19970916 Bhagavad-gītā 17.28

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on September 16th 1997 in Bangalore, India. The class begins with a reading from the Bhagavad-Gītā, 17th Chapter verse 28.

aśraddhayā hutaṁ dattaṁ
tapas taptaṁ kṛtaṁ ca yat
asad ity ucyate pārtha
na ca tat pretya no iha

Translation: Anything done as sacrifice, charity or penance without faith in the Supreme, O son of Pṛthā, is impermanent. It is called asat and is useless both in this life and the next.

Purport: Anything done without the transcendental objective – whether it be sacrifice, charity or penance – is useless. Therefore in this verse it is declared that such activities are abominable. Everything should be done for the Supreme in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Without such faith, and without the proper guidance, there can never be any fruit. In all the Vedic scriptures, faith in the Supreme is advised. In the pursuit of all Vedic instructions, the ultimate goal is the understanding of Kṛṣṇa. No one can obtain success without following this principle. Therefore, the best course is to work from the very beginning in Kṛṣṇa consciousness under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master. That is the way to make everything successful.

In the conditional state, people are attracted to worshiping devatas, ghosts, or yakṣas like Kuvera. The mode of goodness is better than the modes of passion and ignorance, but one who takes directly to Kṛṣṇa consciousness is transcendental to all three modes of material nature. Although there is a process of gradual elevation, if one, by the association of pure devotees, takes directly to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is the best way. And that is recommended in this chapter. To achieve success in this way, one must first find the proper spiritual master and receive training under his direction. Then one can achieve faith in the Supreme. When that faith matures, in course of time, it is called love of God. This love is the ultimate goal of the living entities. One should therefore take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness directly. This is the message of this Seventeenth Chapter.

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Seventeenth Chapter of the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā in the matter of the Divisions of Faith.

Jayapatāka Swāmi: So in the previous verse it explains that all work should be performed to please the supreme person and the absolute truth is the objective of devotional sacrifice. That can be achieved by saying oṁ tat sat, and offering the works for the pleasure of the Lord. When you are going to cook for the Lord deities you can say oṁ tat sat. When you are going to give charity in the name of the Lord say oṁ tat sat. That is meant for the supreme. There are many kind of penances people do. Some people are fighting wars and they are suicide squad. Isn’t it?  This is supreme sacrifice. But this is actually not useful spiritually. You can blow the body up but again you have to take rebirth. Some people fast for getting pay raise. This will not bring them back to Godhead. It may or may not get them a raise in the pay (audience laughter).

So the point here is what we give away in charity, what we do as a sacrifice, what we do as penance everything should be not be done for some temporary reason, it should be done for the pleasure of the Supreme. If the Supreme Lord is pleased, everything is a success. If he is not pleased then it is a failure. The demon Tripurāsura had got a very special airplane and he flew from another planet and he attacked this planet. In the Vedas there is a lot of discussion about Star Wars between different planets. In the Bhāgavatam, it mentions that previously there were interstellar wars going on and a spaceman Budha appeared who was in outer space and he was able to convince all the these warring planets to stop fighting and meditate. You see, thousands and thousands of years ago it’s talking about all these things. There were no airplanes of modern type in those days. No Boeing or Airbus or anything. How would the people know all about these things? These actually were happening.

So this Tripurāsura he got some special blessing from Śiva and he was attacking this planet. I don’t know how he got his power actually. But actually they requested Śiva to stalk him. So Śiva went and he shot his arrows and he killed the people and Tripurāsura’s ship. The ship landed, but the Māyādānava, he had a special well which had amṛta in it and simply by taking the amṛta and putting on him, they came back to life. So next day they again came back to fight. Śiva said “I killed them yesterday again how they are coming back to life!” (audience laughter). Very perplexing. So, he became a little discouraged. “Everytime I have to kill again and again and they are coming back it’s no use”. He approached Lord Viṣṇu for a solution. So Viṣṇu said, “Don’t worry I will help you”. So then Lord Viṣṇu, he took the form of a cow and Lord Brahmā took the form of a calf, and they walked in the camp of the asuras. So no one was bothering, you know, some cow wandering around. And the cow went over to the well which had the nectar in it and started to drink the nectar. (making lapping sound) (audience laughter). Finished all the nectar off! (audience laughter).

As suddenly the report came ‘a cow is drinking all the nectar’, Māyādānava ran and he saw the nectar is gone. And then he realised this is no ordinary cow: only Viṣṇu can do this! Then he told Tripurāsura that upto now we had a chance because Viṣṇu was saying...not getting involved. Once the Supreme Lord makes his decision: who will win, who will be victorious. Then there is no more question about...So the Māyādānava, he could understand ultimately, even though he is an asura, he knew that this is ultimately...Viṣṇu is supreme, whatever he says happens. So then Lord Śiva, the next time they went up, they (asuras) were finished. And Lord Śiva came to be known as Tripurāri - “liberator of Tripurāsur”.

So unless the Lord is pleased, there is no hope. So, the whole point of our sacrifice, penance, should be to see that the Lord is pleased. We waste a valuable human life doing so many things which are not useful. One day Prabhupāda, His Divine Grace Śrīla Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda was walking in Los Angeles of United states of America. Taking morning walk. He went by the golf course. He saw these people hitting the ball, walking and he said “What is this?”  Someone says: “golf”. He said: “What is golf?” Maybe he knew, but he was just asking to see what they would say. But it is very hard to explain, you know this. “A few hundred meters and then there is a little hole in the grass (audience laughter), with a flag, and then there is a ball and you hit the ball with a stick, and how many times you hit the ball is counted until you get it in the hole”. And  Prabhupāda says “They will (do) anything, then any nonsense to waste a valuable human life. Is this what a human life is meant for? Hitting a ball?”(audience laughter). You want to get ahead in the corporate world, this is what they tell you.

So here in Bangalore we should shoot for a higher objective. A transcendental objective. When people get married, Vivāha yajña.  This also meant...should be meant...to please the Supreme. People give in charity. Nowadays, people say “oh! we have  enough temples no need of giving money for temple”. Actually, preaching temples are very far and few between. Apart from that there are so many things like giving out prasādam to the hungry people, to the pilgrims, to the devotees. Putting books in the libraries, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, many types of activities are there. If people don’t like to give for temple they can give (for) these other things. But of course, giving for temple is also very good because this temple is meant for preaching. If we do things without any higher purpose, it’s a waste. You see, there was once this great Emperor Bahudgna(?) something like that...i forget, Bahu..?, and his son inherited the throne after him, and this son, who was the new emperor he became very, the son (break)...had a servant who was very foolish. Somehow this servant and a bunch of the young people working in the King’s court, the princes and nobles, not princes, the nobles and generals, they got into a wager with one wicked man, who had...was cheating them. He had a very powerful elephant that he said can defeat anyone. So everybody was giving some money to defeat the elephant. So this servant of the Emperor, some, not a minister, but some highly placed influential person in the government - he came forward and started shouting at this elephant. So the wicked man, he just drove the elephant on this foolish servant of the emperor. And the elephant stomped on him, broke his head, broke his bones, killed him. Even after he was already dead just to make further sure, the elephant took the arms and legs and ripped them off and threw in different directions. Was that servant very smart to go with the elephant?  Or when the servant….whatever is our consciousness when we die that’s what we get in the next life! So guess what this servant became in the next life. Anyone knows? Elephant!! Yes. He was very elephant conscious when he died (laughter). He had no higher purpose and all he was thinking about when he left his body was the elephant that was ripping him apart. So next life he became an elephant and he was there in a nice temple in Simaladesh. Then, in that temple there were others reading the 17th chapter Gita that we read tonight. But the king of that Simaladweep, donated this elephant to the son of the King Bahu...forget his name, bahu something. The same place where he was in his previous life. When he got there, although he was an elephant, he could remember ‘Before I was in the King’s court I was an influential politician, I had all this power - and now I am in this elephant body’. He was not so happy about it. He thought what a waste of time all the politics, getting all the influence and now look at me. What is the meaning of it all. So he was a prize elephant, actually he was…. see what happened actually.. he was given away to someone who finished….the king was writing a poem, couldn’t finish the poem - so when he finished it...or one poet finished it. Then the king said “I give you a donation of elephant” and he gave this elephant to the poet. And the poet he was finding lot of trouble feeding  elephant (laughter). So the poet took the elephant to India and then the poet found that this (another) king was willing to buy his elephant. So he got a 100 gold coins. So he was sent to  Simaladweep, to the place where he was a child and in his previous birth he was a noble, and then in that place...that king sold him off to the...gave him to the poet. And the poet sold him for 100 gold coins to the King of Malava. I don’t know where Malavadesh is….Malava maybe Malaya. See, he was getting around, he was a travelling elephant. He got very sick. After sometime, very sick. He could remember his birth, and he was realising, he was so very frustrated. He got very sick; the owner (the new emperor of Malaya) came and said “I paid hundred gold coins my prized elephant. What are you doing, Mahouts?” “We don’t know. He is not recovering.” So, the elephant then spoke to the King: “Bring a paṇḍit who can read the 17th chapter  Bhagavad-gītā and I will be alright” (laughter). You know, normally elephants (don’t) talk so the king was quite surprised to hear these words. So he found one paṇḍit who knew the 17th chapter Bhagavad-gītā and had him read it. After reading of 17th chapter for sometime, suddenly he realised the mercy of the Lord, and he was liberated from the body of the elephant; and he got back his spiritual body which was carried by the messengers of Viṣṇu back to the spiritual world. This was seen by the king. The king came to see what’s happening and he saw this whole thing happen: He saw the ātmā go from the elephant in a nice human-like form go up. As the life is going, he says what’s happening you know? He said, “17th chapter Bhagavad-gītā freed me from all my karma: I am going back to Godhead”.

Then the king became very confident that this is very good. So he started to chant the 17th chapter also. And he went back to Godhead. So, if we do things for the pleasure of the the Lord, the 17th chapter -The Divisions Of Faith - tells us how we need to find (ways) to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa. To find a bonafide spiritual master and serve the Lord for His pleasure. The difference between dharma and bhakti. 

Dharma, there are so many kinds of dharma, religion. But that dharma, which is meant only for the pleasure of the Lord, that is special. So, whatever we do we, should take a spiritual objective. How do we know it is spiritual? that is why we need to find a bonafide guru. And guru will guide us. So, guru shows through his representative what is the transcendental. So, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he asked all his followers to chant, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, to read these 2 literatures, to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, and to worship Lord Kṛṣṇa. Bolo Kṛṣṇa! Bhaja Kṛṣṇa! Karo Kṛṣṇa! śikha. Otherwise, and in this way one can quickly advance in their Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

acchedyo ’yam adāhyo ’yam
akledyo ’śoṣya eva ca
nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur
acalo ’yaṁ sanātanaḥ
(Bg. 2.24)

This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.

The point here is that the soul doesn’t change sthāṇur sanātanaḥ . That in the same chapter it is mentioned that there is transmigration of the soul from one body to the next. That’s the part of the spiritual advancement that to understand how the soul does not go through any other changes actually even when the soul goes through  transmigration it is actually not visible to us.

Soul is on a higher plane. Soul is on the spiritual plane which is beyond the material time, place, circumstance. But it appears like the soul is moving but actually the soul is immovable. There is a very subtle difference. Actually nobody can make the soul move. If the soul wants to leave the body nobody can stop it and if the soul wants to stay nobody can keep it there. Isn’t it?

On choosing guru: How do you know? You use the meter. The Guru Meter. The Guru Tester. You know what the guru tester machine is? Sāstra and sādhus. Sādhu, sāstra, Guru - these 3 things check each other to tell who is the Guru? ...you find out from śāstra. We find out from the lives of great saints and devotees.

Then it’s working together. So you find out who is a bonafide guru by the sādhu, sāstra and Guru. Guru is also telling us what are the qualifications of guru. And scripture is telling us. So then, we have to apply our intelligence. Not based on our whim. But based on what our scripture tells us. Śāstra. Is the Guru following his ācārya? Is the guru chanting? Is the guru a devotee of Kṛṣṇa? Is the guru’s preaching able to take away the doubts? There are so many different things one can look for. Mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Qualities are also mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So, that’s how we can tell in the initial stage.Then there is a trial period before initiation when you have accepted a guru; then you serve - and in the trial period you can see whether you are advancing nicely or not.

On Kali-yuga: Kali. Kali is constantly getting ideas in our brain. Now if we are Kṛṣṇa conscious we reject those ideas. If we are not Kṛṣṇa Conscious when the idea comes in our mind we might get bewildered and you think this is a good idea. That’s why we need to know what the scripture says what guru says. When Kali says something totally wrong, then we reject it. We have to reject that.

Someone has….now Parīkśit Mahārāja, he was cursed by a brāhmaṇa boy because of his mistake. So these things happen. So, Kali’s influence...the offence that Parīkśit Mahārāja should have been given the death penalty. So Kali is always giving a false propaganda and creating  dissension and quarrel so we have to take the other mood of avoiding such dividing things. Ok.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!