"Who Is Krishna?"

1974/06/16 Germany, Bhagavad-gita 2.1



Prabhupada: (prema-dhvani)

Satsvarupa: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. (devotees repeating). Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

sanjaya uvaca
tam tatha krpayavistam
asru-purnakuleksanam
visidantam idam vakyam
uvaca madhusudanah
[Bg. 2.1]

Prabhupada: Next. Next. Next verse.

Satsvarupa: Sri-bhagavan uvaca. (devotees repeating)

kutas tva kasmalam idam
visame samupasthitam
anarya-justam asvargyam
akirti-karam arjuna
[Bg. 2.2]

Prabhupada: Next verse also.

Satsvarupa:

klaibyam ma sma gamah partha
naitat tvayy upapadyate
ksudram hrdaya-daurbalyam
tyaktvottistha parantapa
[Bg. 2.3]
(repeats)

Prabhupada: Next verse.

Satsvarupa:

arjuna uvaca
katham bhismam aham sankhye
dronam ca madhusudana
isubhih pratiyotsyami
pujarhav arisudana
[Bg. 2.4]
(repeats)

Prabhupada: Next verse also.

Satsvarupa:

gurun ahatva hi mahanubhavan
sreyo bhoktum bhaiksyam apiha loke
hatvartha-kamams tu gurun ihaiva
bhunjiya bhogan rudhira-pradigdhan
[Bg. 2.5]

Prabhupada: Synonyms? No. Everyone goes to bring that flask, and everyone is lost.

Satsvarupa: Here it is.

Prabhupada: (to translator who translates throughout:) In German language you can just translate this sloka he has ut...

So this was a discussion between Arjuna and Krsna in the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. So the subject of discussion was that although the battle was declared, Arjuna, when he actually found that "On the other side there are my relatives," how he could slay them? Krsna advised that "Everyone must execute his prescribed duty without consideration of any personal loss or gain." According to Vedic civilization, there are four divisions of the society. Everywhere the same divisions are there all over the world. This is very natural. Just like we can study from our own body, there is head, there is arm, there is belly, and there is leg, similarly, in the society there must be a class of men who should be considered as brain, another class of men should be there who will protect the society from danger, another class of men will be expert in producing food grains and give protection to the cows and make trade, so. And the rest class of men, namely who cannot work as brain neither can work as protector from danger, nor they can produce food grains or give protection to the cows, they are called sudras -- as you cannot avoid, to make your body complete, the brain department, the arms department, the belly department and the walking or working department.

So Arjuna belonged to the group of men who was meant for giving protection to the society. So when he was declining to fight, Arjuna, when he was declining to fight, at that time Krsna gave him advice that "It is your duty to fight." So generally killing is not good at all, but when there is enemy, aggressor, then to kill the aggressor is not sin. So the other party in the Battlefield of Kuruksetra, they became aggressor to the Arjuna's party. Now, this is the set up of the Bhagavad-gita. The real purpose is to instruct Arjuna about spiritual understanding.

So spiritual understanding means first of all to know what is spirit. If you do not know what is spirit, then where is spiritual understanding? People are too much engrossed with the body. That is called materialism. But when you understand what is spirit and you act accordingly, that is called spiritualism. So Arjuna was hesitating to fight with the other party because he had bodily relationship with them. So between Arjuna and Krsna there was discussion, but that was friendly discussion. Therefore, when Arjuna understood that simply friendly discussion could not solve the problem, he became His disciple. Krsna... Arjuna surrendered to Krsna, sisyas te 'ham sadhi mam prapannam: [Bg. 2.7] "My dear Krsna, so long we are talking as friend. Now I become Your regular disciple. Kindly save me by instruction. What I have to do?" Therefore, when this stage was arrived, Krsna is advising Arjuna as follows: sri-bhagavan uvaca. Now, it is said here... Who is saying to Arjuna? The author or the recorder of Bhagavad-gita... Bhagavad-gita was spoken by Krsna. It was a discussion between Krsna and Arjuna, and it was recorded by Vyasadeva, and later on it became a book. Just like when we speak it is recorded and later on it is published as a book. Therefore in this book it is said, bhagavan uvaca. Vyasadeva is the writer. He does not say that, "I speak." He says, bhagavan uvaca, means "The Supreme Personality of Godhead said."

So Krsna is accepted by the authorities as Bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And what is Bhagavan? Bhagavan means that one who is fully equipped with six opulences. Fully equipped with all opulences means Bhagavan is the richest personality. How much rich Bhagavan, or God, is, we can understand that we are proud of possessing a few acres of land, and Bhagavan means who is the proprietor of the whole universe. Therefore He is considered the richest. Similarly, He is considered the strongest. And similarly, He is considered the wisest. And similarly, He is the most beautiful personality. In this way, when you find a person the richest, the most beautiful, the most wise, the strongest -- in this way, when you find, that is Bhagavan, or God. So when Krsna was present on this planet He proved all these opulences possessed by Him. Take, for example, that everyone marries, but Krsna, being the Supreme Person, He married 16,108 women. But it is not that He remained one husband for sixteen thousand wives. He made arrangement for providing the sixteen thousand wives in different palaces. Each palace, there is described, they were made of first-class marble stone and furniture made of ivory and the sitting place made of very nice, soft cotton. In this way there is description. And the outward compound, there are many flower trees. Not only that, He also expanded Himself into sixteen thousand expansion, personal expansion. And He was living in that way with each and every wife. So it is not very difficult task for God. (devotees offer obeisances) God is said to be situated everywhere. So within our vision, if He is situated in sixteen thousand homes, what is the difficulty for Him?

So here it is said, sri-bhagavan uvaca. The most powerful authority is speaking. Therefore, whatever He says, it is to be taken as truth. In our this conditional life, just like we are living under material condition, we have got four defects: we commit mistake, we are illusioned, and we want to cheat also, and our senses are imperfect. So knowledge received from a person who is infected with four kinds of deficiencies is not perfect. So when you receive knowledge from a person who is transcendental to all these four kinds of defects, that is perfect knowledge. Modern scientists, they theorize that "It may be like this. It may be like that," but that is not perfect knowledge. So if you speculate with your imperfect senses, what is the value of that knowledge? It may be, I mean to say, partial knowledge, but that is not perfect knowledge. Therefore our process of receiving knowledge is to receive it from the perfect person. And therefore we are receiving knowledge from Krsna, Bhagavan, the most perfect, and therefore our knowledge is perfect. Just like a child. He may be imperfect, but if his father says, "My dear child, this is called spectacle," so if the child speaks, "This is spectacle," that knowledge is perfect. Because the child does not make research to find out knowledge. He asks his father or mother, "What is this, Daddy? What is this, Mother?" And the mother says, "My dear child, this is this." Another example can be given that if a child does not, in childhood, he does not know who is his father, then he cannot make any research work. If he makes research work to find out his father, he'll never find out his father. But if he asks his mother, "Who is my father?" and the mother says, "He is your father," that is perfect. Therefore knowledge, knowledge of God, who is beyond your sense perception, how can you know? Therefore you have to know from God Himself or His representative.

So here Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is speaking, and that is the final authority. He says to Arjuna as follows. He says, asocyan anvasocas tvam prajna-vadams ca bhasase: [Bg. 2.11] "My dear Arjuna, you are talking like very learned scholar, but you are lamenting on a subject matter which you should not do." Gatasun agatasums ca nanusocanti panditah. Gatasun means this body. When it is dead or when it is alive, bodily conception of life is foolishness. So no learned man takes serious consideration of the body. Therefore in the Vedic literature it is said that "One who is in the bodily concept of life, he is nothing more than an animal." Therefore at the present moment, without knowledge of the self, the whole world is going on under the bodily concept of life. The bodily concept of life is there amongst the animals. The cats and dogs, they are very proud of becoming a big cat or big dog. Similarly, if a man also becomes similarly proud that "I am big American," "big German," "big," what is the difference? But that is actually going on, and therefore they are fighting like cats and dogs.

So we shall discuss more tomorrow.

Devotees: Jaya. (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Bhagavad-gita 2.1-5 -- Germany, June 16, 1974