloth, deerskin,
and kusha grass.

6.12

In that place, one makes the mind single-pointed –
controlling consciousness, senses, and activities.
Sitting on that seat, one performs yoga to purify atman.

6.13

The body and head are held in a straight line,
kept steady and still.
One gazes at the tip of the nose
without letting the eyes wander.

6.14

The tranquil atman –
yoked, rid of fear,
firm in the brahmachari vow,
in control of the mind,
in concentration on me –
makes me the ultimate goal.

6.15

The yogi practices in that way –
atman constant, mind controlled –
and attains the peace of the
Supreme Nirvana existing within me.

6.16

Yoga is not for those
who eat or fast excessively,
or for those who like to sleep or
stay awake too much.

6.17

Yoga becomes the destroyer of misery
when eating and play are yoked,
when body and work are yoked,
when sleep and waking are yoked.

6.18

When the controlled consciousness
rests in atman
with no interest
in the entreaties of desire,
then one is yoked.
So it is said.

6.19

Remember the saying,
“A lamp in a windless place does not waver.”
So it is with the yogi of controlled consciousness,
the atman performing yoga.

6.20

When thought is held in check
and becomes still
through the discipline of yoga,
when atman sees atman
and finds contentment in atman,

6.21

there is a boundless transcendental joy
which only buddhi can grasp.
When one has this understanding,
one stands firmly in it,
never straying from reality.

6.22

When you gain it
you think there’s no greater gain.
When you stand there
you’re never shaken,
even by the worst suffering.

6.23

The yoga connection means
the disconnection of the
connection with suffering.
When you know that,
you practice yoga resolutely,
with no despairing thoughts.

6.24

Completely giving up
all desire born of willfulness,
the mind disciplines the busy senses
in every way.
6.25

Little by little, one comes to rest.
The buddhi is firmly convinced.
The mind is placed within atman,
so one doesn’t even think of anything.

6.26

Wherever the restless mind wanders,
wherever it is, discipline it.
Bring it back from there.
Put it under atman’s control.

6.27

Yes, when the mind is at peace,
passion is pacified.
The spotless yogi, a creature of Brahman,
feels the highest happiness.

6.28

Constantly working on atman,
beyond contamination,
the yogi achieves boundless joy,
the happiness of always
being in touch with Brahman.

6.29

Atman is in all creatures.
All creatures are in atman.
The atman yoked to yoga
sees this everywhere.

6.30

Those who see me everywhere,
and see everything in me,
won’t be lost to me.
And I won’t be lost to them.

6.31

The yogis stand firm in that unity
and worship me as the one in all creatures.
No matter where they live,
they live in me.

6.32

They say the supreme yogi is the one
who sees the equality of all things –
both the pleasurable and the painful –
by seeing their similarity to atman.

6.33

Arjuna:

Equanimity – you use that word to describe this yoga, Madhusudana. But in my restlessness I see no solid standing for it.

6.34

The mind is restless, Krishna – turbulent, strong, and stubborn. Yes, it’s as difficult to curb as the wind, I think.

6.35

Shri Bhagavan:

Undoubtedly, Mahabaho, the mind is restless
and difficult to curb.
But it can be curbed –
through constant practice and detachment.

6.36

In my opinion, yoga is difficult to grasp
if atman isn’t restrained.
But by working hard to control atman,
using the right method, one succeeds.

6.37

Arjuna:

What happens if you have faith, but your mind is unsteady, your attempts in yoga are all in vain, and you fail to reach perfection in yoga? What is your destination?

6.38

Mahabaho, when you’re confused on the path to Brahman, having failed in both respects, don’t you get ripped apart, like a low-moving cloud, with no standing at all?

6.39

That’s my doubt, Krishna. No one except you can dispel it completely. Unless you dispel my doubt, there’ll be nobody else to do it!

6.40

Shri Bhagavan:

Such a person is never destroyed,
not in this world or the next.
That’s right, Partha –
a person of honorable behavior
does not travel the crooked road.
Not at all.

6.41

After going to the worlds of the righteous
and living there for many years,
the fallen yogi is born into a clean house
blessed with fortune,

6.42

or else is born among yogis,
in a family blessed with insight.
A birth like that in this world
is very hard to get.

6.43

Then one regains the connection
with the buddhi of one’s former body,
and once again labors for perfection,
Kurunandana –

6.44a

yes, attracted to it without even trying,
because of those previous efforts.

6.44b

Whoever wants to know about yoga
has gone beyond the Brahman
that’s expressed in words.

6.45

The yogi labors with determination
through many births,
is washed clean of sin,
and is perfected –
and then discovers the supreme goal.

6.46

Above a penitent,
above a philosopher,
and above a karmi –
that’s the position
a yogi is considered to hold.
Therefore, be a yogi, Arjuna.

6.47

And I consider
that among all yogis,
the most yoked
is the atman
inwardly absorbed in me
who worships me
with faith.

7.1

Partha, attach your mind to me.
Practice yoga and trust in me.
Listen – here’s how you can know me,
completely, without any doubts.

7.2

I’ll leave out nothing.
I’ll tell you about knowledge and realization.
Once you know it,
there’s no need for any further knowing.
7.3

Out of thousands of people,
there may be one who tries to be perfect.
And of those who try for perfection,
there may be one who knows me as I really am.

7.4

My prakriti has eight divisions –
earth, water, fire, air, space,
mind, buddhi, and self-identification.

7.5

This is not supreme. Understand –
in addition to this I have another,
supreme prakriti.
It’s the living soul of each creature,
and it sustains this world.

7.6a

Be certain of it –
this is the womb of all creatures.

7.6b

I am the origin and the dissolution
of each and every world.

7.7

There isn’t anything superior to me.
Like pearls on a thread, Dhananjaya,
everything here is strung on me.

7.8

Kaunteya, I am the taste of water.
I’m the light of the sun and the moon.
In all the Vedas, I’m the syllable Om.
I am the sound of space and the virility of men.

7.9

I am the pure fragrance of the earth,
the heat of fire.
I am the life of all creatures
and the penance of penitents.

7.10

Understand, Partha –
I am the eternal seed of all creatures.
I’m the insight of the insightful.
I’m the glory of the glorious.

7.11

Best of the Bharatas, in the strong
I am the strength that’s devoid of desire and passion.
In the world’s creatures
I am the desire that doesn’t conflict with dharma.

7.12

And those states of being –
goodness, passion, and darkness –
certainly come from me.
They are in me. But, understand –
I am not in them.

7.13

Deluded by those states of being –
the three gunas –
the whole world is confused,
and doesn’t comprehend
that I am beyond, I am supreme,
I am without any change.

7.14

Yes, that’s divine –
my Maya, made of the gunas.
It’s hard to get away from.
Those who surrender to me –
they can make it across that Maya.

7.15

Maya carries away the knowledge
of the criminals, of the fools,
of the uncultured who don’t surrender to me –
those who take on an ungodly state of being.

7.16

Arjuna, best of the Bharatas,
four kinds of godly people
love and serve me –
those who weep for me,
who inquire about me,
who petition me,
and who know me.

7.17

Among those,
the knower is permanently yoked,
with devotion for only one.
The knower is the best.
Yes, I am dear to those in knowledge,
and they are dear to me.

7.18

The others are very exalted.
But I consider the knower
to be my special atman.
Yes, that atman
is steadily yoked to me
as the very highest destination.

7.19

At the end of many births,
a person of knowledge says
“Vasudeva is everything,”
and surrenders to me.
That mahatma is hard to find.

7.20

When people are dominated by their own prakriti,
their knowledge gets carried away
by this desire or that desire.
They surrender to other devas,
and observe this regulation or that regulation.

7.21

In their faithfulness,
people of devotion may glorify
one or another form.
Whichever or whatever form it is,
no matter who or what,
I’m the one who grants them
their unwavering faith.

7.22a

Yoked by that faith,
they seek the favor of their deity
and fulfill their desires.

7.22b

Who bestows those benefits?
No one but me.

7.23a

But those fruits have their limits.
They’re for the dimwits!

7.23b

Praise the devas, and you’ll go to the devas.
My devotees go to me. That’s certain.

7.24

When the unrealized consider me, they think,
“the unmanifest has become manifest.”
They don’t know about my highest state of being.
I am changeless and supreme.

7.25

I’m concealed by Yoga-Maya.
I’m not revealed to everyone.
The deluded world is not aware of me.
I am changeless and unborn.

7.26

I know all the created beings.
I know those in the past,
those in the present,
and those in the future.
But, Arjuna, nobody knows me.

7.27

Bharata,
from the moment they’re born,
all creatures are bewildered.
They’re confused by the dualities
that are spawned by longing and hatred,
Parantapa.

7.28

But people of virtuous karma,
whose sins have come to an end,
are free from duality’s delusions.
They are firm in their vows.
They worship me.

7.29

Those who try hard
to be liberated from old age and death
by taking shelter of me –
they know Brahman in its fullness,
in its relation to atman
and to every aspect of karma.

7.30

They know me
in my relation to the created beings,
to the gods, and to yajna.
And right at the time of death,
with yoked consciousness,
they know me.

8.1

Arjuna:

What is karma, Purushottam? Tell me what Brahman is said to be. Tell me how it relates to atman, to the created beings, and to the gods.

8.2

Who is it here in this body, Madhusudan, who is related to yajna? And how can the self-controlled know you at the time of passing away?

8.3

Shri Bhagavan:

Brahman is the supreme, the imperishable.
Its character is said to be related to atman.
Karma is known as the generating force
that produces the creatures’ various states of being.

8.4

Things relating to the creatures
have a perishable nature.
Things relating to the gods
have the nature of the purusha.
The one related to yajna,
who’s in the body – O Best of the Embodied –
is none other than me.

8.5

And at the final hour,
whoever gives up the body
while remembering just me,
passes into and achieves
my state of being.
There’s no doubt about it.

8.6

When you give up your body at the end,
whatever state of being
you might be remembering –
this one or that one –
you will then become
this one or that one.
Every time without fail,
that’s what you’ll get, Kaunteya.

8.7

Therefore, at all times remember me.
And fight.
Fix your mind and buddhi on me.
And, without doubting, you’ll come to me.

8.8

Practice and meditate, Partha.
Yoke your consciousness in yoga without deviation.
That’s how you go to the Supreme Divine Purusha.

8.9

Keep on remembering the Sage,
the Ancient One, the Great Controller
who is smaller than the smallest,
the Maintainer of Everything
whose form is beyond the darkness,
bright as the sun, and inconceivable.

8.10

At the time of their passing away,
those who are yoked by devotion
and the power of yoga
keep the mind from wavering.
They direct the prana
precisely between the eyebrows.
And they approach the Supreme Divine Purusha.

8.11

Imperishability – the Vedic scholars talk about it.
The passionless adepts enter into it.
The rigorous brahmacharies desire it.
I’ll briefly describe that condition to you.

8.12

All the doors of the body are closed.
The mind is held in the heart.
The atman’s prana is kept in the head.
One is situated in yogic contemplation.

8.13

OM is the one imperishable Brahman.
Remember me while sounding it
as you pass away and discard the body.
You will go to the supreme destination.

8.14

Partha, I’m easily won
by the yogi who’s constantly yoked,
who remembers me constantly
with undeviating consciousness.

8.15

Having reached me, the mahatmas
never again take birth
in this place of suffering
where nothing lasts.
They attain the perfect, supreme goal.

8.16

Arjuna, relentless returning
takes place in these worlds,
up to Brahma’s planet.
But, Kaunteya, whoever comes to me
never returns to take birth again.

8.17

When people understand
that a thousand yugas
makes up a day of Brahma,
and that his night
ends in another thousand yugas –
then they understand day and night.

8.18

When the day dawns,
all the manifest come into being
from the unmanifest.
When night falls,
they’re dissolved into that known as the unmanifest.

8.19

Indeed, this host of creatures
is created, and created again.
When night falls, they’re destroyed.
When the day dawns, Partha, they take birth.

8.20

Yet there is another state of being
superior to that unmanifest –
an eternal unmanifest.
When all the creatures
are annihilated,
that is not annihilated.

8.21

That unmanifest is called the Imperishable.
It is known to be the supreme destination.
Once you achieve it you never come back.
It is my supreme home.

8.22

But that Supreme Purusha –
within whom all creatures are standing –
by whom all this is permeated –
is won by undeviating devotion, Partha.
8.23

Best of the Bharatas, I’ll describe precisely
the times when departing yogis pass on –
either to return or never return,
according to the time they leave.

8.24

People who know Brahman achieve Brahman
when they pass away in fire, light, daytime,
the brighter moon, and the six months
of the sun’s northern journey.

8.25

Yogis return here –
after reaching the light of the moon –
when they pass away in smoke, nighttime,
the darker moon, and the six months
of the sun’s southern journey.

8.26

Yes, the white road and the black –
they’re considered fundamentals of the world.
With one, you go and don’t return.
With the other, you come back again.

8.27

None of the yogis who know these paths
is confused – not any of them, Partha.
Therefore, at all times become
yoked in yoga, Arjuna.

8.28

Studying the Vedas,
conducting offerings,
performing austerities,
getting auspicious fruits
from the pursuit of charitable works –
they are surpassed, all of them,
by the yogi of knowledge
who approaches the supreme and primal place.
9.1

Because you aren’t envious,
I’m going to tell you about the deepest secret.
Learning this with knowledge and realization,
you’ll be liberated from misfortune.

9.2

The king of knowledge –
the king of secrets –
this is the purest
and the highest dharma,
understood through experience,
joyfully performed,
and never changing.

9.3

People without faith in this dharma
do not reach me, Parantapa.
They return to the road of death and samsara.

9.4

All this world is permeated by me,
in my form as the Unmanifest.
All creatures stand in me.
I do not stand in them.

9.5

And, the creatures don’t stand in me.
See how my yoga rules!
My atman creates the creatures,
sustains the creatures,
but doesn’t stand in the creatures.

9.6

Understand – just as the wind blows everywhere
while always situated within space,
so all the creatures are situated within me.

9.7

Kaunteya, at the end of a kalpa
all the creatures flow into my prakriti.
Then, at the beginning of a kalpa,
I manifest them again.

9.8

Again and again
I push into my own prakriti
and manifest them.
Under prakriti’s power,
this whole multitude of creatures
is powerless.

9.9

Dhananjaya,
none of those actitivities bind me.
I sit among them, detached –
as if I’m indifferent to them.

9.10

I supervise prakriti’s bringing forth
the moving and the non-moving, Kaunteya.
That’s what makes the world go around.

9.11

Fools deride me when I assume a human form.
They don’t know about my supreme being –
I am the great controller of all creation.

9.12

They’ve given themselves over
to the charms of the prakriti
of rakshashas and asuras.
Their hopes are in vain,
their deeds are in vain,
their knowledge is in vain –
wasted and useless.

9.13

But Partha, the mahatmas
give themselves over
to the divine prakriti.
With undeviating minds
they serve me and love me
in the knowledge
that I am the changeless origin
of the created beings.

9.14

They’re always praising me.
They work hard, firm in their vows.
They bow down to me in loving devotion.
They’re permanently yoked to me in worship.

9.15

Other people, by offering their knowledge,
offer their worship to me as
the unity in multiplicity, or as
the many aspects of the face of the universe.

9.16

I am the ritual.
I am the offering.
The libation for the dead is me,
and I am the healing herb.
The mantra is me.
I am even the butter and the fire,
and I am the oblation.

9.17

I am the father of this world, and its mother,
its supporter, and its grandfather.
I am all there is to be known,
the purifier, the Om,
and even the Rik, Sama, and Yajur Vedas.

9.18

I am the goal, the sustainer, the prabhu,
the witness, home, refuge, and dear friend.
I am the creation, destruction, and solid ground,
the storehouse, the changeless seed.

9.19

Arjuna, all heat is radiated from me.
I’m the one who holds back and sends forth the rain.
Indeed, immortality and death,
existence and nonexistence – I am them, too.

9.20

The followers of the three Vedas –
the soma drinkers who are cleansed of sin –
they offer worship to me
while yearning for a destination in paradise.
Their virtue wins them a taste of Indra’s godly world.
In that place of divinity
they enjoy the divine pleasures of the devas.

9.21

Having enjoyed immensely in that heavenly world,
they use up the winnings of their virtue
and enter the mortal world.
In this way the followers of the threefold dharma,
desiring desires,
achieve something that only comes and goes.

9.22

Those people who worship me,
who meditate only on me,
constantly yoked to me –
I bring them whatever they need,
and preserve whatever they have.

9.23

Kaunteya, those too who are devotees of other devas,
who make their offerings faithfully,
they too are making their offerings to me –
in ignorance of the correct rituals.

9.24a

Yes, I am the enjoyer
and the only lord
of all offerings.

9.24b

But they have no knowledge
about my reality.
So they fall down.

9.25

deva-worshippers go to the devas
ancestor-worshippers go to the ancestors
those who propitiate the ghosts go to the ghosts
and my devotees go to me

9.26

a leaf, a flower, some fruit, some water
whatever it is that is offered to me
through the bhakti of a steadfast atman
that offering made with bhakti I accept

9.27

what you do, what you eat
what you give in sacrifice or charity
what penances you perform
do as an offering to me, Kaunteya

9.28

freed from fruits both good and bad
liberated from the bondage of karma
your atman yoked to the yoga of sannyas
liberated, you come to me

9.29

I am equal to all creatures
no one is despicable or dear to me
but those who serve me with bhakti
they’re in me and I’m in them

9.30

by serving me without deviation
even the worst criminal
must indeed be considered a sadhu
yes, properly situated

9.31

that atman quickly becomes righteous
and attains eternal peace
know it and teach it, Kaunteya
my bhakta is never lost to me

9.32

anyone who earnestly seeks shelter in me
even those born among the unclean
or women, or vaishyas, or shudras
even they go to the supreme destination

9.33

then all the more so for the brahmans
for the virtuous, the bhaktas, the rajarishis
who serve and give their love to me
in this transient, sorrowful world

9.34

think of me and become my bhakta
offer to me, bow down to me
with atman yoked, strive for me
and indeed, you will come to me

10.1

Mahabaho, listen once again to my supreme word.
I’m speaking it to you in my desire to benefit you,
and to give you joyfulness.

10.2

Neither the multitudes of gods
nor the maharishis
know where I come from.
Yes – I am the origin
of the devas and the maharishis!

10.3

I am the unborn and beginningless Great Ishvara.
Whoever among the mortals knows this
is without confusion
and is set free from all sin.

10.4

Buddhi, knowledge, freedom from delusion,
forgiveness, honesty, and restraint,
equanimity, happiness, distress, being,
nonbeing, fear and fearlessness,

10.5

nondisturbance, contentment, penance, charity,
also fame and infamy –
the characters of creatures are created by me,
in all their wide variety.

10.6

The seven maharishis of ancient times,
and the four, and the Manus, are born from my mind.
Now the worlds are filled with their progeny.

10.7

Whoever knows about the reality
of my glory and my yoga,
is yoked, unbroken, to yoga.
Of that there is no doubt.

10.8

I am the source of everything.
Everything proceeds from me.
Knowing this, those who are realized
are filled with deep affection,
and they serve me with love.

10.9

Conscious of me,
their lives dedicated to me,
they enlighten each other
and constantly talk about me,
feeling satisfaction and bliss.

10.10

I give to those who are always yoked to me
in service, and worship, and love,
the buddhi-yoga by which they can come to me.

10.11

Out of compassion for them,
standing in the being of the atman
with the shining lamp of knowledge,
I dispel the darkness born of ignorance.

10.12

Arjuna:

Supreme Brahman, Supreme Abode, Supreme Purifier! You are the Eternal Divine Purusha, the Primal Deva, the Unborn, the Omnipresent Glory!
10.13

All the rishis – Narada the Deva-Rishi, Asita, Devala, Vyas – have said this about you, and now you yourself are declaring it to me.

10.14
Keshava, I accept these truths you’ve told me. Yes, Bhagavan, neither the devas nor the demons understand your manifestation.

10.15

Indeed, Purushottama, you yourself know yourself – Creator and Lord of the Creatures, Deva of the Devas, Master of the Universe!

10.16

Leaving out nothing, tell me, please, about the divine glory of your Self, how you stand here and spread your glory through the worlds!

10.17

Yogi, how can I understand you while I meditate on you? Bhagavan, what forms and what varieties of your being should I meditate on?

10.18

Janardana, recount to me again in detail about the yoga and the glory of your Self. Yes, no matter how many times I hear your deathless words, I’m never satisfied.

10.19

Shri Bhagavan:

Listen to me as I recount to you
about the divine glories of my Self –
the basics,
since there’s no end to my extent.

10.20

Gudakesha, I am the Atman
standing within all creatures –
in fact I am the creatures’
beginning, middle, and end

10.21

of the Adityas I am Vishnu –
of lights, the shining Sun –
Marichi of the Maruts is me –
in the Nakshatras I’m the Moon

10.22

of the Vedas, the Sama Veda is me –
of the Devas, I am Vasava –
of the senses, the mind is me –
in the creatures I am consciousness

10.23

of the Rudras, Shankara is me –
Vittesha, of the Yakshas and Rakshasas –
of the Vasus, Pavaka is me –
I am Meru among the mountains

10.24

Partha, know me as Brihaspati
who is the head of the priests –
of commanders I am Skanda –
of water-bodies I am the ocean

10.25

of the maharishis, Bhrigu is the one I am –
of spoken sounds I am the one imperishable OM –
of offerings, the offering of japa is me –
of the immovable things, the Himalayas

10.26

the banyan, among all trees –
of the deva-rishis, Narada –
of the Gandharvas, Chitraratha –
of the perfect beings, Kapila

10.27

Know me among the horses
as Ucchaihshrava, born from nectar –
Airavata among the elephants –
and among humans the king

10.28

of weapons I am the lightning bolt –
of cows I am the Kamadhuk –
of progenitors I am Kandarpa –
of snakes I am Vasuki

10.29

Ananta is me, among the Nagas –
I am Varuna among the water-dwellers –
of the ancestors, Aryama is me –
Yama, among the subduers

10.30

Prahlad is me, among the Daityas –
I am time among those who measure –
of beasts I am the king of beasts –
and Garuda of the birds

10.31

the wind, of purifiers, is me –
I am Rama of the weapon-wielders –
of water monsters the Makara is me –
of rivers I am the Jahnava

10.32

Arjuna, of creations I am the
beginning, end, and middle –
of sciences, the science of the self –
I am the propositions of proponents

10.33

Of the alphabet’s letters I am A –
and the dvandva among the compounds –
Indeed, I am imperishable time –
I am the ordainer who face turns everywhere

10.34

and I am death, consuming everything –
and the origin of things yet to be –
of feminine nouns I am fame, fortune, speech –
memory, intelligence, resolve, and patience

10.35

the Brihat Sama of the Sama Veda –
I am the Gayatri among poems –
of months, November-December is me –
of the seasons, I am Spring

10.36

the dice-playing of tricksters is me –
I am the splendor of the splendid –
victory is me, resoluteness is me –
I am the strength of the strong

10.37

of the Vrishnis, Vasudeva is me –
of the Pandavas, Dhananjaya –
of the munis I am Vyas –
of poets, the poet Ushana

10.38

of things that punish, the stick is me –
the diplomacy of the ambitious is me –
of secret things, silence is me –
I am the knowledge of the knowledgeable

10.39

and whatever may be among all creatures
I am the seed of that, Arjuna –
nothing moving or unmoving can exist
without being created by me

10.40

Parantapa, there’s no end to my divine glory.
What I’ve described to you
are just examples of my glory in its vastness.

10.41

Whatever is glorious and strong,
whatever is beautiful, or invulnerable –
that is born from a fragment of my splendor.
Of that you can be sure.

10.42

Arjuna, what’s the use of knowing
so many of these things?
With one fragment I support –
in its entirety –
this world in which I stand.

11.1

Arjuna:

The words you’ve spoken have dispelled my confusion. You’ve showed me your favor. You’ve revealed the supreme secret about Atman.

11.2

Yes, Kamala Patraksha, I’ve heard from you in detail about the coming to be and the passing away of the creatures, and about the Great Unchanging Atman too.

11.3

Parameshvara, what you’ve described is you – as you are. I want to see you, Purushottama – in that form as the Ishvara!

11.4

If you consider me capable of seeing it, Prabhu, then, Yogeshvara, display the Unchanging Atman to me!

11.5

Shri Bhagavan:

Partha, look upon my hundreds and thousands of forms,
in their many divine varieties, and many colors and shapes.

11.6

Bharata, look!
The Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras,
the Ashvins, and the Maruts!
So many wonders, never seen before!
Look at them!

11.7

Gudakesha, in this one body of mine,
now look at the whole universe,
what is moving and what is not –
and anything else you want to see!

11.8

But you’ll never be able
to see me with your own eyes.
I’ll give you divine eyes
to look upon my Ishvara Yoga.
11.9

Sanjaya:

My King, having spoken thus, Hari the Great Yogeshvara displays to Partha his supreme form as the Ishvara.

11.10

So many mouths, so many eyes! What a marvelous sight! There are many divine ornaments, and many divine weapons raised up high!

11.11

Wearing divine garlands and robes, anointed with divine perfume – everything is so wonderful! This Deva is limitless – his face is everywhere in the cosmos!

11.12

If a thousand suns were to rise all at once in the heavens, perhaps their light might compare to this effulgence of this Great Atman.

11.13

Now Pandava sees the entire universe, with its many kinds and categories of things, unified there in the body of the Deva of Devas!

11.14

Dhananjaya’s hair is standing on end. He’s filled with amazement. He bows his head to the Deva. With palms pressed together, he speaks.

11.15

Arjuna:

Deva, I see the devas and all the multitudes of various creatures in your body! Lord Brahma, sitting on his lotus throne! And rishis, and divine serpents!

11.16

So many arms, bellies, mouths, and eyes! I see your boundless form everywhere. Lord of the Universe, Form of the Universe, I see no end to you, no middle, no beginning.

11.17

Helmets, clubs, and discs are blazing everywhere in a mass of radiant energy! I see – but it’s hard to see you. You’re surrounded by shining fire, and by suns and light beyond estimation!

11.18

You are the Imperishable – the supreme object of knowledge. You are the supreme foundation of this universe. You are the Unchanging – the guardian of the primeval dharma. You are the eternal Purusha. I’m sure of it.

11.19

No beginning, no middle, no end! Unlimited power! Unlimited arms! The moon and the sun are your eyes! I see your mouth, a blazing fire – your power, burning up the universe!

11.20

Yes, you are the one who permeates heaven and earth and all the space between in all directions. Mahatma, the three worlds are trembling as they look upon this astonishing, terrifying form of yours!

11.21

Yes, all the assemblies of the gods are entering into you. Some of them are fearful – with prayerful hands, they’re offering invocations. The peaceful assemblies of maharishis and perfected beings are declaiming and singing prayers and hymns to you.

11.22

All of them – the Rudras, the Adityas, the Vasus and the Sadhyas – the Vishvas, the Ashvins, the Maruts and the ancestors – the assemblies of Gandharvas, Yakshas, the ungodly and the perfect – they all gaze at you in amazement.

11.23

Your mighty form! So many faces and eyes! So many, many arms, thighs, feet, Mahabaho! Many stomachs! Many horrifying teeth! The worlds are shaking as they see you, and so am I!

11.24

Multi-colored, flaming, touching the sky – mouths opened wide, huge flaming eyes! Yes, even my inner self is shaken by seeing you. I’ve lost my bearing and my perspective, Vishnu!

11.25

And your faces’ jagged teeth look to me like the blazing flames of time! I don’t know where to go, or where to find protection. Have mercy – Lord of the Devas, Shelter of the Universe.

11.26

All of them – Dhritarashtra’s sons and all the kings gathered with them – Bhishma, Drona, and Karna too – and the warrior chieftains on our side –

11.27

they’re entering into those fearsome mouths – those terrifying, hideous teeth! I see some of them caught between your teeth, their heads ground to pieces!

11.28

As the tossing waves of many rivers flow into the ocean, so all those powerful people enter into your blazing mouths.

11.29

As moths enter into a blazing flame, full speed to their destruction, so the worlds are entering with full speed into your mouths to their destruction.

11.30

Vishnu! You lick up, you swallow, every world everywhere with your burning mouths! The shining, scorching force of your horrible rays fills the entire universe!

11.31

Tell me who you are in this fierce form. I bow down to you, Best of the Devas. Have mercy! I want to know your original being. I don’t understand what your purpose is.

11.32

Shri Bhagavan:

I am time –
the cause of the world’s destruction!
My purpose is to obliterate the world!
That is my purpose here.
Even without you,
all these soldiers standing against each other
will cease to exist.

11.33

So, get up! Win your fame! Conquer your enemies!
Enjoy your prosperous kingdom! It’s definite –
all of them have long since been killed – by me!
You merely have to be an instrument, Savyasachin.

11.34

Drona and Bhishma and Jayadratha and Karna
and the other powerful warriors –
I have killed them.
You slay them! Don’t waver.
Fight this battle! Conquer the enemy!

11.35

Sanjaya:

Having heard Keshava’s words, Kiriti trembles, and presses his hands together in reverence. He bows down, fearfully paying his obeisances, and, falteringly, again speaks to Krishna.

11.36

Arjuna:

Hrishikesha, it is right that the universe feels joy and rapture while praising you, and that the terrified rakshas run away in every direction, and that all the assembled perfected beings are bowing in respect.

11.37

And why shouldn’t they pay their respects to you, Great Atman? You are the First Cause, even more than Brahma or Brahman. Unlimited Lord of the Devas, Shelter of the Universe, you are imperishable existence and nonexistence, and even superior to that.

11.38

You are the Primal Deva, the Ancient Purusha. You are the supreme refuge of the cosmos, the one who knows and the object of knowledge, the supreme abode. Your unlimited form fills the cosmos!

11.39

You are Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, and the moon. You are Prajapati and the primal ancestor. Glory to you! Glory to you a thousand times! Again and again, glory, glory to you!

11.40

Glory to you from the front, and from behind! Glory to you from everywhere. You are everything! With unlimited power and endless force you bring everything to its completion, so you are everything!

11.41

I’ve been rash, thinking of you as just a friend – calling to you with “Hey, Krishna,” “Hey, Yadava,” “Hey, my friend.” In my derangement – or because of my love – I didn’t know about this majesty of yours.

11.42

And Achyuta, if I joked with you, showing you disrespect as we relaxed or played or rested or ate together, by ourselves or with others, please forgive my offenses, unfathomable one.

11.43

You are the father of the world – the worshipable and venerable guru of everything that moves and doesn’t move. No one is equal to you. How could anyone be greater? In the three worlds, your potency is incomparable.

11.44

So I bow down to you and prostrate my body before you. I beg your mercy, Lord I love! Deva! Tolerate me – as a father to a son, or a friend to a friend, or a lover to a beloved.

11.45

I’ve seen something never seen before, and I’m thrilled! But my mind is disturbed by fear. Deva, please show me your form. Be merciful, Lord of the Devas, Shelter of the Universe.

11.46

I want to see you with your helmet, with your club and disc in your hands – like that. O Cosmic Murti with a thousand arms, please become that four-handed form.

11.47

Shri Bhagavan:

By my mercy, Arjuna, through my yoga,
I have shown you this supreme form of mine –
effulgent, universal, unlimited, primal.
No one but you has ever seen it before.

11.48

Indeed, no one but you within this world
can see me in this form –
not by the Vedas,
not by offerings or scholarship,
not by charity,
not by pious rituals,
and not by severe penances.

11.49

You don’t have to tremble.
And your being doesn’t have to be confused
by seeing this terrifying form of mine.
Banish your fear. Let your mind be happy.
Once again look at that form of mine
that you want.

11.50

Sanjaya:

Having said that to Arjuna, Vasudeva again reveals his own form. The Great Atman comforts him in his fear by again generating a body of pleasing appearance.

11.51

Arjuna:

Janardan, now that I see this – your pleasant human form – my consciousness is steady. My prakriti is back.

11.52

Shri Bhagavan:

That form of mine
that you have seen
is very difficult to see.
The devas are constantly
trying to see that form.

11.53

Not by the Vedas,
not by penances,
not by charity,
and not by rituals
can one see me
in the form in which you saw me.

11.54

But Arjuna, I can be known,
seen, and entered into –
as I am in reality, Parantapa –
by undiluted bhakti.

11.55

Do your karma for me.
Make me the supreme.
Give me your bhakti.
Free yourself from material association.
Have no enemies among all creatures.
A person like that comes to me, Pandava.

12.1

Arjuna:

The bhaktas who are always yoked to you in worship – do they know yoga better than those of the imperishable unmanifest?

12.2

Shri Bhagavan:

I consider those
who are constantly yoked
by fixing their minds on me,
worshiping me,
and serving me with true faith,
to be the most yoked.

12.3

But those who worship the imperishable,
the ineffable, the unmanifest,
the omnipresent, the inconceivable,
the beyond, the unmoving, the firm,

12.4

while restraining the vast array of the senses,
while staying in buddhi everywhere,
while taking pleasure in the welfare of all creatures –
they definitely reach me.

12.5

It is very troublesome
when the consciousness
clings to the unmanifest.
Yes, the unmanifest
is a goal difficult to attain
for the embodied ones.

12.6

But those who are intent on me
and give up all karma to me,
who meditate on me and worship me
in undeviating yoga,

12.7

whose consciousness is fixed on me –
Partha, I quickly appear to them,
and deliver them
from the ocean of death and rebirth.
12.8

Place your mind on me.
Let your buddhi enter into me.
From then on you will live in me,
without a doubt.

12.9

If you can’t concentrate your consciousness
steadily on me,
then try to reach me
by practicing yoga, Dhananjaya.

12.10

If you’re not capable of that practice,
then become active and work for me.
Do it for my sake.
You can gain success by performing activities.

12.11

If you can’t take shelter of my yoga
and do those activities,
then give up the results of all karma,
working as one who is atman.

12.12

Yes, better than practice is knowledge.
Better than knowledge is meditation.
Better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of karma.
From that renunciation comes unlimited peace.

12.13

Not envious of any creature,
but friendly and merciful to all-
free from egotism
and the sense of me-and-mine –
forgiving,
and the same whether in happiness or distress –

12.14

content, satisfied in yoga,
self-controlled and firm in purpose,
fixing mind and buddhi on me –
these are my bhaktas,
and they are dear to me.

12.15

Those who are never a source of disturbance in the world –
and never disturbed by the world –
who are liberated
from jubilation, fearfulness, impatience, and excitement –
they are dear to me.

12.16

They have no expectations.
They’re clean, and skillful.
They have no cares,
and they’re renounced
in all their activities.
They are my bhaktas.
They’re dear to me.

12.17

Neither despising nor coveting,
neither hankering or lamenting,
they let go of both the good and the bad.
Those bhaktas are dear to me.

12.18

They’re detached –
the same to friends and enemies,
the same in honor and dishonor,
cold and heat, happiness and distress,

12.19

and whether praised or blamed.
They are silent.
Satisifed with whatever comes their way,
they don’t need a roof over their heads.
They’re of steady mind.
The people who are bhaktas are dear to me.

12.20

But even more dear to me are the bhaktas
who revere the eternal dharma I am speaking,
and who make me the supreme object of their faith.

13.1

Arjuna:

Keshava, I want to know about prakriti and purusha, the field and the knower of the field, knowledge and the object of knowledge.

13.2

Shri Bhagavan:

Kaunteya, this body is called the field.
One who knows about this is the knower of the field.
So it is declared by those who know these things.

13.3a

Understand – I am also the knower of the field.
I am within all fields, Bharata.

13.3b

In my opinion, knowledge means
to know the field
and the knower of the field.

13.4

Listen – I’ll give a summary
of what the field is like –
its character, its changes
and which change comes from which,
and the powers of the knower.
13.5

The rishis have sung about it in many ways
with conclusive reasoning about causes and effects –
this way and that in a variety of hymns,
and of course in the verses of the Brahma Sutra.

13.6

The gross elements, the ego,
the buddhi, the unmanifest,
the eleven senses,
the five sense objects,

13.7

longing, hatred, happiness,
suffering, the whole bodily system,
consciousness, conviction –
this summarizes the field and its changes.

13.8

Don’t be conceited or clever or cruel.
Be tolerant and truthful.
Honor your teacher.
Be clean, steady, and self- restrained.

13.9

Give up the objects of the senses
and have no material ego.
See the flaws – birth, death,
old age, disease, and pain.

13.10

Be detached –
don’t associate with sons, with wives,
and with other affairs of the household.
Constantly keep your consciousness unchanged
by either the pleasant or the unpleasant.

13.11

Give me unalloyed bhakti
with undeviating yoga.
Without any urge for people’s company,
retreat to solitary places.

13.12

Constantly gain knowledge
of everything about atman.
See the object
of the knowledge
of reality.
I declare that is knowledge.
Anything else is ignorance.

13.13

I’ll tell you what is to be known
knowing it, you’ll attain immortality
it’s the beginingless Supreme Brahman
they say it neither is nor is not

13.14

everywhere its hands and feet
everywhere its eyes, heads, faces
everywhere it hears, and abides
embracing all the world

13.15

shining in the gunas of the senses
and without any senses at all
detached, and supporting everything
without gunas and enjoying gunas

13.16

inside and outside all creatures
those that move and those that don’t
it’s too subtle to be understood
close, and placed so far away

13.17

undivided, standing in all creatures
also divided, or so it seems
understood as the creatures’ maintainer
and devourer, and creator

13.18

it’s also the light in all lights
it’s beyond the darkness, they say
it’s knowing, the known, and known by knowing
it stands in the hearts of us all

13.19

I’ve given you a summary of the field,
and of knowledge and the known.
My bhaktas enter into my mode of being
when they realize this.

13.20

Understand that prakriti and purusha
are both beginningless.
Understand that changes and the gunas
are born from prakriti.

13.21

Cause, effect, and agency
are caused by prakriti.
Thus it is said.
Purusha is the cause
of the experiences of joy and misery.
Thus it is said.

13.22

Yes, purusha stands in prakriti,
enjoying the gunas born of prakriti.
Choosing to associate with the gunas,
it is born from good and bad wombs.

13.23

The Supreme Atman is also in the body,
the Supreme Purusha,
Observer, Permitter, Sustainer, Enjoyer,
the Great Ishvara.

13.24

Those who know what the purusha is,
and prakriti, and the gunas –
no matter what their position,
they never take birth any more.

13.25

One atman sees Atman
by atman meditation,
another by sankhya-yoga,
and others by karma-yoga.

13.26

But others without this knowledge
hear from others, and worship.
Just by their decision to hear,
even they overcome death.

13.27

Best of the Bharatas, understand this –
whatever happens, everything that exists,
that which moves, that which doesn’t,
is the joining of the field and its knower.

13.28

The Supreme Ishvara resides
equally in all creatures,
the permanent in the fragile.
The one who sees this, sees.

13.29

Yes, when you see the Ishvara
equally the same everywhere,
atman doesn’t hurt atman.
You go to the supreme goal.

13.30

In every way, all actions
are performed by Prakriti.
Atman does nothing at all.
Whoever sees this, sees.

13.31

When the follower sees oneness
in creatures’ separate beings
and then expanding outward,
at that time Brahman is attained.

13.32

This changeless Paramatma,
beginningless and beyond the gunas,
though residing in the body, Kaunteya,
neither acts nor gets polluted.

13.33

Just as the akasha is everywhere
but so subtle it’s never polluted,
so the Atman, though inside bodies,
is everywhere and not polluted.

13.34

Just as one sun lights
this entire world,
so the field’s owner lights
the entire field, Bharata.

13.35

The eye of knowledge
can distinguish between
the field and the knower of the field,
and can perceive what is
liberation from creation’s prakriti.
The ones who know this –
they go to the Supreme.

14.1

Again I’ll proclaim it –
the supreme knowledge,
the highest knowledge.
When they know it,
all the munis leaving this place
attain the supreme perfection.

14.2

They take shelter of this knowledge
and attain my dharma’s state of existence.
At the creation, they’re not reborn.
At the destruction, they’re not disturbed.

14.3

The great Brahman is my womb,
and I fertilize its egg.
Then comes the birth
of all the creatures, Bharata.

14.4

Kaunteya, great Brahman is the womb
and I am the seed-giving father
of all the forms of all the wombs that take birth.

14.5

Goodness, passion, and darkness
are the gunas born of Prakriti.
They bind the changeless embodied one
to the body, Maha-Baho.

14.6

Of these, goodness is the purest –
it illuminates and never decays.
It binds you to attachment to knowledge
and attachment to happiness, Anagha.

14.7

Understand – passion is instinctual desire.
It’s born out of attachment and craving.
It binds the embodied one
to be attached to karma, Kaunteya.

14.8

Understand – darkness is born from ignorance.
It deludes all those who are embodied.
It binds you to irresponsibility,
laziness, and sleep, Bharata.

14.9

Goodness makes you addicted to happiness –
passion, to karma, Bharata.
But darkness stifles knowledge
and addicts you to irresponsibility.
So it is said.

14.10

Bharata, goodness flourishes
when it dominates passion and darkness –
or passion
when it’s over goodness and darkness,
or darkness
when it’s over goodness and passion.

14.11

When knowledge brings illumination
to all the body’s senses,
understand that goodness has increased.
So it is said.

14.12

Best of the Bharatas,
an increase in passion
gives rise to greed,
hyperactivity, involvement in karma,
agitation, and ambition.

14.13

Son of Kuru,
an increase in darkness gives rise
to a lack of illumination,
to inactivity, irresponsiblity, and delusion.

14.14

When goodness is on the increase
as the demise of the body takes place,
the embodied then attains
the worlds of those who know the highest.

14.15a

Going to that demise while in passion,
one takes birth among the associates of karma.

14.15b

With a demise in darkness,
one takes birth in the wombs of foolish beings.

14.16

Purity is the fruit of actions
nicely performed in goodness –
but pain is the fruit of passion,
and ignorance is the fruit of darkness.

14.17

Knowledge arises from goodness,
greed from passion.
Irresponsibility, delusion, and ignorance
are born from darkness.

14.18

Those who dwell in goodness travel upward.
Dwellers in passion are in the middle.
Those stuck in the disgusting guna of darkness
travel downward.

14.19

There’s no agent of activity other than the gunas.
When you can look and see that,
and know what is superior to the gunas,
then you can attain my state of being.

14.20

These three gunas give birth to the body.
The embodied transcends them,
wins immortality,
and is freed from the sufferings
of birth, death, and old age.

14.21

Arjuna:

Lord, what signs characterize those who transcend the three modes? How do they behave? How do they pass beyond the three gunas?

14.22

Shri Bhagavan:

They don’t hate illumination
or activity or delusion
when they arise, Pandava.
And they don’t long for them
when they’re gone.

14.23

They sit unconcerned
and undisturbed by the gunas.
They never waver.
“The gunas are in motion” –
that’s how they see it.

14.24

For the self-assured,
pain and pleasure are the same –
clay, stone, and gold are the same.
They are steady,
equally disposed to friend and foe
and to blame or praise of themselves,

14.25

equal in honor or dishonor,
equal to allies and enemies.
They abandon all business activities.
They transcend the gunas.
So it is said.

14.26

One who serves me
in undeviating bhakti-yoga
passes beyond the gunas
and is considered to have become Brahman.

14.27

I am the foundation
of Brahman the immmortal, Brahman
the changeless, the primordial dharma
of absolute, ultimate joy.

15.1

They say the roots
of the changeless Ashvatta tree
are above, and its branches are below.
Its leaves are the Vedic hymns.
Whoever know this knows the Vedas.

15.2

The branches stretch below and above,
nourished by the gunas.
The twigs are the sense objects.
The roots reach out below too,
bound tight to the karma
of the world of human beings.

15.3a

Its form cannot be perceived here –
not the end, not the beginning, not the foundation.
The roots of this Ashvattha tree
are strong and deep.

15.3b

Chop it up –
with the sturdy weapon of detachment.

15.4

Afterwards,
you must search for the place
you never return from
once you’ve gone there,
saying, “Yes, I surrender
to the original Purusha,
from whom creativity
has surged forth
since the most ancient times.”

15.5

Those who aren’t foolish
reach that changeless place.
They have no pride, no delusion.
They’ve defeated the fault of attachment.
They constantly relate to atman.
They’ve extinguished lust
and are liberated from the dualities
known as pleasure and pain.

15.6

No sun, no moon, no fire
illuminates that place.
When you go there,
you never come back here.
That is my supreme abode.

15.7

The eternal living creatures
in the worlds of life
are particles of me.
They’re grabbing onto
the prakriti-based senses –
the six senses, including the mind.

15.8

Like aromas taken from their home by the wind,
these six are taken by the body’s ishvara
as it leaves one body and goes to another

15.9

to take up hearing, seeing, touching,
tasting, smelling, and thinking,
savoring the objects of the senses.

15.10

What is it that’s leaving, or staying,
or enjoying contact with the gunas?
The fools can’t see it.
The eyes of knowledge can see it.

15.11

The hard-working yogis
steady in atman can see it.
But without developing atman,
the unconscious can’t see it,
no matter how hard they try.

15.12

that splendor centered in the sun –
lighting up the entire world –
that in the moon, and in fire –
understand that splendor is mine

15.13

and I penetrate the earth and its creatures –
sustaining them with my strength –
and I nourish all the vital plants –
becoming the moon, supplying them juice

15.14

I become the universal fire –
located in breathing bodies –
yoking the in and out breaths –
to digest the four kinds of food

15.15

and I reside in everyone’s heart –
memory, knowledge, and their loss come from me –
and in the Vedas, the subject is me –
I created Vedanta – I know what the Veda is

15.16

There are two purushas here.
They are the perishable and the imperishable.
The perishable ones are all the creatures.
The imperishable ones are liberated into the essence.
So it is said.

15.17

But there is another,
The Highest Purusha,
whose name is The Paramatma.
That changeless Ishvara
enters into and sustains
the three worlds.

15.18

Because I transcend the perishable
and I’m even higher than the imperishable,
therefore I am celebrated in the world
and in the Vedas as The Highest Purusha.

15.19

Those who know that
I am The Highest Purusha –
they know everything.
They’re no fools.
They worship me
with all their being
and all their love, Bharata.

15.20

So, Anagha, I have revealed it –
this, the most secret of doctrines.
Whoever realizes it becomes realized, Bharata,
and has done what is to be done.

16.1

Fearlessness, purity of heart,
determination in jnana-yoga,
charity, control, sacrifice,
study of scriptures, austerity,
straightforwardness,

16.2

nondisturbance, truthfulness, absence of anger,
renunciation, peacefulness, freedom from fault-finding,
mercy for all creatures, lack of greed,
gentleness, modesty, steadiness,

16.3

splendor, forgiveness, fortitude,
cleanliness, no envy, no pride –
these qualities come with a divine birth, Bharata.

16.4

Hypocrisy, arrogance, vanity,
anger, harshness, ignorance –
these are the qualities
of an ungodly birth, Partha.

16.5

The divine qualities lead to liberation –
the ungodly, they say, to bondage.
Don’t worry, Pandava.
You were born with divine qualities.

16.6

Two kinds of creatures are created in this world –
the divine and the ungodly.
I’ve spoken at length about the divine.
Listen to what I say about the ungodly.

16.7

Ungodly people don’t know what to do, or what not to do.
There’s no cleanliness, no morality, no truth in them.

16.8

“The world has no truth,” they say,
“no foundation, and no Ishvara.
It arises without cause,
and its only causality is sex.”

16.9

These lost souls with meager realization
clutch their views
and contrive horrible, malignant deeds
meant to destroy the world.

16.10

Insatiable desire is their shelter.
They’re frenzied by pride, conceit, and hypocrisy.
In their delusion they cling to illusory things.
They dedicate themselves to unclean acts.

16.11

Convinced that the enjoyment of desires is supreme,
they’re subjected to immeasureable anxiety
that ends only with their death.

16.12

Bound up by hope’s hundreds of chains,
locked into desire and anger,
they accumulate funds illegally
because they want to savor their desires.

16.13

“This is my profit today.
That I shall gain tomorrow.
Here is my wealth –
it will grow, more and more!

16.14

“I have killed that enemy.
I’ll kill others too!
I am the Ishvara! I am the enjoyer.
I’m perfect, powerful, and happy.

16.15

“Wealthy and well born – that’s me.
Who else is there like me?
I’ll make offerings
and donate to charities
and enjoy life!”
That’s what the ignorant, the deluded say.

16.16

Perplexed by various ideas,
caught in a net of delusions,
obsessively enjoying their desires,
they fall down into the filth of hell.

16.17

Self-aggrandizing, stubborn,
maddened by pride and wealth –
the offerings they make
are offerings in name only,
hypocritical and in violation of the rules.

16.18

Taking their shelter in egotism,
power, pride, desire, and anger,
they envy me and blaspheme me
in themselves and in others.

16.19

They are hateful and cruel –
the lowest of humanity.
As they die and take birth again,
I place them into ungodly wombs,
one after another.

16.20

Caught in ungodly wombs birth after birth,
these fools don’t reach me, Kaunteya –
they are condemned to the lowest destination.

16.21

Hell’s three gates
are desire, anger, and greed.
Reject those three –
they are atman’s destroyers.

16.22

Kaunteya, a person freed
from the three gates of darkness
works for the betterment of atman –
and travels to the supreme goal.

16.23

But in shunning the scriptural law
and living at the whims of desire,
one doesn’t achieve perfection –
or joy, or the supreme goal.

16.24

So let scripture be your guide
in determining right and wrong.
Learn the scriptural injunctions –
do your duty in this world.

17.1

Arjuna:

Krishna, what is the position of those who forsake the scriptural laws but make offerings in full faith – are they in goodness, passion, or darkness?

17.2

Shri Bhagavan:

Whether in goodness, in passion, or in darkness,
the three kinds of faith born in the embodied
are born of their own state of being. Listen.

17.3

According to the form of their existence,
Bharata, everyone creates a faith.
Faith is inherent in purushas –
as their faith is, so they must be.

17.4

People who offer to the devas are in goodness –
to the elementals and the giants, in passion –
to the dead and the ghosts, in darkness.

17.5

(People who perform horrible penances
against the scriptural directions
are yoked to hypocrisy and egotism
and impelled by the forces of desire and attachment.

17.6

In their lack of consciousness,
they torment the creatures within their bodies –
and me too, within their bodies!
Understand how ungodly their intentions are.)

17.7

Foods, offerings, penances, and charity
are of three kinds too,
so they can be pleasing to everyone.
Listen to the differences between them.

17.8

Pleasing to those in goodness
are juicy, oily, sweet, and hearty foods
that promote long life, vitality, strength,
health, happiness, and satisfaction.

17.9

Craved by those in passion
are bitter, sour, salty, very hot,
pungent, dry, and burning foods
that cause pain, grief, and sickness.

17.10

Pleasing to those in darkness
are foods left sitting –
they enjoy tasteless, putrid,
spoiled and unofferable foods,
and others’ leftovers.

17.11

Whoever makes an offering
in accordance with the rules,
thinking only of the duty of the act
with no longing for its fruits –
that person is in goodness.

17.12

Best of the Bharatas, understand –
passionate offerings are made
with their fruits in mind –
pridefully, just for profit.

17.13

They say that offerings in darkness
are made against the rules,
with no distribution of food,
no chanting of mantras,
no payments to the priests,
and without any faith.

17.14

Penances of the body are:
showing reverence to God, guru, and brahmans,
worshiping at the altar, cleanliness,
simplicity, celibacy, and non-disturbance.
So it is said.

17.15

Penances of speech are:
using words that are inoffensive,
truthful, pleasing, and helpful,
and regularly reciting the scriptures.
So it is said.

17.16

Penances of the mind are:
mental serenity, kindness, silence,
self control, and purifying one’s being.
So it is said.

17.17

When people yoked to God in superlative faith
practice these three kinds of penances
with no longing for the fruits,
they are considered to be in goodness.

17.18

Penances are said to be in passion
when they’re wavering, unsteady,
and performed hypocritically
to gain respect, honor, and profit.

17.19

Foolishly conceived penances
that torture one’s self
or cause the destruction of others
are felt to be in darkness.

17.20

Remember this – charity given as a duty,
without wanting anything in return,
and with proper regard
for place, time, and recipient –
that charity is in goodness.

17.21

Remember – that charity given
for the sake of some present gain
or subsequent fruition,
or given reluctantly,
is in passion.

17.22

And charity given
at the wrong place and time
to the wrong recipient,
with no respect or affection,
is considered to be in darkness.

17.23

Remember that the term used to indicate Brahman
has three parts: Om, Tat, Sat.
Since ancient times the brahmins have used them
to sanctify their offerings
and their recitations of the Vedas.

17.24

Om is always pronounced by the Brahmavadis,
in accordance with tradition,
as they begin their performances
of offerings, charity, and penances.

17.25

Tat is pronounced by those who want liberation
as they perform the various acts
of offerings, penances, and charity
for the sake of “That,”
with no concern for the fruits.

17.26

Sat means “it is,” and “it is good,” too.
Partha, the word Sat is pronounced
to indicate praiseworthy deeds.

17.27

Sat is said to indicate steadiness
in offerings, penances, and charity.
Activities with that purposefulness
are termed Sat.

17.28

Faithless
offerings, penances, and charity –
or any other actions –
are called Asat, Partha.
They are not Tat,
in this life or the next.

18.1

Arjuna:

Renunciation as sannyas, Mahabaho – what is it, really? I want to know, Hrishikesh. How does it differ from renunciation as tyaga, Keshini-Shudana?

18.2

Shri Bhagavan:

Scholars consider sannyas
to be the giving up of action
that is impelled by desire.
The renunciation of all the fruits of action
is what the analysts call tyaga.

18.3

Some philosophers proclaim
that karma itself is bad
and should be renounced.
For others, the karma
of offering, penance, and charity
should not be renounced.

18.4

Best of the Bharatas,
listen to my conclusions
on the subject of renunciation.
Tiger of the Purushas,
it is widely declared
that renunciation is of three kinds.

18.5

The karma of offerings, penances, and charity
should not be renounced.
They must be performed.
The philosophers are made pure
by offerings, penances, and charity.

18.6

But even in this karma,
you must renounce attachment
to it and to its fruits.
Do it as a duty, Partha.
That is my conclusion –
my highest opinion.

18.7

It’s not appropriate, though,
to renounce prescribed karma.
That renunciation is deluded
and is declared to be in darkness.

18.8

When painful karma is given up out of fear
that it may be troublesome to the body,
that renunciation is done in passion.
It gains none of the fruits of renunciation.

18.9

Doing what must be done – prescribed karma –
while renouncing attachment and the fruits –
I consider that renunciation to be in goodness, Arjuna.

18.10

Doubts cut away,
neither hating unproductive karma
nor clinging to the productive,
the intelligent renunciate
is absorbed in goodness.

18.11

Yes, for someone still in the body
it isn’t possible to renounce all karma whatsoever.
Those who renounce the fruits of karma –
call them the renunciates.

18.12

Karma’s fruits are of three kinds –
the desireable heavenly kind,
the undesireable hellish kind,
and the mixed kind.
They come at death
to those who aren’t renunciates,
but never to those who are.

18.13

Mahabaho, learn from me
about the five causes that,
according to the Sankhya,
bring success to all karma.

18.14

They are the locus, the agent, the many senses,
the various aspects of the action itself –
and the fifth is The Divine.

18.15

Whatever karma a person may initiate,
whether in thought, word, or deed,
and whether right or wrong,
is caused by these five.

18.16

This being the case,
to see atman as the only agent
is not seeing anything –
it is wrongheaded and lacking in buddhi.

18.17

Those in an egoless state,
with unpolluted buddhi –
even if they kill the whole world,
they’re not killing.
They are not bound.

18.18

Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower
are the three kinds of motivations for karma.
The senses, the action, and the agent
are the three kinds of ingredients of karma.

18.19

Knowledge, karma, and the agent
are of three kinds,
distinguished by the gunas.
Listen to how the gunas work.
Sankhya proclaims this about them.

18.20

Understand –
knowledge in goodness sees
one changeless state of being
in all creatures,
undivided in the divided.

18.21

But knowledge in passion perceives
various separate states of being
distinctly different in all creatures.
Understand this.

18.22

However, it’s in darkness when
without any reason it adheres to one thing
as if that were all things,
and rejects Reality as pointless and finite.
So it is said.

18.23

Karma is said to be in goodness
when it is prescribed, free of attachments,
and is performed without any attraction or repulsion
by one who doesn’t long for its fruits.

18.24

But karma is said to be in passion
when, with great effort,
one egotistically pursues
the satisfaction of desires.

18.25

And karma is said to be in darkness and delusion
when it’s initiated without concern
for the future bondage it may bring
because of the pain and distress it causes people.

18.26

A person liberated from attachment and egotism,
who is both enthusiastic and steadfast,
who’s unchanged by either success or failure,
is said to be an agent in goodness.

18.27

One who lustily pursues karma’s fruits
and is greedy, violent, unclean,
and subjected to elation and sorrow,
is declarad to be an agent in passion.

18.28

Disconnected, materialistic, obstinate, deceitful,
insulting, lazy, depressed, procrastinating –
that person is said to be an agent in darkness.

18.29

Listen, Dhananjaya,
as I tell you about
the varied details
of the three different kinds
of buddhi and steadiness,
according to the gunas.

18.30

Activity and inactivity,
what is to be done and what is not,
fear and fearlessness,
bondage and liberation –
the buddhi that knows about these things
is in goodness, Partha.

18.31

Dharma and adharma,
what is to be done and what is not –
the buddhi that understands these things
incorrectly
is in passion, Partha.

18.32

The buddhi that considers
dharma and adharma and all things
to be their opposite –
is in darkness,
covered by darkness, Partha.

18.33

Partha, steadiness in goodness
is the steadiness that restricts
mind, prana, senses, and actions
by means of uninterrupted yoga.

18.34

But Partha, steadiness in passion
is the steadiness
that grabs onto the fruits
of dharma, desire, and dollars.

18.35

And Partha, steadiness in darkness
is the steadiness of a fool
who doesn’t let go
of sleep, fear, grief,
depression, and intoxication.

18.36a

Also, there are three kinds of happiness.
Hear from me about them now,
Best of the Bharatas.

18.36b

Enjoyment resulting from effort,
that brings an end to misery,

18.37

that starts off like poison
and finishes up like nectar –
that happiness is proclaimed to be in goodness.
It is born from the mercy of realization of atman.

18.38

When the senses connect to the sense objects,
it starts off like nectar and finishes up like poison.
That happiness is considered to be in passion.

18.39

The happiness derived from sleep, laziness, and negligence
is bound up in self-deception from start to finish.
It’s declared to be in darkness.

18.40

There’s no one existing on earth
or even among the devas in the divine regions
who is or ever will be liberated
from the three gunas born of prakriti.

18.41

The activities
of brahmans, kshatriyas, vaishyas, and shudras
spring from their own states of being
and are categorized according to
the gunas.

18.42

The brahmans’ karma,
born from their own state of being,
is tranquil, controlled, austere,
clean, tolerant, straightforward,
learned, realized, and religious.

18.43

The kshatriyas’ karma,
born from their own state of being,
is courageous, zesty, determined,
skillful, and charitable.
They refuse to retreat in battle
and they are lordly in temperament.

18.44a

The vaishyas’ karma,
born from their own state of being,
is to plow, to herd cattle, and to do business.

18.44b

The shudras’ karma
is also born from their own state of being,
and service to others is its soul.

18.45

Follow your own karma! Follow your own karma!
That’s how a person achieves success.
Listen to how you attain perfection
by following your own karma.

18.46

By dedicating their own karma to
the one who’s the source of all creatures
and who pervades everything here,
human beings attain perfection.

18.47

Better to do your own dharma badly
than do another’s dharma well.
Follow your karma, your own being.
That behavior will never pollute you.

18.48

The karma of your birth, Kaunteya –
despite its faults, don’t give it up.
Yes, every endeavour has its faults,
just as fire is clouded with smoke.

18.49

In renunciation, going past karma,
one finds the supreme perfection –
with buddhi detached from everything,
atman subdued, and desires disregarded.

18.50

Learn this from me as I summarize it,
Kaunteya, how when perfection’s found
one then attains Brahman, which is
the supreme level of knowledge.

18.51

Yoked by a purified buddhi,
controlled by a steadfast atman,
shunning sounds and sense objects,
tossing out attraction and hatred,

18.52

living alone and eating little,
regulating thoughts, words, and deeds,
always practising dhyana-yoga,
sheltered by dispassionate detachment,

18.53

peaceful and free from me-and-mine,
from selfishness, power, pride,
desire, anger, and possessiveness –
that’s the standard of becoming Brahman.

18.54

Becoming Brahman, the serene atman
considers all creatures equally,
does not grieve, does not crave,
and gains supreme bhakti to me.

18.55

Of my greatness and my reality,
through bhakti you become aware.
Then once you know my reality,
afterwards you enter there.

18.56

Trusting in my protection,
you will attain, by my grace,
in everything you always do,
the eternal, changeless place.

18.57

Consciously giving up every act
to me, making me your goal,
taking shelter of buddhi-yoga,
always be conscious of me in your soul.

18.58

When you’re conscious of me,
by my mercy you’ll overcome every danger.
But if you’re selfish and don’t listen,
you’ll be finished.

18.59

If, with egotism as your shelter,
you think, “I won’t fight,”
your determination will be misguided,
because prakriti will force you to.

18.60

If in your delusion you decide not to do it,
you will do it anyway in spite of that.
Based on one’s own state of being,
Kaunteya, one is bound to one’s own karma.

18.61

Housed in all creatures in the region of the heart,
Ishvara uses Maya to spin all the creatures around –
as if they’re mounted on a machine, Arjuna.

18.62

You must take refuge in him, Bharata,
with all your being and all your love.
Through his mercy you will attain
supreme peace, standing in eternity.

18.63

The most secret of all secrets –
this is the knowledge I’ve taught you.
Deliberate on it rigorously.
Then do what you will.

18.64

Listen to me again.
I’ll tell you
the most supreme secret of all.
I love you dearly.
So I’m telling you this
for your benefit.

18.65

Think about me.
Be a bhakta for me.
Make offerings to me.
Bow down to me.
It’s true,
you will come to me.
I promise,
for you are dear to me.

18.66

Give up all dharmas.
Make me your only sanctuary.
I’ll free you from all sins.
Don’t be afraid.

18.67

Don’t ever tell this to anyone
who isn’t penitent or devoted,
or who disobeys or envies me.

18.68

There’s no doubt –
whoever discusses this supreme secret
with my bhaktas
is performing supreme bhakti to me
and certainly will come to me.

18.69

That person is the dearest of all people to me.
There’s no one more dear. There never will be.
Nobody in the world is more dear to me!

18.70

And whoever studies
our dialogue on dharma
is worshiping me
by an offering of knowledge.
That’s my opinion.

18.71

And a person who listens to it
faithfully and without fault-finding
surely attains liberation
to the wonderful worlds of the virtuous.

18.72

Partha,
have you heard this
with single-minded attention?
Have your ignorance and delusion
been dispelled, Dhananjaya?

18.73

Arjuna:

By your mercy, Achyuta, my delusion is dispelled. I have regained my memory. My doubts have disappeared. I stand here ready to do what you say.

18.74

Sanjaya:

With my hair standing on end, I have thus heard the marvelous dialogue of the great souls Vasudeva and Partha.

18.75

By the mercy of Vyas I have heard the supreme secret of yoga spoken directly by the Yogeshvara himself – Krishna!

18.76

My King, as I recall and remember this marvelous, virtuous dialogue between Keshava and Arjuna I’m thrilled – again and again!

18.77

And my King, as I recall and remember the marvelous form of Hari, in my great wonder I’m thrilled more and more!

18.78

Wherever Krishna the Yogeshvara is – wherever Partha the Dhananjaya is – there is fortune, victory, glory – there is morality, I do believe!

 
END OF THE SONG OF BHAGAVAN

Jai Shri Guru
 

Publications Consulted

Arnold, Edwin, The Song Celestial, or Bhagavad-Gita, London, 1885 (from www.vt.edu).
Besant, Annie, The Bhagavad Gita or The Lord’s Song, (London, 1895), Adyar, The Theosophical Publishing House, 1953.
Deutsch, Eliot, The Bhagavad Gita, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
Easwaran, Eknath, The Bhagavad Gita, Berkeley, Blue Mountain Center of Meditation (Petaluma, Calif., Nilgiri Press), 1985.
Edgerton, Franklin, The Bhagavad Gita, Cambridge, The Harvard University Press, 1944, 1972.
Feuerstein, Georg, The Bhagavad-Gita : Yoga of Contemplation and Action, Atlantic Highlands N.J., Humanities Press, 1981.
Ghai, O. P., The Bhagavad Gita, New Delhi, Sterling Publishers, 1992.
Gotshalk, Richard, Bhagavad Gita, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1985.
Herman, A. L., The Bhagavad Gita : A Translation and Critical Commentary, Springfield, Ill., Charles C. Thomas, 1973.
Johnson, W. J., The Bhagavad Gita, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994.
Judge, William Quan, Bhagavad-Gita, (1890), Pasadena, Theosophical University Press, 1969.
Leggett, Trevor, Realization of the Supreme Self : The Bhagavad Gita Yogas, Lodon, Kegan Paul, 1995.
Maheshwar, ed., Bhagavad Gita In the Light of Sri Aurobindo, Pondicherry, India, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1978.
Majumdar, Sachindra Kumar, The Bhagavad Gita : A Scripture for the Future, Berkeley, Asian Humanities Press, 1991.
Mascaro, Juan, The Bhagavad Gita, New York, Penguin Books, 1962.
Miller, Barbara Stoller, The Bhagavad-Gita : Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War, New York, Bantam Books, 1986.
Minor, Robert N., Bhagavad-Gita : An Exegetical Commentary, New Delhi, Heritage Publishers, 1982.
Nikhilananda, Swami, The Bhagavad Gita, Ramakrishna Vedanta Center, New York, 1944.
Nitya Chaitanya Yati, The Bhagavad Gita, New Delhi, 1981.
Parrinder, Geoffrey, The Bhagavad Gita : A Verse Translation, New York, E. P. Dutton, 1975.
Prabhavananda, Swami, and Christopher Isherwood, The Song of God : Bhagavad-Gita, Los Angeles, Vedanta Society of Southern California, 1944, New York, New American Library (Penguin Books), 1972.
Prabhupada, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1968, 1972.
Prasad, Ramanand, The Bhagavad Gita, Fremont, Calif., American Gita Society, 1988.
Purohit, Swami, Bhagavad Gita : the Gospel of the Lord Shri Krishna, New York, Vintage Books, 1977.
Radhakrishnan, S., The Bhagavadgita, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1948.
Ramacharaka, Yogi, The Bhagavad Gita, or The Message of the Master, Chicago, The Yogi Publication Society, Rev. Ed., 1911.
Sargeant, Winthrop, The Bhagavad Gita, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1984.
Sinha, Phulgenda, The Gita As It Was : Rediscovering the Original Bhagavadgita, La Salle, Ill., Open Court, 1987.
Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Living Gita : The Complete Bhagavad Gita : a commentary for modern readers, New York, Henry Holt, 1990.
White, David, The Bhagavad Gita, New York, Peter Lang, 1988.
Zaehner, R. C., The Bhagavad-Gita, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1969.
 

Glossary of Sanskrit Terms

Achyuta: Krishna – infallible one
Adharma: irreligion, against duty
Aditya: son of Aditi – her sons were devas
Agni: the god of fire
Airavata: an elephant produced from the ocean during a competition between the devas and the asuras
Akarma: inaction, action that accrues no reaction
Akasha: space, ether – produced from sound and the source of all subsequent material elements
Anagha: Arjuna – sinless one
Ananta: without end, endless, infinite, a serpent who serves as Vishnu’s couch and is also a form of Vishnu
Ananta-Vijay: Yudishthira’s conch
Arisudana: Krishna – subduer of the enemy
Arjuna: Krishna’s friend and one of the five Pandava brothers
Asat: not real, illusion, nonexistence, temporary (n. or adj.)
Ashvatta: fig tree, banyan tree
Ashvatthama: a warrior on the Kurus’ side
Aryama: chief of the ancestors
Ashvins: twin gods of the dawn
Asita: a sage
Asura: an ungodly person – often translated as “demon”
Atman: self, soul, person, mind, body – primarily the word indicates the spiritual self, but in different contexts it can signify other aspects of a person
Bhagavan: opulent one, wealthy one – in this scripture it indicates Krishna – the term is also applied to any wealthy, powerful, or important person
Bhakta: devotee
Bhakti: devotion, love
Bhakti-Yoga: devotion to God, love of God, service of God
Bharata: the king who is considered the ancestor of all the Vedic kings, anyone descended from Bharata, the indigenous name for the nation known as India
Bhima: one of the five Pandava brothers
Bhishma: an elder of the Kuru clan respected as a patriarch by both sides – though he worshiped Krishna as God, he fought against the Pandavas’ army
Bhoga: enjoyment, food, food not yet offered to God
Bhrigu: a sage and deva associated with the planet Venus
Brahma: the deva who populated the universe at its beginning, and who remains the primary god in the cosmic heaven – in Sanskrit, spelled the same as Brahman
Brahma Sutra: see Vedanta Sutra
Brahmachari: celibate, a celibate person
Brahman: spiritual existence, God, the absolute – often the term is meant to indicate a non-personal or abstract conception of God, a spiritual energy that also consitutes the “stuff” of the innumerable souls – sometimes Krishna uses it to mean the cosmos as a whole – it also signifies a member of the priestly, professorial, and juridical class of society
Brihaspati: the guru of the devas
Brihat-Sama: a Vedic hymn
Buddhi: intuitive power of discrimination between spirit and matter, intuitive power of realizing the presence of God – usually translated as “intelligence” or “understanding,” or sometimes as “soul,” the buddhi is that aspect of one’s psychology which gives a person the most dignity
Buddhi-Yoga: linking the buddhi to God – it is the most crucial practice on the path to God-realization
Chekitana: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Chitraratha: a Gandharva
Daitya: son of Diti – her sons were asuras
Deva: God, a god, a demigod, a godly person
Devala: a sage
Devadatta: Arjuna’s conch
Deva-Rishi: a title for Narada – the gods’ sage
Dhana: wealth
Dhananjaya: Arjuna – winner of wealth
Dharma: duty, religion, law
Dhrishtadyumna: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Dhrishtaketu: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Dhritarashtra: a blind king – the father of Duryodhana and his 99 brothers
Dhyana: meditation
Dhyana-Yoga: the practice of meditation
Draupadi: the wife of all five Pandavas – a rare instance of polyandry
Drona: guru of the young Pandavas and Kurus – when the Kurus exiled the Pandavas, Drona remained at the palace and fought to his death on the Kurus’ side
Drupada: a king, the father of Draupadi
Duryodhana: son of Dhritarashtra, principal antagonist of the Pandavas, leader of the Kuru army
Dvandva: a Sanskrit grammatical construction
Gandharva: singer or musician of the gods
Gandiva: Arjuna’s bow
Garuda: the eagle carrier of Vishnu
Gayatri: a prayer usually repeated three times a day
Govinda: Krishna – gives pleasure to the cows
Gudakeshana: Arjuna – hair in a topknot
Guna: strand, rope, mode of material nature – the three modes are sattva, rajas, and tamas
Guru: teacher – one other meaning of the word is “heavy”
Hanuman: the monkey devotee of Rama
Hari: Krishna – the deliverer, the savior
Himalayas: the tallest mountains on Earth – at the northern boundary of the South Asian subcontinent
Hrishikesh: Krishna – lord of the senses
Ikshvaku: son of the current Manu
Indra: the executive chief of the devas, King of the Gods
Ishvara: controller – can apply to God or an embodied soul
Jahnava: the Ganges River
Janaka: a king, the father of Queen Sita
Janardana: Krishna – savior of the people
Jayadratha: a warrior on the Kurus’ side
Jnana: knowledge, understanding
Jnana-Yoga: the disciplined study of scripture for the purpose of knowing God
Kalpa: four billion, three hundred twenty million years – the duration of one day in the lifetime of Brahma, whose span of life stretches from the start to the finish of the universe, in 100 Brahma-years of 360 days and 360 nights each
Kamadhuk: a desire-fulfilling cow
Kamala Patraksha: Krishna – lotus-eyed
Kandarpa: the god of love
Kapila: a sage considered an avatar of Vishnu
Karma: activity, action, work, deeds, action and reaction, the accumulated reactions to past deeds
Karma-Yoga: dedicating one’s activities, or their fruits, to God
Karna: son of Kunti and brother to the Pandavas, Karna was separated from his family at birth – only Kunti knew his true identity – he became a great warrior and a rival to Arjuna
Kashiraj: the king of Kashi – the old city of Kashi is now a district in the city of Benares (Varanasi)
Kaunteya: Arjuna – son of Kunti
Keshava: Krishna – with beautiful hair
Keshini-Sudana: Krishna – the subduer of Keshi
Kiriti: Arjuna – who wears a crown given by Indra
Kripa: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Krishna: black – this is the simplest literal meaning of the name, but grammarians have found many other meanings by combining the syllables in various ways – Krishna is considered to be the source of everything and the center of all reality by his devotees – the Song of Bhagavan establishes him as such
Kshatriya: warrior, administrator, politician – one of the four social classes
Kunti: Krishna’s aunt, the mother of the Pandavas
Kuntibhoja: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Kuru: ancestor of the Kuru dynasty, of whom both the Pandavas and the sons of Dhritarashtra are descendants
Kurunandana: Arjuna – son of Kuru
Kurusattama: Arjuna – the highest of the Kurus
Kusha: a kind of grass
Madhava: Krishna – the husband of the Goddess of Fortune
Madhusudana: Krishna – the subduer of Madhu
Maha-Baho: mighty-armed
Maha-Ratha: a great chariot warrior
Maharishi: great sage
Mahatma: great soul
Makara: a half-goat half-fish sea creature
Manipushpaka: Sahadev’s conch
Mantra: prayer, hymn – a short verse repeated over and over in meditation practice, either silently or vocally
Manu: the law-giver – a cosmic official on the godly level who presides throughout a set duration of time, to be succeeded by the next Manu
Marichi: the god of lightning
Marut: a wind god
Maya: (the first a is long) illusion, material energy, magical power – since Maya is also a name for The Great Goddess, Maya is generally considered feminine
Meru: a huge mountain of gold extending up through the axis of the universe
Muni: sage, learned person
Murti: form – it can indicate “form” in general, or it can mean a statue worshiped on an altar
Naga: serpent, a large cosmic-scale serpent
Nakshatra: often translated as “star,” a nakshatra is a 13-degree 20-minute arc of the zodiac belt – there are 27 nakshatras, each further divided into 4 subparts – the position of the moon in a nakshatra is important in Vedic astrology
Nakula: one of the five Pandava brothers
Narada: one of the principal sages
Nirvana: no material qualities, a place or state of consciousness that has no material qualities
Om: (or Aum) a syllable embodying spiritual energy – yogis often intone it at length and meditate on the sound – it’s also often placed at the beginning of mantras or hymns to indicate God
Panchajanya: Krishna’s conch
Pandava: son of Pandu
Pandit: scholar, learned person
Paramatma: supreme soul, God
Parameshvara: supreme lord, supreme controller
Parantapa: Arjuna – chastiser of enemies
Partha: Arjuna – son of Pritha (Kunti)
Paundram: Bhima’s conch
Pavaka: a fire god
Prabhu: lord, master
Prahlad: a devotee who as a boy endured the torments of his ungodly father
Prana: air, breath, life air, life force, a category of material energy that mediates between body and mind – comparable to the Chinese term “chi” or “ki”
Pranayama: yogic discipline of breath control as a method for fixing the mind on God
Prakriti: nature, material nature, a name of the Great Goddess, an individual person’s nature
Prasadam: mercy, grace, serenity, something offered to God (usually food)
Purujit: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Purusha: person, soul, God, masculine person
Purushottam: Krishna, the highest purusha
Raja: king
Raja-Rishi: wise and saintly king
Rajas: passion – one of the three gunas
Rakshasha: a demon who eats humans, a giant
Rama: the dutiful king and hero of the Ramayana who is a popularly worshiped avatar of Vishnu
Rishi: sage, holy person, saint
Rudra: a manifestation of Shiva
Sadhu: wise person, teacher
Sadhya: a deva
Sahadev: one of the five Pandava brothers
Samadhi: trance of union with God
Samsara: birth-and-death understood as a repeated cycle
Sanjaya: Dhritarashtra’s secretary – he is able to see events taking place at a distance through the extra-sensory perception he learned from Vyas, his guru
Sankhya: analysis of material nature, a philosophical system that rejects the concept of spiritual reality
Sankhya-Yoga: practice of stoicism
Sannyas: renunciation, the last of the four stages of life in traditional Vedic society
Sannyasi: a renounced person
Sat: reality, existence, eternity (noun or adjective)
Sattva: goodness, lucidity – one of the three gunas
Satyaki: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Savyasachin: Arjuna – expert archer
Shaibya: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Shankara: Shiva
Shisya: disciple
Shri: beautiful – a term of respect placed at the beginning of a person’s name, as in Shri Bhagavan – another name for Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu
Shudra: laborer, servant – one of the four social classes
Sikhandi: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Skanda: the general of the devas’ army, the god of war
Soma: the moon, the moon god, a substance that when ingested imbued a person with divinity (the exact identity of the substance and its exact effects have been lost)
Somadatta: father of a warrior on the Kurus’ side
Subhadra: the sister of Krishna and wife of Arjuna
Sughosha: Nakula’s conch
Svadharma: one’s own duty based on personal aptitude
Tamas: darkness, ignorance – one of the three gunas
Tat: that, the spiritual realm, God
Tyaga: renunciation, giving up – sometimes contrasted with sannyas, in which case it refers to the giving up of the fruits of an activity rather than the act itself
Ucchaihshrava: a horse produced out of the ocean during the churning competition between the devas and the asuras
Ushana: a poet-philosopher
Uttamauja: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Vaishya: merchant, farmer – one of the four social classes
Varna: social class, caste
Varshneya: Krishna – in the Vrishni dynasty
Varuna: the sea god
Vasava: another name for Indra
Vasu: a deva
Vasudeva: (the first a is long) Krishna
Vasudeva: (the first a is short) Krishna’s father
Vasuki: king of the snakes
Vayu: the god of wind and air
Vikarma: improper action
Vikarna: a warrior on the Kurus’ side
Vishnu: Krishna in his four-armed form, the Godhead in a form approached with awe and reverence, the manifestation of God associated with sattva-guna and the maintenance of the cosmos (along with Brahma, raja- guna, creation, and Shiva, tama-guna, destruction)
Vivashvan: the sun god
Veda: (or Vedas) knowledge, scriptures – the Vedas are a body of knowledge coming from a distant past when there was one Veda communicated only through speech, then from a more recent past 5,000 years ago when they were first compiled in written form – when considered as separate books, they are divided into many categories – sometimes the term refers only to the Rik, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva Vedas
Vedanta: specifically, the Vedanta-Sutra or Brahma-Sutra, a scripture – or generally, the philosophy derived from the scripture
Virata: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Vishva: a deva
Vittesha: another name for Kuvera, the treasurer of the gods
Vrishni: a member of the dynasty in which Krishna took his birth as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki
Vyas: the compiler of the Vedas – a sage considered to be especially empowered by God for literary service
Yajna: offering, making offerings, sacrifice
Yaksha: a deva
Yama: the god of death, lord of the underworld – Yama is not a demon, but rather one of the principal devas
Yoga: in the simplest sense, yoga means practice or discipline – it can be used as a suffix added to terms to indicate the disciplined practice of something – but since the root of the word is “yuk,” meaning “yoke” or “connect,” it specifically points to a joining with God – it also can signify mystical powers possessed by a person
Yoga-Maya: Krishna’s material power, or illusory power, and the Goddess who embodies it
Yogeshvara: Krishna – lord of yoga, master of mystics
Yogi: one who practices a spiritual discipline
Yudhamanyu: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side
Yudishthir: one of the five Pandava brothers, the rightful heir to the throne – the battle of Kurukshetra is being fought because Duryodhana and the Kurus are denying him his accession
Yuga: age, era, epoch – four yugas make up a yuga-cycle, 1000 cycles make up a kalpa – the four yugas are named Satya, Dvapara, Treta, and Kali, lasting 1,728,000,000 years, 1,296,000 years, 864,000 years, and 432,000 years respectively
Yuyudhana: a warrior on the Pandavas’ side

In the spring of 1969 Srila Prabhupad paid a brief visit to the New York temple at 61 Second Avenue. He stayed at his apartment at number 26. “This is my old home” he said as he entered it, warming our hearts. Here are images from my 8mm film Gurudev of him at the airport, in his apartment, and at the temple.

The New York devotees were making a movie about Lord Chaitanya in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. We wanted Prabhupad to appear in it as the narrator. He kindly agreed to our plan. Here he is in a scene from The Full Nectarine. The title is taken from Prabhupad’s description of Krishna Consciousness as “the full nectarine for which always anxious we are”.