We help ourselves best by remembering that we are helpless without Krishna

“Help!” That’s how a person fallen in an ocean calls out for rescue. But suppose that person is intoxicated and so doesn’t even realize the danger, leave alone call for help.

Might that be our situation?

Gita wisdom compares material existence to a vast ocean wherein we souls are being tossed by the waves of material desires. The pleasures these desires promise turn out to be temporary and unsatisfactory – they leave us craving and slaving for more. No matter what self-help techniques we try out or what external help we seek at the material level, nothing changes the disappointing nature of material pleasure. Wave-like desires keep tossing us around, harried and helpless.

Surrender is the spiritual equivalent of a drowning person’s call for help.

Being supremely compassionate, Krishna is always ready to help us overcome material nature. All we need to do is surrender to him, as the Gita (07.14) declares. Surrender is the spiritual equivalent of a drowning person’s call for help. We express our surrender by practicing bhakti-yoga wholeheartedly. By so doing, we let Krishna help us – we open our heart to receive his help, which comes frequently in the form of higher wisdom and taste.

Unfortunately however, sensual pleasures that seem available just around the corner often intoxicate us. This inebriation blinds us to our precarious condition and takes away our impetus to call for Krishna. Thus, we unwittingly sentence ourselves to the turbulent material ocean.

Regular study of the Gita empowers us to see through the façade of sense pleasure. It reminds us how helpless we are without Krishna and how much we need him. This reminder inspires us to seek his help. By thus opening our heart to him, we help ourselves in the best possible way, for we let the best possible help – Krishna’s light and love – rescue us from the ocean of illusion.

To put first things first, stop putting things first

“Put first things first” is a popular and sensible self-help slogan that urges us to prioritize important things. It, however, leaves unanswered some key questions: What things are important? And on what basis is their importance ascertained? Is that basis something subjective – some things are important to one person, others to another person?

No doubt, different things are important to different people depending on their psychophysical nature. Yet some things are important to everyone. Or at least should be. Why? Because we all are at our core souls and can find lasting happiness only in spiritual love for Krishna. Without attaining that love or at least progressing towards it, our lives go in vain, no matter what else we achieve. Our other achievements can neither grant us lasting fulfillment, nor save us from the miserable cycle of birth and death.

If cultivating devotion for Krishna is so important, why do we often neglect it?

Because we put things first. Here things refer to material objects such as possessions and sense objects. Putting things first means to become so obsessed with materialism that it strips away our freedom to nourish our spiritual side.

The Bhagavad-gita (02.44) cautions that excessive attachment to worldly things whittles away our spiritual determination.

How can we stop putting things first?

We may not be able to break free from our attachments immediately, but we can still prevent them from destroying our spiritual prospects. Whenever we have the opportunity to fix the mind on Krishna and engage in his service, we can tap that opportunity to the best of our capacity. That contact with Krishna will purify us, gradually giving us the inner strength to resist and reject distracting attachments. Then we can increasingly relish uninterrupted the sweetness of devotion, deepen our determination and march undistracted towards Krishna.

Learning from life is not just a matter of individual creativity; it is a feature of universal reality

Learn from life” is a popular and valuable saying. We all can learn by thoughtfully observing our own life, the lives of those around us, and the world at large.

But not everyone seems able to learn from life. For many, life appears to be just a random, even chaotic, sequence of events that they can barely cope with, leave alone learn anything from. This naturally raises a critical question: Is there something actually there to learn in life’s events? Or are those events in themselves disorderly, but some people are creative enough to extract lessons from them?

The universe is a university with Krishna as the concerned, compassionate and committed teacher who stays round-the-clock in our heart to aid us in our learning.

Gita wisdom indicates that learning from life is a feature of universal reality. The Bhagavad-gita (18.61) indicates that the Supreme Lord, Krishna, residing in the heart of all of us directs our wanderings through material existence. He orchestrates events externally and provides guidance internally to further our spiritual evolution. The world is designed to stimulate that evolution by helping us to realize that Krishna alone can satisfy our heart’s longing for lasting love and enduring happiness. Thus, the universe is a university with Krishna as the concerned, compassionate and committed teacher who stays round-the-clock in our heart to aid us in our learning.

When we choose to love him by practicing bhakti-yoga, the resulting purification enables us to hear his illuminating inner voice and learn the lessons he is teaching through life. Some of us may be by nature more observant and contemplative, and so be more adept at learning from life. But all of us can increase our native capacity to learn by practicing bhakti-yoga. And most importantly we can all learn the supreme lesson of keeping our love directed towards Krishna in all situations, and thereby attain life eternal.

We resolve conflicts best when we resolve the inner conflict first

The Bhagavad-gita is a book of conflict resolution. It was spoken when the territorial conflict between the cousins the Pandavas and the Kauravas was about to blow into a full-scale fratricidal war. And that gruesome prospect created an ethical conflict within Arjuna: what was more important – his warrior duty or his fraternal responsibility?

When Arjuna sought guidance, Krishna spoke the Gita. Therein he went to the root of all conflicts: the conflict between human will and divine will. Krishna being omniscient has the best plan for everything; when we willingly and intelligently play our part in his plan, we relish the fulfillment of love and the achievement of success. But if we defy his will, then we become causes of discord and distress – as the Kauravas had become.

Krishna being omniscient has the best plan for everything; when we willingly and intelligently play our part in his plan, we relish the fulfillment of love and the achievement of success.

The Kurukshetra war originated in the Kauravas’ obstinacy. They had defied Krishna, even when he personally petitioned for peace on the most accommodating terms. Those who refuse to correct themselves need to be corrected by others. Accordingly, the responsibility of checking the nefarious Kauravas was assigned by Krishna to the virtuous Pandavas. The Gita (11.33) enjoins Arjuna to become an instrument of the divine will. By letting his own will stop him from implementing the divine will, Arjuna was becoming a part of the problem. Gita wisdom helped him to correct this misjudgment. By making Krishna’s will the topmost deciding factor, Arjuna attained success – not just in the ensuing war, but also in the war against the illusion that keeps people separated from Krishna and deprived of lasting happiness.

Similarly, when we are faced with conflict, we can first harmonize ourselves with Krishna through sincere surrender. Then with the resulting clear mind we can by Krishna’s grace deal effectively with specific outer conflicts and steadily progress towards life’s supreme success.

Surrender may frustrate our surface desires, but it fulfills our deepest longings by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18, Text 62

Some people ask, “Surrender to Krishna requires abandoning our desires and abiding by his will. Isn’t that frustrating?”

No, it isn’t frustrating if we just see beyond our surface desires to what lies below them – the universal longings for peace and shelter and love – and understand how surrender fulfills these longings.

The supreme peace coming from surrender refers not to the short-lived cessation of hostilities in a conflict-filled world, but the everlasting reconciliation of the human heart with the divine heart.

The Bhagavad-gita (18.62) declares that surrender to the indwelling Lord will bestow two results: supreme peace (paraam shantim) and eternal place (shaashavata sthaana). Actually these were the two things sought by the Pandavas. They wanted a place, their rightful kingdom that the Kauravas had unscrupulously stolen. And they also wanted peace – being virtuous they didn’t want to fight unnecessarily with anyone, leave alone their relatives. But peace and place seemed mutually exclusive. To get the place, they needed to fight against the Kauravas. To get peace, they needed to relinquish their place.

This Gita verse assures that surrender would bestow the Pandavas both peace and place – not necessarily in the way they thought, but in the best possible way. The supreme peace coming from surrender refers not to the short-lived cessation of hostilities in a conflict-filled world, but the everlasting reconciliation of the human heart with the divine heart. This reconciliation connects our consciousness with Krishna, who being the ultimate unchangeable reality provides supreme stability, irrespective of the presence or absence of outer peace. And the eternal place attained through surrender is Krishna’s personal abode, the soul’s highest destination. There, we relish the ultimate fulfillment of an ecstatic life of eternal love. And we never fall back to this world, where our desires for happiness are frustrated repeatedly and inevitably.

Therefore, if we can just be enterprising enough to not let small desires hold us back from Krishna, then surrender will propel us to life’s supreme fulfillment.

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Take the wind of passion out of the mind by meditation

Just as stormy winds sweep a boat away, the Bhagavad-gita (02.67) states that the winds of sensual desires sweep us away from the spiritual path.

Taking the wind out of something refers metaphorically to taking away its activating energy, thereby stopping it. To take the wind out of the mind, we need to cut off the energy source that activates and agitates it. That source is the mode of passion, which powers the mind by presenting alluring sense objects externally and triggering material desires internally.

Meditation involves drawing the mind away from worldly objects and fixing it on a dispassionate focus point. Initially that point may be something material such as the space between the eyebrows (05.27) or the tip of the nose (06.13), but subsequently it needs to be the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna (06.14).

Meditation on Krishna doesn’t just stop the wind of passion; it also activates the wind of devotion.

Why is Krishna the best object of meditation?

Because he is the all-attractive reservoir of all pleasure. So, meditation on him provides a deep satisfaction that makes it easier to withdraw from the outer gratification promised by passion. Of course, the wind of passion can and does distract us from meditating on him. But such distraction won’t make us discouraged (06.24: anirvinna-cetasa) if we strive to meditate with determination and keep bringing the mind back to Krishna.

By such steady practice, our Krishna-connection becomes stronger and sweeter, thereby providing greater satisfaction and eventually causing the wind of passion to fall silent, as the Gita (06.27: shanta-rajasam) indicates.

In fact, meditation on Krishna doesn’t just stop the wind of passion. It also activates the wind of devotion that pushes our mind towards him. The zenith of this devotion is exemplified in the gopis of Vrindavan who couldn’t forget him even when they tried to. Such spontaneous absorption in Krishna is life’s supreme perfection.

Lust doesn’t just bind us – it also makes us fight to tie the ropes that bind us

If someone were being bound by ropes, that person would naturally fight against those tying the ropes. But suppose that person fights instead against those trying to untie the ropes. We would rightly consider such behavior crazy.

Yet this is how people behave when bound by lust. Lust is frequently thought of as a source of enjoyment, so why is it said to bind?

Lust addicts become blind to dignity, morality and civility as they feverishly seek sexual gratification, sinking sometimes even to brutality and bestiality.

Because it makes a biological function degenerate into a psychological compulsion. The resulting obsession makes lust addicts blind to dignity, morality and civility as they feverishly seek sexual gratification, sinking sometimes even to brutality and bestiality. Lust also drags people into behaviors that invite mortifying and debilitating diseases. Moreover, it keeps them deprived of the unlimited devotional happiness available at the spiritual level of consciousness. And it drags them deeper into the miserable cycle of birth and death

Lust doesn’t just bind dreadfully, but also deludes insidiously – it makes people mistake regulation of lust to be deprivation of freedom. Those thus deluded fight against spiritual mentors who strive to protect them from lust’s bondage. By pejoratively labeling such mentors as old-fashioned killjoys and self-appointed moral police, lust addicts deride and dismiss them.

No wonder the Bhagavad-gita (03.39) cautions us against lust, declaring it to be our eternal enemy (nitya-vairi) that covers our knowledge (avritam jnanam). By its delusions, lust makes us use our own energy against us – instead of fighting against lust, we fight against the moral and spiritual regulations meant to protect us.

How can we break free from lust’s bondage?

By equipping ourselves with Gita wisdom, we can see through its diabolical delusions. And by cultivating remembrance of Krishna, we can relish higher devotional happiness that progressively makes lower sensual pleasures unnecessary and unappealing.

Krishna is not life’s sole goal – he is life’s whole goal

Sometimes people ask: “To attain Krishna, do we have to give up all other goals and just devote ourselves to him?”

No, because Krishna is not just transcendental, existing beyond the world, but also immanent, manifesting within the world. So devoting ourselves to him doesn’t require divorcing ourselves from the world – it essentially requires integrating our worldly actions and aspirations within a life of devotional service to him.

Our various goals attain perfection when subordinated to Krishna as our life’s meta-goal, the goal of our goals.

The Bhagavad-gita explains that Krishna manifests as our abilities that enable us to pursue various goals (07.08); as the object to be worshiped by our prescribed duties and the goals therein (18.46); and as the sense of adventure and success in the pursuit of our various goals (10.36). Krishna thus subsumes all of existence, being the Complete Whole. Connecting with him with a devotional service attitude brings wholeness, that is completeness, to our various goals; and it brings wholeness, that is fulfillment, to our heart.

Our various goals attain perfection when subordinated to Krishna as our life’s meta-goal, the goal of our goals. Such goals even if achieved can at best give only some fleeting pleasure. But those same goals even if unachieved can propel us towards lasting fulfillment if we pursue them for his pleasure. Why? Because working for his pleasure, even if unsuccessfully in the world’s eyes, enhances our devotion, thereby increasing our inner connection with Krishna, the all-attractive reservoir of all pleasure.

The Gita (08.07) assures that blending inner devotional meditation and outer professional occupation will enable us to attain Krishna. When Arjuna made Krishna his life’s supreme goal, he didn’t reject his goal of becoming the world’s best archer – rather he utilized that excellence for furthering his service to Krishna.w By similarly spiritualizing our life’s goals, we can progress towards both material achievement and spiritual fulfillment.

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The confidentiality of devotion is not due to the frugality of divine grace, but the scarcity of human desire

The Bhagavad-gita (09.01) declares that the knowledge it shares is most confidential. Why confidential? Is Krishna too frugal, even stingy, in sharing his merciful message?

No, not at all.

That Krishna wants this knowledge to be shared liberally is evident from both the setting and the content of the Gita:Krishna spoke it in public place in a battlefield (02.10), and encouraged its hearers to share the message (18.68-69).

Then how and why is the message confidential?

Its confidentiality lies in its experiential essence – the greatness and sweetness of pure spiritual love for Krishna.

Envy makes us see Krishna not as our benefactor, but as our competitor.

Such love can be relished only by a heart that is pure, being purged especially of the mentality of envy, as the same verse (09.01: anasuyave) underscores. As long as envy contaminates our heart, we have little, if any, desire to love him or to even know him in a way that portrays him as lovable. We see him not as our benefactor, but as our competitor. So even if we learn about his glories, that knowledge only makes us insecure, irritated, incensed. As such negative emotions towards Krishna are deleterious for our spiritual health, he kindly protects us from being overwhelmed by those emotions.

How?

By no longer revealing his glories to us, even if we study the message that expounds those glories. We get caught with peripheral points in the Gita, mistaking them to be its essential message. Though we may imagine that we are grasping it better, actually our misunderstanding is becoming greater.

If instead we humbly study the Gita, as it has been traditionally received (04.02) – in a spiritual lineage of devotee-seers – then such mentors gradually reveal its devotional import. And thus the confidential becomes discernible, intelligible and relishable – eternally relishable.

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Let the pat on the back for our intellectual conquests not become a nail in the coffin of our devotional prospects

The Bhagavad-gita declares repeatedly that Krishna can be known only through devotion, as in 08.22, 11.53-54, 18.55, for example.

Why is devotion the only means to comprehension?

Because Krishna is transcendental to all our material conceptions and categories, and so his greatness and sweetness can be truly relished only when we become transcendental to such notions – or at least we begin diligently the process for attaining such transcendence. If we don’t practice such a purificatory process, we tend to pigeonhole him into the cupboard of our existing conceptual categories by viewing him as a Hindu god, Indian myth, shrewd diplomat, poetic seer or, on the negative scale as an Indian Machiavelli or a pseudo-religious Casanova.

By thus assigning to Krishna a place in our conceptual framework, we may pat ourselves on the back for having understood him. But that pat may well be a nail in the coffin for our devotional prospects if it deprives us of the impetus for exploring the divine mystery deeper and thereby denies us the taste of the sweetness of pure devotion. The Gita (03.32) cautions that a judgmental envious attitude can blunt all our knowledge and leave us deluded.

Does this mean that we have to reject our intelligence for understanding Krishna?

No, not at all. We simply have to subordinate the intelligence to the process of bhakti-yoga, being patient and diligent for experiential revelation to grant us understanding of the things that intellectual deliberation fails to comprehend.

The Gita (18.70) assures that when we use our intelligence in a mood of submissive service and spiritual open-mindedness, study of Krishna becomes redefined as a form of worship with the paraphernalia of the intelligence, thereby opening our heart to relish his supreme sweetness.

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Our fear of our mortality is a pointer to our immortality

 The fear of death is one of life’s most haunting fears. Intriguingly, this haunting fear can become illuminating if we turn the usual question raised by death on its head: instead of asking “Why do I have to die?” ask “Why do I want to live forever?”

This question is reasonable because we live in a world where nothing lasts forever – even massive skyscrapers and gigantic mountains that seem unshakeable are subject to destruction. This reasonable question baffles today’s prevalent belief system, materialism, which holds that we – our sense of identity and personality – are just products of matter. When the things around us and even the things that make our bodies are all destructible, then how did the matter that is me develop the longing for immortality?

That longing, Gita wisdom explains, comes from something beyond matter – the soul within, whose presence in the body is the cause of life and whose departure comprises death. The Bhagavad-gita(02.21) assures that when we realize the indestructible nature of the soul, we learn to see our present notion of death as an illusion – death happens to our external shell, never to us.

Due to illusion, we misidentify with our body and project on it the longings that are natural to the soul. That’s why though the body is unavoidably destructible, we still long for indestructible existence. And we shudder at the prospect of imminent bodily destruction, mistaking it to be destruction of our very self.

Thus our fear of mortality is a pointer to our immortality – because we are by our spiritual nature immortal, we fear the unnatural state of mortality that our bodily misidentification has imposed on us.

By practicing yoga, especially bhakti-yoga, as the Gita recommends, we can realize our spiritual immortality and transcend the fear of death.

The essence of empowerment is not disappearance of obstacles, but persistence amidst obstacles

“Krishna empowers his devotees to do wonderful things.” This statement is frequently heard in devotional circles.

What does empowerment mean? Is it a miraculous disappearance of all obstacles on the path of self-effulgent devotees? Krishna can do that, but that is not the essence of empowerment. And expecting that can cause us to miss actual empowerment.

Essentially, empowerment is not external but internal – it is not the disappearance of obstacles, but the persistence amidst obstacles. What defines embowered devotees is their determination to persevere in their devotion, no matter what. Gita wisdom points to this through two important verses (09.13 - 09.14) that delineate the inner realizations and outer actions of serious devotees.

The Bhagavad-gita (09.13) states that such devotees are undistractedly fixed on Krishna and have taken shelter of his divine energy, which is the source of all empowerment. Yet despite their being sheltered in the empowering divine energy, the next verse (09.14) states that they endeavor with resolute vows. That they need to endeavor thus indicates that they face obstacles like all of us. In fact their obstacles are far bigger than ours, because they take up far bigger challenges in Krishna’s service. But by meditating on Krishna’s unfailing and unflinching love, they get the inspiration to reciprocate, come what may.

Empowerment thus understood is universally accessible. It’s not some mystical illumination or surreal electrification, but a practical connection with Krishna. We all can connect with him by contemplating his love through scriptural study and devotional meditation, and reciprocating through tangible, manageable service. By thus showing Krishna our intention to love him, we open our heart for him to mercifully fill with realizations of the supreme reality of his love. Those realizations help us see inimical outer realities as inconsequential, and persevere, undaunted, in our march towards him.

Conquer vice not just by fighting harder, but by rising higher

Vice is the inner self-destructive force that promises quick pleasure but ends up binding us to misery and bondage.

The Bhagavad-gita (03.36 – 03.43) provides an illuminating discussion on vice in its principal form: lust. The Gita (03.40) pinpoints the strongholds of lust: the senses, the mind and the intelligence. Acting from these enclaves, lust deceives us into believing that irreligious sensual indulgences will yield pleasure.

Denying our innate need for pleasure can amount to a form of repression that is both undesirable and unsustainable.

To avoid being thus misled by lust, the Gita (03.41) recommends that we first discipline our senses. However, denying our innate need for pleasure can amount to a form of repression that is both undesirable and unsustainable. That’s why Gita wisdom urges us to not just fight harder, but to rise higher – to not just battle determinedly for rejecting lower sensual pleasure, but to also diligently purify ourselves and raise our consciousness to the spiritual level for relishing higher devotional pleasure.

To guide the ascent of our consciousness, the next verse (03.42) outlines the levels through which our consciousness is presently routed: the insentient matter that comprises the physical body; the senses that are the primary centers of physical activity; the mind that is the vortex of desires; the intelligence that is the regulator of our intentions; and the soul that is the source of consciousness.

Situating our consciousness at the level of the soul means rendering devotional service to Krishna, the supreme source of all pleasure. By treasuring the fulfillment provided by our present practice of bhakti and by contemplating that much more fulfillment awaits us if we persevere on the path to purification, we can summon the determination to reject lust resolutely and repeatedly. Aptly the Gita (03.43) concludes its war strategy summary by urging us to live reflectively at the spiritual level and thus conquer vice.

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