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This talk begins a series on the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita. The first chapter of the Bhagavad-gita is the set-up. According to Arjuna’s request, Kṛṣṇa placed the chariot in between the two armies: senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthapaya me acyuta [Bhagavad-gita 1.21].

Arjuna looked over all the relatives and friends that he was going to fight with, and he began to have second thoughts about the battle due to his feelings of compassion. He presented his case to Kṛṣṇa, but was unable to resolve his difficulty by himself. In the second chapter, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa and asks Him to solve his problem definitively. Kṛṣṇa then delivers a wonderful summary of Vedic spiritual wisdom.

The second chapter begins:

sanjaya uvaca
tam tatha krpayavistam
asru-purnakuleksanam
visidantam idam vakyam
uvaca madhusudanah

Sanjaya said: “Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming with tears, Madhusudana, Kṛṣṇa, spoke the following words.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.1]

Here, Sanjaya is narrating the description of the battle of Kuruksetra to the blind king Dhrtarastra. Arjuna is playing the part of the conditioned soul, and Kṛṣṇa is giving him the same advice that He would give to any conditioned soul who is bewildered by the difficulties of material existence and suffering. In other words, by advising Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa is advising all of us.

There are two kinds of souls: the Supreme individual Soul, Paramatma, and the atomic individual souls, jivatma. And there are two kinds of jivatmas, the materially conditioned souls and the liberated souls.

Actually when we speak of materially conditioned or liberated, we are referring to the quality of consciousness of the soul. The soul, being spiritual by constitution, is never affected by the modes of material nature. But because he fills his consciousness with material impressions, the soul dreams that he is under the control of material nature, and therefore although he is transcendental, he becomes subjected to the suffering of material existence.

The liberated souls, whether in the material world or the spiritual world, are always in spiritual consciousness. There are five kinds of liberation, but in the West the most commonly known type of liberation is sayujya. Sayujya liberation means to become one with the Supreme. The Mayavada philosophers or monists aspire after sayujya-mukti.

But the devotees, Vaiṣṇavas, do not accept sayujya-mukti. In fact they hate sayujya-mukti, because it is committing spiritual suicide by merging into the impersonal Brahman and losing one’s individuality. This means that one ceases to exist as an individual person, nor can one render devotional service to the Lord. So the devotees never accept sayujya-mukti, which is usually bestowed upon the demons who are killed by the Lord.

For the devotees there are four higher kinds of mukti:

• Sarupya-mukti means attaining a four-handed form similar to that of the Lord.

• Salokya-mukti means that one is promoted to the planet where the Supreme Personality of Godhead resides.
• Sarsti-mukti means attaining spiritual opulence like that of the Supreme Lord.
• Samipya-mukti means remaining an eternal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

And those who are still further advanced do not want any kind of mukti, not even these four higher kinds of mukti. Caitanya Mahaprabhu prays,

na dhanam na janam na sundarim
kavitam va jagad-isa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare
bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

“O Almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor to enjoy beautiful women. Nor do I want any number of followers. What I want only is the causeless mercy of Your devotional service in my life, birth after birth.” [Siksastaka 4]

This is pure devotional prayer. The pure devotee does not approach the Supreme for any material or even spiritual gain. Pure devotion means love and service without any aspiration for personal gain.

anyabhilasita-sunyam
jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena Kṛṣṇanu-
silanam bhaktir uttama

“One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11]

Anyabhilasita-sunyam: without any kind of desire than to please the Lord. This is uttama-bhakti, first-class bhakti or pure spiritual love. In the Esoteric Teaching it is said:

sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati

“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which everyone can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6]

Parah means transcendental, beyond this material conception. Kṛṣṇa, or the Absolute Truth, Narayana, is para. Even the great Mayavadi impersonalist Sankaracarya admits in his Gita-bhasya that narayanah parah avyaktat: “Narayana is beyond this material world.” Narayana, Kṛṣṇa, Visnu, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is not of this material world.

When the Vedas use the word nirakara to describe the Absolute Truth, that does not mean that He is formless, but that His form is not a thing of this material world. He has a transcendental form, described as sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah: “His form is eternal, full of unlimited consciousness and bliss” [Brahma-samhita 5.1].

The spiritual form of the Lord is sat-cit-ananda, but this material form is asat, acit, and nirananda. Therefore, when in the Vedic literature or in authorized statement we find the Absolute Truth described as nirakara, that means His form does not belong to this asat, acit and nirananda material world. But He has His divine spiritual form:

janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ’rjuna

“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities, upon leaving the body, does not take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.9]

Divyam, He is transcendental. This world is a creation of the material nature. But beyond this material nature, there is another nature. That is spiritual nature or spiritual world. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita:

paras tasmat tu bhavo ’nyo
’vyakto ’vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati

“Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.” [Bhagavad-gita 8.20]

So Kṛṣṇa advises us in Bhagavad-gita to attain to our original spiritual nature, accept liberation and return to the spiritual world. Then we will be happy.

There is no question of perfect happiness or perfect anything in this temporary material world. Perfection is unavailable here. But in the spiritual world, everything and everyone is perfect. So we should transfer our existence there. This is liberation from all material conditions and suffering.

Attaining liberation is as simple as changing our consciousness, and changing our consciousness is as simple as changing our ontology. Changing our ontology means instead of filling our minds with information, desires and impressions of this material world, to fill it with spiritual information, desires and impressions.

Therefore the path to liberation begins with hearing from a self-realized soul, and the next step is chanting the Holy Names of God, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, or whatever mantra or name you accept as indicating the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Next: The Gate of Liberation 2