Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

As part of Yajna, Dana and Tapa, we have discussed about Yajna and Dana now as part of Tapa, austerity, we will discuss austerity of Body, Mind and speech.

Bg 17.14

deva-dvija-guru-prājña-
pūjanaṁ śaucam ārjavam
brahmacaryam ahiṁsā ca
śārīraṁ tapa ucyate

Synonyms: 

deva — of the Supreme Lord; dvija — the brāhmaṇas; guru — the spiritual master; prājña — and worshipable personalities; pūjanam — worship; śaucam — cleanliness; ārjavam — simplicity; brahmacaryam — celibacy; ahiṁsā — nonviolence; ca — also; śārīram — pertaining to the body; tapaḥ — austerity; ucyate — is said to be.

Translation: 

Austerity of the body consists in worship of the Supreme Lord, the brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master, and superiors like the father and mother, and in cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy and nonviolence.

 deva-dvija-guru-prājña-, 

pūjanaṁ here basically means respecting, need not literally worshiping, doing puja is one way of expressing respect so who all people are to be respected? Deva, which can refer to Supreme Lord and can also refer to Devatas, Srila Prabhupada mentioned Deva refers to Supreme Lord because He is the greatest of all Devas. He is referred to as Dev Deva 

dvija, Brahmana, guru, prājña, in general anybody who is advance in knowledge.

Chankya Pandit says that a powerful person may be respected in his area but a knowledgeable person is respected everywhere because of the wisdom he is having.

pūjanaṁ śaucam ārjavam, śaucam, cleanliness (internal and external), ārjavam is simplicity straight forwardness. 

brahmacaryam ahiṁsā ca, 

śārīraṁ tapa ucyate

All these are śārīraṁ tapa, austerities of the body.

brahmacaryam ahiṁsā ca, it is interesting that Krishna has coupled Brahmacarya and Ahimsa together, earlier we saw how Krishna was coupling Kama and Krodha together. 

So the way to control Kama is Brahmacarya the way to control Krodha is Ahimsa.

Generally all our activities are classified with three activities of body, speech and mind. We also discussed about these Vegas (forces) which Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur classified into bodily, mental and verbal. So Sanyasi also has three Dandat which represents that they will serve the Lord Mansa, Vaca Karmana, body mind and speech. 

Purport: One should offer, or learn to offer, respect to God or to the demigods

So learn to offer indicated that austerity is something which we may not feel like doing it. As Srila Prabhupada told that even if you don’t feel like offering obeisances still you do it and then you will feel like doing that.

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sometimes faint after taking Darshan of deities we can at least offer obeisances.

By doing these things a cultural impressions are created in our mind.

Ahimsa: when someone provoke us it requires discipline and control not to get provoked not to lash out and hit other person. To avoid these provocation is an austerity. Materially sometime people suggest to count till 10 to calm down a devotee may chant Hare Krishna MahaMantra 10 times or remember some verses which talks about danger of anger. All devotees has to develop one’s own pause button. The pause button is stopping mind to follow its default trajectory of temptation and fall down. That pause button may be chanting, kirtan, reading inspirational passages etc. for different devotees different ways.

Ārjavam, can be translated as straight forwardness which will be more as an inner attribute. Ārjavam can be translated as simplicity also, The word Arjuna is related with the word ārjavam, so simplicity. 

The more simpler we live the more we have time for higher thinking. Simple living and High thinking. More complex we live more our thought caught up in living only. It doesn’t mean a devotee cannot have modern gadgets etc. so do as much as it is required not go by media pressure. What level of engagement for material things is required for my service for my social position and what necessary level of engagement is sucking me in, that has to be decided individually and live accordingly. We may not able to disconnect ourselves entirely from material things but that doesn’t mean we have to get ourselves completely entangled into these things. 

So instead of simple living and high thinking many people end up in simply living and hardly thinking. Real thinking is thinking at spiritual level which is facilitated by high thinking. To do so many things at material level sucks our mental energy. 

More wealth more rise in social status more struggle to maintain the social status which brings its own entanglements, irritation, complications, agitations, so a devotees tries to live as simply as possible given the time place and circumstances.

End of transcription.