Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (leads chanting of verse) (Prabhupāda and devotees repeat)
- śrī bhagavān uvāca
- kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṁ
- viṣame samupasthitam
- anārya-juṣṭam asvargyam
- akīrti-karam arjuna
- (BG 2.2)
(break)
śrī bhagavān uvāca—the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; kutaḥ—wherefrom; tvā—unto you; kaśmalam—dirtiness; idam—this lamentation; viṣame—this hour of crisis; samupasthitam—arrived; anārya—persons who do not know the value of life; juṣṭam—practiced by; asvargyam—that which does not lead to higher planets; akīrti—infamy; karam—the cause of; arjuna—O Arjuna.
Translation: "The Supreme Person, Bhagavān, said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life. They do not lead to higher planets, but to infamy."
Prabhupāda: So in this verse Vyāsadeva is writing. Of course, the . . . the speaking is through Sañjaya, but the original writer is Vyāsadeva. In other ślokas he writes arjuna uvāca, sañjaya uvāca, like that. Similarly, he could write here kṛṣṇa uvāca. He could write. No. He's writing bhagavān uvāca. So Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By this writing it is established, śrī-bhagavān uvāca. He cannot be equal with Arjuna or Sañjaya or anybody else. Asammaurdhva. Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is supreme. Nobody is equal to Him, nobody is higher than. Everyone is lower. That is the meaning of Bhagavān. Nobody can claim, "I am Bhagavān." But nowadays there are so many rascals, they are claiming that everyone is Bhagavān.
So Vyāsadeva is mistaken? Actually, these Māyāvādī philosophers, they are so great rascals they sometimes say like that, that Vyāsadeva is also mistaken. They have got the audacity to say Vyāsadeva . . . He is accepted as incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, who has given us the Vedic literature, so many books he has given: the Vedas, thePurāṇas, the Mahābhārata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Vedānta-sūtra. Everything is given by Vyāsadeva in writing, and he's accepted, Nārāyaṇa, incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, mahāmuni-kṛte. He is also Vyāsa-muni, but He is also mahāmuni-kṛte.
So there cannot be any mistake in the words of Vyāsadeva. This is the difficulty. If one does not come through the channel of disciplic succession, so they are in so many ways mistaken. Vyāsadeva is above all this. He is not an ordinary writer, for material description, for material name and faith. He cannot be mistaken. As Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa cannot be mistaken, similarly Vyāsadeva, incarnation of Bhagavān, he also cannot be mistaken. Neither devotee of Kṛṣṇa can be mistaken. Devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he does not say anything as his own opinion. He never says. What Kṛṣṇa says, he says. He may be not perfect, but what Kṛṣṇa has said, that is perfect. Therefore a pure devotee, who does not say anything beyond which was spoken by Kṛṣṇa, therefore his statement is also without mistake.
Common man within this material world, he commits mistake: "To err is human." Even big, big personalities, they commit mistake. But nārāyaṇa paraḥ. He is transcendental. Kṛṣṇa is transcendental. There cannot be any mistake; there cannot be any illusion. Those who are within this material world, they have got four defects: they commit mistake, they are illusioned, and their senses are imperfect—bhrama, pramāda, vipralipsā—and they're cheaters. Because . . . just like modern-day scientists and philosophers, they propagate so many branches of knowledge, but when, on the crucial point, they are caught, they say: "I, I do not know perfectly. I do not know perfectly. We are trying to know. In future, we shall tell you the perfect." But if you are not in perfect knowledge, why should you take the post of a teacher? If your knowledge is imperfect, then whatever you speak, that is imperfect. Therefore with imperfect knowledge, why you should become a teacher? That is cheating. That is cheating.
Therefore purposefully Vyāsadeva is writing sri-bhagavān uvāca: where there is no cheating, no imperfection, no illusion, no mistake. Four things: no mistake, no illusion, no cheating and no imperfection. This is Bhagavān. Why we are taking Bhagavad-gītā so seriously? There are so many other books we can read, so many theories, so many philosophers, big, big philosophers. But we cannot take them, because they are defective. The author is sure to commit mistake. He is illusioned. Because his senses are not perfect, therefore imperfection. So with all these defects, we cannot accept anyone's knowledge.
This is Vedic process. This is called paramparā system, disciplic succession. We receive knowledge perfectly from the Supreme Bhagavān. And if I receive the knowledge from Bhagavān, and if I distribute the same knowledge as Bhagavān has said, without any interpretation of my cheating policy, then the knowledge which I distribute, that is also perfect. I may not be perfect, but the knowledge which I have taken from Kṛṣṇa, if I present it as it is, without any interpretation, then what I give you, that is perfect. It is very easy to understand. I have given several times . . . just like a peon has brought a money order for you, thousand dollars. So he's giving you. So you cannot say: "Oh, here is a peon. He's a poor man. How he can give me one thousand dollars?" He's not giving; the money is sent by somebody else. He's simply handing you over.
Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, āmāra ājñāya guru haya tāra sarva-deśa, tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). He's asking everyone to become a spiritual master. So how everyone can become spiritual master? A spiritual master must have sufficient knowledge, so many other qualification. No. Even without any qualification one can become a spiritual master. How? Now the process is, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, āmāra ājñāya: "On My order." That is the crucial point. One does not become spiritual master by his own whims. That is not spiritual master. He must be ordered by superior authority. Then he's spiritual master. Āmāra ājñāya.
Just like in our case. Our superior authority, our spiritual master, he ordered me that, "You just try to preach this gospel, whatever you have learned from me, in English." So we have tried it. That's all. It is not that I am very much qualified. The only qualification is that I have tried to execute the order of superior authority. That's all. This is the secret of success.