Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

So this is the essential truth of BG and Arjuna will make it clear in next verse further

Bg 10.14

sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye
yan māṁ vadasi keśava
na hi te bhagavan vyaktiṁ
vidur devā na dānavāḥ

Word for word: 

sarvam — all; etat — this; ṛtam — truth; manye — I accept; yat — which; mām — unto me; vadasi — You tell; keśava — O Kṛṣṇa; na — never; hi — certainly; te — Your; bhagavan — O Personality of Godhead; vyaktim — revelation; viduḥ — can know; devāḥ — the demigods; na — nor; dānavāḥ — the demons.

Translation: 

O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality.

 

sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye, I accept all what You have told

yan māṁ vadasi keśava,  māṁ vadasi, what You have spoken to me Kesava, I accept all, 

na hi te bhagavan vyaktiṁ, O Absolute Truth what You have revealed to me

vidur devā na dānavāḥ, this is not even easy for god or demons to understand 

 

There are two different point in this, first is O Lord I accept what you say and I also acknowledge that it is not easy to understand You.

So when we accept Krishna it is not that we have to understand everything what Krishna has said there will be something which we will not be able to understand so rather than saying it is false we suspend the judgment about it. Certain things requires purification in us to understand them so we suspend judgment about them.

I accept what you said but even devatas cannot understand it.

And SP said this is the way BG has to be understood not half hen logic.

For example in on Christian Talk one person said I accept Jesus but I am not part of any Church, so when it was asked why then the person said no church goes with my understanding of Jesus. So it is like saying I am a patient but I am not taking the treatment, why? Because I didn’t found any doctor who agrees with my diagnosis. So whether doctor is supposed to agree with Patient diagnosis or vice versa? Now it may happen that there are many organization which is not teaching with the proper teaching and people has to careful about it, but ultimately the patient has to agree with the doctor and not other way. 

So a horse has to come before carriage and not carriage before horse.

How can we know the Gita’s meaning?

  1. Check the Gita’s message itself -18.66. 

This is clear instruction given. Yes there are many paths talked about but this is the conclusion. 

So a teacher can teach student at various levels but at the end he teaches the conclusion. A teacher says whatever I taught forget that and this is what I wanted you to do. 

  1. Check the understanding of the original student –10.12-14

We can also see what student understanding is because if student understanding was wrong then teacher would have corrected the understanding.

So here Arjun gave his understanding. 

  1. Check the actions of the original student –18.72, he works in the mood of devotion, look at Mahabharata what happened afterwards.

So essentially if we let BG speak itself it is very clear that Krishna is the Absolute Truth and devotional service to Him is the best means to achieve that AT. 

Imp of 18.66

If contradictory statements are present in a conversation or a book, how to resolve?

1.Normal logic: Later statements are given precedence over Earlier statements

  1. Irrefutable logic: Later statements rejects the earlier statements. This is what 18.66 doesEnd of transcription.