Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Right now we are in the section of fixing mind on Krishna. So let’s look at this now:

Bg 8.8

abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena
cetasā nānya-gāminā
paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ
yāti pārthānucintayan

Word for word: 

abhyāsa–yoga — in the practice of meditation; yuktena — being engaged; cetasā — by the mind and intelligence;na anya–gāminā — without their being deviated; paramam — the Supreme; puruṣam — Personality of Godhead; divyam — transcendental; yāti — one achieves; pārtha — O son of Pṛthā; anucintayan — constantly thinking of.

Translation: 

He who meditates on Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Pārtha, is sure to reach Me.

 

abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena, by engaging in the practice of Yoga, now all these three words abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena they are non specific abhyāsa can be in Bhakti Yoga, can be in Astanga Yoga, it can be in Gyana Yoga, Abhyasa can be in various paths then cetasā nānya-gāminā, then the essential point of this abhyas is let the cetasā, consciousness be nānya-gāminā, let it not go anywhere else, if one can do this, then what will happen, paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ, one will attain the Supreme Purusa, who is divine transcendental and  yāti pārthānucintayan, so O partha one will attain that, one will achieve the Supreme Person because of ānucintayan, because of steady contemplation cintayan is contemplation, ānucintayan is steady contemplation, so here Sri Krishna is re-assuring, that by contemplation on absolute truth by the contemplation on the Supreme Person one will attain the supreme person by keeping the consciousness focused, concentrated one will attain supreme person, now the most striking feature of this verse is that Krishna is referring paramaṁ puruṣaṁ in the third person. That paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ He is not referring to Himself but to the third person. Why Krishna is doing this? There are different places where Krishna do this in BG and we have to look to the context to understand this, when Krishna describes a particular path he describes it from the perspective of the seeker on several occasions, so when He is describing the path of astanga yogi from the path of astanga yogi seeker at that time astanga yogi does not know that Krishna is the absolute truth the astanga yogi is starting the meditation and is turning inwards from Pratyahara disconnecting from external world and then trying to discover the inner reality at that time the yogi may discover that ultimate inner reality is personal but may not yet discovered the identity of that ultimate reality see by introspection and meditation one can progressively move oneself towards ultimate reality but it is only by revelation one can specifically understand the ultimate reality, by introspection means by our own thought by meditation means by systematic contemplation one can understand that I am not the body I am soul one can understand that there is God one may be able to understand that, that ultimate truth is a person but that ultimate truth is a bluish black complexion cowherd boy who wears a peacock feather and plays flute and stands in three fold bending form this cannot be understood by merely introspection or meditation for that revelation that has to come through by our own analysis we can understand the existence of God we can even understand the personality of God not specific personality but understand that God is a person but beyond that point that God is a person who exactly God is what is his identity is that requires revelation so when Krishna is talking here from the point of view of the seeker who doesn’t know at this stage who is absolute truth He may talk as third person so he focuses on talking about paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ. So by the practice of abhyāsa-yoga one will attain the paramaṁ puruṣa. In 8.4 Krishna told one who remember Me will attain Me, in 8.6 He told one who fixes His mind on Me will come back to Me therefore you fix your mind on me constantly which is for Bhaktas who know Krishna is Supreme Lord. So When Krishna said like in this verse from the flow of BG He has made it very clear that, that paramaṁ puruṣa person is He. But astang yogis doesn’t know that the absolute truth is Krishna so astanag yogi is focusing on paramaṁ puruṣam, attain the paramaṁ puruṣam. So Prabhupada said at this stage 

The devotee can constantly think of the object of worship, the Supreme Lord, in any of His features – Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, etc. – by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Now it is interesting what Srila Prabhupada is saying here is you chant Hare Krishna and think of Ram, think of Narayan, how this is possible? If you chant Hare Krishna you will think of Krishna and Radharani. 

How can by chanting Hare Krishna we can think about other form of Lord. Actually we have to understand that there is universal and confidential aspect of Bhakti, the universal aspect of Bhakti is the Purification that it brings about that it helps us to become free from our material attachments form our material desires from our material identity and that is something which is universal for everyone. As we discussed earlier there is Y-axis, there is negative side and there is positive side so negative sides involves material desires material relationship material activities from there one come to zero point and then can go to the positive side so when we are moving from negative side to positive side the universal aspect is everyone has to go through this journey everyone has to become free from material conception and material fascinations once one has done that then in the positive axis is slightly different trajectories one devotee can go to Vaikuntha another can go to Ayodhya another to Goloka, some can go to Mathura loka some to Dwarka and some to Vrindavan that can be different so the trajectory in positive size of y-axis is different but the point is there is common aspect that is by chanting Hare Krishna even if our original Svarupa is different still we can become purified and we can move onwards sometimes devotees think that I am attached with lord Ram more should I chant Hare Krishna may be I shouldn’t join ISKCON, I should find out some institution which teaches Ram Bhakti. So first of all we shouldn’t prematurely imagine what is my svarupa in spiritual world, no, first of all we have to give up our attachment to Par-Rupa. Par is other’s, outer or another so we have got material body and we identify with that very strongly so right now we have to give up material identification with the material form that we have, we may have some attraction to Lord Ram, we may have some attraction to Narshimha if we are brought up in culture where we have attraction to some specific forms where we may have heard Narshimha Stortra or Lord Ram bhajans and because of that we may have attracted towards them form childhood. So our attraction may be more cultural then spiritual. Cultural means because of the culture we are brought up in we have the attraction. It may not be spiritual because it may not be at the level of soul, soul is attracted to Krishna. So we are fortunate that we are born in place where we are hearing about songs about Lord Ram and not from Michael jackson so in any way we are attracted to Krishna it is very good and we can utilize that to increase our contemplation about Lord but beyond that (once we have contemplated about Lord) then we will become purified gradually and after that when we go beyond the negative axis towards positive then eventually our attraction to the specific form we are in that is our eternal svarupa we will naturally become attracted to that. So there may be a devotee who practices Krishna Consciousness within ISKCON but eventually feels a greater attraction toward Lord Ram then the person may decide to hear more pastime of Lord Ram. Focus on Lord Ram’s worship go to the holy places of Lord Ram. So if one feels like that one naturally do that there is nothing wrong in that, but we shouldn’t mistake cultural to be spiritual so at our level we should focus on chanting Hare Krishna we should focus on process of Krishna Consciousness as given by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as even if our Svarupa is in Ayodhaya but right now we are in Kaliyuga and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Mahavadanya yuga avatar for this Kaliyuga and the Tarak Brahma Naam the holy name that will liberate us in this Kaliyuga is Hare Krishna Maha Mantra therefore we chant Hare Krishna Mahamantra  and eventually we will go to the level where we will become purified everything material and that which is naturally spiritual will start getting activated so eventually when we are purified with the material designations and material conceptions then the spiritual attraction to the particular form of Lord to whom we are related in our Svarupa will become manifest, 

paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ Yāti, we will obtain the paramaṁ puruṣa and now after this the third section starts where Krishna talks about yoga-mishra bhakti

End of transcription.