I am very happy to see you all! Hare Krishna! Dear devotees, I couldn’t deny myself the pleasure of your association and would like to say a few words following the lecture on the Srimad Bhagavatam, in connection with our philosophy.

Since I am also currently reading and listening to Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad-gita, I wanted to say a few words about one of the verses and about the chapter in general.

I will read verse 18 from this chapter:

gatir bhartā prabhuḥ sākṣī
nivāsaḥ śaraṇaṁ suhṛt
prabhavaḥ pralayaḥ sthānaṁ
nidhānaṁ bījam avyayam

“I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.”

I will read from Srila Prabhupasa’s purport: “Gati means the destination where we want to go. But the ultimate goal is Kṛṣṇa, although people do not know it. One who does not know Kṛṣṇa is misled, and his so-called progressive march is either partial or hallucinatory. There are many who make as their destination different demigods, and by rigid performance of the strict respective methods they reach different planets known as Candraloka, Sūryaloka, Indraloka, Maharloka, etc. But all such lokas, or planets, being creations of Kṛṣṇa, are simultaneously Kṛṣṇa and not Kṛṣṇa. Such planets, being manifestations of Kṛṣṇa’s energy, are also Kṛṣṇa, but actually they serve only as a step forward for realization of Kṛṣṇa. To approach the different energies of Kṛṣṇa is to approach Kṛṣṇa indirectly. One should directly approach Kṛṣṇa, for that will save time and energy” I think I will stope here. Actually, I will read another excerpt “Kṛṣṇa is the supreme living entity. Since Kṛṣṇa is the source of our generation, or the supreme father, no one can be a better friend than Kṛṣṇa, nor can anyone be a better well-wisher. Kṛṣṇa is the original source of creation and the ultimate rest after annihilation. Kṛṣṇa is therefore the eternal cause of all causes.”

We all have heard these things explained before and in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna repeats, “I am this, I am that” in at least three chapters. Although He comes back to this again later on in Chapter 14, He mainly concentrates on it in Chapters 7, 9 and 10. In Christianity, in greek, such a manifestation of God is called Epiphany. .

How should or how can, we see God? This is a central question because, in the long run, we all want to have God’s darshan. Krishna Himself explains it in the beginning of Chapter 9: pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ – one should realize this dharma by direct experience – pratyakṣā. Pratyakṣā means “I should see God.’ And Krishna explains how and where He should be seen.

There is an important detail I wanted to mention – the fact, that the different manifestations of God mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita are not all the same. When we are just browsing through Chapters 7, 9 and 10 of the Bhagavad-gita, it may seem that Krishna repeats Himself. He says, “I am this, I am that” and we already know that Krishna is the taste of water, Krishna is the sound in ether, the syllable om – He tells us that. I would just like us to think how His description in Chapter 7 differs from the description in Chapter 9 and that in Chapter 10. Reading carefully, we will see that Krishna’s “Me” is different in each of these chapters.

I recently mentioned that Krishna clearly describes four types of surrender in the Bhagavad-gita. Bhagavad-gita explains, that one can surrender on four levels. On the preliminary level Krishna doesn’t expect anything from us and we, actually, don’t expect anything from Krishna. The only thing we expect Krishna to do is to advise us. This is evident in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad-gita when Arjuna says: śiṣyas te ’haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam – “I am Your disciple and a soul surrendered unto You.” And he is completely unfit to follow Krishna’s instructions at this point. I am now staying with Vamsi-bihari and he told me, “I always ask everyone’s advice, I often consult with people.” I asked him, “And?” – “And then I do it my way.”

This is often how people act: they ask for advice but at the same time, they follow their own counsel at the end. This is the level of consciousness we are on when we come to Krishna consciousness: “Okay, Krishna, tell me what to do, I will take note but in the end I will decide what to do.” This is preliminary surrender. Similar to how Arjuna says, “I am Your disciple, a soul surrendered unto You but I am not going to fight. You can instruct me on anything with the exception of that.”

The second level – the karmic level of surrender is in Chapter 4 of the Bhagadvad-gita where Krishna says: “I am viddhi. If you want to surrender unto Me, follow the rules, do what I tell you to do – tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā, surrender unto the spiritual master, learn how to perform yajna – you are going to be fine, you are going to be a success. You will do pranayama and things will be perfect. You are going to be a family man pouring your life force into the fire of family life. Everything’s going to be all right.” This is a level of surrender and, naturally, Krishna doesn’t describe Himself much in those chapters, because He mainly describes sacrifices. The only thing He does describe are some rituals. That is, the next level of surrender and God realization is, God as a ritual, God in a ritual. That is the second level.

The next level of surrender is described in Chapters 7 and 8 of the Bhagavad-gita. Here, one is aware that there is a superior power, that there is God, that there is spirit, and one wants liberation, so this is surrender with desire for liberation. What I am trying to convey, is that depending on the level of surrender one is ready for, Krishna describes Himself, God, accordingly. At some point we want liberation. We are already willing to follow Krishna, we have raised our hands to say: “Krishna, you have cornered me and I know I never want to take birth again.”

Again, I recently met my Indian disciple and he told me, “I don’t know, I don’t care. Please, I just don’t want to take birth anymore.” This is surrender, bhakti. Krishna doesn’t mention in the Bhagavad-gita anything unrelated to bhakti.

The first level is the preliminary surrender where I am still not ready; the second level is ritualistic surrender where I am willing to follow whatever I am told to do as long as I am okay. There is undoubtedly an element of bhakti there. The third level is the level of Chapter 7. This is the level where I want liberation. I am ready to perform bhakti but only for the sake of liberation. And Krishna says, “Behold Me! I am the sound in ether. I am the taste of water. I am the syllable om in Vedic sacrifices. I am the strength of the strong.” Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti – He is describing His blurred, impersonal – to some extent – aspect. But He says, ‘This is Me.” He doesn’t limit Himself to saying that He is everywhere, that He is effulgence. Therefore He demands surrender:

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14)

He says, “Do you want to overcome the gunas? Do you? Are you fed up with tamo-guna, sattva-guna and rajo-guna? Are you sick and tired of messing around? Surrender unto Me like this.” How to surrender? Who to surrender unto? – “Surrender unto Me through meditation.” This is the next level of surrender. “I am everywhere. Meditate on Me. Chant om. Focus on the point between your brows. The essence of your surrender is that you will be thinking about Me.” And He explains how to think about Him: “I am the oldest. I am the youngest. I am kaviṁ purāṇam anuśāsitāram. Kaviṁ – I am the primordial creator of all”. This is sort of meditation on this force, a personal force, which is a little bit blurred though. What makes Krishna’s “I” in chapter 7 different from His ‘I” in Chapter 9, is that in Chapter 9 when Krishna says “I am this, I am that”, He already means a personal relationship. He says, “I am the father and the mother. I am your father. I am your mother. Learn to see Me in your mother and father. I am ultimately your goal, – as He says here – gatih, bhartā – I am the sustainer; prabhuh – I am the master; sākṣī – I am the witness, I am watching you.”

That is, “I am not just the taste of water. I am not just the sound in ether. I am personally present in your life. I am expecting a personal attitude towards Me.” That’s what He wants us to understand. “Don’t fear anything. Yes, I am death. I will come to you as death and take you away. I will come to you as a disease. But that will be Me and I am your friend. I am suhrit” as Srila Prabhupada says. Krishna is our best friend. “Yes, I am the creator and the destroyer. Don’t you fear anything.”

It is this personal aspect that Krishna reveals here. Therefore he says in this chapter, api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk – “It doesn’t matter what you do, whether you are a sinner or a saint. It doesn’t matter to Me. If you are willing to enter into this personal relationship with Me, I will accept you as you are. You don’t have to pass yourself off as someone else, you don’t have to be perfect.” This is a very important point because in Chapters 7 and 8 Krishna says, “Do you want liberation? For that you should become perfect. To achieve this goal you should engage in austerities and focus all your attention on the point between the eyebrows.”

Here He says, “You don’t need to focus – just think about Me. If you can’t think about me, just pay your obeisance to Me sometimes.” And He says that “I will accept a devotee because he has surrendered – that’s what counts – and I will take care of him Myself.”

Listen, this is a very important point because again in Chapters 7 and 8 He explains, “One should leave one’s body at a particular time. There is an auspicious and inauspicious moment for leaving the body. A yogi does it in a particular way…” etc. There are some requirements that Krishna sets making it quite difficult to leave the body [properly]. You must have heard this story of Ramanujacarya.

When Ramanujacarya was filled with these doubts, he lived in Kancipuram where he worshipped Varadaraja deity. He was actually filled with four kinds of doubt but at the moment I don’t recall all of them.

Even great devotees have doubts at times. We see the world around us through our narrow tunnel vision which prevents us from understanding the true nature of this world, ourselves and the events around us. Ramanujacarya was thus overcome by a doubt – a very important doubt – namely “what is going to happen to a devotee who dies being unconscious, who is in a coma?”

Before that, in Chapter 8 of Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says, “You should, you must be conscious at the moment of death – yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram.” Again, there is some requirement for perfection, which implies this level of surrender – the third level – where one desires liberation but not a personal relationship with Krishna. Sri Ramanujacarya had this question: what is going to happen to a man who dies being unconscious, since Krishna Himself says, “You must remember Me at the moment of death, you must say My name.”

When he asked Varadaraja’s servant at the temple, Kancipurna, Kancipurna began to answer his questions because he directly communicated with Varadaraja Himself – had something like a direct communication channel with Him. To Ramanujacarya’s amazement he said “Varadaraja sent this poem for you”. In this poetic verse, he communicated to Ramanujacarya that a devotee is not required to die being conscious. A devotee shouldn’t fear anything, even if he dies unconscious, because Krishna is going to take care of him and do all necessary things.

Again, in this chapter when explaining that He is the father, that He is the mother, the friend, Krishna explains that if we want to have a relationship with Him – not just liberation, but a true relationship – He will become our friend.

However, to get him as our friend, we have to reach this level of surrender. This is not an easy objective. There’s a sort of evolution. It’s not that it’s some artificial thing where all it takes is to pump yourself up by saying, “Yes, yes, Krishna, I want to be in a relationship with You, I want love.” So what should one do? How can one achieve this level? In what way can one gradually want to develop a relationship with Krishna? What I mean to say is that it’s not that cheap. We’ve heard it dozens of times: relationship, love, relationship, love. However, in our daily lives, we tend to be impersonal when interacting with other people. Actually, very often we want to be perfect, to be pure devotees, but Krishna says, “I don’t need you as a pure devotee.” He says: “Api cet su-durācāro“– yes, you will soon become dharmatma – a righteous person – but now just declare “My devotee never perishes and I will not judge him. I will not impose rigorous requirements on him. I will accept him as he is, if he just raises his hands and says, “Krishna!” That’s what I am.”

So, what should one do to achieve this? What should one do to really be on that level? Krishna gives a clue at the very beginning of Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad-gita where He says: jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ. He repeats it twice throughout Bhagavad-gita. In Chapter 7 He says, “I am going to tell you about jnana and vijnana. I am going to reveal theoretical knowledge and I will give you practical knowledge, experience as well. Listen to Me.”

Here Krishna repeats these words: “jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ. I am going to reveal theoretical knowledge to you – perceive it as theoretical knowledge. But know also. that if you keep thinking about what I am going to tell you, if you reflect on this knowledge, when you get to know this jnana and vijnana then yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt.”

He repeats it here at the beginning of this chapter – pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ, “then you will be delivered of all inauspicious things, of your karma and fear”. It is only because we have karma, that we have fear. This fear lives inside of us and keeps us from surrendering. Well, the method to achieve what Krishna describes here is vijnana – thinking that Krishna loves us and wishes to have a personal relationship with us, again and again, hearing about it again and again from Him, from the devotees who have realized it. He doesn’t want anything else from us, He doesn’t care about perfection. He just wants our love, our helplessness and weakness. He wants us to say, “Well, Krishna, yes, I am Yours.”

Yes, and such a man will soon become righteous, but this is no excuse for anything. We all know this. Therefore Krishna says: “For all the rest I am a judge, but for those who worship Me with love – ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā – I am always with them and they are always with Me.” This is, actually, the method. We know the formula for this method – but because we are practicing Krishna consciousness, we should hear about it again and again. This is the formula for surrender on the fourth level, on the highest level. The formula of a personal relationship with God and others. Also, what is interesting is that this formula is going to work in our relationship with other people too. Krishna gives this formula in Chapter 9 of Bhagavad-gita: satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā nitya-yuktā upāsate (BG 9.14)

The main thing is – nitya-yuktā upāsate – one is always connected. One is aware of this connection, one is nitya-yuktā upāsate. Upāsate literally means “sitting next”. He is always near. In our hearts, we should always strive to feel this closeness with Krishna. Upāsana is not a formal worship. Upāsana means that Krishna is close to us and we are close to Krishna. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ – I try to glorify Him with every word and every breath. I look around and think, “God is so beautiful! How wonderful is this God who has created everything around me and how stunning is this world created by Him!” Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ – I am doing my best, I take vows. Even if I am sick, I try to chant 16 rounds without fail – this is my dṛḍha-vratāḥ. If I can do more, I do more – yatantaś ca. Yatantaś ca means that I am making a conscious effort. I am making the most of it very conscientiously. Namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā – I bow down to Krishna. As I mentioned, this formula also works in our relationship with others. If we want to develop a close relationship with someone, we should try to get closer to him. We should see his wonderful qualities – God-given qualities – and glorify him for these qualities. Yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ – we should endeavor to do our best for this person. Namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā – these dandavats are offered to God, but all the same, we pay our obeisance to other people as representatives of God in our life. And Nitya-yuktā upāsate. This is the law of interpersonal relationship that will afford us, after all, yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt – to get rid of all aśubhā – the dirt in our hearts. Well, I guess that’s the maximum I am capable of today. I have put my energy in these words. Thank you very much for listening to me. That’s what I wanted to share with you. I could see stern faces of the people sitting here – but now they are smiling hearing me say that. Thank you! Thank you very much again for providing me this opportunity. Hare Krishna! Thanks! Srila Prabhupada ki! Jai!