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Bhagavad Gita Introduction​

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Note: This is a series of study notes from the translation of Bhagavad Gita by Srila Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada (ISKCON founder) and titled as "Bhagvad Gita as it is". The copyright and content is that of Prabhupada & publishers. My part is simply distilling the knowledge from my self study and notes to share here in simple abridged form.

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अध्येष्यते च य इमं धर्म्यं संवादमावयो: ।
ज्ञानयज्ञेन तेनाहमिष्ट: स्यामिति मे मति: ॥ 18.70 ॥

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"One who studies sincerely this dialog of ours him I consider as My worshipper in knowledge"

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(Sri Krishna to Sri Arjuna at the end of their dialog at battlefield of Kurukshetra)

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The above verse is the precise reason why a serious study of Bhagavad Gita ought to be undertaken.

For a brief discussion on what is the essence of Bhagavad Gita, please go here.

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My Notes:

  • Unless we accept Sri Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and with that submissive spirit study Bhagavad Gita, we cannot understand it.

  • The purpose of Bhagavad Gita is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence.

  • Not only Arjuna, but every one of us is full of anxieties because of this material existence. 

  • Eventhough we (as spirit) are eternal, we put ourselves in this material existence by our own desires and karmas and thus the eternal (spirit) being stuck in non-eternal (material world), suffers.

  • Unless one is awakened to this position of questioning his suffering, his human existence is incomplete.

  • This inquiry is called brahma-jijñāsā (The enquiry into spiritual matters).

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  • Nature = Prakriti = Feminine energy of Supreme

  • Nature = material nature + spiritual nature 

​ = (matter+space+time) + (sattva+rajas+tamas)

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  • Karma = activities carried out as combination of sattva+rajas+tamas under influence of time

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  • 5 topics described in Bhagavad Gita:

    • Īśvara (the Supreme Lord), 

    • jīva (the living entity), 

    • prakṛti (nature), 

    • kāla (eternal time) and 

    • karma (activity)

  • Out of these five, the Lord, the living entities, material nature and time are eternal.

  • So only karma is temporary.

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  • The manifestation of prakṛti (material nature) may be temporary, but it is not false. it is being created, exists, destroyed repeatedly; in other words, the spiritual energy of Lord that creates material energy is not temporary.

  • The Lord refers to this as “My prakṛti.”

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  • Karma, is not eternal. The effects of karma may be very old indeed. We are suffering or enjoying the results of our activities from time immemorial, but we can change the results of our karma, or our activity, and this change depends on the perfection of our knowledge. 

  • Both the living entity and material nature are explained as prakṛti, the energy of the Supreme Lord, but one of the two, the jīva, is conscious. The other prakṛti is not conscious. That is the difference. Therefore the jīva-prakṛti is called superior because the jīva has consciousness which is similar to the Lord’s; the difference is in quantity not quality. Lord is infinite controller, jiva is finite controller.

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  • Under the influence of maya, the living entity forgets his finiteness and develops an ego

  • This ego makes him think he is the absolute controller (ie erases his memory that he is finite) and thus he creates more entangling whirligig of karma around himself.

  • Fortunately karma is not eternal and it can be undone.

  • The only way for the jiva to undo karma is to remember that he is not supreme controller, and thus surrender the ego to the supreme controller, the Lord, Bhagvan Sri Krishna.

  • This surrender of ego can only happen when the jiva is situated in mode of goodness (sattva) — and thus selfless, egoless, lustless, angerless..

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  • In english, religion  = faith..which can change

  • In sanskrit:

    • dharma = way of living = property or characteristic or habitual activity..unchangeable

    • sanatan   = eternal (as per Sripād Ramanujacharya)

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  • how to properly leave the body?

In BG 8.5, its described..how to properly leave the body..by thinking of Lord Krishna at time of death..

अन्तकाले च मामेव स्मरन्मुक्त्वा कलेवरम् ।

य: प्रयाति स मद्भ‍ावं याति नास्त्यत्र संशय: ॥ ५ ॥

  • To remember Lord Krishna “while” doing occupational duty is the instruction of the Lord..BG 8.7

तस्मात्सर्वेषु कालेषु मामनुस्मर युध्य च ।

मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्मामेवैष्यस्यसंशय: ॥ ७ ॥

  • If one doesn’t practice remembering Kṛṣṇa while he is struggling for existence, then it will not be possible for him to remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death.

  • Therefore we have to practice remembering the Lord always, twenty-four hours a day, by chanting His names and molding our life’s activities in such a way that we can remember Him always.

  • We work not with our body, actually, but with our mind and intelligence. So if the intelligence and the mind are always engaged in the thought of the Supreme Lord, then naturally the senses are also engaged in His service. Superficially, at least, the activities of the senses remain the same, but the consciousness is changed. 

  • A man dies after it has been decided what form of body he will have in the next life; it depends on our karma.

  • The Purāṇas are not imaginative; they are historical records. 

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