Revatīnandana: "But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures go to ruin and perish. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next."
Prabhupāda: Yes. One who is doubtful, he has neither happiness in this world, and what to speak of the next.
Revatīnandana: "Therefore, one who has renounced the fruits of his actions, whose doubts are destroyed by transcendental knowledge, and who is situated firmly in the self is not bound by works, O conqueror of riches."
Purport: "One who follows the instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā as it is imparted by the Lord, the Personality of Godhead Himself, becomes free from all doubts by grace of transcendental knowledge."
Prabhupāda: Because everything is threadbare explained. You can have answer of all questions from this Bhagavad-gītā, chapter by chapter. Everything is completely answered. Yes.
Revatīnandana: "He, as a part and parcel of the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is already fully conversant in self-knowledge. As such, he is undoubtedly above the reactions to whatever activities he may carry out."
Verse forty-two: "Therefore, the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bhārata, stand and fight."
Prabhupāda: The doubt was there in the mind of Arjuna in the battlefield, and there was necessity for preaching Bhagavad-gītā. Go on.
Revatīnandana: "The yoga system instructed in this chapter is called sanātana-yoga, or eternal activities performed by the living entity. This yoga has two divisions of action, called sacrifices. One is called sacrifice of one's material possessions, and the other is called knowledge of self, which is pure spiritual activity."
"If sacrifice of one's material possessions is not dovetailed for spiritual realization, then such sacrifice becomes material. But one who performs such sacrifices with a spiritual objective, or in devotional service, makes a perfect sacrifice."
"When we come to spiritual activities, we find that these are also divided into two: namely, understanding of one's own self or one's constitutional position, and the truth regarding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who follows the path of the Bhagavad-gītā as it . . . as it is . . ."
Prabhupāda: "As it is."
Revatīnandana: ". . . of the Bhagavad-gītā as it is can very easily understand these two important divisions of spiritual knowledge. For him there is no difficulty in obtaining perfect knowledge of the self as part and parcel of the Lord."
Prabhupāda: Because the subject matter of Bhagavad-gītā is to know five things: to know what are these living entities, what is God, what is nature, and what is time and what is work. These five subject matters are there—God, the living entities, the nature, the time and the work. These things are there.
Everyone is engaged in some sort of work, and there is time control. Your life, my life, everyone's life is controlled by time. We have to live for so many years, no more than. So to study time, to study our work, then what is God, what I am, and what is this material nature—these five things are very nicely explained. One has to study. Then one becomes perfect in knowledge, and he can act accordingly.
Revatīnandana: "And such understanding is beneficial for such a person, who easily understands the transcendental activities of the Lord."
"In the beginning of this chapter, the transcendental activities of the Lord were discussed by the Supreme Lord Himself. One who does not understand the instructions of the Gītā is faithless and is considered to be misusing the fragmental independence awarded to him by the Lord."
"In spite of such instructions, one who does not understand the real nature of the Lord as the eternal, blissful, all-knowing Personality of Godhead is certainly fool number one. This ignorance of the so-called student of the Bhagavad-gītā can be removed by the gradual acceptance of the principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness."
"Kṛṣṇa consciousness is awakened by different types of sacrifices to the demigods, sacrifice to Brahman, sacrifice in celibacy, sacrifice in household life, sacrifice in controlling of the senses, sacrifice in practicing mystic yoga, sacrifice in penance, sacrifice of material possessions, sacrifice in studying the Vedas and sacrifice in observing the scientific social institution called varṇāśrama-dharma, or the divisions of the human society."
"All of these are known as sacrifice, but all of them are based on regulative action . . . a regulated action. And within all these sacrifices, the important factor is self-realization. One who seeks that objective is the real student of the Bhagavad-gītā."
Prabhupāda: Yes. Self-realization, "What I am." If one aims to that objective, then his study of Bhagavad-gītā is nice. Yes.
Revatīnandana: "But one who doubts the authority of Kṛṣṇa falls back. One is therefore advised to study the Bhagavad-gītā or any other scripture with a bona fide spiritual master, with service and surrender."
"A bona fide spiritual master is in the disciplic succession from time eternal, and there is not the slightest deviation from the instruction of the Personality of Godhead as it was imparted millions of years ago to the sun-god, from whom the instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā has come down to the earthly kingdom."
Prabhupāda: It is not very difficult. Just like in this Bhagavad-gītā the Supreme Personality of Godhead says that He is the Supreme, and He is advising, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "Just try to think of Me only, always." Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "And become My devotee."
Mad-yājī: "Just worship Me." Māṁ namaskuru: "Just bow down unto Me." So simply these four processes if one can do, He says, mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.68):
"Surely, without any doubt, you shall come to Me."
So is there any difficulty? These boys, these girls, what they are doing? Man-manā bhava. They are chanting "Kṛṣṇa." That means thinking of Kṛṣṇa. They are devotees of Kṛṣṇa. They are bowing down before the Deity of Kṛṣṇa. They are eating Kṛṣṇa prasādam.
So the process is very easy, but we do not want to follow the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, but simply falsely I am proud that, "I am reading Bhagavad-gītā." There are so many Bhagavad-gītā readers even in your country. So many. I know. But the real instruction they will not follow. They will interpret in some way, this way, that way. Or some rascal, I mean, commentator will also induce the reader, "Oh, here Kṛṣṇa says that you become devotee of Kṛṣṇa—it is not up to this Kṛṣṇa; there is another Kṛṣṇa." Just see.
You see? Kṛṣṇa directly says that man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ (BG 9.34), and the commentator says: "Not to Kṛṣṇa."
So how people can understand, you see, a misleading misinterpretation? Otherwise, if you simply study Bhagavad-gītā, you understand these five principles—what is God, what I am, what is material nature and what is time and what is work. Then you are in full knowledge. These five things are very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Try to understand.
"What I am?" That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7):
"They are all My parts and parcels." That is nice, very nice. It is very easy to understand. Part and parcel, that means I am part—He is whole. Part is never equal to the whole, but part is equal in quantity . . . er, quality. Just like a part, a little part of the ocean water. This is also salty, and the whole ocean water is also salty.
So qualitatively the little part and particle of the ocean water is the same quality. It is not different. Chemically, if you analyze that one drop of sea water, the chemical composition of that water and the vast water is the same. The only difference is that the ocean is very big, and the small particle of water is very small. That is the difference.
So if I am part and parcel of God, therefore the qualities which I have got, the God has got the same quality. Now you study yourself. Then you can understand what is God. The same qualities are there, but it is unlimited—ours are limited. It is not difficult to understand God. Why they are bewildered to understand God?
God is also—and it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā and all Vedic literature—God is just like us, a person, an individual person, but very powerful. That is the difference. My power . . . there are different kinds of power. Your power is different from another man. Another man's is different from another man, another man, ano . . . go on, go on, go on. When you find the supreme man, or Supreme Personality, He is God.
Very nice description in the Brahma-saṁhitā, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Every individual person is trying to control, to become controller. Just like somebody tries to become president of your state. What is the idea behind it? To become controller. They are spending millions of dollars to get that post. So I want to become very rich businessman like Rockefeller or Ford. What is the idea? To become controller. I want to rule over my family members: I want to be controller. If I have nobody to control, I get some dog to control. This is my, I mean to say, intuition. I want to control.
So everyone is controller in different degrees. And the Brahma-saṁhitā says that God is supreme controller. That's all. He is also controller. But there is nobody else who can control Him. He controls everything. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. Īśvara means controller. Parama means the supreme. Very nice, very simple description of God.
If God . . . somebody says: "I am God." I am God in this sense, that God is like me. Just like if you say: "I am American," your president is also American, so exactly you are like president, American. There is no harm. But if you say: "I am as powerful as President Nixon," that is not applicable.
Similarly, "I am God" means I am qualitatively one with God. It does not mean I am as powerful as God. That does not mean. He is the supreme controller. I have got the controlling capacity, or I do control in my limited circle, but He is the supreme controller.