KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT INERTIA

Dedicated to my spiritual master His Divine Grace Abhaya Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami 'Srila Prabhupada'

Introduction

The Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna has very elaborately described the constitution of the soul in the second chapter, with a view to delivering His intimate friend Arjuna from the ocean of material grief. And the path of realization has been recommended: buddhi-yoga, or Krishna consciousness. Sometimes Krishna consciousness is misunderstood to be inertia, and one with such a misunderstanding often withdraws to a secluded place to become fully Krishna conscious by chanting the holy name of Lord Krishna. But without being trained in the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, it is not advisable to chant the holy name of Krishna in a secluded place, where one may acquire only cheap adoration from the innocent public. 

Krishna conciousness - Buddhi yoga

Arjuna also thought of Krishna consciousness or buddhi-yoga, or intelligence in spiritual advancement of knowledge, as something like retirement from active life and the practice of penance and austerity at a secluded place. In other words, he wanted to skillfully avoid the fighting by using Krishna consciousness as an excuse. But as a sincere student, he placed the matter before his master and questioned Krishna as to his best course of action. In answer, Lord Krishna elaborately explained karma-yoga, or work in Krishna consciousness, in the Third Chapter. Bg 3.1

In the second chapter, as a prelude to the Bhagavad-gita, many different paths are explained, such as sankhya-yoga, buddhi-yoga, control of the senses by intelligence, work without fruitive desire, and the position of the neophyte. This is all presented unsystematically. A more organized outline of the path would be necessary for action and understanding. Arjuna, therefore, wanted to clear up these apparently confusing matters so that any common man could accept them without misinterpretation. 

Conclusion

Although Krishna had no intention of confusing Arjuna by any jugglery of words, Arjuna could not follow the process of Krishna consciousness -- either by inertia or by active service. In other words, by his questions he is clearing the path of Krishna consciousness for all students who seriously want to understand the mystery of the Bhagavad-gita. (Bg 3.2)

Ys in service of Srila Prabhupada

JANAKA DASA

(Dr Jagadeesh TG)

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 Srila Prabhupada - The Real Soul Doctor

BUDDHI YOGA

Dedicated to my spiritual master His Divine Grace Abhaya Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami 'Srila Prabhupada'

Introduction

Buddhi-yoga is clearly explained (in Chapter Ten, verse ten) as being direct communion with the Lord, who is sitting as Paramatma in everyone's heart. But such communion does not take place without devotional service. One who is therefore situated in devotional or transcendental loving service to the Lord, or, in other words, in Krishna consciousness, attains to this stage of buddhi-yoga by the special grace of the Lord. 

 Buddhi Yoga & Sankhya Yoga

The Lord says, therefore, that only to those who are always engaged in devotional service out of transcendental love does He award the pure knowledge of devotion in love. In that way the devotee can reach Him easily in the ever-blissful kingdom of God.

Thus the buddhi-yoga mentioned in this verse is the devotional service of the Lord, and the word Sankhya mentioned herein has nothing to do with the atheistic sankhya-yoga enunciated by the imposter Kapila. One should not, therefore, misunderstand that the sankhya-yoga mentioned herein has any connection with the atheistic Sankhya. Nor did that philosophy have any influence during that time; nor would Lord Krishna care to mention such godless philosophical speculations. 

Real Sankhya philosophy is described by Lord Kapila in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, but even that Sankhya has nothing to do with the current topics. Here, Sankhya means analytical description of the body and the soul. Lord Krishna made an analytical description of the soul just to bring Arjuna to the point of buddhi-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. Therefore, Lord Krishna's Sankhya and Lord Kapila's Sankhya, as described in the Bhagavatam, are one and the same. They are all bhakti-yoga. Lord Krishna Said, therefore, that only the less intelligent class of men make a distinction between sankhya-yoga and bhakti-yoga (sankhya-yogau prthag balah pravadanti na panditah).

Of course, atheistic sankhya-yoga has nothing to do with bhakti-yoga, yet the unintelligent claim that the atheistic sankhya-yoga is referred to in the Bhagavad-gita.

 
One should therefore understand that buddhi-yoga means to work in Krishna consciousness, in the full bliss and knowledge of devotional service. One who works for the satisfaction of the Lord only, however difficult such work may be, is working under the principles of buddhi-yoga and finds himself always in transcendental bliss. By such transcendental engagement, one achieves all transcendental understanding automatically, by the grace of the Lord, and thus his liberation is complete in itself, without his making extraneous endeavors to acquire knowledge. 

 Conclusion

There is much difference between work in Krishna consciousness and work for fruitive results, especially in the matter of sense gratification for achieving results in terms of family or material happiness. Buddhi-yoga is therefore the transcendental quality of the work that we perform.  Bg 2.39

Ys in service of Srila Prabhupada

JANAKA DASA

(Dr Jagadeesh TG)

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 Jagadguru Srila Prabhupad - Saviour of the whole world

THE BIRD AND THE GOLDEN CAGE

Dedicated to my spiritual master His Divine Grace Abhaya Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami 'Srila Prabhupada'


A rich lady once brought a beautiful bird as a pet. To keep the bird from flying away she also invested in a cage made of gold. Eventually she got so enamored with golden cage that she spent all her time in the upkeep of the cage – cleaning it, beautifying it and keeping it spic and span. In the process she totally forgot about the bird in the cage and it eventually died one-day out of starvation.

This is the story of most of the living entities in the material world. The ‘bird’ can be compared to the living entity called soul – our true identity and the ‘golden cage’ can be compared to the human body. There are a variety of ‘cages’ manufactured by material nature representing the material bodies of 84,00,000 species of life. Out of these many varieties it is the human body, that is of the highest quality – a golden cage. But the fact is that it is a cage after-all. The soul is trapped in this cage of material body due to its desires and ensuing actions followed by reactions.

Nevertheless, it is but in the human form of life that a living entity has the highest state of consciousness that makes him ask questions like ‘Who am I’ and ‘What is the purpose of my life’. No other species of life can think on these lines. And the very goal of human life is to realize the answers for such meaningful questions. The soul is eternal but due to karmic reactions is entrapped in a temporary body. So whether the ‘cage’ is golden or made of any other material the actual focus of interest should be the maintenance of the soul. To do this of course we need to take care of the ‘cage’ too but not to the point of forgetting the importance of the ‘bird’ which is the real identity.

Unfortunately today the materialistic world has engaged many in ‘cage-keeping’ exercises with the ‘bird’ virtually taking a back-stage if not forgotten in the oblivion. This has led to the spiritual death of a materially advancing civilization.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna’s first instruction to Arjuna (and to all mankind) is ‘You are not this body’. He also instructed that the soul is continuously changing the body and as in this life it changes body from childhood, youth and old age it eventually transmigrates into another body after death. He also says in the 16th verse of the second chapter

“nasato vidyate bhavo


nabhavo vidyate satah


ubhayor api drsto 'ntas


tv anayos tattva-darsibhih”

Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.

The highest intelligence is action in Krishna consciousness and is called ‘Buddhi yoga’. Krishna consciousness is the ‘Science of Self realization’ that can help the ‘bird’ liberate itself from the ‘cage’.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada


Dr Jagadeesh TG
Prabhupada Dasa
RadhaKrishna Sevak
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The Real Soul Doctor - Jagadguru Srila Prabhupada