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So far in our detailed study of the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita, we have been examining Arjuna’s arguments for not fighting. Now finally those arguments are coming to an end, and as he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa and accepts Him as his guru, he begins to reveal a deeper level of his consciousness, his existential situation.

na hi prapasyami mamapanudyad
yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam
avapya bhumav asapatnam rddham
rajyam suranam api cadhipatyam

“I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to destroy it if even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth with sovereignty like the demigods in heaven.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.8]

Na hi prapasyami mamapanudyad yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam: “I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses.” This is the existential situation of material existence. We are always in difficulty. Not sometimes: always, we are always in difficulty. But we make a distinction between ordinary suffering and really bad suffering; we call the ordinary suffering ‘happiness,’ and the bad suffering ‘distress.’ When we try some artificial means to cover the difficulty of material existence, we feel some measure of false hope and temporary relief, and that futile attempt is taken as happiness.

Actually there is no happiness in material consciousness, because we know that we will have to die. But sometimes, with the false hope that: “By this attempt, I shall become happy in future,” we feel a little temporary relief, but the reality that material life is miserable, always sets in again. The so-called scientists are dreaming: “In future, we shall become immortal.” This gives them some false hope. So many people are dreaming of different material schemes to end suffering. But these are just false hopes: band-aids on a grievous mortal wound. Those who are sane, such as my spiritual master always said, “Trust no future, however pleasant.” The future is a post-dated check.

So that is the actual position. Na hi prapasyami mamapanudyad yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam: “I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses.” Therefore Arjuna, as a sane person, has approached Kṛṣṇa: sisyas te ’ham: “I, now I become your sisya, Your disciple.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.7]

Kṛṣṇa may ask, “Why you have come to Me?” “Because I know nobody else who can save me from this dangerous position.” This is real sense. Yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam: “This grief is drying up my senses.” Ucchosanam. When we are put into great difficulties, it dries up the shallow happiness of the senses. In the face of real suffering—birth, old age, disease and death—no amount of sense enjoyment can make us happy.

Ucchosanam indriyanam: the happiness Arjuna is seeking means sense gratification. Actually this is not happiness. Real happiness is described later on in Bhagavad-gita:

sukham atyantikam yat tad
buddhi-grahyam atindriyam

“In that joyous state [samadhi], one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness, realized through transcendental senses.” [Bhagavad-gita 6.21]

Real happiness, atyantikam, the supreme happiness, is not enjoyed by the material senses. Atindriya, surpassing, transcendental to the senses. That is real happiness. In material consciousness, according to the false materialistic ontology, we have taken happiness as sense enjoyment. But nobody can become happy by sense enjoyment, because we are in the material existence.

In material existence, our bodily senses are false senses, because they are temporary. Our real senses are the eternal spiritual senses of our perfect spiritual body. So we have to awaken our spiritual consciousness. Then we can enjoy eternal nectar by our spiritual senses. Sukham atyantikam… yat atindriya: real happiness, surpassing and transcending these material senses.

Surpassing the material senses means removing the covering of the spirit soul. These material senses are a covering that obscures our real identity, our real self. In material consciousness, one thinks that “I am this material body.” Actually we’re not this body; we are spirit souls. But this temporary faulty material body is covering our real eternal perfect body, our spiritual body.

This material body appears to be alive because it has senses. Similarly, the spiritual body has spiritual senses. Not that spirit is nirakara, formless. That the spirit soul is personal and has a form is common sense.

Just like I have got two hands; when my hand is covered by a glove, the cloth is sewn in the shape of a hand. Because I have got a hand, therefore my glove also is made in the form of a hand. Because I have got legs, therefore my pants have legs. The garment, the covering, is cut according to the body; not that my body is made according to the garment. Similarly, the material body is like a garment for the soul; therefore the material body is made in the image of the soul, like a garment: one head, two arms, two legs and so on. It is a commonsense idea.

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya
navani grhnati naro ’parani
tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany
anyani samyati navani dehi

“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.22]

Originally we are all persons, eternal spiritual persons. Kṛṣṇa also says:

na tv evaham jatu nasam
na tvam neme janadhipah
na caiva na bhavisyamah
sarve vayam atah param

“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.12]

Kṛṣṇa is saying, “My dear Arjuna, these soldiers, these kings, you and I, exist eternally. It is not that we only exist for the present and did not exist in the past. Neither is it true that after death, in future we shall cease to exist.” This particular instruction of Kṛṣṇa, that: “I, you and all these kings and soldiers who have assembled here, always existed. As we are existing now as individual persons; similarly, they and we always existed as individual persons. And in future also we shall exist as individual persons.”

So where is the question of impersonal spirit? The theory of the impersonalists and voidists is nonsense. It does not fit the reality we experience every day, that we are persons. Therefore, the principle of the Esoteric Teaching is that to understand things in reality one has to approach Kṛṣṇa or His representative as Arjuna has approached, sisyas te ’ham: “Now I am Your disciple. You just teach me. Sadhi mam prapannam. I am surrendering. I am not trying to talk with You on an equal level.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.7]

To accept guru means that you have to accept whatever guru says. Otherwise, don’t play with accepting a guru. Don’t make taking a guru a fashion. To deserve a real guru, you must be ready to become sisya, real disciple. That is called prapannam, surrender.

tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah

“Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.34]

You can understand the Absolute Truth simply by surrendering, not by testing guru. It is ridiculous to think, “I shall test guru by seeing how much he knows.” You are accepting guru because you don’t know how to solve the problems of life. Then what is the use of testing guru? If you don’t know, how will you know if he knows? You cannot know. That is not the way to find a real guru.

Therefore Arjuna says that: “Besides You, there is nobody else who can actually satisfy me in this perplexed condition.” Yac chokam ucchosanam indriyanam. “My senses are being dried up.” Because the superficial material senses are not actually our senses. Our real senses are within, covered by the material senses. Therefore we have to inquire from Kṛṣṇa, the master of the senses.

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-
sevanam bhaktir ucyate

“Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.12]

To get relief from the illusion that our gross bodily senses are our self, and to awaken our real spiritual senses, we have to serve Kṛṣṇa, Hrsikesa, the master of the senses. Kṛṣṇa is real, and we have to come to that same reality, that same ontological platform. Then when our senses are purified, we can serve Kṛṣṇa.

indriyani parany ahur
indriyebhyah param manah
manasas tu para buddhir
yo buddheh paratas tu sah

“The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and the soul is even higher than the intelligence.” [Bhagavad-gita 3.42]

These are different stages of development of consciousness. This bodily concept of life means being engrossed in the material bodily senses. When you begin to transcend these senses, you come to the mental platform. When you transcend the mental platform, you come to the intellectual platform. When you transcend the intellectual platform, then you come to the spiritual platform and discover your spiritual form, your eternal perfect body.

There are different grades and steps of consciousness, of spiritual advancement. Similarly, there are different stages of knowledge, each with its own means of acquiring knowledge. On the gross bodily platform of consciousness, under the influence of the materialistic ontology, we demand pratyaksa-jnanam, knowledge by direct perception. But since our bodily senses are imperfect, knowledge acquired on the bodily platform by direct perception is not real knowledge. It is temporary and conditional, just like the material senses.

Therefore, the so-called scientific process of acquiring knowledge on the bodily concept of life, pratyaksa, experimental knowledge, empiricism, cannot give us the ultimate Absolute Truth. Experimental knowledge means everything must be verified by gross bodily sense perception. People who do not want to believe in the existence of God argue: “We do not see God.” But God is not such a subject matter that you can see with this pratyaksa, direct perception of your faulty bodily senses.

One of God’s many names is Anubhava. Anubhava means ‘seen by indirect vision.’ Just like when we are inside a room we do not see the sun directly. But we know that the sun is there because of its reflected light. You know it by indirect perception. You do not see the sun directly, but there are other processes by which you can acquire the same knowledge.

In this way, Kṛṣṇa consciousness or spiritual perception is beyond the material senses. Therefore the Lord is called adhoksaja: where direct perception cannot reach. So if direct perception cannot reach the Lord, then how you can perceive adhoksaja? Therefore the method of receiving knowledge about spiritual things is srota-pantha: the path of hearing. Sruti: you have to take knowledge from the Vedas, and the Vedic knowledge is explained by guru. Therefore one has to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme guru, or His contemporary representative. Then simply by hearing from the right source, all the troubles and ignorance of material life can be dissipated.