Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan
Bg 9.2
rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam
Word for word:
rāja–vidyā — the king of education; rāja–guhyam — the king of confidential knowledge; pavitram — the purest;idam — this; uttamam — transcendental; pratyakṣa — by direct experience; avagamam — understood; dharmyam— the principle of religion; su–sukham — very happy; kartum — to execute; avyayam — everlasting.
Translation:
This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.
rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ, this is king of knowledge and it is most confidential knowledge, pavitram, supremely pure, idam uttamam, uttamam means which is beyond darkness of this world.
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ, it gives us a realization and su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam, it is joyfully performed.
Srila Prabhupada has written in his purport each of these points very systematically, so here also Sri Krishna is speaking about the glory of this knowledge, in 7.2 also Sri Krishna spoke about glory of this knowledge, nothing more to be known, we discussed earlier chapter 3 and 5 are similar in their overall thought flow and conceptual division and similarly chapters 7 and 9 are similar in there thought flow and conceptual divisions. We have seen Sri Krishna has gone deeper in Karma yoga in 5th chapter then 3rd chapter and here Krishna has gone deeper in Bhakti Yoga than in 7th chapter.
RajVidya is a compound word it can be broken in two words it can be king of knowledge or knowledge of kings, what is the meaning of knowledge of kings? Sri Krishna has told earlier in 4.2 Evam Parampara Praptam Emam Rajaisho Vidhu…that this knowledge is acquired by Raja Rishis, the great saintly kings, so it is knowledge of the kings, why of the kings? Is BG made only for the kings? Are all of us also kings? Or BG made for people to make kings? What is the meaning of saying that it is knowledge of kings? Actually the idea is the BG doesn’t talk of renouncing the world, the BG talks about living in the world and acting in the world and pursuing liberation and pursuing transcendence by acting in the world. And acting in the world is the primarily prerogative of the Kshetriyas, the Brahmanas are little bit distant from the world, the Brahmans are important, the BG respect the Brahmans, and it is said that the Brahmans are the persons who give this knowledge. We will see that in 18th chapter that Sri Krishna talks about the characteristics of the Brahmana but Brahmana can give knowledge but the Kshetriyas implement the knowledge through their social policies, cultural policies, economic policies the knowledge is implemented so there is knowledge that is given and knowledge that is implemented both are important so who does the implementation, it is primarily the Kshetriyas, Kshetriyas need to have the knowledge. Kshetriyas are anyway going to act, no matter what is the social condition it is degraded or exalted there are always going to people with Kshetriya inclinations that is people who are going to manage delegate lead rule, now if those people are not spiritually educated then they will act according to their own ideas and that will leads to complications and troubles later and greater so if they are spiritually guided then they will act properly and they will be able to setup systems by which this knowledge will be shared with others, so the idea is not to limit or monopolies with particular community but the idea is to strategies so that the knowledge is most effectively distributed so Kshetriyas are the people who are going to influence the world so if they are inspired by knowledge of BG, they will be able to give the knowledge to everyone, rāja-vidyā so it is Vidya of Rajas, the knowledge of kings similarly the other ways it is king of all knowledge, in 10th chapter Krishna also says that Adhyatma Vidya Vidya Nam, He says among different kinds of Vidya I am Adhyatma Vidhya, Adhyatma Vidya means I am the spiritual knowledge, because the spiritual knowledge is best of all knowledge since it is most intimately connected to us and it gives the best result to us so there are different kinds of knowledge but the king is the most powerful king can bring most transformation so among different kinds of knowledge that can bring transformation this is the knowledge that can bring the greatest amount of transformation, we can have knowledge of nuclear physics and with that knowledge of nuclear physics probably whole city can be destroyed but with all the power of most powerful bombs that can be made by nuclear physics the bad habits of even one person cannot be destroyed whatever inclination are there it cannot be destroyed even if there physical bodies are destroyed there mental inclination will still be there and next life when they are born all those material inclinations will still continue but when we acquire spiritual knowledge that has such transformational potencies that it can destroy without living even a trace it can eradicate and eliminate all the negative behaviour traits all the bad habits of people this is RajVidya the most powerful knowledge.
Srila Prabhupada explains from other perspective that actually there are many philosophers in Vedic culture: Among the principal philosophers in India are Gautama, Kaṇāda, Kapila, Yājñavalkya, Śāṇḍilya and Vaiśvānara. And finally there is Vyāsadeva, the author of the Vedānta-sūtra.
So Prabhupada is giving a rough listing of names over here, these personalities have given various branches of knowledge, Kapila has given yoga like that, roughly they are the founder of six systems Srila Prabhupada is given some of the prominent names, there are many. But actually there is abundance of knowledge there is so much wealth of knowledge but what is most precious in that knowledge that is this knowledge which is given, it is king of all knowledge, so what Vyasadeva does in Vedanta Sutra, he basically responds and refutes all systems of Philosophy that are there in the vedic culture so nayaya, sankhaya, yoga, Vaisasika all these philosophy are there, he refutes all of them and he establishes Vedanta as the conclusion. So Vedanta is established as the king of all the knowledge that same Vedanta is explained over here in a concise and accessible way by Sri Krishna so that way it is Raja Vidya, and Srila Prabhupada explains Raja Guhyaṁ, why Raja Guhyaṁ most confidential knowledge it is king among all confidential knowledge because he says first of all most people are in the bodily concept of life they don’t know anything about the soul at all, because they don’t know anything about the soul they live just like animals then there are some people who come to know about the soul and they may be caught up in impersonal conception but among those who come to know about soul there are some who come to know about Supreme Soul also and the bond of love that can bring eternal ecstasy to both of them the lord is eternally ecstatic but the more souls He has in the spiritual world the more His ecstasy increases and the soul has no ecstasy in material world soul goes back to spiritual world in ecstasy, so this knowledge is going to produce Supreme ecstasy that is why it is called most confidential knowledge so Srila Prabhupada explains that in rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ.
So second chapter has talked about the soul and then slowly after that BG is revealing how one can act at the level of the soul how one can realize the soul not by just renouncing or contemplating that I am the soul I am the soul not like that, they have to act in this world by detachment and gradually internal realization will come, and when one acts in this way as detachment and gains internal realization by this one gradually moves forward till eventually one comes to the platform of understanding that there is a Supreme Soul with whom I have to relate and by loving Him there is Supreme happiness, so basically from 3rd to 6th chapters the focus is on atma how to get atma gyan to realise atma and Sri Krishna is not in focus till then, from 7th chapter onwards Krishna is becoming the focus. In the 8th chapter, astanga yoga, also it is described how Krishna should be made the focus, in 9th chapter Krishan and devotional path becomes the focus. This is rāja-guhya, most confidential knowledge and then pavitram idam uttamam, so it is Supremely purifying, so here Srila Prabhupada quotes from Padamapuran,
aprārabdha-phalaṁ pāpaṁ
kūṭaṁ bījaṁ phalonmukham
krameṇaiva pralīyeta
viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām
For those who are engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all sinful reactions, whether fructified, in the stock, or in the form of a seed, gradually vanish.
(This will be discussed more in NOD)
Aprārabdha, means that which is not yet fructified.
When we talk about sinful reactions they can be various stages basically every action we do is sowing a seed and when the seed is sown eventually it will grow it grows into a sapling (small) and then it grows into a tree and it gives fruits, now this is a tree whose fruits we have to accept we can’t avoid it so as law of Karma says as you sow so you reap, it is said in Bible so that also it is talking about the same metaphor itself every action we do is like sowing a seed and it is going to produce reactions we can’t avoid the reactions, of course there is a process by Bhakti Yoga it is possible to avoid otherwise generally whatever action we do reactions has to come.
So here Padma Purana is describing that reactions can be in different stages so prārabdha means it is already come for example we have a particular kind of body some of us are good looking some of us are not, some of us may have healthy body some may have sick bodies, so all these differences are because of Prarabdha Karma the karmic reactions are coming to us.
Aprārabdha means that which has not yet come but is going to come and beyond that it is kūṭaṁ bījaṁ phalonmukham, so kūṭaṁ bījaṁ, means very tiny, it is not even a seed form it is less than a seed form, beejam means it has become a beeja and it is going to grow and phalonmukham means about to fructified. So actually it is described krameṇaiva pralīyeta, pralīyeta destroyed, krameṇaiva systematically, how the bija are destroyed? viṣṇu-bhakti-ratātmanām, if one engages in Bhakti, Bhakti destroys all these, so just as the seed which is fried will not fructify similarly the process of Bhakti freeze us from sinful reaction because it fries the Karmic seeds so that is why it is said pavitram idam uttamam. Pavitram means that it purifies, it is pure and it purifies so it purifies us from sinful reactions of course it also purifies us from sinful tendencies. Here Srila Prabhupada is telling us whatever Papa we have done the reaction will be removed and reaction to papa comes from both as sinful reactions come as sufferings and they also come as further desires, that is like when a person drinks then two things happen the physical effect of that and along with that the desire to drink will become stronger in the same way we get both kinds of reactions one is outcome of what happens to us and second is also what happens to us internally because the same tendencies getting strengthen so both will be removed by the process of Bhakti Yoga so pavitram idam uttamam, it is transcendental it is beyond the darkness of this world and then pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ, Srila Prabhupada says in purport: it is so perfect that one can perceive the results directly, anyone who chants feels some transcendental pleasure and very quickly becomes purified of all material contamination. This is seen. So what is the pratyakṣāvagamaṁ that we experience it is pleasure and purification. It is pleasure and purification, we can see these two things quite quickly, now we may say Oh I feel pure when I chant, I feel pleasant when I chant, but it doesn’t last after sometime I again start feeling impure and no pleasure so is the result temporary, no the bhakti gives the result but we have to engage in Bhakti, if I don’t engage in Bhakti then I don’t experience the result so it is not that we can experience these results independent of Bhakti. For example if I have got an anti-gravity strap seal, some short of anti-gravity jacket which enables me to float up, now I can see that I am floating up because of anti-gravity jacket but if I takeoff the jacket I can fall down does it means that anti-gravity jacket doesn’t work? No the proof of the anti-gravity jacket working is both the things that when we have it on, it helps us to counter gravity and float and when we take it off we fall back. So the point is pleasure and purification we experience when we are in Krishna Consciousness, when we are engaged in devotional service, if we are not engaged in devotional service then we can’t experience this when we can’t experience this that is also a confirmation in a negative way but it is also a confirmation so when a doctor says this is your decease and this medicine will cure you, if I take the medicine it cures me if I don’t take the medicine my suffering increases, that also in one sense proves the efficacy of the medicine that not taking the medicines will give you continuation of the aggravation of the suffering, so purification and satisfaction these are the pratyakṣāvagamaṁ.
So there are three Pramanas (evidence) for Bhakti, pratyakṣā, Anuman and Sabdam. So pratyakṣā is sensory perception Anuman is mental speculation Sabdaya is scriptural revelation. So among these we consider Sabdaya to be most authoritative and that is definitely true it is essential that Sabda is most authoritative but actually what is pratyakṣāvagamaṁ means? It is not just pratyakṣā but it is pratyakṣāvagamaṁ, means that which is directly experienced so there may be some sensory perception but it is more about experience of the heart within, now how does the experience of the heart takes place? So what essentially is the realization? Realization essentially means that we experience a reality which is also mentioned in the scriptures, so this world is Dukalayam when we experience some great misery some great calamity then we realize what scriptures says is true this world is a Dukalayam, padam-padam yat vipadam, there is danger every step here, so actually so speaking that is one level of realization, this is a reality and we accept it to be a reality. There are many people who has experienced miseries and calamity and they say that Oh god doesn’t exist or god is so cruel, people come up with three conclusion when they see suffering if they have not studied scripture, god is negligent (doesn’t care for me), god is malevolent (he is causing the suffering or he is evil minded ) or god is none existent (he doesn’t exist only), so people come up with these ideas when suffering comes upon them if they have not understood nature of this world if they have not studied scriptures and when this happens what is the result they becomes apathetic or averse towards the God but on the other hand if we study scriptures then the suffering we experience yes there is suffering in this world it is a reality but beyond that there is higher reality that is the reality of God’s love and that is the supreme reality and it is that reality for which we should aspire for so the BG reveals to us the high nature reality and invites us to come to that reality so when we understand scriptures properly then realization inspires us yes it is true that this world is a place of suffering but let me take shelter of Krishna because there is greater reality richer reality there and that will give me shelter that will give me solace that will give me strength that will give me sublime attitude which will help me to face and go through situations properly. So what we are trying to explain by this is there is
Sensory perception
Mental speculation / mental contemplation / conceptualisation
Scriptural revelation
So what is realization actually? Realization comes when we do mental contemplation in such a way that we harmonise our sensory perception with scriptural revelation. Which means realization comes when we do ANUMAN in such a way that it harmonizes our Pratakshya with Sabda. We pursue something with Pratakshaya so I pursue that there is suffering in this world now sabdya is telling me that there is suffering in this world so when I do my reasoning, our anuman always doesn’t have to have a negative connotation, Anuman basically means we are using our mental faculty the subtle body’s faculty and when we use our mental faculty what happens by that? If mental faculty is used arbitrarily without any basis in scripture then we speculate and come up with various kind of ideas but when we use it systematically then we get a deeper understanding so Anuman when it is Shastra Mulak (routed in scripture, guided by scripture) it is said to be Vichar, Vichar is systematic reasoning contemplation. So anuman the way it helps us to harmonize our prataksha with sabda then it is Vichar and that will lead to realization, so realization doesn’t come by suffering realization comes by our response to suffering sometimes we hear some story about some devotees who gets cancer or some terrible decease and during that time of decease they take shelter of Krishna very intensely and they practically transcend the suffering and then in the association of devotees very wonderfully they live Krishna Consciousness, so is it that there cancer made them serious in Krishna Consciousness and other devotee think that oh if I get cancer I will also become serious in my devotional service I am not serious right now, no cancer cannot produce Bhakti, cancer doesn’t produce Bhakti it is Bhakti only which produces Bhakti, Bhakti Sanjayate Bhakti actually cancer can be impetus for one to take shelter for Krishna but it is one’s attitude and the mercy of devotees and mercy of Sri Krishna ultimately which will enable us to take shelter of Krishna wholly there are many people who when they get cancer they instead of taking shelter of Krishna they take shelter of resentment, resentment against Krishna, why did Krishna do this to me, then what happen at that time? They will not get positive result at all. That cancer may cause them to go away from Krishna also, so some devotees think that I should also pray so that if I get some decease I will become serious, no there is no need for us to pray like that because we want to serve Krishna in this world there is so much to be done for His mission in this world and when we pray for suffering like this and when suffering comes we may feel it is too much for us to handle, why did Krishna do this to me, so rather than praying that let suffering come upon me what we should be praying generally we have different zones, we can have our comfort zone, we can have stretch zone, we can have panic zone. Comfort zone means we are doing everything comfortably like somebody can lift 10kg weight and he is give half kg weight to lift, he will lift it very easily that is nothing great about that is everything is within our capacity, stretch zone is something is slightly beyond our capacity if I can lift 10 kg but I lift 11 kg then my muscles gets stretched little bit and by lifting slightly more than my capacity the capacity of muscle improves, similarly if we do little more service then what we can do, we try to take up little more responsibility for Krishna then we can then that will help us to grow, panic zone means I can lift 10 kg but someone gave me 25 kg then I am thinking that this whole thing is going to fall on me? My bones are going to break and I don’t know what will happen to me so when we have too many things to do it is panic zone and we start getting crushed under that so we don’t want to go in panic zone but at the same time we don’t want to be in comfort zone also so that is stretch zone which we want to be in. So rather than praying to Krishna please give me suffering, suffering can put us in panic zone and I will not be able to do anything respond properly so we pray to Krishna that please help me to be engaged in services which stretch me out of my comfort zone which put me in stretch zone so by taking little more struggle in our services we can make steady spiritual advancement.
So the reasons for discussing these three zones right now is the point we were making is about realization when we do our reasoning in such a way that our Praktsha harmonizes with our Sabda then we get realization, pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ, so actually speaking when we render devotional service to Sri Krishna we will see in 10th chapter Dadami Buddhi Yogam Tam, so if we are sincerely doing devotional service to Krishna if we are studying scripture we are chanting the holy names then when we face challenges in life at that time Sri Krishna will give us intelligence by which we will do this harmonization what is the harmonization? The harmonization of Praktakshya with Sabda so we will be able to do this harmonization of Praktakshya with sabda when we are using our intelligence properly and our intelligence is guided by scripture and it is guided by Sri Krishna’s mercy so that is what pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ, so whatever experiences we get we should see how those experiences are harmonizable with scripture and by that sort of using our intellectual faculty we will make steady spiritual advancement.
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam, su-sukhaṁ means it is joyful, why it is joyful? Because Krishna himself is a source of Joy, and when we connect with Krishna naturally it brings joy to us, and Srila Prabhupada quoted from Vedanta Sutra over here: prakāśaś ca karmaṇy abhyāsāt.“Devotional service is so potent that simply by engaging in the activities of devotional service one becomes enlightened without a doubt.”
karmaṇy abhyāsāt, so by engaging in right kind of activity i.e. devotional activity abhyāsāt, what will happen prakāśaś ca, illumination comes when doubts goes away. And Srila Prabhupada quotes story of Narad muni so what Srila Prabhuada is saying over here how one experiences ecstasy
ucchiṣṭa-lepān anumodito dvijaiḥ
sakṛt sma bhuñje tad-apāsta-kilbiṣaḥ
evaṁ pravṛttasya viśuddha-cetasas
tad-dharma evātma-ruciḥ prajāyate
In this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.5.25) Nārada describes his previous life to his disciple Vyāsadeva.
So it is described how by taking Prasad of the Lord ucchiṣṭa-lepān, when he took the ucchiṣṭa, of the maha bhagwats from whom he is hearing who were staying near his place in chatur masya what happened? anumodito dvijaiḥ, those dvijas, he took their permission and took their Prasad their remnants, sakṛt sma bhuñje tad-apāsta-kilbiṣaḥ, this was the way he rendered devotional service he was serving, he was serving them and also he took their Prasad and sakṛt sma bhuñje, he took once but what happened? apāsta-kilbiṣaḥ, his kilbiṣaḥ the contamination in the heart were destroyed, evaṁ pravṛttasya viśuddha-cetasas, his consciousness became purified viśuddha-cetasas, pravṛttasya, and inclination of the heart towards the Lord increases tad-dharma evātma-ruciḥ prajāyate, so ruchi, ruchi is attraction, so attraction towards the Supreme Lord awakened, he develops the same test which they had so this is pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ su-sukhaṁ, so the point which we were talking, doing reasoning which will harmonize out Pratakshya with sabdya, so in previous life Narad Muni was born in quite sorry circumstances being a son maid servant and to not have the father or not even know the father is quite a sorry situation in today’s world there are so many single mothers and it is a great struggle for them to take care of the children, father is not there for whatever reason it may be divorce of father is abandoned or father has passed away so for small child the mother is practically the whole existence and if mother dies what is left for the child then it is a devastation the only person the child knows is mother and mother has died that can make the child fearful, sense less, raze, confusion all these things happens what will the person do but none of these happened to Narada, why? Because he has done devotional service he has heard scriptures, and the Lord gave the intelligence further, what was that intelligence? That intelligence enabled him to do Anuman (reasoning) that harmonize his Praktakshya with Sabdya, so he has heard from great sages that how ultimate goal of the life is to surrender to the Lord, and to the Lord alone and He is our only and ultimate shelter so as long as he has mother he has attached to his mother, the attachment is not bad it is important for a child to have nourishing environment and it is apara dharma, apara dharma is important as long as we are living in this world but apara dharma should not lead us to neglect the para dharma, apara dharma is our worldly duties para dharma is our transcendental duties towards Sri Krishna so apara and para should go harmonically and Narad muni in previous life has already got this ruciḥ prajāyate as a boy, ruciḥ prajāyate, he has got the ruchi so this situation is created and this is the way the soul has been brought to Sri Krishna he might have been put on the platform where he could have balanced both apara and para dharma but when his mother has passed away many people go to the level of Adharma the level of atheism, why did god this to me, I only had mother and god took my mother also, why did god do such a thing to me, I don’t believe in god I hate god that can very easily happen to a person , but it didn’t happen why because of the devotional service he has performed because the mercy he has got from vedanties the sages and he has done anuman which harmonized his praktaksha with sabda what was the harmonization what was the reasoning which brings the harmonization actually what had been the distraction for him to practice para dharma now that has been gone away, now I have nothing else to do no one to distract from focusing me exclusively on Lord, and this child has become fearless, he started going towards north and he found place for meditation and he started meditating whole heartedly so in this way we can see that if one render devotional service and attracts the mercy of Krishna and His devotees then no matter what great calamity comes in life one can do the anuman (reasoning) which can harmonize praktakshya with sabdya, that is how he got darshan of Lord, continues his purification and became Narada Muni, a great devotee in his next life so this is how process of Bhakti wonderfully works. Srila Prabhupada explains the same point how the whole process has been done and then Darmayam, Darmayam means the path of religion which is elaborated in 8th chapter and how do we know Darmaya, Srila Prabhupada explains ācāryavān puruṣo veda. One who is in association with great ācāryas, that person can understand not otherwise, then Srila Prabhupada talks about how it is su-sukhaṁ, he is saying anybody can do it anywhere just he has to hear chant take prasadam offer tulsi leaf to the Lord it is very easy to do such things and last point Srila Prabhupada makes is it is eternally existing this is the explanation of avyaya, which means that the Bhakti will continue eternally we develop a relationship with Krishna and this is what we will do forever why because Sri Krishna is so attractive and we are souls which are naturally attracted towards Krishna. The relationship with Krishna will continue eternally so avyaya is very important as impersonalist has the idea that Bhakti is to be transcended they use bhakti like a ladder for going from lower level to higher level so once a ladder is used for climbing up there is no use of a ladder just kick the ladder away so like that once they have meditated on the Brahman / Krishna and realized that you are the Brahman there is no need for conception of the form and you go beyond the form but the BG doesn’t support this avyaya this is imperishable eternal and in this way Srila Prabhupada explains in this purport very systematically so the glory of Bhakti is that it can help us to free from all miseries and attain supreme happiness, supreme auspiciousness.
End of transcription.
Leave A Comment