Prabhupāda: 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.
Just like Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi. Want 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 will never return. They're 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.
Then when the program is that the Bhagavad-gītā clearly says that in this case fighting is necessity, 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. Like as soon as Bhagavad-gītā is interpreted in the ways of a particular scholar or particular man, oh, then the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is lost.
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 said to you that mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (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 arguments, by your force of argument or logic. That is not possible. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ. There are many things which do not come within our arguments, within our sense of logic. So tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ. You cannot understand the Supreme Truth simply by arguments.
Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. 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 muni 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 arguments.
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: "If you follow the mahājana, the authorities, then you can understand." Therefore, this authority, this disciplic succession . . .
In India there are disciplic succession. 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 literature 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.
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.
So if we actually want to derive some benefit out of the Bhagavad-gītā, then we have to follow these principles. Without following some principle, without following some, I mean to, 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. It is 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 . . .
So far this . . . if there is any questions, you can ask.
Student: Why is it that he did not know this?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Student: Doesn't he know this, that he is not in the disciplic succession? And if this is so, why does he do this? Why does he make a translation?
Prabhupāda: He wanted to show his scholarship, that's all. A scholarship is not only the asset by which we can understand Bhagavad-gītā. You may be a great scholar. That's all right. But that does not mean that you know the techniques.
Mr. Goldsmith, will you wait? Will you come here?
Mr. Goldsmith: No, I got . . . (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: You can sit down, but I have to talk with you after class.
Mr. Goldsmith: Yes, as a matter of fact, I wanted to make an announcement when you're finished with the Gītā.
Prabhupāda: Here?
Mr. Goldsmith: Do you want to make it now?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Mr. Goldsmith: Uh . . . (break)
Student: . . . big scholars would, would write a commentary on the Gītā if he . . . if it says in the Gītā that you must belong to the disciplic succession in order to be able to understand it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The trick is that because Gītā is a very reputed literature, and Dr. Radhakrishnan, he's also a reputed scholar, so he thought that "I can . . ." Now, at the present moment, the things are going that everyone can give his own interpretation. That is the modern tendency, that everyone can give his own interpretation in any literature. So that, I mean to say, propensity, is also in Dr. Radhakrishnan, in Gandhi, and many other persons also. They are renowned persons of the world. So they have translated, and they have given their own opinion.