This kirtana, always chanting, glorifying. This is the beginning of mahatma. So you come here. You chant. You become mahatma. Thank you very much

Expressions researched:
"This kirtana, always chanting, glorifying. This is the beginning of mahatma. So you come here. You chant. You become mahatma. Thank you very much"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). This kīrtana. This kīrtana, always chanting, glorifying. This is the beginning of mahātmā. So you come here. You chant. You become mahātmā. Thank you very much.

Lecture on BG 9.11-14 -- New York, November 27, 1966:

By nature I am active. By nature, because I am spirit, and by nature I am active. And my activities are exhibited even I am contaminated with this matter. And when you become purified from matter, do you think you shall be silent? Is there any reason? So do you...? To become Brahman does not mean to become void. No. To become Brahman means superior energy. With superior energy, we have to work with superior endeavor and superior energy and superior position. And therefore it is called, in the next line, bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ: "One who has become mahātmā, his symptom is that he's fully engaged in the loving transcendental service of Kṛṣṇa." He is mahātmā. How can you stop activities? Bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ, jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam. Why does he engage in that way? Because he understands that "If service has to be rendered, it is to Kṛṣṇa and nobody else. I have so long served my senses. Now I shall serve Kṛṣṇa, the proprietor of the senses." That is called mahātmā. You cannot stop your service because you are meant for service. Can you show anybody, within this meeting, anybody who does not serve? Is there anybody who does not serve anybody? You go outside, ask hundreds and thousands of people that "Do you, don't you serve anybody?" You go to the president, Johnson. Ask him, "Don't you serve anybody?" "Oh, yes, I am serving the country." So who is out of service? Nobody is out of service. But he's serving the illusion. And as soon as he serves the Supreme, he becomes mahātmā. Service you cannot stop. But you have to stop your service to the nonsense, and you have to give service to the reality. Then you become mahātmā.

Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). They are under the influence of the spiritual energy. They are no longer under the control of this material energy. So

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ

bhajanty ananya-manaso

jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

(BG 9.13)

He transfers his service potency to the Supreme instead of serving the false. Instead of becoming baffled always, he wants to make some asset in his life by serving the Supreme. And how does service begin? Now that is also stated here. You see. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). This kīrtana. This kīrtana, always chanting, glorifying. This is the beginning of mahātmā. So you come here. You chant. You become mahātmā. Thank you very much. (end)