660902 - Lecture BG 06.01-4 - New York

Lectures by Date, 1966

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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660902BG.NY - September 02, 1966

Prabhupāda: . . . the Fifth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. Today we shall begin the Sixth Chapter. In the Sixth Chapter you'll find the process of yoga. You have heard many times of the yoga system. That yoga system is approved by Bhagavad-gītā. But the system of yoga as prescribed in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is specially meant for purifying your status. Karma-śuddhasya vijitātmanaḥ. Karma-śuddhasya vijitātmanaḥ. To control the senses and to purify the process of work, that is the purpose of yoga. Yoga means to purify the process of our activities and to control the senses.

Śrī-bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān. The other day we have explained who is Bhagavān. Bhagavān is the last word of the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases: impersonal Brahman; localized Paramātmā, Supersoul; and ultimately, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ultimately, Bhagavān, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is person, and secondarily, He is all-pervading Supersoul, and the brahma-jyoti effulgence.

So here it is said, śrī-bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means the proprietor of everything and all-powerful, all . . . He has got all the . . . all-famous. Nobody can be more famous than God. And all-beautiful, and full of knowledge and full of renunciation. Full of opulence, at the same time, full of renunciation.

Here in the material world you'll find if a rich man has got great opulence, he is not liking to give it up. He's not liking. He does not like to renounce. But in the Supreme Personality of Godhead you'll find full of all opulence, but at the same time, full of renunciation. The six qualification: proprietor of all opulence, all-famous, all strength, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. Anywhere you find all these six qualifications in full, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So here it is said, śrī-bhagavān uvāca. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is speaking. He's speaking means He's speaking with all knowledge. His knowledge has no flaw. Our knowledge has many, so many flaws. We commit mistake, we are illusioned. Sometimes we speak something and at our heart there is something else. That means we cheat. And our experience all imperfect, because our senses are imperfect. Therefore I cannot speak anything to you. If you ask me, "Swāmījī, then what you are speaking?" I am speaking simply what the Supreme Personality of Godhead has said. I'm just repeating the same words. That's all. Don't think that I am speaking. I am simply instrument. Real speaker is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is without and within. So what does He say? He says:

anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ

kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ

sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca

na niragnir na cākriyaḥ

(BG 6.1)

Anāśritaḥ. Anāśritaḥ means without any shelter. Karma-phalam. Everyone is working, expecting some result. Whatever you do, work, you expect some result. Here Bhagavān says, the Supreme Personality of Godhead says that, "Anyone who works without any shelter of the result . . ." he works. Then if he does not expect any result, then why does he work? Unless . . . suppose I ask somebody to work this way. Then he will expect something, some result, some remuneration, some reward, or some salary. That is the way of working here.

But Kṛṣṇa prescribes that anāśritaḥ karma-phalam, "One who works without any expectation of result or reward." Then why does he work? Kāryam: "It is my duty. It is my duty." Not with a result, but as duty. "I am duty-bound to do this." Kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ. In such a way if somebody works, sa sannyāsī, he is actually in the renounced order of life.

There are four stages of life according to Vedic culture. We have many times explained to you that brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsī. Brahmacārī means student life, to be trained up in spiritual understanding, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, fully trained up. He is called brahmacārī. Then, after full training, he accepts wife, he gets himself married and lives with family and children. That is called gṛhastha.

Then, after fifty years, he leaves the children alone and gets out of home accompanied by his wife and travels in the holy places. That is called vānaprastha, retired life. And at last he gives up his wife to the care of his children, grown-up children, and he remains alone. And that is called sannyāsa, or renounced order of life. So these four orders of life there are.

Now, Kṛṣṇa says that simply renouncement is not all. Simply renouncement is not all. There must be some duty. Kāryam. Kāryam means "It is my duty." Now, what is that duty? He has renounced the family life. He has no more botheration how to maintain his wife and children. Then what is his duty? That duty is very responsible duty—to work for Kṛṣṇa. Kāryam. Kāryam mean it is the real duty.

There are two kinds of duties in our life. One duty is to serve the illusion, and the other, another duty is to serve the reality. When you serve the reality, that is called real sannyāsa. And when we serve the illusion, that is called māyā. Now, either to serve the reality or to serve the illusion, I am in such a position that I have to serve. My position is not to become the master but to become the servant. That is my constitution.

Everyone in this material world, he's a servant. Nobody is master. One thinks that "I am the master," but he is actually servant. Suppose if you have got your family, if you are thinking that you are the master of your wife, of your children, of your servants, of your business, that is false. You are the servant of your wife, you are the servant of your children, you are the servant of your servants. That is your real position. Any case you take. The president, he is considered to be the master of your country, but actually he is the servant of your country.

So if you go on analyzing that our position is always servant . . . so either we shall become the servant of illusion or we shall have to become the servant of God. But if we remain the servant of illusion, then our life is wasted. Everyone is servant of illusion. He's servant of nobody but servant of illusion. He is expecting some profit. For serving, he is expecting some profit, but that profit is transient and illusion. Therefore he is servant of illusion. And when a person becomes to his real senses, transcendental senses, or jñānam, when he becomes actually the person in knowledge, then he becomes the servant of the reality. Because I am servant always, this way or that way.

So knowledge means, "Then why shall I serve the unreal illusion? Let me serve the reality. If my business is to serve and nothing to be . . . never to be master, always to serve, then why I shall serve the illusion? Let me serve the reality." That sense is called knowledge. So anāśritaḥ karma-phalam. Sannyāsa, renounced order of life, means one who is in perfect knowledge, he can take sannyāsa. Otherwise, if he takes all of a sudden the renounced order of life, he will create misery for himself and misery for others. In full knowledge, that sannyāsa.

So here, how that full knowledge is exhibited after sannyāsa, that is explained here by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What is that? Kāryam: "It is my duty to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and to serve the cause of Kṛṣṇa. Oh, that is my duty. That is my real duty." When we come to this knowledge, then we become mahātmā, or the great soul. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19): "After many, many births, when a person, when a soul, is perfectly elevated to the platform of real knowledge, transcendental knowledge," then what does he do? "He surrenders unto Me," Kṛṣṇa says: "He surrenders unto Me." Bās . . . why?

Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19): "You are everything, Vāsudeva." Vāsudeva means Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But Kṛṣṇa says: "Such . . ." sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ, "such great soul is very scarce, rarely found." But any intelligent person, if he understands this philosophy that, "My ultimate goal of life is to surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. Why not surrender immediately? Why shall I wait?" Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante. "Why shall I wait for so many births?" So that stage is called real sannyāsa.

Kāryam. Kāryam means "It is my duty." I am not forced, but voluntarily, out of love, transcendental love. Just like mother serves this child out of love. There is no question of salary or remuneration. The mother loves this child. Similarly, you can love the Supreme Lord in many ways.

You can love the Supreme Lord as master, you can love the Supreme Lord as friend, you can love the Supreme Lord as child, you can love the Supreme Lord as your husband. Any way. There are five different rasas, or humors, in which we are eternally related with the Supreme Lord. And when we are actually in the liberated stage of all knowledge, we can understand that, "Our relationship with the Lord is in this way." That is called svarūpa-siddhi. That is real self-realization. That is real self-realization.

Everyone has an eternal relationship with the Lord, either in the conception of master and servant, or in the conception of friend and friend, or in the conception of parents and the child, or in the conception of husband and wife, or in the conception of paramour and lover, and the beloved. So these relationships are there eternally.

Now, the whole process of spiritual realization is to come to this stage, transcendental stage. This relationship with the Supreme Lord is pervertedly reflected in this material world. And therefore we have got this relationship here, master and servant. But because it is perverted, therefore that relationship is not master and servant.

That relationship is with the money and the benefit. There is no love. There is no love. Here in this material world, the master and the servant, that relationship continues so long the master is able to pay the servant. As soon as the payment is stopped, the relationship of master and servant also stops. Therefore that is not eternal.

(aside) Come on. Sit down here.

That is not eternal. Similarly, here also there is relationship between friend and friend. But in slight difference of opinion the friendship breaks. The friend becomes enemy. Therefore it is perverted reflection. Similarly, the relationship between . . .

(aside) Come on here.

Relationship between mother and son. A slight difference of opinion breaks the relationship, and the son becomes out of the relationship of mother, mother becomes out of the relation . . . every way. Husband and wife, a slight difference of opinion, there is divorce, separation.

So no relationship here in this material world is actual. Always remember that all relationship in this material world is perverted reflection of that relationship which we have got eternally with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is simply reflected. Just like the sunshine. The sunshine is reflected in the glass, and that reflection comes to your . . . in my apartment, at six o'clock, the sunshine comes from the western side . . . er, eastern side. So in the evening the sunshine cannot come from the eastern side. The sunshine comes from the western side. But it is coming because it is reflected through a glass in the opposite house. This is the idea of reflected. That reflection of the sunshine is not real, but it appears just like sunshine.

Similarly, all our relationship here, either as master and servant or as friend and friend or as parents and child or as husband and wife or as lover and the beloved, any relationship, whatever we see here, that is the perverted reflection of our eternal relationship with God. So when we come to that I mean platform of understanding, then we are perfectly in knowledge.

So when that knowledge comes here, it is stated, he takes the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa consciousness: kāryam. Kāryam means "It is my duty." Because I have got my eternal love relationship with Kṛṣṇa. There is no question of remuneration. Of course, remuneration is there thousand times more than what remuneration we get here by rendering our service. Kṛṣṇa, thousand times . . . not thousand times, because there is no limit.

There is a nice story of a great devotee, Bali Mahārāja. Bali Mahārāja was a very powerful king, and he conquered over the heavenly planets. So the denizens of the heavenly planets, they appealed to the Supreme Lord to save them that, "We are now conquered by the demonic king, Bali Mahārāja." So Bali Mahārāja . . . and Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa took the shape of a dwarf and went to Bali Mahārāja for begging as a brahmin boy. And He . . . He approached him, Bali Mahārāja, "I want something from you. You are a great king. You give in charity to the brahmins. So I want something from you."

So Bali Mahārāja said, "Yes, I shall give You. What You want?" "Now, I want land of three . . . in the measurement of My sole, three sole measurement. That's all." So He was a boy, His sole was sole . . . not very long. So Bali Mahārāja said, "What You will do with a small piece of land?" But He said, "Yes, that will suffice Me. If you promise this three measurement of My three palms land, that will suffice." Then Bali Mahārāja agreed, and by His two measurement of the palm, He covered the whole universe.

Then He's asking, "Bali Mahārāja, now whatever you have got, you got, now it is finished by two feet, by two measurement of my palm. Now where I am going to keep My third, third one?" Then Bali Mahārāja understood that it is the favor of the Supreme Lord. He said, "My dear Lord, yes, I have now lost everything. I have no other property, but I have got my head. Please kindly keep on it." You see.

So the Lord was very much pleased on him, and He offered, "Bali Mahārāja, then what do you want from Me?" "No, I never expected anything from You. I could understand You wanted from me everything, so I have offered my everything. That is finished. I don't want . . ." Then Lord says: "Yes, but from My side, I have got something to offer you. I shall remain as your order-carrier servant in your door."

So He remained always . . . just like we are sitting here, there may be some doorman, He, Lord became his doorman. So that is the return. If we offer something to Lord, oh, that is rewarded in many millions of times. So we should not expect. The Lord is always serious to return the service of the servant, of His devotee. So there are many devotees. This devotee, Bali Mahārāja, is surrendered everything for the service of the Lord. So he became a famous king. Sarvātma-snapane abhavad balir vaiyāsakiḥ.

So now, anyone who thinks that "Service of Kṛṣṇa, or service of the Lord, is my duty, duty," he is the man in perfect knowledge. Sa sannyāsī. Sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca. And he's actually yogī. We have heard the names of so many yogīs, but here Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, "He is actual yogī." Who? "Who has surrendered himself fully unto Me and he is engaged in My service as a matter of duty." That's all.

Sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ. Na niragniḥ. Niragniḥ means "those who have left home." In the varṇāśrama-dharma, one who is a householder, he has to perform daily yajña. So there is fire. Fire. Still we find in the Parsis, they are fire worshiper. So this fire worship is recommended in Vedic literature. So gṛhasthas, or the householders, they are expected to offer, I mean to say, sacrifice in the fire daily.

yaṁ sannyāsam iti prāhur

yogaṁ taṁ viddhi pāṇḍava

na hy asannyasta-saṅkalpo

yogī bhavati kaścana

(BG 6.2)

Now, here is very important point. Yaṁ sannyāsam iti prāhuḥ. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa instructs Arjuna that "Whatever is known as sannyāsa, renounced order of life, that is also yoga." Yoga system and sannyāsa, is there is no difference, because everything on the yoga system . . . this Bhagavad-gītā is also known as yoga system. You'll find here three kinds of yoga: karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga and bhakti-yoga.

So just like you have got a staircase to rise up to the fifth or sixth or tenth floor, or . . . er, or more than that, the whole staircase or the lift service is called yoga. Now, somebody may be in the fifth floor, somebody may be in the tenth floor, somebody may be on the fiftieth floor, but the same lift service is going. You take the lift service as the yoga, connection between the highest story to the down.

Anyone who has elevated himself to a certain platform . . . someone is called karma-yogī, someone is called jñāna-yogī, someone is called dhyāna-yogī, someone is called bhakti-yogī. So there are different kinds of yoga in this conception. Otherwise, this, this lift service, yoga service, is the same. It is, the difference is between the elevation point.

So similarly, yaṁ sannyāsam iti prāhur yogaṁ taṁ viddhi pāṇḍava. "O Arjuna" —pāṇḍava means 'the son of Pāṇḍu, Arjuna'—"you can understand that what is sannyāsa and what is yoga, they are the same principle." They are the same principle how? Na, Na hy asannyasta-saṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana. Because without being freed from desires of sense gratification, nobody can become either a yogī or a sannyāsī.

Everyone is trying to have some profit out of his activities. There are many yogī, they perform yoga system or teach yoga system for some profit. But that is not the idea of yoga system. Everything should be engaged in the service of the Lord. Everything. Whatever we do, either as ordinary worker or as sannyāsī or as yogī or as jñānī, all our energies should be dovetailed with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is real sannyāsa, that is real yoga.

Ārurukṣor muner yogaṁ karma kāraṇam ucyate. Those who are just stepping on the staircase of the yoga system, for them, karma kāraṇam ucyate, they must work. In the beginning, nobody should stop working. Nobody should stop working. Just like you'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā that Kṛṣṇa requesting Arjuna to become a yogī, but He never asked him to cease from the fight.

How one can become a yogī, at the same time remain a fighter? That, a practical example you see. Kṛṣṇa is asking Arjuna, tasmād yogī bhavārjuna: "My dear Arjuna, therefore you become a yogī." But at the same time, He's asking to fight. Now, we know the yogī sits down at a place and meditates and concentrates his mind and controls his senses. How is that he is fighting, at the same time yogī? Huh?

This is the mystery of Bhagavad-gītā. You can remain a fighting man, at the same time the highest yogī, highest sannyāsī. How? In Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You have to fight for Kṛṣṇa. That's all. That is the secret. That is the secret. If you fight for Kṛṣṇa, if you fight for work . . . er, fight for . . . work for Kṛṣṇa, if you eat for Kṛṣṇa, if you sleep for Kṛṣṇa, if you do everything for Kṛṣṇa, then you are the yogī, you are the sannyāsī, and you are everything. That is the secret of Bhagavad-gītā.

It is practical example. We see that Arjuna is asked, tasmād yogī bhavārjuna: "My dear . . ." Now you'll find in this chapter, Kṛṣṇa will instruct Arjuna how to become a dhyāna-yogī. That is meditation, yogī in meditation. He will ask Arjuna in this chapter, and you'll find, Arjuna will say, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, it is impossible for me. It is impossible for me. This system which You recommend for meditation is not possible for me."

And actually also, although the instruction of yoga system is offered to Kṛṣṇa in very full detail, you'll never find in the history of Arjuna's life that ever he became a meditator. Ever. Then how he became the most perfect yogī? Oh, that is, that we'll find at the end of this chapter, that "One who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa . . ."

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ

mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā

śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ

sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

(BG 6.47)

Kṛṣṇa, when He saw that Arjuna, he is (chuckles) declined, then He said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa . . . my dear Arjuna, you are the highest yogī. You are the topmost yogī." Why? "Because you are always thinking of Me." That's all. "You have no other business than to think of Me."

This is the yoga system, this is the sannyāsa system, this is the jñāna system. All perfection of jñāna, yoga, dhyāna, and whatever, sacrifice, charity and penance, all the recommended activities for spiritual realization ends in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So if you directly become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you are yogī, sannyāsī and everything. As it is stated here, sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca. "He is sannyāsī, he is yogī, and he is everything." He's everything.

So this simple method, to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, is the highest perfection of life. Therefore this Society established for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The techniques are there in the Bhagavad-gītā, and there are Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Just try to accept this principle of life and your this human form of life will be successful and perfect by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So ārurukṣor muner yogaṁ karma kāraṇam ucyate. Those who are in the preliminary stage, they should always work for Kṛṣṇa. Always. They must find out always some duty, "What is there to work now for Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" Karma kāraṇam ucyate. They should not remain idle for a second. Always find out some duty. That is meditation. "How I shall work for Kṛṣṇa?"

ārurukṣor muner yogaṁ

karma kāraṇam ucyate

yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva

śamaḥ kāraṇam ucyate

(BG 6.3)

And when one is advanced in perfect stage of that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he may not physically work, but because within himself he's always working for Kṛṣṇa. Karma kāraṇam ucyate. So in the beginning . . . just like small boys and children, they are always, twenty-four hours, engaged in the schooling. Otherwise they'll be spoiled. Similarly, those who are in the preliminary stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they should always engage themselves in the work.

There are varieties of work. There are varieties of work. Now, those who are actually working with our Society, they practically do not find any time, any rest. There are so many work that one cannot finish. Day and night we have got work for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And we are happy to execute such work. And the students who are working with us, cooperating, they are also happy.

You'll find happiness. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours, you'll never get tired, and that is the . . . you'll never get tired. In any other material thing, if you chant or you repeat three times, you'll get tired. It is practical test. But if you go on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours, you'll never get tired.

So if you engage yourself in the activity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you'll never get tired, because you are acting on the spiritual platform. Spiritual platform is absolute. The material platform is different. If you work very hard, then you get tired. So this is, these are the understanding of spiritual consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now here it is very clearly explained:

yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu

na karmasv anuṣajjate

sarva-saṅkalpa-sannyāsī

yogārūḍhas tadocyate

(BG 6.4)

When one becomes first-class yogī, or when one is concerned . . . considered to be elevated in the highest yogic platform or sannyāsa platform, yadā, at that time, when, na indriyārtheṣu, a person works not for sense gratification . . . that's all. Everyone works for sense gratification. In the material world, everyone is working for sense gratification. They . . . everyone works here to get some reward, some remuneration, for wages, and that is utilized for sense gratification.

Now here it said, yogārūḍha. "When one is perfect yogī . . ." That is explained here, that yadā hi na indriyārtheṣu: "When one does not work for sense gratification," na karmasv anuṣajjate, "he does not engage himself in the work simply for sense gratification." And sarva-saṅkalpa-sannyāsī, "And he has no desire to get any fruit." Because his desired thing, Kṛṣṇa, is already there. So he has no other desire. Sarva-saṅkalpa-sannyāsī yogārūḍhas tadocyate. At that time he is considered to be situated in the perfect stage of . . . (break) (end)