Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

We have to remember Krishna at the time of death, how we will remember?

For that we have to remember Him throughout our life.

Bg 8.7

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu
mām anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ

Word for word: 

tasmāt — therefore; sarveṣu — at all; kāleṣu — times; mām — Me; anusmara — go on remembering; yudhya — fight; ca — also; mayi — unto Me; arpita — surrendering; manaḥ — mind; buddhiḥ — intellect; mām — unto Me;eva — surely; eṣyasi — you will attain; asaṁśayaḥ — beyond a doubt.

Translation: 

Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.

 

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu, therefore at all time of Arjuna 

mām anusmara yudhya ca, remember Me and fight

So now there is a progression, deepening of the devotion in BG3.30, Krishna is saying you do your work and offer your fruits to Me, so that means offering comes after doing the work, but here He says that first you think of Me and then do your work so it is not just a post action offering but it is a pre-action meditation, pre action connection mām anusmara yudhya ca, so why do we remember Krishna not because He is the fruit of the offering but because He is Lord of my heart He is my all in all, everything that I do I do for Him even the yudhya, for Arjuna the prescribed duty is fighting but different people prescribed duty will be different so whatever will be the prescribed duty we do that, mām anusmara yudhya ca, so in this way when we offer ourselves entirely to Krishna and we also do a prescribed duty then naturally our prescribed duty is directed towards Krishna 

mayy arpita-mano-buddhir, so Krishna says if you keep remembering Me what will happen? Not only is your work offered to Me but also your subtle body becomes offered to Me mayy arpita-mano-buddhir. The mind and intelligence will be offered to Me and when you do this in your life you are actually living to develop love for Krishna. Then we are living for Krishna then naturally we have the opportunity for pleasure and focus on Krishna eventually we will attain Sri Krishna. mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ, 

Srila Prabhupada explained in his purport: This instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities. So which is all of us are engaged in material activities and but while we engaged in material activities if we can remember Krishna and how can we remember Krishna that our Sadhana is very important it is not that if we don’t do our Sadhana all day we just do our work, for family and other material activities suddenly we think of Krishna, no, actually we have to give exclusive time for quality connection with Krishna and then when Krishna is in our foreground of consciousness at that time through our prayer through our meditation through our scriptural study through our deity worship through our devotee association through our going to pilgrimage occasionally, go to temple regularly at least during these times Sri Krishna is in foreground of our consciousness then while doing worldly activities may be worldly activities are in foreground but Krishna will be in our background but if all times we are doing worldly activities and worldly activities are in our foreground then Krishna will be not even in background, He will be just out of the ground only, that is not of much use for us, so we want to remember Krishna constantly at least for sometime we remember Krishna, primarily if not exclusively and by that practice we will be able to remember Krishna constantly then again Krishna reassures Arjuna, asaṁśayaḥ so in two verses Krishna assures here with only one verse in between in 8.5. So this is Krishna reassuring Arjuna, guaranteeing Arjuna that if you do this you will come back to Me, that is what Srila Prabhupada told us if you follow the process of Krishna Consciousness which is given to us for life long even if we have many disqualifications even if we have many conditionings it doesn’t matter we will all be able to return back to Krishna by faithfully adhering to the process He is giving us

End of transcription.