Bhagavad Gita | Prahladananda Swami

The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.

PURPORT

Here the living entity is described as isvara, the controller of his own body. If he likes, he can change his body to a higher grade, and if he likes he can move to a lower class. Minute independence is there. The change his body undergoes depends upon him. At the time of death, the consciousness he has created will carry him on to the next type of body. If he has made his consciousness like that of a cat or dog, he is sure to change to a cat’s or dog’s body. And if he has fixed his consciousness on godly qualities, he will change into the form of a demigod. And if he is in Krishna consciousness, he will be transferred to Krishnaloka in the spiritual world and will associate with Krishna. It is a false claim that after the annihilation of this body everything is finished. The individual soul is transmigrating from one body to another, and his present body and present activities are the background of his next body. One gets a different body according to karma, and he has to quit this body in due course. It is stated here that the subtle body, which carries the conception of the next body, develops another body in the next life. This process of transmigrating from one body to another and struggling while in the body is called karshati, or struggle for existence.

BG 15.08 Guna Vision 2010-05-01

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Lecture – BG 15.8 No One Died Because They Didn’t Have An iPod (English & Spanish) – Video

Lecture on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 15, Text 8 titled “No One Died because they didn’t have an iPod” by Prahladananda Swami. The lecture starts in Spanish and then transitions to English with some mixture of Spanish.

Dallas, TX
2010-07-08

Bhagavad-gita As It Is 15.8

sariram yad avapnoti

yac capy utkramatisvarah

grihitvaitani samyati

vayur gandhan ivasayat

TRANSLATION

PURPORT

BG 15.08_No One Died Because They Didn’t Have An IPod_2010-07-08_English&Spanish

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Lecture – Bhagavad Gita 15.5 Receipt won’t get you there – Video

Lecture on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 15, Text 5 – “Receipt won’t get you there”

Dallas, TX
2010-07-07

Bhagavad-gita As It Is 15.5

nirmana–moha jita–sanga–dosha

adhyatma–nitya vinivritta–kamah

dvandvair vimuktah sukha–duhkha-samjnair

gacchanty amudhah padam avyayam tat

TRANSLATION

Those who are free from false prestige, illusion and false association, who understand the eternal, who are done with material lust, who are freed from the dualities of happiness and distress, and who, unbewildered, know how to surrender unto the Supreme Person attain to that eternal kingdom.

PURPORT

The surrendering process is described here very nicely. The first qualification is that one should not be deluded by pride. Because the conditioned soul is puffed up, thinking himself the lord of material nature, it is very difficult for him to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should know by the cultivation of real knowledge that he is not lord of material nature; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Lord. When one is free from delusion caused by pride, he can begin the process of surrender. For one who is always expecting some honor in this material world, it is not possible to surrender to the Supreme Person. Pride is due to illusion, for although one comes here, stays for a brief time and then goes away, he has the foolish notion that he is the lord of the world. He thus makes all things complicated, and he is always in trouble. The whole world moves under this impression. People are considering the land, this earth, to belong to human society, and they have divided the land under the false impression that they are the proprietors. One has to get out of this false notion that human society is the proprietor of this world. When one is freed from such a false notion, he becomes free from all the false associations caused by familial, social and national affections. These faulty associations bind one to this material world. After this stage, one has to develop spiritual knowledge. One has to cultivate knowledge of what is actually his own and what is actually not his own. And when one has an understanding of things as they are, he becomes free from all dual conceptions such as happiness and distress, pleasure and pain. He becomes full in knowledge; then it is possible for him to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

BG 15.05_Receipt Won’t Get You There_2010-07-07

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Lecture – Bhagavad Gita 7.28 Vaikuntha Is Not a Bakery – Video

Lecture on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7, Text 28 by Prahladananda Swami. (The audio quality improves about half way through the lecture)

Dallas, TX
2009-12-02

TRANSLATION

Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.

PURPORT

Those eligible for elevation to the transcendental position are mentioned in this verse. For those who are sinful, atheistic, foolish and deceitful, it is very difficult to transcend the duality of desire and hate. Only those who have passed their lives in practicing the regulative principles of religion, who have acted piously and who have conquered sinful reactions can accept devotional service and gradually rise to the pure knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then, gradually, they can meditate in trance on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the process of being situated on the spiritual platform. This elevation is possible in Krishna consciousness in the association of pure devotees, for in the association of great devotees one can be delivered from delusion.

It is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.2) that if one actually wants to be liberated he must render service to the devotees (mahat-sevam dvaram ahur vimukteh); but one who associates with materialistic people is on the path leading to the darkest region of existence (tamo-dvaram yoshitam sangi-sangam). All the devotees of the Lord traverse this earth just to recover the conditioned souls from their delusion. The impersonalists do not know that forgetting their constitutional position as subordinate to the Supreme Lord is the greatest violation of God’s law. Unless one is reinstated in his own constitutional position, it is not possible to understand the Supreme Personality or to be fully engaged in His transcendental loving service with determination.

PAS_BG07.28_VaikunthaIsNotABakery_2009-12-02

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