Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Bg 9.14

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate

Word for word: 

satatam — always; kīrtayantaḥ — chanting; mām — about Me; yatantaḥ — fully endeavoring; ca — also; dṛḍha–vratāḥ — with determination; namasyantaḥ — offering obeisances; ca — and; mām — Me; bhaktyā — in devotion; nitya–yuktāḥ — perpetually engaged; upāsate — worship.

Translation: 

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.

 

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ, constantly glorifying Me, 

yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ, endeavoring with determination 

namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā, offering obeisances with Bhakti

nitya-yuktā, they are constantly engaged. Nitya come twice in first line as satataṁ and in last line. 

And in this way upāsate, they worship Me, 

This is one of the important verses in BG which endorses Kirtan, means glorification of Lord, it can be done in various ways, speaking Krishna Katha, chanting and dancing in Kirtans, Japa.

As discussed earlier BG doesn’t go in details of various spiritual paths because for Arjuna the point is not how to follow a path the point is which path to follow.

Here verses like these refers to explicit path of Bhakti. In 10th chapter chatur sloki Gita also it will come. 

So if someone ask where in BG chanting of holy name talked about so of course in 10th chapter Yajna Nam Yajno api among the various sacrifices I am the sacrifice in doing japa, and this verse is also very powerful verse, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ, it is talking about Kirtan clearly, and with strong describer satataṁ, always glorify Me. This is very similar to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu verse Kirtaniya Sada Hari.

So this doesn’t mean in this way, like some devotees are having conversation and middle of conversation they are chanting, especially if you do that with new people it will be very irritating, we have to understand that Kirtan can be of various ways if we are discussing seriously with devotees something connected with Krishna like management of various service etc. that is also Kirtan. During final days Srila Prabhupada spent lot of time with Bhakti Suarup Damodar Maharaj encouraging him to do scientific preaching and SP was very strong critic of scientific conceptions. So during that time different devotees came and do lot of kirtans for Srila Prabhupada and sometime HH Bhakti Suarupa Damodar Maharaj would come and Srila Prabupada will talk so much with him with animatedly so seeing this Tamal Krishna Maharaj, person servant of Srila Prabhupada during that time ask Srila Prabhupada do you like to have some kirtans now? He see Srila Prabhupada using lot of energy and he is weak and exhausted, so then Srila Prabhupada asked what are we doing now, do you think we are doing illicit sex now? This is also Kirtan. So Srila Prabhupada wanted to drive home, point emphatically that discussion related to services of Krishna are also kirtan, of course if we are always discussing practical thing only  like we have to do this festival, this program, distribute these books, if we are only doing management then although that is also kirtans but we may not stay in conscious of Krishna, so we also need to hear on regular basis Krishna katha that is directly Krishna katha, that means it can be philosophy it can be pastimes not connected to management. So Srila Prabhupada used to say devotees in KC they are trying to constantly serve Krishna in various ways. This will be discussed how at multiple level we practice KC. Even the arrangement by which kirtans can be done is also Kirtan. 

yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ, my devotees endeavour with great determination, now Krishna is talking about ananya-manaso, the mind of these devotees are not distracted by anything else, then what is the need for dṛḍha-vratāḥ? For us we need dṛḍha-vratāḥ because our mind goes here and there, and we don’t feel like serving Krishna. So dṛḍha-vratāḥ is the way love is expressed. Love is we wanted to do wonderful things for the beloved, and we will do challenging things it is not that lover will search for the challenges but whatever will please the lover, so we can see that Srila Prabhupada endeavour is so much some times when we say Srila Prabhupada is empowered that blinds us of the fact that Srila Prabhupada struggled a lot, and one of the success of SP was he was tirelessly hard worker, he will sleep for just a few hours at night, all day vigorously sharing Krishna consciousness with others. So although this world is in control of Krishna still pure devotees has shown strong determination to overcome the obstacle of this world which come in their way and which showcases their love for Krishna. In early days in USA sometimes Srila Prabhupada goes to the port and see that from here I can take a ship and go back to India, if Srila Prabhupada would have done that we would have stayed in sensual life and a life away from Krishna, so we are eternally grateful to Srila Prabhupada that he was dṛḍha-vratāḥ. Similarly we also need to be dṛḍha-vratāḥ in our life, to the extent we do Kirtan enthusiastically we will be dṛḍha-vratāḥ, because Kirtan will give us higher taste it will give us experience of the reality and beauty of KC, so whatever the obstacles are there they are temporary, I am soul and I wanted to attain spiritual level of consciousness I will endeavour, 

namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā, so these people will offer obeisances so Krishna is describing different forms of devotional service. The word ca indicate other forms of devotional service, in this way nitya-yuktā upāsate, so externally mind is constantly engaged and in previous verse internally mind is not deviated.

End of transcription.