Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Bg 1.43

utsanna-kula-dharmāṇāṁ

manuṣyāṇāṁ janārdana

narake niyataṁ vāso

bhavatīty anuśuśruma

Word for word: 

utsanna — spoiled; kula–dharmāṇām — of those who have the family traditions; manuṣyāṇām — of such men;janārdana — O Kṛṣṇa; narake — in hell; niyatam — always; vāsaḥ — residence; bhavati — it so becomes; iti — thus; anuśuśruma — I have heard by disciplic succession.

Translation: 

O Kṛṣṇa, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those whose family traditions are destroyed dwell always in hell.

Now here Sri Krishna is referred as Janardana in this section repeatedly because He is protector of people, He is Janaradana, why are You letting such destruction happen O Krishna.

So utsanna-kula-dharmāṇāṁ, when Kula dharma is destroyed then what will happen to such a person? 

narake niyataṁ vāso, forever such a person has to stay in hell and 

bhavatīty anuśuśruma, what I have heard this from authorities, anuśuśruma. 

So Arjuna is not quoting his reasoning over here. He is quoting from authority, he is saying that he has heard from the authority that those who will cause devastation will suffer hellish consequences. So Arjuna is using his reason but that is based on scripture, later on we will see that scripture has multiple levels of teachings and Arjuna reasoning is not at the highest level of scriptures, it is at intermediate level but he is also relying on authority bhavatīty anuśuśruma. Then one important point is Arjuna is talking about narake niyataṁ vāso, the person has to go to hell now actually, the reference to hell and going to hell raises the question that Arjuna knows that I am not the body I am the soul because, who is going to go to hell as the body is going to be destroyed, some part will go to hell and that is soul. That means Arjuna is not entirely unaware of spiritual knowledge, he is not entirely unaware of after-life, but the problem is this after life is still based on material conception, somebody can have the idea that I will go to next life but just knowing there is a next life doesn’t purify us, doesn’t make us detached, doesn’t make us attached to Krishna, doesn’t make us spiritually attached because one still has the material conception of life, for example there are Jihhadis in Islam where there is a particular misinterpretation which is circulating, for grown up children it is said that if you lay down your life for Jihhdi fight for Allah and if you will die fighting for Allah you will go to Jannath and in Jannath you will enjoy 73 virgins for all of eternity, this is distortion about Kuran’s teaching but actually the point is what is the attraction it is not that you will go to Allah because you love him and you serve Allah, even if they are dyeing they are not dying for love of Allah but for the love of virgins. So this is a complete distortion of teaching of Kuran, but point is this is a material conception of religion so the idea is there can be this worldly materialism and other worldly materialism, just being other worldly doesn’t make on spiritual, someone thinks O next world it is not spiritual no it is not spiritual it can be material also.

There was a Christian theologist but his understanding was very hollow and shallow, he wrote a series of novels in which he has written that everyone went to heaven and heaven was just like London so what is the idea, the idea is heaven is continuation of this worldly life but without the problem of this worldly life, this is very superficial understanding of what next worldly life is. So just believing the next life doesn’t make one spiritual, what makes on spiritual is understand the difference between body & soul and rising to spiritual level of consciousness, so Arjuna has the awareness of next life that way, he understood that some component of me or soul will go to hell but focus is still on material conception of life and actually narake niyataṁ vāso, so actually niyata here is not eternal in the sense of literal eternal, he is saying that actually no body stays in the hell forever, actually eternally in hell is not in vedic literature, it is there in some religion like Christianity, Islam it says those who don’t follow Jesus or Mohamed in this life they will go to hell and burn in the fire of hell forever. Here niyata is used for very long time, very-very long time they have to suffer in hell and he is thinking that I have to suffer, why? Because I am going to cause such suffering to people so I must not do this.

End of transcription.