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Arjuna wanted to stop the Battle of Kuruksetra because he didn’t want to kill his kinsmen. He didn’t stop to consider how determined the other side was. Even if he ran from the battle, the fight would have come to him. It was time to fight, and even Kṛṣṇa, who tried every means to stop the battle, approved of it. Therefore there was no sin for Arjuna in fighting a war based on principles of dharma.

So the whole point of Bhagavad-gita is simply that you should not act for yourself, you should act for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What to speak of fighting for Kṛṣṇa, even illicit sex is not abominable when it is done for Kṛṣṇa.

For example, the gopis are captivated in love of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is a very beautiful young boy, and the gopis are beautiful young girls. At least that is the superficial appearance of their relationship. Actually, the gopis are fully self-realized eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa.

cintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-
laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam
laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor who is tending the cows, yielding all desire, in abodes built with spiritual gems, surrounded by millions of purpose trees, always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of laksmis or gopis.”

ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhavitabhis
tabhir ya eva nija-rupataya kalabhih
goloka eva nivasaty akhilatma-bhuto
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Radha, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhis], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.” [Brahma-samhita 5.29, 37]

The gopis are expansions of Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure potency, Srimati Radharani. They are meant for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure. They may appear to be ordinary women, but they are actually great self-realized souls. Just to teach us how to love Kṛṣṇa at the risk of losing everything, they engaged in conjugal loving affairs with Kṛṣṇa in the forest of Vrndavana.

Therefore the gopis left their homes and families when they were attracted by Kṛṣṇa playing His transcendental flute in the forest of Vrndavana at midnight. Some of the gopis were locked up by their families, and they even gave up their lifes out of separation from Kṛṣṇa. They were so much attracted to Him.

Now this kind of behavior is normally considered completely unacceptable in Vedic society. According to Vedic civilization, women cannot leave the protection of their father, husband or brother. There is no way they can go, especially to dance at midnight with a young boy. This was completely against Vedic moral and religious principles. It was openly a kind of prostitution.

But because it was done for Kṛṣṇa, the greatest spiritual authority, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends, ramya kacid upasana vraja-vadhubhih kalpita: “There is no better type of worship of Kṛṣṇa than was conceived by the vraja gopis.” We must cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness favorably (anukulyena Kṛṣṇanusilanam). This means always thinking of how Kṛṣṇa will be satisfied. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness of the gopis was perfect because they had no desire other than to try to please Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection.

Vraja-vadhu means the most abominable action. For a young girl to leave the care of her husband and father, and go to another young boy, according to Vedic culture, is the most abominable sin. But because the center was Kṛṣṇa, it is accepted as the highest type of worship.

This is because the values of the material world and the spiritual world are diametrically opposite. The highest success in the material world, global domination for unlimited economic and political exploitation, is considered spiritual poverty, spiritual suicide. But when the most abominable sinful activity in the material world, illicit sex life, infidelity, is applied in the service of Kṛṣṇa, it becomes the highest form of devotional service.

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We have to learn how to act only for Kṛṣṇa, how to love only Kṛṣṇa. Then our life is successful. And the human life is such a rare opportunity to attain self-realization. We have come down from Vaikuntha, the spiritual world, some millions and millions of years ago. There is a beautiful song by our predecessor, our great-great grand-guru Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, called anadi’ karama-phale, where he sings:

“I have fallen into the ocean of material existence as a result of my selfish activities, which are without beginning, and I see no means of deliverance from this great ocean of nescience. Day and night my heart burns from the poison of these worldly activities, and on account of this my mind never finds any satisfaction or happiness.

“Hundreds and thousands of desires, like nooses around my neck, constantly give me misery and trouble. In that great ocean of nescience play the waves of materialistic tendency. In this world there are many thieves and rogues, of whom six are prominent; lust, anger, greed, illusion, and madness. They are causing me great fear, and in this way my life is coming to an end.

“The two highway robbers, mental speculation and fruitive activity, have cheated me and misled me, and finally they are throwing me into the ocean of misery. At such a time as this, my dear Kṛṣṇa, You are the only friend, and You are the ocean of mercy and compassion. I have no strength to get out of this ocean of nescience, so I pray to Your lotus feet that You will be kind and by Your strength uplift me from this ocean of suffering.

“Accept this fallen servant and fix me as a particle of dust on Your lotus feet. Kindly give me shelter to this Bhaktivinoda. O most merciful Lord, actually I am Your eternal servant, but having forgotten this I have become bound up in the network of maya.”

Anadi karama-phale: anadi’ means before the creation. We living entities, we are eternal. Even the creation is annihilated after millions and trillions of years, the living entities are not annihilated.

na jayate mriyate va kadacin
nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
ajo nityah sasvato ’yam purano
na hanyate hanyamane sarire

“For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.20]

They remain eternally, and until they attain liberation, so does their karma. So when this whole cosmic manifestation will be annihilated, the living entities will remain in suspension in the body of Maha-Visnu. Then when another creation takes place, they will come out again to fulfill their desires and act according to the karma generated by their activities in the previous creation.

The real desire, the real pleasure, the real salvation of every spirit soul is how to go to home, back to Godhead. Kṛṣṇa gives this opportunity in the Esoteric Teaching. But if this chance is misused, there is no guarantee that you will be able to qualify for the human form of life for a long, long time. There are so many millions of species of life on the different planets of this universe, and human beings are a very small minority. So to ignore the opportunity of this Esoteric Teaching is very, very risky.

If we miss this opportunity for self-realization, again we will have to accept the cycle of birth and death, samsara. And not only that, if we do not fulfill the mission of life in this creation, then after annihilation of the whole creation we will have to stay suspended within body of Lord Maha-Visnu for millions and trillions of years. And again we will have to come to this material world to suffer. So therefore it is called anadi karama-phale. Anadi means “before the creation.” This karmic cycle of birth and death is going on from before this material creation, from before the beginning of time.

So you cannot know all the intricacies of your karma. Some people think it is very impressive to remember one’s past life. Even accepting that this is possible for them, then what about the past lives extending back even before this universe was created, before the beginning of time? How can you understand those trillions of years and millions of births? It is not possible for any human being. It is beyond the capacity of human intelligence.

But Kṛṣṇa knows, and He remembers everything from all those lives. And to teach the befooled living entities, Kṛṣṇa personally comes to this material world and speaks Bhagavad-gita. Kṛṣṇa is very much anxious to take us back to home, back to Godhead, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we are His children.

Suppose if your son is loitering in the street, are you not anxious, “Oh, there may be some accident, and the poor boy will be killed.” So you go, try to find him and bring him safely home. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa’s position is like that. We are in this material world simply suffering life after life.

Duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bhagavad-gita 8.15]: this place is miserable. But by maya’s illusion, we are taking this miserable condition of life as happiness. This is called maya, literally, ‘that which is not.’ There is no happiness in this material world. Compared to our real existence in the spiritual world, everything here is miserable.

The sooner we understand that everything is miserable in this material world and the sooner we prepare ourselves to leave this material world and go back to home, back to Kṛṣṇa, the sooner we come to our senses. Otherwise, whatever we are doing, we are simply being defeated, because we are missing the real aim of human life.

Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.31]. Durasaya. We are hoping against hope—it will never be fulfilled—but we are trying to adjust things here to become happy without God consciousness. It will never be accomplished. Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum durasaya [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.31]. Durasaya means “the hope which will never be fulfilled.”

So all these materialistic persons, they are so fools, rascals, miscreants, they are increasing these material activities. They are thinking by increasing material activities they will be happy. No. That is not possible. Durasaya: impossible hope.

All of us are tied very tight, bound by the laws of material nature, forced to accept the results of our karma. Still, we are thinking that we are independent. The scientists are trying to avoid God, to become independent of His law by science. That is not possible. We are under the grip of the material nature. Material nature means the agent of Kṛṣṇa.

So we are always in perplexity like Arjuna, thinking what to do, and what not to do. But we can transcend this difficulty if we accept the principle of the Esoteric Teaching that we must act only for Kṛṣṇa’s service. So take direction from Kṛṣṇa through Kṛṣṇa’s representative, and do it; then there is no more bondage to the law of karma.

Otherwise, we are bound by the reaction of every act, and we cannot get out. So Arjuna’s perplexity, “Whether I shall fight or not fight,” is resolved by fighting for Kṛṣṇa. Then it is all right. Just like Hanuman fought for Lord Ramacandra; he did not fight for himself.

We should understand the policy of all these materialistic persons: they are trying to enjoy God’s property without His permission. Therefore as long as there are people who are breaking the law of God, there will always be fighting and war in this material world. It must be there because the karma of those who are breaking God’s law demands it.

Next: Surrender to Kṛṣṇa