Ch 8  VERSE 7

तस्मात्सर्वेषु कालेषु मामनुस्मर युध्य

मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्मामेवैष्यस्यसंशयः ॥७॥

 

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu

mām anusmara yudhya ca

mayy arpita-mano-buddhir

mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ


tasmāt—therefore; sarveṣu—always; kāleṣu—time; mām—unto Me; anusmara—go on remembering; yudhya—fight; ca—also; mayi—unto Me; arpita—surrender; manaḥ—mind; buddhiḥ—intellect; mām—unto Me; eva—surely; eṣyasi—will attain; asaṁśayaḥ—beyond a doubt.

Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krishna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu
mām anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ

 

“Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krishna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.”

 

So, just—we’ll just visit the previous verse that we studied, so that we can see the continuity here.

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.”

Now the current verse:

“Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krishna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.”

So, the very first word, just bring your attention to tasmat, “therefore,” which ties these two verses together. If you recall, from the very beginning, Arjuna had been overwhelmed with the thought of having to fight and kill his intimate relatives, people whom he deeply respected, thought were worshipable by him, and he concluded that what he was about to do would be greatly sinful, and had proposed to Krishna that what he needs to do is to run away, as it were, from the fight, and go off to the mountains in a deep sense of so-called renunciation in order to assure himself, or be assured, that he will attain spiritual liberation; because if he becomes implicated in sinful activity, he will be bound by the perpetual cycle of birth and death. And so his interest and concern was very much this idea of acting in a righteous fashion, in a religious fashion, in a mode of, or with a desire to seek spiritual liberation.

Here now we have Krishna proposing something extraordinary, I mean, really different. When we look at this verse, we see that He asks him to carry out his prescribed duty of fighting. And that word, I’ll just draw your attention to it, [“yudhya—fight” shows on screen] to engage in this fight, which meant his prescribed duty as a ksatriya, to engage in warfare if required, for the protection and safety of the broader society. And Krishna’s proposal on how that’s going to happen, how he is going to be saved from the potential sinfulness, is that he should engage himself in constantly thinking of Krishna. And when He says, “constantly thinking of Krishna”, He’s speaking of Krishna in His original feature, this Personality of Godhead, in this beautiful transcendental form in which He appeared within this world. And he assures Arjuna that if he is to do this, if he is to live in this way, that he will attain—and again drawing your attention to esyasi, that, “…you will attain Me,“ and the stressing with this word “certainly,” or “surely,” eva, and then doubling down on that assurance by saying asamsayah, that “without any doubt” this is what will happen.

And so we’ve been presented with this really extraordinary idea. Because up to this point in the first six chapters of the Bhagavad-gita, we explore different forms of yogic practice, different forms of sacrificial undertaking, the observance of different Vedic systems of spiritual enlightenment for spiritual liberation. The overall theme in these first six chapters deals with the—primarily, the subject of karma yoga, and of course, beginning from the understanding that we are all eternal spiritual beings, not the bodies that we are wearing, that we have on, and that by engaging in the process of karma yoga, one can gradually be liberated from material entanglement.

In the middle six chapters there is a more intense focus specifically on bhakti. In the first six chapters—karma yoga means that one makes an offering of their undertaking, as a way to unite with the highest, or the absolute truth, the Supreme Soul. But in the second six chapters we have this focus that this activity of working for the pleasure of the Lord must be an offering in devotion, or bhakti.

This particular verse makes it easy for any person, the common man or woman, to appreciate that in my very ordinary life—I mean, look at Arjuna’s situation. He is told that engaging in an activity which is normally considered utterly sinful, but yet can be done in an appropriate way, the act of fighting and killing others, to engage in warfare, that even that can be undertaken in the mood of devotion as an offering to the Supreme. What more, the ordinary lives of all people? And then you have this assurance that by always thinking of Krishna, of always meditating upon the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, while carrying out one’s prescribed duties (and in Arjuna’s case that was fighting this particular battle), by dedicating one’s activities to Krishna, and by having one’s mind and intelligence fixed upon Krishna that one will attain Him without any doubt.

The great Ramanujacharya, in his commentary on this verse stated the following: (and he’s paraphrasing what Krishna is saying)

“Therefore, at all times, until your departure, [meaning departure from this body] remember Me, day after day. Engage yourself and actions appropriate to your station and stage in life, which would make you remember Me. These actions are prescribed by the Srutis and Smrtis… [so these are different categories of Vedic literature] These actions are prescribed by the Srutis and Smrtis and comprise the periodical and occasional rights. And thus by this means, with your mind and intellect set on Me, you will remember Me at the time of death and thus attain to Me in the manner desired by you. There is no doubt about this.”

So Sri Ramanuja Acharya from the Sri Sampradaya is making this observation. You will see a wonderful consistency with the statements of all the previous acharyas, even in different lineages. People that belong to authentic and empowered lineages, they all carry exactly the same understanding of this verse.

So we have now as part of his commentary on this verse, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has stated:

“This instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities.”

So I’ll just pause there. The reference to material activities means the activities associated with living in this world, with working in order to acquire the necessary funds for food, clothing and shelter, to maintain a family, and for all of the activities connected with that aspect of living within this world. So I’ll just read from the beginning again.

“This instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities. The Lord does not say that one should give up his prescribed duties or engagements.”

Which of course, was what Arjuna was proposing to do, early on in the Bhagavad-gita.

“One can continue them and at the same time think of Krishna by chanting Hare Krishna. This will free one from material contamination and engage the mind and intelligence in Krishna. By chanting Krishna’s names, one will be transferred to the supreme planet Krishnaloka, without a doubt.”

So Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada reduces it to even a more simple formula, that by engaging in one’s ordinary life, but doing it and attempting to remember Krishna, and to offer these activities to Krishna, and by the frequent chanting of the transcendental names of Krishna, that one is assured of being able to remember Him at the time of departure from this body. And in so doing one is guaranteed transference to that spiritual dimension, that spiritual platform, and not have to take a material body and birth ever, ever again. So it is very simple. It’s not very complicated at all.

Unfortunately, there are categories of people attempting to walk a spiritual path, who manifest an aversion to the idea of a transcendental personality, that is at the—that is the very foundation for all things material and spiritual. This is very pronounced amongst those who are drawn to, as we’ve mentioned before, the advaita vada, the impersonal philosophy, the philosophy of oneness, where they claim all form is material, ultimately it’s material. And so they say that the form of Krishna, for instance, is a temporary and materially coloured form. But we understand in this verse, and so many other verses that we will visit going forward, that this form of the Lord is a fully transcendental manifestation. It is eternal. It is all powerful. And one’s personal relationship and connection with Krishna is the natural function of all souls.

We are all bound to the Personality of Godhead by a bond of eternal kinship, as we have mentioned previously. It’s stated in the Brahma-Samhita very concisely. And the undertaking that we have been directed to here, creates the pathway by which a person can once again re-establish that relationship. That relationship is eternal. And even when the living being enters the material creation, the material world—and again we’ve used the verses that are found in the Mundaka Upanisad, in the Swetsvara Upanisad, where it describes or uses the example of “like two birds sitting in the same tree.”

The physical body that we have, and the subtle body that we have, is likened to a tree, and within that tree there are two living beings residing. One of these birds is busily engaged in trying to enjoy the fruits of that tree, but all the while feeling morose and sad. But that second bird is the eternal friend of that first bird, and he is accompanying this bird. And he is simply waiting for that bird to turn and recognize his eternal friend. And when that occurs, when there is that reigniting of this relationship and this connection, then one becomes filled with transcendental or spiritual happiness, and everything changes.

And so these spiritual points that are very foundational to the essential message of the Vedas are established here also by Krishna, and presented in a very direct and wonderful way.

So in closing out we will just read the verse once again:

“Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krishna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.”

 Thank you very much.