Hare Krishna everyone, we had our 65th Bhakti Vriksha class on Friday 01/20/2017 conducted by HG Gadadhar Pandit Prabhu at Amit Prabhu and Ekta Mataji home and below are the points related to Verse 2.69 we discussed.
BG 2.69
yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī
yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ
- In Verse 2.69 the supreme personality of Godhead said; What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage..
- The class started with a question to all devotees; What teaching or thoughts comes to your mind with respect to The Bhagwata Gita in your day to day lives?
Below are some of the responses people gave
Bhagwata Gita helped me with anger management
Bhagwata Gita made me control my senses like lust, taste etc
Bhagwata Gita helps me not to be proud about material possession that I own
Bhagwata Gita verse which i particularly follow is Dhyayto Vishaya pumas.
Bhagwata Gita verse mentioning not even a blade of grass moves without Krsna’s permission helped me realized that I am enjoyer but Krshna is the supreme controller and enjoyer of everything.
- Prabhuji gave an example of his days as a monk in Bhakti Centre, he mentioned that he literally has lived this verse in practical life as Bhakti center is surrounded by pubs and bars and usually people return from pubs and bars early in the morning, The time the bars would close and people would leave for home at that time devotees in Bhakti center would wake up for magala arti. .
- All of us often turn to the almighty when things go wrong in our lives but we have to ask to ourselves that when was the last time we went to The God to thank him when we get a raise in our salary or got promotion or something good happened with us. The answer must be no for almost all of us. How can we blame God for our bad Karma, our suffering or any challenging situation, when we don't thank Him in our happy time.
- Non-devotees turn to substances like Alcohol, cigarettes etc. when things go good and also when things go wrong in their lives and a devotee turns to God in both good and bad times.
- We need to remember that the world is going to change thus change is the constant thing in the world .Bhagwat Gita has such power that it helps us to remain unchanged or remain constant .
- Prabhuji gave his experience by not watching the daily news, he feels happy and at peace .For him reading Bhagwatam and Performing the Mangala Arti were the actual news
- There is so much peace in serving the humanity and leading a positive life by ignoring the garbage happening in the world.
- We just can’t give up self enjoyment, we have to replace it with something else- we can term this as Transcendental Pleasure. When devotees become detached and ignorant of little things in the life they become intelligent.
- Being neutral does not mean becoming inactive. we should understand when and where we should get involved and where we should not get involved.
- When we constantly practice bhakti the soul realizes its importance, just like when you practice yoga we cannot learn unless and until we start performing yoga on yoga mat with the help of the instructions from the yoga teacher. Similarly bhakti should be experienced by practicing under supervision of a guru then the bhakti will lend fruits.
- We need to ground ourselves and make a strong foundation by getting deep rooted in the spiritual life, we may be new but we always need to stay alert so that we don't get pulled back from “Krishna Consciousness.”
- Prabhuji gave example given by Radhanath Swami in one of his lecture; Maharaj said that a hawk could catch a fish from a ocean if the fish is swimming too close to the surface. The hungry hawk wouldn't have grabbed the fish had the fish swam deep into the water.
- Here hawk represents Maya and fish represents the devotees, if we remain near surface for too long then maya will drag us in material world by making us stay comfortable and dry but just like fish after a certain time we will be trembling and uncomfortable as fish remains in land it would crave to go back to its own place that is water . Thus if we don't go deep someone else will grab us.
- Storm may come but we have to be rooted, if we stop the association of devotees or stop chanting then this tree of devotion that is in you will be uprooted all together.
Thanks all for coming!!
Thanks to all matajis for sumptuous prasadam.
Hare Krishna
