The Story so far:
Arjuna, the representative of Pandavas is arrayed for battle against his cousins Kauravas. Lord Krishna is his charioteer and so his victory is assured. Neverthess Arjuna is plagued by all kind of doubts and even considers a life of Sanyas as better than fighting against his own kinsmen. But Lord Krishna is nudging him on, saying as a ksatriya he needs a kingdom which is realizable only if he fights and wins the battle. The Lord further advances the argument that in any case the souls of his cousins will live on even if they are dead. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, (but strangely) Arjuna had a blood relationship with Him. It also appears that Krishna has a teacher and a grandfather! One is often attached to family life, namely to wife, children and other members, on the basis of “skin disease.” A scholarly brähmana, expert in all subjects of Vedic knowledge, is unfit to become a spiritual master without being a Vaiñëava, or expert in the science of Kåñëa consciousness. But a person born in a family of a lower caste can become a spiritual master if he is a Vaiñëava, or Kåñëa conscious. Enlightened, perfect knowledge of self-realization, or Kåñëa consciousness, would make Arjuna fight.
Further along the way, we pick up some significant (and fanciful) assertions like:
“Religious violence is sometimes a necessary factor”
“The brähmaëas also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial fire”.
“The animal sacrificed gets a human life immediately without undergoing the gradual
evolutionary process from one form to another.”
transcendental loving service of the Lord. Consequently, he becomes qualified to enter into the Vaikuëöha planets, where there is neither material, miserable life, nor the influence of time and death.
“A transcendentally situated person has no sense desires resulting from petty materialism; rather, he remains always happy in his natural position of eternally serving the Supreme Lord”. This can be true only when a transcendentally situated person is no longer a resident of the world.
A fully Kåñëa conscious person is not at all disturbed by the onslaughts of the threefold miseries, for he accepts all miseries as the mercy of the Lord, thinking himself only worthy of more trouble due to his past misdeeds; and he sees that his miseries, by the grace of the Lord, are minimized to the lowest. This is interesting. Because “Grace” is a very Christian word. And now here we see the suggestion that only due to the grace of God we attain Krishna consciousness. Check out the Bible, epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 2:
“8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
One who is fixed in Kåñëa consciousness is not affected by good and evil because he is simply concerned with Kåñëa, who is all good absolute. Such consciousness in Kåñëa situates one in a perfect transcendental position called, technically, Samadhi.
“As long as one is in the material world there is always the possibility of good and evil,
because this world is full of duality.” This is what I said earlier. If a person is not affected by good and evil, he must be dead. Hmmm………….
The restrictions are there for the less intelligent neophytes in the spiritual advancement of life, but such restrictions are only good if one actually has a taste for Kåñëa consciousness. When one is
actually Kåñëa conscious, he automatically loses his taste for pale things.
I do not like the construction: “less intelligent beings”. If that be the case, only intelligent beings have a chance of advancing to the glorious life beyond. This is absolutely contrary to the Word of God found in the Bible: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” (1 Corinthias 1:26)
Why is the Gita going back and forth among multiple godheads? After holding up Krishna as Lord and talking so much about Krishna consciousness, we see a sudden, inexplicable turn to Vishnu.
Interesting that Lord Çiva could be lured into sex! Who is this Parvati anyway – human or goddess? Why do the two children so unlike each other and one of them sporting a trunk? How exactly did Parvati “agitate” the Lord for sensual pleasure?
There seems to be an implication that a Krishna Conscious person is a mindless puppet which can be manipulated. Does he not possess the wisdom to discern between right and wrong?
We are human, aren’t we? If all of the senses are engaged in Kåñëa consciousness, how do we carry on the business of life?
“ A Kåñëa conscious man is not in need of anything because the Lord fulfills all his material necessities”. So, is he already in heaven? Does “material desires” imply sensual types as well?
Ah….this is something new again Kåñëa consciousness though karma-yoga.
Hmmm…….no easy business, this Kåñëa consciousness. If Arjuna himself, described as Lord Krishna’s intimate friend, could not follow the process of Kåñëa consciousness, that pretty much leaves the others hopeless!
The whole process is to understand the real position of the self in relation to the Superself. Ah…. how simple!!
It looks like there are two paths to Kåñëa consciousness, an indirect process being philosophical speculation!
Hmm…….what are the previous three orders (of life)?
But if he carries out all the injunctions for purification in the çästras, what does it avail him if he is not Kåñëa conscious?” (Bhäg. 1.5.17)
Does not the sentence above mirror the verse in the Bible that says: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
There are many pretenders who refuse to work in Kåñëa consciousness but make a show of meditation, while actually dwelling within the mind upon sense enjoyment
Don’t we know of sundry godmen who fall in this category?
The prime svärtha-gati, or goal of self-interest, is to reach Viñëu.
Well stated, but Vishnu again. What is his relative status viz-a-viz Krishna? Are they in competition? Is it that the compiler of this particular version of the Gita does not want to offend either and is trying a bit of balance?
This realization that “one has to maintain one’s body and soul together by some work” seems to be dawning rather late in the day; earlier it was all about Krishna consciousness. Contrast with the Bible Genesis 2: “And the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Dressing and keeping = work! It was never God’s intent to separate Work and Worship according to the Bible.
Oh, what confusing texts and innumerable references. Now we are told that both Krishna and Vishnu are both “Supreme Personality of Godhead”. How is this possible?
“The demigods are empowered administrators of material affairs”. Strange that these “gods” do not have any spiritual oversight.
It is not clear who the chief beneficiary of yajïa is. The tussle between Vishnu and Krishna continues.
“The demigods are authorized supplying agents”. This suggests that there are unauthorized agents as well.
Supreme Personality of Godhead struggle continues.
“For ordinary men, at least five yajïas, known as païca-mahäyajïa, are necessary.” How about extra-ordinary men?
“Lord Caitanya, however, inaugurated the easiest performance of yajïa” And what is his fiefdom? Where does he stand viz-a-viz Vishnu and Krishna?
Are we to understand that saìkértana-yajïa encompasses çravaëam, kértanam, smaraëam, arcanam, etc.?
Govinda, Mukunda, Krishna, Vishnu – a rather confusing mix of god names. Contrast this with the categorical averment in the Bible, in the Book of Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, verses 10 -12 (King James Version:
“…….by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
No confusion folks, there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. No need for multiple or composite Yagnas in an effort to please myriad mythical gods
“the devotees of the Lord, who are in Kåñëa consciousness, offer food to Kåñëa and then eat—a process which nourishes the body spiritually. By such action not only are past sinful reactions in the body vanquished, but the body becomes immunized to all contamination of material nature”
A rather simple and painless way to rid yourself of the effect of sin and immunize yourself: offer and eat. No regret, repentance, renunciation – wow!
“one who does not eat only food offered to Kåñëado so continues to increase the volume of sinful action, and this prepares the next body to resemble hogs and dogs, to suffer the resultant reactions of all sins”
Ah…the next body conundrum again! What is your current body – the original or nth? How can you tell?
“The Lord can be satisfied by sacrifices”
Sin today, sacrifice tomorrow – all is well. Really?
Yes, some folks are under the mistaken impression that we can wipe out the effect of our sin by offering sacrifices to appease God. It appears that Eli and his sons were labouring under this particular misconception. But in his message to Samuel the Lord puts paid to this notion. So don’t get the idea that you can buy pardon by sacrifice. Just as money can’t buy you love, money can’t buy you forgiveness either. God is not in the business of selling forgiveness!
“The four Vedas—namely the Åg-veda, Yajur-veda, Säma-veda and Atharva-veda—are all emanations from the breathing of the great Personality of Godhead”
Where do these four Vedas stand in relation to the Baghvat Gita?
“it is said that the Lord glanced over material nature and thus fathered all living entities”
Rather fanciful…..and let’s face it…scary!!
“Even those who cannot follow the Vedic injunctions may adopt the principles of Kåñëa consciousness, and that will take the place of performance of Vedic yajïas, or karmas”
Oh….concession for the backbenchers!
“for those who want to enjoy this material world, the above-mentioned cycle of performing yajïas is absolutely necessary”
…and you thought you can get away just with Kåñëa consciousness going by the preceding text. You have another think coming.
” The prosperity of the world depends not on our own efforts but on the background arrangement of the Supreme Lord, directly carried out by the demigods”
Sorry communists, the prosperity of the world does not depend on your work. The Supreme God is standing in the background, directing affairs.
“when one masters the performance of yajïas, one is sure to become Kåñëa conscious”
This is going round and round, I know. Please bear with the author.
” One should not, therefore, limit his progress only to the point of moral codes, but should transcend them, to attain Kåñëa consciousness”
This is going round and round; again, vain repetition.
“A person who is fully Kåñëa conscious, and is fully satisfied by his acts in Kåñëa consciousness, no longer has any duty to perform”
Hurray, is this what is known as Nirvana?
“By …… clearing of consciousness, one becomes fully confident of his eternal position in relationship with the Supreme. His duty thus becomes self-illuminated by the grace of the Lord, and therefore he no longer has any obligations to the Vedic injunctions”
Freed from the Vedas as well! Wow!
“He (King Janaka) and his subjects fought to teach people in general that violence is also necessary in a situation where good arguments fail”
Tell this to Mahatma Gandhi
Since Chapter 3 is also very long, I thought it best to present it in portions for (relatively) easy consumption. I hope you can bite, digest and assimilate it. We are in 3c, dealing with Texts 21-25.
Karma-yoga
TEXT 21
People in general always require a leader who can teach the public by practical behavior. A leader cannot teach the public to stop smoking if he himself smokes. Lord Caitanya said that a teacher should behave properly even before he begins teaching. One who teaches in that way is called äcärya,
or the ideal teacher. Therefore, a teacher must follow the principles of çäçtra (scripture) to reach the common man. The teacher cannot manufacture rules against the principles of revealed scriptures. The revealed scriptures, like Manu-saàhitä and similar others, are considered the standard books to be followed by human society. Thus, the leader’s teaching should be based on the principles of the standard rules as they are practiced by the great teachers. The Çrémad-Bhägavatam also affirms that one should follow in the footsteps of great devotees, and that is the way of progress on the path of spiritual realization. The king or the executive head of a state, the father and the school
teacher are all considered to be natural leaders of the innocent people in general. All such natural leaders have a great responsibility to their dependents; therefore they must be conversant with standard books of moral and spiritual codes.
(No comments)
TEXT 22
“The Supreme Lord is the controller of all other controllers, and He is the greatest of all the diverse planetary leaders. Everyone is under His control. All entities are delegated with particular power only by the Supreme Lord; they are not supreme themselves. He is also worshipable by all demigods and is the supreme director of all directors. Therefore, He is transcendental to all kinds of material leaders and controllers and is worshipable by all. There is no one greater than Him, and He is the supreme cause of all causes. “He does not possess bodily form like that of an ordinary living entity ¹.
There is no difference between His body and His soul. He is absolute. All His senses are transcendental. Any one of His senses can perform the action of any other sense. Therefore, no one is greater than Him or equal to Him. His potencies are multifarious, and thus His deeds are automatically performed as a natural sequence.” (Çvetäçvatara Upaniñad 6.7–8) Since everything is in full opulence in the Personality of Godhead and is existing in full truth, there is no duty for the Supreme Personality of Godhead to perform². One who must receive the results of work has some designated duty, but one who has nothing to achieve within the three planetary systems
certainly has no duty. And yet Lord Kåñëa is engaged on the Battlefield of Kurukñetra as the leader of the kñatriyas because the kñatriyas are duty-bound to give protection to the distressed. Although He is above all the regulations of the revealed scriptures, He does not do anything that violates the revealed scriptures³.
¹This accords with the biblical statement found in John 4:24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. But then why do we see depiction of so many bodily forms? And well may we impugn the great spectacle enacted in Ayodhya on 22 January 2024 that was all about consecration of a man-made idol. Also, we can repeat the question: Who is the Supreme Lord since there seem to be contenders for the position as we have seen in the earlier sections.
²While you cannot lay down duties for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the notion of His being idle, is false. According to the Bible John 5:17: But He (Jesus) answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
³ Again, this accords with the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16 says: All scripture is given by inspiration of God (= God-breathed), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
TEXT 23
In order to keep the balance of social tranquility for progress in spiritual life, there are traditional family usages meant for every civilized man. Although such rules and regulations are for the conditioned souls and not Lord Kåñëa, because He descended to establish the principles of religion¹, He followed the prescribed rules². Otherwise, common men would follow in His footsteps because He is the greatest authority. From the Çrémad-Bhägavatam it is understood that Lord Kåñëa was performing all the religious duties at home and out of home, as required of a householder.
¹ This interpretation again is very much as in the Bible. John 6:38 says: For I (Jesus) came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. Also, inEph. 4:9, we read: (Now this, “He ascended” —what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
²Again, this reflects a biblical truth. In Matthew 3:15, Jesus says to John in the context of His baptism, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
TEXT 24
Varëa-saìkara is unwanted population which disturbs the peace of the general society. In order to check this social disturbance, there are prescribed rules and regulations by which the population can automatically become peaceful and organized for spiritual progress in life. When Lord Kåñëa
descends, naturally He deals with such rules and regulations in order to maintain the prestige and necessity of such important performances. The Lord is the father of all living entities, and if the living entities are misguided, indirectly the responsibility goes to the Lord. Therefore, whenever there is general disregard of regulative principles, the Lord Himself descends and corrects the society. We should, however, note carefully that although we have to follow in the footsteps of the Lord, we still have to remember that we cannot imitate Him. Following and imitating are not on the same level. We cannot imitate the Lord by lifting Govardhana Hill, as the Lord did in His childhood. It is impossible for any human being. We have to follow His instructions, but we may not imitate Him at any time. “One should simply follow the instructions of the Lord and His empowered servants.
Their instructions are all good for us, and any intelligent person will perform them as instructed. However, one should guard against trying to imitate their actions. One should not try to drink the ocean of poison in imitation of Lord Çiva.” (Bhäg. 10.33.30) We should always consider the position of the éçvaras, or those who can actually control the movements of the sun and moon, as superior. Without such power, one cannot imitate the éçvaras, who are superpowerful. Lord Çiva drank poison to the extent of swallowing an ocean, but if any common man tries to drink even a fragment of such poison, he will be killed. There are many psuedo-devotees of Lord Çiva who want to indulge in smoking gäïjä (marijuana) and similar intoxicating drugs, forgetting that by so imitating the
acts of Lord Çiva they are calling death very near. Similarly, there are some psuedo-devotees of Lord Kåñëa who prefer to imitate the Lord in His räsa-lélä, or dance of love, forgetting their inability to lift Govardhana Hill. It is best, therefore, that one not try to imitate the powerful, but simply follow their instructions; nor should one try to occupy their posts without qualification.
There are so many “incarnations” of God without the power of the Supreme Godhead.
This text raises several important questions.
What is unwanted population?
When there are prescribed rules and regulations by which the population can automatically become peaceful and organized for spiritual progress in life, where is the question of unwanted population?
The Lord is the father of all living entities. Which Lord are we talking about, since several have been mentioned?
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said in John 4:19. And here we read: we have to follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Reflects Bible.
The éçvaras, who are superpowerful. This is new: who are these characters?
Lord Çiva smoked gäïjä (marijuana) and similar intoxicating drugs. OMG!
Lord Kåñëa indulged in räsa-lélä, or dance of love. Really?
TEXT 25
A person in Kåñëa consciousness and a person not in Kåñëa consciousness are differentiated by different desires. A Kåñëa conscious person does not do anything which is not conducive to development of Kåñëa consciousness. He may even act exactly like the ignorant person, who is too much attached to material activities, but one is engaged in such activities for the satisfaction of
his sense gratification, whereas the other is engaged for the satisfaction of Kåñëa. Therefore, the Kåñëa conscious person is required to show the people how to act and how to engage the results of action for the purpose of Kåñëa consciousness.
(Nothing new here. So much of blah)
Epilogue
Watching me dabble in biblical narratives (https://judahsjottings.com/), it was a senior friend who suggested it might be interesting to have a look at the Baghvat Gita and study how that book deals with the subject of cycle of life and eternity. The idea appealed to me as I always wanted to read the Gita.
But it is not an easy journey. Particularly painful is the new-found knowledge that the Gita comes asymptotically close to the Truth as revealed in the Bible and yet it ties itself with a zillion knots and fails to recognize the innate simplicity of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, preferring to lose itself in an ambiguous concept of Krishna Consciousness.
I am aware my views are open to debate; especially as I have proceeded from the position of nescience about the Hindu philosophy. Indeed, I have sought discussion with experts in the Gita, but they would not engage. So, there it is. If you have something to say, it would be interesting to have a dialogue.
In the meanwhile, we will move on. It is hard work.
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