Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

After this Krishna will summarize this chapter in one sense and Srila Prabhupada says that this verse is the sum and substance of BG. 

Bg 11.55

mat-karma-kṛn mat-paramo
mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ
nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu
yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava

Synonyms: 

mat–karma–kṛt — engaged in doing My work; mat–paramaḥ — considering Me the Supreme; mat–bhaktaḥ — engaged in My devotional service; saṅga–varjitaḥ — freed from the contamination of fruitive activities and mental speculation; nirvairaḥ — without an enemy; sarva–bhūteṣu — among all living entities; yaḥ — one who; saḥ — he; mām — unto Me; eti — comes; pāṇḍava — O son of Pāṇḍu.

Translation: 

My dear Arjuna, he who engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being – he certainly comes to Me.

mām eti, you will come to Me, again there is nothing which is beyond Me.

Here is clear that Sadhya and Sadhan is not different. mat-karma, mat-paramo, mad-bhaktaḥ. It is referring to Sadhan and Sadhya. So all this is referring to Krishna only, after that You will come to Me. Work for Me, engage in My work. 

There are different levels of working for Krishna…

Earlier Krishna said in 9.27 Yat Karo Se Yad Asnase …whatever work you are doing you offer the fruits of that work to Me, that is one level of working and that is good. But that is not the highest level we have discussed. So here Krishna is not saying Kurusva Mad Arpanam here He is saying do My work. 

mat-karma-kṛn, means you do service for Krishna, e.g. we do deity worship, book distribution, missionary work and we in this way do Krishna’s work, 

mat-paramo, makes Me the Supreme Goal of life, paramo is important here, all of us when we live in material world we have some intermediate goals, which are also important, e.g. Parikshit Maharaj was king and was engaged in so many essential duties which was required but as soon as he came to know he has only 7 days he has taken full work in KC. So we should have some temporary goal in our spiritual life but Krishna should be our eternal goal and whether Krishna is our eternal goal that will be tested when our temporary goal and eternal goal conflict with each other, which means normally we want our temporary goal to contribute to our eternal goal, when these goals conflict that time we have to make wise and courageous decisions. We will sacrifice intermediate for the ultimate which doesn’t meant we have to renounce like Parkshit Maharaj but we have to put something to background to bring something to foreground. 

mad-bhaktaḥ, become my devotee

saṅga-varjitaḥ, stay away from bad association.

Sanga can mean attachment or association 

nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu, just now Kala rupa was shown which was devouring everything and Arjuna was encouraged to fight and conquer and immediately nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu, that is the mystery of BG so Arjuna is not having anything personal against Kaurava they are against Dharma and he is a servant of Lord. So devotees does not have any self-serving agenda, when devotees serve they serve very faithfully and they do not have any animosity towards anyone e.g. Lord Ram told Vibhshan to do last rights for Ravana saying soul is pure when it is associated with body it does bad because of conditioning. So Lord fought and killed Ravana but He doesn’t have any animosity about Ravana. Similarly devotee’s fight at certain occasion for the sake of the Lord. SP is not using rascal in an angry or hateful way. E.g. SP in one of the lecture says Krishna all these rascals have forgotten You so give me intelligence so that I can reconnect these rascals to You. So he was thinking about good wishes of those he is calling rascals. 

So this verse is like practical application which is centered around practice of Bhakti. 

So 53 verse says by other path one cannot come to know 

54 says by Bhakti one can know

55 says how can one come to the level of Bhakti, by Ananya Bhakti we can know Him, but how we come to the level of Ananya Bhakti, one level below that by doing all these activities gradually we will come to the level of Ananya Bhakti we will know about Krishna and we will return back to Krishna. So in this way Krishna concludes this chapter by the glories of devotion.

End of transcription.