28. Verse 9-2

 

“This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realisation, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.”

 

So I will just bring your attention to some of the words used here in the Sanskrit. This first one, raja vidya, raja generally refers to a king, and vidya refers to knowledge; knowledge as opposed to ignorance. But here it is referencing the supreme form of education.

Then you have the second term raja guhyam. This word guhyam means something that is a great secret, but it should be understood as being most confidential knowledge. So here this knowledge is spoken of as being both raja vidya and raja guhyam.

Then we have the term pavitram, this knowledge is the purest, and then uttamam, that this knowledge is utterly transcendental. It is not tinged in any way by material inebriety. It is fully transcendental.

And then finally the word, I will just bring your attention to is praktasya which means it is directly experienced, which is the meaning of realization. I mean sometimes people use this word without thinking much about it. A realization in a practical sense means when something becomes an actual reality to you. It was the realization of something. It practically became a reality.

So this is—one may ask, “Okay, well what is this knowledge that has been spoken of here?” And it is fundamentally the knowledge of the soul. Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in his commentary, he has stated the following:

“Generally, people are not educated in this confidential knowledge; they are educated in external knowledge. As far as ordinary education is concerned, people are involved in so many departments: politics, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, etc. There are so many departments of knowledge all over the world and many huge universities, but there is, unfortunately no university or educational institution where the science of the spirit soul is instructed. Yet the soul is the most important part of the body; without the presence of the soul, the body has no value. Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life, not caring for the vital soul.”

It’s like wow, this is an extraordinary observation. We become very accustomed to the world that we are born into, and the life that we are born into, and the norms that have been established by others, going back sometimes for many generations. And this point has been made, that amongst all the knowledge that one can seek to acquire, it is really only the knowledge to understand that which is spirit, is the supreme knowledge. It is only this knowledge that is vitally important, because everything else is associated with that which is both temporary and changing.

From the Vedic perspective, or the yogic perspective, it’s quite extraordinary, where you can see someone dedicate their life to studying a certain species of moth for instance, or a particular species of grass. And they will look at all the genetics associated with it, and the different places and the different variations of it that appear in different parts of the planet, and they will fill up their lab with specimens, and they will have everything catalogued and categorized; and they will utterly dedicate their entire life to studying something that actually provides no ultimate benefit for them. This is knowledge of that which is temporary and changing. It has nothing to do with me, the eternal spiritual being.

And when I leave this material body, all of that effort and endeavor, and all of that so-called education will simply be gone. And I will move on to another body, and I will assume another bodily identity, in another family, in another society, and I may become interested in something entirely different; and all that which I dedicated my life to is just gone. It’s not even on the horizon. There’s no recollection of it whatsoever.

So the point is not that a person should not have any interest in this world. No, that’s not what’s been stated at all. But when one does this to the exclusion of any spiritual cultivation, or the undertaking of acquiring actual spiritual knowledge, then it’s like, well what is—what purpose does that serve? As was stated in the previous verse that we studied, the need to engage in one’s duties and responsibilities in life, that is accepted. But it must be done with a spiritual foundation, a spiritual awareness, a remembrance of that which is spiritual.

The last part of the commentary of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada I’ll just read again:

“Yet the soul is the most important part of this body; without the presence of the soul, the body has no value. Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life, not caring for the vital soul.”

So we understand from the first part of the Bhagavad-gita, where Krishna describes in so many different ways the distinction between the body and the spirit soul, the atma, the actual self, the spiritual self. But in doing that, there is no actual positive information about the soul itself, just the fact that it is distinct and opposite from that which is matter.

Where things are going in the Bhagavad-gita at this point, is to understand that the highest and most perfect happiness that is experienced by the soul, is when the spirit soul is engaged in the loving service of the Lord.

Now we have a complete picture. We don’t just understand the essence of the self, or the soul, but we understand where it fits in relation to everything else, its position and its natural function in this relationship. And this second part of the puzzle, as it were, understanding my eternal and natural function, is the most important part of this confidential knowledge, which is being revealed here by Krishna. So reading again from the commentary of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:

“As it will be seen, actual devotional service (or bhakti) begins after liberation.”

So we’ll pause there for a moment. The initial practices of all spiritual paths are to bring one to this appreciation of the fact that I am an eternal spiritual being. Real and factual, actual bhakti, or termed here as devotional service, only really begins after the stage of liberation. So continuing:

“So in the Bhagavad-gita it is said, brahma-bhuta. After being liberated, or being situated in the Brahman position, one’s devotional service begins. By executing devotional service, one can understand the Supreme Lord. No one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by executing karma-yoga, jnana, or astanga-yoga or any other yoga independently.”

So this is a very important point, that these other practices, yoga practices, when they are practiced independent of cultivating bhakti, they will not bring one to an actual realisation of the Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Lord; that bhakti must become part of what one is practicing or engaged in, in order to have that realisation.

So continuing:

“Without coming to the stage of devotional service, one cannot understand what is the Personality of Godhead. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is also confirmed that when one becomes purified by executing the process of devotional service, especially by hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam or Bhagavad-gita from realised souls, then he can understand the science of Krishna or the science of God.”

“Evam prasanna-manaso bhagavad-bhakti-yogatah. [This is a statement from the Bhagavata Purana of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the first canto, second chapter, the 20th verse or sloka] When one’s heart is cleansed of all material desire, then one can understand what God is. Thus the process of devotional service, of Krishna consciousness, is the king of all education and the king of all confidential knowledge. It is the purest form of spiritual activity, and it can be executed joyfully without difficulty. Therefore one should accept it.”

So that’s very wonderfully and concisely laid out.

This particular verse that we’re reading, it might be an idea if we read the verse preceding this and the one that follows it, so that you understand it within the broader context of Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna. So we begin with the first sloka, in the ninth chapter;

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you the most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence.”

So we had read this previously in the introduction, and just bringing your focus to the point, that because Arjuna was described as never being envious of Krishna; and we had spoken about the importance of that. Then continuing;

“This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.”

I’ll just make the point that the word religion here, is translated from dharma. Dharma is a much broader appreciation of spiritual practice. Many people today have a very somewhat limited—and there is a negative connotation a lot of people put on the term religion, like it’s inherently flawed, it’s based on ignorance, it’s for people that are not very intelligent. I mean all kinds of stuff. And these attempts to demean that which is truly spiritual, are attempts by those that are envious of the Personality of Godhead.

I’ll just read that verse that we’re reading again:

“This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.”

So it is the perfection of all spiritual undertaking to come to the platform of self-realization. And then the next verse:

“Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. Therefore they return to the path of birth and death in this material world.”

So in this regard I would like to read a commentary of Srila Sridhara Swami which I have mentioned before, the extraordinarily famous and ancient commentator on both the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Bhagavad-gita, and many of the ancient Vedic texts. He is considered one of the very great spiritual authorities, from a different lineage than the one to which I belong. Yet all of the great spiritual teachers within our lineage, offer their deepest and most reverential respects to Sridhara Swami:

“Lord Krishna emphasizes the paramount position of this knowledge by a metaphor using the word raja meaning king. The king is the highest authority in the kingdom and this spiritual vidya or wisdom is the highest authority of all knowledge. The word guhyam means confidential, and among all confidential knowledge this wisdom is the highest. The word raja is placed before the secondary words vaidya and guhyam to place emphasis of this fact on each.

“This wisdom is supremely holy, completely sanctifying, and directly experienced by those whose senses are directed to the Supreme Lord in bhakti or pure loving devotion. The results of this wisdom is incomparable as one will never deviate from righteousness and it includes the merits of all virtuous acts prescribed in the Vedic scriptures. It is easy to practice, being simple to perform, and it is imperishable because its result is everlasting.”

So that is extraordinarily wonderful declaration made—or observation made, by Sridhara Swami about the importance of this essential message that has been offered by the Bhagavad-gita.

If one is to attain the highest spiritual realization of the self, and of God, one has to engage in this process, and that engagement has to be voluntary, and it must be performed in a mood of great affection, or love for the Supreme Person.

The important principle that governs self-realization and God-realisation is the principle of free will. The nature of the soul itself, the atma, is that we all have free will. We are free to choose, which means that we can choose a wrong direction, or we can choose a right direction; but that freedom remains. That freedom is the most fundamental requirement for love. For one to experience and manifest actual spiritual love, it must be something that is done freely.

When a person manifests some level of enviousness towards God, wanting themselves to be the central enjoying agent in this world, to be the centre of everything, where I see this world and everyone and everything in relation to me, this is considered a manifestation of this envy; my wanting to occupy a position that is not aligned with my eternal spiritual nature. My eternal spiritual nature is that I am an eternal, loving servant of the supremely lovable Personality of Godhead. If I want anything other than that, then I have the freedom to pursue that. But while I am clinging on to any form of enviousness, or any desire for self-importance, this will make it so that I cannot realize this highest truth. And this is why it is called a deeply—it is the king of all confidential knowledge.

In order to gain entry, one cannot do it by trickery, “Oh, I’ll pretend to be a bhakta, a bhakti-yogi. I’ll pretend to go through the externals in order that I can gain the experience.” No, it doesn’t work like that. It must be done voluntarily. There must be a complete surrender of one’s heart. And this is a very, very important spiritual principle.

Thank you very much.