Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Bg 9.1

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

idaṁ tu te guhya-tamaṁ
pravakṣyāmy anasūyave
jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ
yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt

Word for word: 

śrī–bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; idam — this; tu — but; te — unto you; guhya–tamam — the most confidential; pravakṣyāmi — I am speaking; anasūyave — to the nonenvious; jñānam — knowledge; vijñāna — realized knowledge; sahitam — with; yat — which; jñātvā — knowing; mokṣyase — you will be released; aśubhāt — from this miserable material existence.

Translation: 

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence.

 

idaṁ tu te guhya-tamaṁ, idaṁ tu te, O Arjuna this I will speak to you guhya-tamaṁ, guhya is confidential, guhya-tamaṁ is most confidential knowledge, so the chapter title comes from both 9.1 and 9.2 Raj Guhya and guhya-tamaṁ, as we discussed earlier Guhya refers to confidential, GuhyaTara refers to more confidential and guhya-tamaṁ refers to most confidential so Sri Krishna will used this superlative describer guhya-tamaṁ several times in BG and each context we will see that it is used in the context of Bhakti alone wherever it is used. Some impersonalists tries to argue that higher the knowledge of personal absolute is the knowledge of impersonal absolute. But we will see repeatedly that Sri Krishna uses the word guhya-tamaṁ again and again to refer to the personal absolute and the devotion to the personal absolute so the most confidential knowledge is not that there is something unborn within Krishna which has to be worshiped. No it is Krishna who is to be worshiped and that is the most confidential knowledge so pravakṣyāmy anasūyave, O Arjuna you are non envious so I will speak to you, So generally why does Krishna says that you are anasūyave? What is the relationship between the two? Krishna and anasūyave point? Krishna has used something similar in the 4th chapter also when Sri Krishan told Arjuna that I will speak this knowledge to you, Krishna said I will speak to you the knowledge which I had given to Vivasvan long ago that He has mentions in 4.1, 4.2 He said how it was lost and 4.3 He said now I will give that back to you, give it once again to you because you are bhakto ’si me sakhā ceti. So devotion and envy are opposite emotions, devotion means we rejoice in Sri Krishna’s glory, envy means we burn because of Sri Krishna’s glory, why do we burn? Because we feel that I wanted to be glorious, I wanted to be famous, I wanted to be great why is Krishna so great? I wanted to be great. So these two are opposites. More devotion we understands Sri Krishna’s glory more and our heart filled with joy. So when we are in competition with Sri Krishna instead of being in devotion then the more we hear Sri Krishna’s glory the more we feel no I wanted to be like that, why He is enjoying so much. So if one is envy in hearing about Krishna and if such people hear more of His glory then their envy will increase more and more that is the reason Krishna doesn’t reveal His glory to the envious. Krishna doesn’t want to cause the envious to even become more offensive to burn more and to create more spiritual misfortunes for themselves, so therefore Sri Krishna doesn’t reveal His glory to the envious. Krishna reveal His glory to those who are devoted. Those who are devotionally pious, so when Sri Krishna reveal this glory to them then there attraction to Krishna increases the animosity to Krishna doesn’t increase because they don’t have any animosity towards Krishna, so when it is said that Sri Krishna reveals this glories to those who are non-envious it is not that Krishna wants to hide His glory to anyone, not that Krishna wants to keep this spiritual knowledge confidential deliberately actually the confidentiality of the knowledge is simply a means to protect those who are envious to Him from creating further miseries to themselves. So anasūyave, so I speak this to you Arjuna because you are non-envious.

jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ, that how I am giving this knowledge to you? Knowledge and realization, jñānaṁ and vijñāna so till now Sri Krishna has used this compound word jñānaṁ-vijñānam twice in BG. He has used this once is 6.8 jñāna-vijñāna-tṛptātmā

kūṭa-stho vijitendriyaḥ … there He has said one who has acquired knowledge and realisation that person becomes Trupta-atma that person becomes satisfied and similarly Sri Krishna has used jñānaṁ vijñāna again in the 7th chapter when He is describing the glory of the knowledge He is giving there also He says in 7.2, there jñānaṁ vijñāna don’t come together but comes in sentence 

jñānaṁ te ’haṁ sa-vijñānam
So Sri Krishna says that I will give this knowledge to you and what will happen with this knowledge, He says actually this is complete knowledge once you know this there will be nothing more to know. Srila Prabhupada wanted his followers who were scientifically trained to present Krishna Consciousness Scientifically to the world and for that purpose he wanted them to start a magazine. And he has suggested name of magazine at that time as Svijñānam. The devotees from Bhakti Vedanta Institute were trying to run the magazine Svijñānam, so they asked Prabhupada can we call it vijñānam, No Svijñānam said Srila Prabhupada, the word vijñāna is used as science in today’ world but BG uses the word Svijñānam to indicate that actually this knowledge with realisation. It is Svijñānam, so Gyana refers to theoretical knowledge but it is not just theoretical knowledge the process of Bhakti Yoga offers not just theoretical knowledge of Krishna’s glories but experiential and transformational realisation of the sweetness of His glories is Svijñānam, so here also Sri Krishna is saying jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ, so Sri Krishna is saying what will happen by this jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ? yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt. mokṣyase ’śubhāt, by this knowledge you will become free from all inauspiciousness,  ’śubhāt, (when we do inauspicious activities it will bring misery in future) so mokṣyase ’śubhāt that means you will not do any activities which will lead to misery in future, so Krishna doesn’t necessarily says that you will become free from all miseries now, in this world we cannot become free from all miseries entirely and immediately it is like when we are sick we all have to undergo miseries because of sickness, but if we are taking the treatment then gradually as we keep taking the treatments we will become free from sickness, we will become free from disease and then we will become free from misery so if at the time of sickness we do activities which aggravate the sickness then the misery will increase but if at that time we take the proper medicine then what will happen is the disease will gradually be cured we won’t be doing anything which will increase our misery so in that sense yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt, you will become free from inauspicious activities which lead to misery so mokṣyase ’śubhāt, now we may wonder how Sri Krishna give jñāna and vijñāna, normally knowledge somebody else can give but realisation is something we have to get, so how it can be said that Sri Krishna will give knowledge and realisation both actually realisation is something which we only have to get but Krishna can give us the process by which we can get realisation. So when the process is given then that process helps us to apply it, say Gyana is like the diagnosis and Vigyana is like the prescription, when we go to a doctor, doctor I am having pain in the stomach and then doctor gives an elaborate 45 minute talk about the different kinds of problem that can be there in the stomach that can cause pain and then give description of what is the specific problem in our stomach also and says now you can go your time is over, So we will say WHAT!!! I just don’t want to know what is wrong I wanted to know how it can be set right, a diagnosis is not of much use without a prescription so Sri Krishna says jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ means that he give diagnosis and prescription and when the patient takes the prescription then by that patient will get cured, so yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt, we will become free from misery mokṣyase ’śubhāt, and when you become free form misery you become supremely happy by that, so that will come gradually. Now let us look at Srila Prabhupada’ s purport briefly, so first Srila Prabhupada mentions about glories of hearing then Srila Prabhupada gives summary of what is going in BG, ” The words idaṁ jñānam (“this knowledge”) { idaṁ  in first line and jñānam in 3rd line} what is this idaṁ jñānam , Sri Krishan has used similar word in the previous chapter last word Idam Vidithva, that once you understand this Arjuna then you will get result of all Gyana, Tapa everything  and not only that you will get something more also paraṁ sthānam upaiti cādyam, you will get the Param Sthāna also so Sri Krishan is saying you will get all this just by understanding this knowledge, understanding includes realisation, so as the chapter will unfold we will see that Sri Krishna is referring to Bhakti Yoga itself, so Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport that idaṁ jñānam  refers to the knowledge of pure devotional service, and he lists the nine element,

SP Purport: “Now this first verse has specific significance. The words idaṁ jñānam (“this knowledge”) refer to pure devotional service, which consists of nine different activities: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshiping, praying, obeying, maintaining friendship and surrendering everything.” 

And then Srila Prabhupada talks about spiritual realisations he mentions that “Simply to understand that a living entity is not material is not sufficient. That may be the beginning of spiritual realization,”

And vijñānam is…

“ but one should recognise the difference between activities of the body and the spiritual activities of one who understands that he is not the body.”

Then Srila Prabhupada explains anasūyave.

Now going to overview of chapter 9, this chapter is very similar to the 7th chapter. 7th Chapter is also have similar sections.

7.1, .2 & .3 talks about the glories of the knowledge Arjuna is given starts from mayy āsakta-manāḥ to tac chṛṇu you hear about it, first it is talked about this knowledge will help you to be attached to Me then second talks about this knowledge is complete, there is nothing more to know and 3rd is this knowledge is very rare, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu…that is first three similar to first three verses over here.

Then the second section talks about the Krishna’s relationship with material world that verses 4 to 12-13 talks about how material and spiritual energy of Krishna is there and it talks about how Krishna pervades material existence and then it talks about how Krishna is beyond the three modes, He is master of the three modes, then after that how different people approach Krishna in different ways, how different people understand Krishna so there we discussed about 13 & 14 talks about how Surrender to Krishna how one can become liberated. 15 talks about those who don’t surrender duṣkṛtina, 16 to 19 talks about those who surrender they becomes Gyanvan then 20-23 talks about those who worship the devatas 24 talks about those who are attracted to impersonal Brahman as the highest reality. Then 25 to 30 talks about how knowledge about Krishna liberates. So the similar pattern is seen over here 1-3 is glories of the knowledge. 4 – 10 is Sri Krishna’s relation with this world. Then 11 to 19 is the relationship of how different people understand Him. And then the same thought flow is there but all the concepts are developed deeper. As we will move forward we will see that. Then 20 -28 talks about comparing demigod worship and pure devotional service. There it was primarily focusing on knowledge of Krishna here it is Kevala Bhakti, devotion to Krishna and how that liberates even the most fallen so there is remarkable similarities in these two chapters.

End of transcription.