Bhagavad-gita As It Is

by A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Every living being, out of the many, many billions and trillions of living beings, has a particular relationship with the Lord eternally. That is called svarūpa.

Our very existence is in the atmosphere of nonexistence. Actually we are not meant to be threatened by nonexistence. Our existence is eternal. But somehow or other we are put into asat. Asat refers to that which does not exist.

Material nature itself is constituted by three qualities: the mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of ignorance.

When we are materially contaminated, we are called conditioned. False consciousness is exhibited under the impression that I am a product of material nature. This is called false ego.

Purified consciousness means acting in accordance with the instructions of the Lord.

It comes into being, stays for some time, produces some by-products, dwindles and then vanishes.

Śrīpāda Rāmānujācārya has explained the word sanātana as “that which has neither beginning nor end,”

service is the constant companion of the living being and that the rendering of service is the eternal religion of the living being.

In this present day, people are very much eager to have one scripture, one God, one religion and one occupation. Therefore, ekaṁ śāstraṁ devakī-putra-gītam: let there be one scripture only, one common scripture for the whole world – Bhagavad-gītā. Eko devo devakī-putra eva: let there be one God for the whole world – Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Eko mantras tasya nāmāni: and one hymn, one mantra, one prayer – the chanting of His name: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Karmāpy ekaṁ tasya devasya sevā: and let there be one work only – the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

One who takes shelter of the Supreme Lord has nothing to fear, even in the midst of the greatest calamity.

“One who has unflinching devotion for the Personality of Godhead has all the good qualities of the demigods. But one who is not a devotee of the Lord has only material qualifications that are of little value. This is because he is hovering on the mental plane and is certain to be attracted by the glaring material energy.”

O Kṛṣṇa, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those whose family traditions are destroyed dwell always in hell.

Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization.

No one knows where compassion should be applied.

Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is senseless.

Nor do we know which is better – conquering them or being conquered by them.

Who is the man in material perplexities? It is he who does not understand the problems of life.

“He is a miserly man who does not solve the problems of life as a human and who thus quits this world like the cats and dogs, without understanding the science of self-realization.”

“When the results of pious activities are finished, one falls down again from the peak of happiness to the lowest status of life.”

The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.

Sometimes the soul is called the steady, or kūṭa-stha. The body is subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth from the womb of the mother’s body, remains for some time, grows, produces some effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born, but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth. The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die. Anything which has birth also has death.

Everything has its proper utility, and a man who is situated in complete knowledge knows how and where to apply a thing for its proper utility.

In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard.

One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.

As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man’s intelligence.

One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.