Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Bg 18.62

In 18.58 Krishna says if you not act as per being in My consciousness then you will be lost. mac-cittaḥ sarva-durgāṇi… vinaṅkṣyasi. How you will be lost that is described in 18.59, prakṛtis tvāṁ niyokṣyati, you will be forced to act according to material nature, then as a means to go beyond material nature He talks about how He is the controller of material nature in 18.61.In vedic thought there is svabhava-vad means everything is svabhava, like mayavad and brahmavad. In svabhava-vad the idea is everything is controlled by svabhava, so in 18.61 Krishna is telling He is the controller in all bodies which are made by maya. He is saying He is in control of the bodies, He is the controller of the living entities also.

Next Krishan is describing how we can turn to Him.

tam eva śaraṇaṁ gaccha
sarva-bhāvena bhārata
tat-prasādāt parāṁ śāntiṁ
sthānaṁ prāpsyasi śāśvatam

Synonyms: 

tam — unto Him; eva — certainly; śaraṇam gaccha — surrender; sarva–bhāvena — in all respects; bhārata — O son of Bharata; tat–prasādāt — by His grace; parām — transcendental; śāntim — peace; sthānam — the abode; prāpsyasi — you will get; śāśvatam — eternal.

Translation: 

O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.

tam eva śaraṇaṁ gaccha, so Krishna is telling surrender unto That Supreme Lord, here because Krishna is progressively revealing the knowledge so after talking to surrender He has gone down to material nature then from material nature He first comes to Paramatma then He will come to Bhagavan. So often when Krishna refers to Paramatma He refers to Himself as Third Person. That is why He is referring, to that Super Soul you surrender. 

sarva-bhāvena bhārata, whole heartedly, just completely surrender

in 15.19 also sarva-bhāvena has come, with all emotions of the heart

tat-prasādāt, by mercy of that Being Who is situated in the heart of everyone.

parāṁ śāntiṁ, the Supreme peace.

sthānaṁ prāpsyasi śāśvatam, and along with that you will get a śāśvat sthān, you will get an eternal resting place, an eternal destination

So in material nature as long as we are situated we cannot have an eternal destination. Whatever destination we will have that is temporary. 

Krishna is not talking about peace in material world He is talking about parāṁ śāntiṁ, there is Supreme peace. 

There is peace of mind and peace of the heart.

Peace of the mind: no anxieties or troubles. Can be experienced when we go to a scenic place. 

Peace of the heart (paramshantim): the peace that comes from loving and being loved –“the peace that passeth all understanding” (Bible)

Supreme peace may look like anxiety and agitation but it is peace because the heart is satisfied, because the heart rests in joy.

Arjuna thought he could have either shanti or sthana (the kingdom) but Krishna assures that he will get both –at a higher level, if Arjuna surrenders to Him. Without surrender if Arjuna would have acted he would gave got only one those but after surrender he will get both and he will get best of both which is Param-shantim, eternal peace and Shasvatam-asthana, eternal abode. 

Shanti –Paramshantim

Sthana–Shasvatamsthana

So on chapter 18 what is happening is…

 We can progress in …

Gradual way by Karma Kanda, Gyana Kanda, Moksha – 40 to 55

Rapid way is Bhakti

If we don’t follow either way we are lost – 59 to 60

So now Krishna will talk to higher level directly first He talks about surrender to super soul then He will talk about surrender to the Supreme Lord.

So here comes a question in Kalyuga how do we discover our nature and serve our nature. 

Mostly likely the offspring can be of the same varan as parent but because different generations are of different varanas or mixture of Varnas, so that result in people who are getting birth is having mixture of varanas, of course one varan is predominant. 

To determine one’s varan we have to find out one extent in which we are externally competent and internally comfortable. And then we do that activity. In our devotional life there are some activity which we like to do, some activity which we can do somehow and some which we almost cannot tolerate at least doing. Generally the activity which we like to do we get strength from those activity, the activity which we don’t like to do we have to expend strength to do those activity, we have to fight ourselves doing those activity but either way by doing the activity we have to do we will gradually grow towards Krishna, if we choose intelligently. So in general we have to have some activity which we like to do, they make spiritual life joyful at even our level. After that when we become purified we are not so much controlled by our nature then whatever we wanted to do we can do for Krishan’s sake, and we get joy in that. Of course even pure devotees have their individuality in such a way that it pleases Krishna. There is spiritual individuality we are not talking that right now we are discussing our material individuality which has to be purified and elevated. Which can be purified by engaging in services in a proper way. Our material nature does not require rejection or repression. Rejection means imagine that I don’t have this nature only and repression means I have but I try to curb it that will also not work, there has to be expression and direction. I have express my material nature if I have Brahmanical nature I have to act as a Brahmana but then there has to be direction as a Brahmana I may like to read all kinds of books but no we should study primarily scriptures and books that help us to understand scripture, so when we talk about Sharanam, surrender that doesn’t mean giving up everything material, it simply means to take His guidance how best to Serve Him. So the principle of Varashram Dharma is to help us surrender to Supreme Lord. Vedic Varanshram is gradual surrender and Devik Varanshram is rapid surrender. 

So Krishna tells you should surrender.

End of transcription.