Bhakti Vrisksha - Bhagavad Gita 2.64 -12/30/2016

30 Dec

30Dec

Hare Krishna everyone, we had our 62nd Bhakti Vriksha class on Friday 12/30/2016 conducted by HG Sundarnath Prabhu Das at Chintan Prabhu and Chandni Mataji home and below are the points related to Verse 2.64 we discussed.

Bg 2.64

rāga-dveṣa-vimuktais tu viṣayān indriyaiś caran
ātma-vaśyair vidheyātmā prasādam adhigacchati

In Verse 2.64 the supreme personality of Godhead said; But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.
From Verse 2.64 – 2.72 Krishna is answering the last question asked by Arjuna in verse 2.54. The question answered here is how does a Sitapragya (self realized) person walks?
The senses of a self realized person are in his/her complete control. He/She always actively engages to not to perform activities of sense gratification.
Krishna’s mercy is always available to everyone but to hold that mercy we need some qualification. We need to make the endeavor to go and take that mercy.
When we follow a regulated life style and try to follow devotional services then Krishna looking at our endeavor helps us in our devotional services. If we take one step towards Krishna then he takes 100s or 1000s steps towards us.
Just like in Damodar Leela Krishna looks at mother Yasoda’s endeavors to tie Him with rope and then inturn allows to be tied with the rope.
When Prabhupad came to New York he lived in lower east side of Manhattan which was mostly occupied by hippies. These people were rejected from the society.
First thing Prabhupad did was he gave them the holy name. He would chant in Washington square park and later at Tompkins square park and these people would join him in chanting.
Slowly these people stopped alcohol and drugs and started taking Prasadam and followed a regulated life style.
Prabhupad transformed these people’s heart.
When someone tries artificially to control senses by themselves they do not succeed in their endeavor and fall back because the underlying idea by such endeavor is how to enjoy senses d more without engaging Krishna.
Parikshit Maharaj asked Sukhdev Goswami that even though people are doing so much of spiritual activities still they are not getting liberated, why?
Sukkhdev Goswami said that these spiritual activities are just like elephant taking bath in a pond. Once elephant takes bath , after coming out of pond it immediately rolls on the soil and gets dirty again. Meaning people follow spiritual activity for certain time interval and again start with the sinful activities hence they are never able to come out of the cycle.
The difference between a devotees and non devotee is , a devotee is always trying to please Krishna and serve Him but a non devotee is always trying to gratify his/her senses and looking for ways to enjoy the senses more and more.
Question and Answer

Q1 . Why some people who on their own try to control their senses fall back?

Answer – The people doing sense control or following a regulated life fall back because the underlying principle is to enjoy the sense more and more.

Q2 . It is said that we should associate more with devotees and associate less with non devotees, how to follow this practice?

Answer – Associating with someone means hearing their heart and revealing them about our heart.

Being on a train with someone or working with someone in office is not associating with them.

We should engage in conversation with devotees because a devotee will always talk about Krishna and how to engage ourselves in Krishna’s service with further uplifts our enthusiasm and motivates us.

Thanks to Ekta Mataj and Aygul Mataji for mesmerizing Kirtan at beginning and end of class.

Thanks all for coming!!

Thanks to all matajis for sumptuous prasadam.

Hare Krishna

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