Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Bg 16.24

tasmāc chāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te
kāryākārya-vyavasthitau
jñātvā śāstra-vidhānoktaṁ
karma kartum ihārhasi

Synonyms: 

tasmāt — therefore; śāstram — the scriptures; pramāṇam — evidence; te — your; kārya — duty; akārya — and forbidden activities; vyavasthitau — in determining; jñātvā — knowing; śāstra — of scripture; vidhāna — the regulations; uktam — as declared; karma — work; kartum — do; iha — in this world; arhasi — you should.

Translation: 

One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated.

tasmāc chāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te, so therefore according to Shahstra praman, according to the decision which scriptures make, 

kāryākārya-vyavasthitau, so one should decide properly, what is karya to be done and what is not to be done. Vyavasthitau, one understands it determines it properly and then 

jñātvā śāstra-vidhānoktaṁ, after knowing what is Shashtra, vidhānoktaṁ, what is spoken in shahstra, 

karma kartum ihārhasi, karma kartum, that one acts accordingly, ihārhasi, it will befits you to act according to scripture. 

So let us try to understand why it is so important to act according to scripture. 

16.24-Guidance for choosing actions 

People generally acts accordingly to these four things:

  1. Mood –I feel like that doing that
    1. Our feeling can be misleading, e.g. tomorrow is exam and I feel like watching the movie and after exam I feel like beating myself. 
  2. Fashion–Everyone is doing it currently.
    1. Fashions are not on the basis of truth and reality, they are just trend which will come and go. 
    2. Live as per fashion we are like leaves whichever way the wind is blowing we are get carried away. 
    3. No need to be unfashionable deliberately but action should be based on higher principles. 
  3. Tradition –We have always done it
    1. A tradition itself is not necessarily the parameter of truth. Because there can be so many tradition which are wrong.
    2. Example in western world eating meat is a tradition.
  4. Logic –It makes sense
    1. Logic seems to be more sensible / logical parameters among these.
    2. Logic is not always sound because logic can mislead us, because sometimes we may have incomplete understanding of things. As something may seems right at one moment and wrong at the next moment. 

So what we need for our guide is scripture. Scripture is like a light house. Others may also seems like a light house but these light houses are moving. Light house are supposed to be fixed so that they can indicate this side is safe and other side is dangerous but if light house itself is moving the part we consider as safe will turn out to be rocky. We can consider other factors also for making a decision but scripture should be final authority. 

So tasmāc chāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te.

Purport: Śāstrais without the four principals, defects that are visible in the conditioned soul: imperfect senses, the propensity for cheating, certainty of committing mistakes, and certainty of being illusioned (SIMC, Senses, Illusioned, Mistakes, Cheating). These four principal defects in conditioned life disqualify one from putting forth rules and regulations. Therefore, the rules and regulations as described in the śāstra – being above these defects – are accepted without alteration by all great saints, ācāryas and great souls.

In human society, aversion to the principles of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of all fall downs. (There may be other reasons for fall down but this is prime reason)

So in this way Krishna describes the wide gamete of the typical physiologies of the demoniac people. And in next section we will discuss about their destinations. 

End of transcription.