Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya

Till now Sri Krishna has talked about 12 attributes He will talk about two more in this verse

Bg 7.11

balaṁ balavatāṁ cāhaṁ
kāma-rāga-vivarjitam
dharmāviruddho bhūteṣu
kāmo ’smi bharatarṣabha

Word for word: 

balam — strength; bala–vatām — of the strong; ca — and; aham — I am; kāma — passion; rāga — and attachment; vivarjitam — devoid of; dharma–aviruddhaḥ — not against religious principles; bhūteṣu — in all beings; kāmaḥ — sex life; asmi — I am; bharata–ṛṣabha — O lord of the Bhāratas.

Translation: 

I am the strength of the strong, devoid of passion and desire. I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles, O lord of the Bhāratas [Arjuna].

balaṁ balavatāṁ cāhaṁ

Krishna says I am the strength of the strong what kind of strength?

kāma-rāga-vivarjitam

That which is free from desire and attachment, then He says 

dharmāviruddho bhūteṣu

That which is a-virudha, not opposed to Dharma that kind of Kama that kind of desire I am.

This is interesting that Krishna used the word Kama twice in this verse, the first time He uses in 7.11 b kāma-rāga-vivarjitam, so first He has talked about strength so strength should be freed from desire and attachment, so Kshatriya should act as per Dharma they should act as protector Kshetra Trayete Eti Kshetriya those who protect others from hurt, Kshetah is hurt, they are called as Kshetriyas.  

dharmāviruddho bhūteṣu
kāmo ’smi bharatarṣabha

Now Krishna has used Kama again in the next line and what He is saying over there, He is saying that Kama which is not contrary to Dharma I am that, so what does this mean? Actually there is Dharma Artha Kama and Moksha, so all these are part of life so it is not that Kama has to be entirely given up, now when we talk about Kama we refer to various things and we have to look at the context here in same verse Kama is used twice and in first part Krishna is saying one should be free from Kama and then He is saying I am Kamas so what He is referring to here? So the word Kama in both cases doesn’t have the same meaning first Kama refers to desire in general and desire and attachment which one should give up while employing one’s strength desire in terms of selfish desire and then when Sri Krishna is talking about Kama He is talking about Kama as one of the Purusarthas so Purus + Arthas the purpose of the human being, purusas, so in Mahabharat when Narad Muni meet Yudhishthira Maharaj and he inquiries from him so normally the modes of enquiry are different for Grihasta and for Sanyasis, when Dashrath Maharaj meet and honoured Vishwamitra muni and then ask him, how are you progressing on your conquest of rebirth the purpose of Sanyas is that the person renounce the world and end the cycle of birth and death and go back to the spiritual world, so the whole idea is to conquering rebirth. But When Narad Muni meet Yudhisthir maharaj he is asking O king are you having a balance between religion, profit and pleasure which is Dharma-Artha-Kama and he says those who perceive only religion and give up profit and pleasure and any combination of these are all living imbalance lives and they will not be satisfied, but if they balance this then they can be satisfied. So when talk about Artha it is not just bank balance, artha is holistic prosperity in terms of having the necessity of life without having too much anxieties and having natural comforts, So Vrindavan is place of Artha it is comfortable place. Vrijvasi work hard but they are also comfortable. Dharma-Artha-kama, so Kama doesn’t only refer to sensual gratification but one overall satisfaction in family life. 

So here when Krishna is saying:

dharmāviruddho bhūteṣu
kāmo ’smi bharatarṣabha

He is saying that that Kama the sex life which is not contrary to Dharma that I am, bharatarṣabha I am that, so what is this refer to? This actually refers to how Krishna is encouraging Arjuna to recognise that in all aspects of life one can perceive His presence. So when within precedence of Dharma Kama and Artha is perceived then that Kama is not mundane that Kama can actually be divine so some people say sex taboo in Vedic culture, taboo is about which we should not talk, it is considered to be very bad, no sex is considered to be manifestation of the divine but when it is manifestation of divine it should be understood properly so actually when people glamorise sex they trivialise it how it is? When people glamorise it in their imagination more and more then what is the glamorisation centered on? It is centered primarily on looks and physical contacts and pleasure, so what is the pleasure which most glamorisation of ultimately depicts on? That pleasure is generally secretion reception and ejection of chemicals that is all that. So more people glamorise sex in their imagination the more they trivialise it in their life. Because that which can be an experience of God, if it is done under the precedence of Dharma that becomes reduced to something just physical, it becomes tools for some physical release that’s all, so that is just trivialisation of sex so it is not considered taboo and Vedic culture is not against it, sex is a natural part of life but it has to be kept as proper part of the life not made whole central purpose of life not made constant object of thought and not made into trivial activities{e.g. advertising industry, people writing cheap comments in public toilets, social media like YouTube etc., internet, pron is the biggest industry of present time} as just one does for gaining little bit of release, it is dharmic activities when done in the precedence of Dharma So Krishna is saying āviruddho bhūteṣu kāmo ’smi, when it is not opposed to Dharma then that sex life is actually experience of Krishna.

End of transcription.