View source for How can you understand Bhagavad-gita? It is not a, not an ordinary book of knowledge, that you can purchase from the market, and read it and consult dictionary, and you can understand. No

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[[Category:Understanding the Bhagavad-gita]]
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[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG41andReviewNewYorkJuly131966_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="130" link="Lecture on BG 4.1 and Review -- New York, July 13, 1966" link_text="Lecture on BG 4.1 and Review -- New York, July 13, 1966">
<div class="heading">Without following some principles, without following some, I mean to, some regulative rules and regulation, how can you understand Bhagavad-gītā? It is not a, not an ordinary book of knowledge, that you can purchase from the market, and read it and consult dictionary, and you can understand.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 4.1 and Review -- New York, July 13, 1966|Lecture on BG 4.1 and Review -- New York, July 13, 1966]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So now, herein we have to understand that unless one is devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa it is not possible for him to understand what is Bhagavad-gītā. It is not possible. Nobody can understand Bhagavad-gītā unless he is a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is the first qualification. It is clearly said here. You cannot go beyond Bhagavad-gītā. If you want to understand Bhagavad-gītā, you cannot take help of other methods. You have to take the help as it is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. He clearly says that bhakto 'si: "You are not only My friend. There are many friends. I can find many friends. But you are not only My friend, but you are a great devotee. Therefore you can understand what is the real sense of Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore I am speaking to you. I am speaking to you." So if anyone wants to understand Bhagavad-gītā, then...</p>
<p>Just like the disciplic succession was coming down from Vivasvān, the, the, I mean to say, the principal man in the sun, the sun-god, and the sun-god taught the Bhagavad-gītā, the mystery of Bhagavad-gītā, to his son, Manu, and Manu taught the mystery of Bhagavad-gītā to Ikṣvāku, and Ikṣvāku taught the mystery of Bhagavad-gītā to his disciple or son, like that... But now, in course of time, it is now lost. Now I am again establishing that disciplic succession through you. So anyone who has to understand Bhagavad-gītā, he has to understand as Arjuna understood it. If you try to understand in a different way, if you want to give a different interpretation of Bhagavad-gītā, that may be a manifestation of your scholarship, but that is not Bhagavad-gītā. By your scholarship, you can manufacture some idea.</p>
<p>Just like Mahatma Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi. He also wrote an interpretation of Bhagavad-gītā, and he wanted to prove that from Bhagavad-gītā, nonviolence. How you can prove nonviolence from Bhagavad-gītā? The, the theme of Bhagavad-gītā is that Arjuna declined to fight and Lord Kṛṣṇa is just trying to induce him that "You must fight. You must fight." Ultimately, He said that "The program is already settled by Me. These people who have come here, they'll never return. They are destined to die. It is My program. Now, if you like, you can take the credit that you have conquered them." Last of all, He said like that. When the program is that the Bhagavad-gītā clearly says that in this case fighting is necessary, how can you prove that nonviolence is taught in Bhagavad-gītā? That is a different interpretation. You cannot interpret a thing which is, whose theme is different. The author, the author of Bhagavad-gītā... The author of the Bhagavad-gītā is saying very frankly that "the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is now lost. So I am just trying to convince you. So you try to understand it." The purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is lost because they have been interpreted in a different way. So as soon as Bhagavad-gītā is interpreted in the way of a particular scholar or particular man, oh, then the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is lost.</p>
<p>Now, you'll find in the Tenth Chapter how Arjuna understood Bhagavad-gītā. So you have to follow the footprints. The whole thing is... I have several times repeatedly saying to you that mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 17.186|CC Madhya 17.186]]). Mahājana. Dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyāṁ mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. It is said that you cannot reach to the right conclusion of the Vedic literature simply by your argument, by your force of argument or logic. That is not possible. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ. There are many things which do not come within our argument, within our sense of logic. So tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ. You cannot understand the Supreme Truth simply by argument. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnāḥ.</p>
<p>And there are, so far scriptures are concerned, you'll find different scriptures describing in a different way. So that also, you'll be bewildered. Nāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. And there are different philosophers who are always contradictory. One philosopher is deviating. He's not in agreement with another philosopher. He has got a different theory. Another has got different theory. So philosophers also cannot give you the real truth. So neither you can understand the real truth simply by going through different scriptures, nor you can understand the real truth simply by your logical force or argument. So dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyām. The, the, I mean to say, the mystery of Absolute Truth is very confidential, very confidential. Then how I can understand? Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ: ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 17.186|CC Madhya 17.186]]) "If you follow the mahājana, the authorities, then you can understand." Therefore, this authority, this disciplic succession...</p>
<p>In India there are disciplic successions. Now, so far we are concerned, we are following the disciplic succession. Just like Rāmānujācārya and the Madhvācārya and Nimbārka, Viṣṇu Svāmī. So we try to understand the Vedic literatures from our superior spiritual master. That is the process. Just like Arjuna is trying to understand from Bhagavad-gītā, or from Kṛṣṇa, similarly, if we want to understand Bhagavad-gītā, then we have to understand it from Arjuna, not from any other person.</p>
<p>If you have got any knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, you have to see how does it tally with the understanding of Arjuna? That you'll find in the tenth chapter. If you find that, that you have understood in the same way as Arjuna understood it, Bhagavad-gītā, then your understanding of Bhagavad-gītā is right. Otherwise, if you have understood in a different way which is not corroborated by the understanding of Arjuna, then your understanding of Bhagavad-gītā is different from the Bhagavad-gītā as it is. This should be the criterion of your study.</p>
<p>So if we actually want to derive some benefit out of the Bhagavad-gītā, then we have to follow these principles. Without following some principles, without following some, I mean to, some regulative rules and regulation, how can you understand Bhagavad-gītā? It is not a, not an ordinary book of knowledge, that you can purchase from the market, and read it and consult dictionary, and you can understand. No. It is not possible. Not possible. Otherwise, Kṛṣṇa would not have told to Arjuna, "Now it is lost. The Bhagavad-gītā is now lost. I am therefore speaking to you." Why? "Because you are My devotee." So one has to become a devotee like Arjuna and take instruction from Arjuna. And he must be ready to understand the Bhagavad-gītā as Arjuna understood. Then the spirit of Bhagavad-gītā can be understood. Otherwise, it is not at all...</p>
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