2003 Gītā-jayantī Day Lecture

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on December 26, 2002 – in Melbourne, Australia. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.12.11.

Situation like this Bhagavad-gītā giving us eternal wisdom. If we apply it properly, it can solve the major problems that we’re facing today in the world. It can also solve our individual problem of how to be spiritually. Fulfilled, happy and realized. This Bhagavad Gita spoken by Lord Krishna is a transcendental vibration which purifies us just by hearing it.

In the Sankaracarya’s Gītā Māhātmya, he glorifies the Bhagavad-gītā by stating that the Ganges is emanating or passing over the toe of Lord Vishnu and therefore by touching the lotus vita of Vishnu that is the town Vishnu Charana Mit. And it is purifying the three worlds. So the Bhagavad Gita is passing from the lotus mouth of the Lord and we can bathe in the vibration of the Bhagavad Gita. If somebody reads Bhagavad Gita every day, it has unlimited good effect. Okay, and begin to imagine in this seventh chapter, Bhagavad Gita, for instance, the glories are mentioned in the Padma Purana where Lord Shiva is revealing to Parvati, chapter by chapter, the glories of the Bhagavad-gītā. So she wanted to know what is the glory of the seventh chapter.

So Lord Śiva mentioned that there was a businessman who was busy making money and he was very successful. He became one of the wealthiest people in the kingdom. So much so even the kings and the royalty would come and visit him. So but he was, he never performed any religious activity. He was living off the good accumulated karma from his previous birth. And he was very wealthy. But he didn’t do a single spiritual or religious activity. He was simply absorbed in how to get more and more money. He didn’t give very much charity either. The bare minimum, he had to give practically nothing. And he hid his money in a hole in the ground somewhere. So this was his. He had four children. He was traveling one day someplace and he got bit by a snake.

The children tried to revive him, but he went into a coma from the snake bite. And he couldn’t tell them where he had hid the money. And he died because of his total attachment to his money and his total lack of any kind of spiritual purpose to his life. He was awarded a very powerful slave snake body which stood guard over the money that he had buried. It was there in a hole in the ground in case anybody tried to take his money, he would bite him and kill them. So he was living like that, protecting his money for a while. But then after a while he got kind of bored with that existence. Being a snake in the ground, guarding your treasure is not like you can say, the best situation to be in.

So then he started lamenting that he could somehow remember his previous life. That I really wasted my life simply accumulating money and being attached to money. And I didn’t think about what the future life would hold. So he appeared in a dream of his father, sons and communicated with them that now because of my sins, my selfishness, I become a snake guarding over the treasure. I have several crores of rupees and gold coins which in those days, if you translate now, that would be a lot of money. Now accrue is only $200,000. But in those days I am sure it was millions of dollars in buying power.

So.

He told the four sons that this is my problem. Please save me from this hellish existence. So when the sons woke up, they all discussed with each other, what is the day?

And.

And they all said, I had a dream. And they all found the el in the same dream that their father had become a snake. Because he didn’t spend any of his money on any kind of religious or spiritual, any useful purpose. And he died in that kind of miserly consciousness.

So.

The one of the sons just totally cracked up and said, my father is saying it’s horrible, just, you know, nothing practical. It’s total emotion and frustrates depression. Another, another son, he thought, how can.

I get the money?

How can I get the money? And one son, he thought, how can I help my father? The father stuck as a snake. I wish to try to do something to help him. And the fourth son, he was really clever and he said one thing, but he was thinking something else. Yes, yes, we should help our father. We should do something. So let’s meet tomorrow and figure out what we can do. Meanwhile, he went back and told his wife. I think I know where you buried the money. Let’s go before anybody else figures it out and get the money and get out of here.

So.

That night they went with the hoe and the shovel and everything and. And the moonlight, basically started to dig where he just saw once his father kind of go on and on this day. So he was pretty sure this was the place. Soon as he dug, the snake came.

What do you want?

Who are you? What are you doing here? Father, I come here to help you. I said, you saved me from this hellish burn.

You have not done anything to save me.

You are Taking the same wrong path I took. You are simply greedy for the money. You want to become a snake like me. No, no, father. All I want to do is help you. I am just looking for you. Please don’t bite me. Tell me, what can we do to save so while I committed so many sins that normally nothing can save me, I think. But on my death anniversary you organize a srat ceremony. And in that ceremony you find a brahmana, a devotee who’s habituated to chant the seventh chapter Bhagavad Gita. Have him chant the seventh chapter Bhagavad Gita and offer all the results to me. Then I will be freed from this hellish condition. So on his death anniversary they arranged a strife ceremony. You know what strive ceremony is?

This is a ceremony where the descendants of someone offer a worship to Krishna and. And they offer some prasadam to Kṛṣṇa or Vishnu. And that prasadam is offered to the forefather. In fact, I was thinking that in our Vedic tradition we have a monopoly on this one particular service we can perform for the public. No other religion I know of has this ability to send welfare packages to deceased forefathers. Say that a forefather, a mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, great grandmother, whoever it is, can do for anybody. They’re in some hellish condition somewhere. They’re in, you know, in a very difficult situation. They’re in their present birth. And you perform this rat ceremony and offer them a worship to Kṛṣṇa, offer them some prasadam. Then that benefit, all that good karma and spiritual benefits to kriti goes into their bank account, their spiritual accounts.

And immediately their whole situation changes for the better. The penny, how much you send and what you send, all that. But it’s like building a temple and dedicating it for the benefit of your forefathers or somebody. Big service or all these things. They are a practical way to help the forefathers. So the children, they organize this rat ceremony and they brought a devotee who was chanting the seventh chapter Bhagavan Gita. And then when he finished, they offered the results of his chanting for the benefit of their departed father’s soul. The soul of the departed father.

So.

As soon as they did that, the father was liberated from his snake birth and he got a spiritual body. So he appeared before them and he said, thank you very much. He said, listen, I want you all. You take the money. He divided it up and he told them, show them where it is. You divide it up equally amongst you. Don’t misuse it, use it for spiritual purposes, apart from your maintenance. Use it for spiritual purpose. Use it for charitable spiritual purposes. In this way you won’t end up like I did and you can go back to Godhead. In front of them. Vishnu duttas, who are messengers of the Lord Vishnu from the spiritual world, they came and took him in a spiritual airplane and took him back to Godhead. So when all the children saw that, guess what they did?

They started chanting the seventh chapter of Agwa Gita. And they also used their income that they got the inheritance that they received very carefully. It was a real eye opener, the whole situation. So this seventh chapter, Bhagavad Gita destroys sins, takes us back to Godhead if we chant, has a very powerful effect. The sixth chapter gives devotion for Krishna. The eighth chapter, that’s an interesting glory. What about the eighth chapter? What’s the glories of that? Lord Shiva explained that there were two children born in different families, devotee families of devotees worshiping Kṛṣṇa. And in their childhood they both learned Bhagavad Gita, they learned the scriptures. But when they grew up and they got married, they decided, well, let’s see the world and enjoy life a little bit.

And they got entangled in material enjoyment and were traveling around the world trying to be happy materially. And they neglected their spiritual practices for some time. So in the course of their journey, they were one day, on a very hot day, they were alongside this highway. I don’t know if it’s like the highway Interstate 5. Those days there was no cars, just bulag carts and horses and people walking. So they sat under a very big tamarind tree and resting in the shade. They didn’t know that this tamarind tree, it was used by the local government, the king, as a hangman’s tree. When someone was given capital punishment, they were taken to that tree and they were hungry by the neck until they died. So the tree actually had accumulated many subtle entities. If somebody died, we have a gross body and a subtle body.

If we die untimely, if we die by suicide, sometimes we die by execution or some really unusual form of death. Then sometimes we don’t immediately take another birth and we stay in that subtle body. So that’s called usually a ghost in common language, buta in Sanskrit. So this tree was loaded with these subtle entities because it was used for a long time for many people. And so they were all kind of just waiting for sunset to come around. And they’re all sitting just hanging around, this couple who are casually talking and Feeling a little bit strange. And the voice, you know, I feel really weird. I feel really strange. I feel very bored also. I mean, we’re traveling all over the world, going so many places and I mean, what does it all mean? It’s all so boring. It’s all the same things.

It’s just sometimes I just wonder, I mean, what does it all mean? What is life all about? What are we here for? What is the absolute truth? Who are we? What is the self? What is this karma and all these activities? Who is the supreme? Sometimes it’s these questions this wonder. What are the answers to these things? And the wife said, you know, when I was a child in a Gurukul school, I learned a verse from the Bhagavad Gita 8th chapter that Arjuna asked exactly the same thing you said. He said, King Dut Brahma, King Adhyatman, King Karma, Purushottama Pao. The whole tree just like burst and collapsed. All these ghosts were just like, you know, wearing a palsan and waiting for the, you know, the prison proper moment. They all got exposed to averse to Bhagavad Gita.

They were all at one time liberated. In front of them the tree. That was too much for the tree. All these soul, you know, ghostly and liberated tree fell down. And all the ghosts assumed spiritual forms. And right in front of the couple they saw and again the Vishnu Dutta has come to. This time the so many souls had a big spiritual airplane with a lot of domes and everything, picked up the whole lot and took him back to Godhead. And then the husband looked at his wife. What did you just chant? King Tab Brahma. Did you see what you just did? You just liberated. I don’t know this tree, what this place is, but you just liberated so many people, so many souls. This is a very powerful mantra you just shared. Just a verse from Bhagavad Gita. No, look at.

I saw, I just saw thousands of people, thousands of ghosts get liberated so that the husband became very faithful, very inspired that this version of Bhagavad Gita, this can liberate somebody. I just saw it. It can happen. So he started to chant every day like a japa, like a regular meditation.

King Tut Brahma, King at Gatman, King Karma Purushottama. King Tut Brahma. King Tut Brahma. King Tut Brahma, King of Gatma, King Karma.

The word king means like what or who? What who? It’s an inquiry. King Taj Brahma. What is the absolute truth? King Adhyatman what is the Atma or the soul? King Karma what is ruative activity? And King Gurusada Manant who is the supreme person. So this he was chanting King Tatt.

Brahma, King Adyatman, King Karma, King Tat Brahma, King Adyatma, King Karma Purushottama King Ta Brahma, King of Dhatma, King Karma.

Every day there’s one day by day, every day, months and months he’s just waiting and one day it’s going to work.

King God Brahma, King Adgma, King Karma.

So this is going on. This is really daily Sadhana, daily practice and so one day Vishnu in the spiritual world Narayana he was like chuckling and Lakshmi said oh today you’re laughing, you’re like what’s making you smile so much today? He said well there’s a brahmana in planet Earth. He’s chanting a half a verse of Bhagavad Gita every day. So I am wondering what to give him as a blessing. Then in the spiritual world the aide de camp, the general of the forces is Bishvakshema. So he called Vishakshema.

Bring him up.

So they sent down a spiritual airplane and they brought up he and his wife to the spiritual world and he got liberated from this material bondage as he wanted. So Bhagavad Gita so even a half a verse if you were chanted regularly about to speak of a whole chapter can also bring you all of a deliverance. So we hope that everyone regularly reads Bhagavad Gita bathes in the nectar of Bhagavad Gita Actually Lord Chaitanya he didn’t.

Write.

Literatures he wrote, he didn’t write. He wrote eight verses like Shiksha’s table. He didn’t write books because he said that already the books are there. Read the Bhagavad Gita is taught by Krishna his teachings and read the Srimad Bhagavatam which is spoken about Krishna. So he said Bolo Krishna Bhajra Krishna Kuro Krishna Shikha chan Hare Krishna worship Kṛṣṇa and study his teachings. So his teachings these are the two Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. So this month of December remembering the Gita Jayanti the appearance of the Bhagavad Gita was spoken in a very critical situation between two armies faced to fight and the battle a world Freudunsei the original world war.

And it was defining so many of the mysteries of life and so many of the very crucial essential questions about who we are, what are the laws of nature, what is the purpose of our existence in a very concise way. I mean, it was. There wasn’t too much time to mix. It was just very concise, very clear, very to the point that in a matter of maybe an hour or two the whole thing was completed and all the doubts of Arjuna were totally eradicated. And as a result we got this blessing of having the Bhagavad Gita. I remember that in 1968, when I wanted to get initiated, Prabhupada said that before I  will give initiation, you have to read the Bhagavad Gita 10 times. And I still have that Bhagavad Gita with 1, 2, 3, 4, the cross line 1, 2, 3.

But I think that many times I have people that come to me, ask for Nishi. I say, well, have you read a Bhaga? Two times. Three times. And sometimes they don’t read. Well, I am about to finish the first time or halfway through. I find many times people that don’t really apply themselves to reading Bhagavad Gita. It’s our basic text and it’s very important. Sometimes you find devotees get attracted to reading maybe books they think are more esoteric or more advanced or something. But I was quite impressed or whatever to see that Mayankur Prabhupada was also reading the Bhairavagita. He was also studying the Bhagavad. Obviously he must have studied a thousand times. I don’t know how many millions, so many times. But he was also referring to the Bhagavad Gita and studying it.

The Bhagavad Gita is something that we need to really dive into and understand and regularly refer to have a very clear understanding of the concepts of the Bhagavad Gita. If we do, then most of the questions  will all be answered. I hope everybody has a copy of the Bahweed. If you don’t, well, this is a good day to get one this weekend when it was spoken. And I don’t know if there’s any special offer for the temple, but it’s a good way to get the Bhagavad Gita. I am sure it’s always very minimal donation. Prabhu, I think you know the Babi by heart, isn’t it? I heard few chapters. Few chapters. Okay. So india it’s quite common. Young children, they know the Bhagavad Gita.

Many chapters I have had parents come and say my seven year old child wants to recite to you the fourth chapter, Bhai, the twelfth chapter. And they very eloquently repeat the chapter. So Bhagavad Gita is something young and old. When the children, they can have a tremendous memory, like sponges, they can memorize everything. It’s a good time for them to memorize chapters of the Bhagavad Gita which they can chant and then when they’re older and they can understand concepts and they can study what actually the verses mean. But even the verses alone have got this tremendous purifying effect because they were spoken directly from the mouth of God. I mean it’s like almost inconceivable. We hardly have anything directly coming from God in this world. But here the Bhagavad Gita is a Bhagavad.

Bhagavad Gita means the song of God spoken directly by the supreme personality. Probably if somebody had written it in hieroglyphics or something in some cave somewhere, it would be a big discovery. But somehow it has been very carefully kept and handed down india and now it’s available all over the world. So so many people don’t take it so seriously. But it’s actually a real heritage of the world. And Prabhupada said we shouldn’t take it. This is like a sectarian book, okay? This is a scripture of one religion. But actually when Bhagavad Gita was spoken there was only one religion in the world. There wasn’t Islam or Christianity, there was a Vedic culture predates the other religions. Krishna was not speaking also just for one particular culture. He was speaking for everyone, universal truths.

So Prabhupada was stressing that actually people from all over the world, they should study the Bhagavad Gita from that point of view that this is a science of life, science of the self and every culture educated person in the world would be very well situated if they could at least read the Bhagavad Gita. For reference, we have many great thinkers like Einstein, he read the Bhagavad Gita and he appreciated very much. You have some ancient original American erudite scholars like Thoreau who appreciated his writings, the Bhagavad Gita and something very deep and grand. I think there are quotes, some of them are in the back. It says here in the morning I bathed my intellect. I don’t have my glasses in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.

He was modern. Now I think Thoreau is pretty ancient. Ralph Waldo Emerson. I owe a magnificent day to the Bhagavad Gita. It was the first of books. It was as if an empire spoke to us. Nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us. Srila Prabhupada. He labored very hard to bring us the Bhagavad Gita, to translate it into English. And now our Bhagavad Gita is translated. I don’t know how many languages in the world. 180. And our goal is of course to have it available in every language of the world. In Mayapur, we have a club. Everybody who gets a Bhagavad Gita, they automatically give a free membership to the Bhagavad Gita Club.

And every year they’re invited to come in one particular day weekend for Bhagavad Gita seminars. And about 4 or 500, sometimes 600 Bhagavad Gita students come. I mean, they’re of various age, women, middle aged, some retired, some young. And it’s quite a successful program organized by Bhakti Purushottam Swami. He also has a Bhagavatam club for those who buy sets of Bhagavatam like this. So Bhagavad Gita is very important for all of us. And I hope that all of you are regularly studying it. I think I have to end around here. If there’s any questions, I will be happy to answer them. I will be here and individually also to answer questions. Answer. Any questions. Yes sir.

I just want to suggest that you also explain about Lord Shiva’s instruction, Parvati, that this is the only one book one must read.

And.

Also one Gita is only one book that you have to read. One book in this lifetime. This is the book to read. Okay?

You did it for me. There’s only one book. And if you had a choice, okay, one book you have to read. This is the one. Read the Bible. Haribo Baga ki laki.

Just one second, Prabhu. Hare Krishna. Before you all move, one second.

Hare Krishna.

People in the back.

Hare Krishna.

Jayanta Tavka Maharsha  will also class tomorrow. Maharaj  will be giving class tomorrow, eight.

O’ clock in the morning.

So that’s something to look forward to. Also, we’d like Maharaj to come visit us again. We have heard the story for two chapters,.

But we know that there’s 18 chapters,.

So we give Maharaj a big applause. So we have aarti, Prashila, prabhupada, then prashadam. Yeah. No dharma sages saying we should serve prashad. So we will just serve the prashadam. No one  will argue. And if they do, it’s too late. See, there’s an army of women and children upstairs that are ready to take prashad. They’re all locked up in the room up there, so they don’t think no one’s here, so they bust out.

Out.

Are you comfortable?

To remind everyone, please make sure you have a ticket. Unfortunately, and we need about 10 adult servers.