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Now in our detailed study of the Bhagavad-gita, we have progressed past the setup section. Kṛṣṇa is giving Arjuna the enlightenment he requested, and He begins by speaking about the living entity, the eternal individual spirit soul.

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]

Here, Kṛṣṇa says that “In the past I existed eternally; and so did you. Similarly, all these soldiers and kings who have assembled in this battlefield existed eternally as individuals in the past. For the present, there is no question that we exist as individuals. And in the future also, we shall all exist as individual persons.” That also means, “We are always individuals, and we shall never merge or become one.”

If this is not the case, then what does Kṛṣṇa mean by “I,” “you,” and “others”? Kṛṣṇa’s meaning is very simple: “I am an individual person. You are an individual person, and all others also, each and every one of them, are individual persons. In the past we were all individuals; at present we are all individuals; and in the future, we shall also remain individuals eternally.”

Kṛṣṇa’s statement is unconditional. So where there is question of merging, becoming one? Here Kṛṣṇa says that “In the past we were individual persons, in the present we are all individual persons, and in future also, we shall remain individual persons.” He includes Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as one of the eternal individual spiritual persons.

So the Mayavadi theory that God is impersonal cannot stand. Kṛṣṇa directly contradicts it with His very first statement of spiritual teaching in Bhagavad-gita. Neither God is impersonal, nor are the living entities impersonal. Every one of us is a spiritual eternal person. The difference between the Supreme Person and our personality is that He is all-powerful, and we are limited. Our consciousness, our intelligence, our power are limited. Everything of ours is limited.

He is great, vibhu; we are small, anu, atomic. He is infinite; we are infinitesimal, insignificant. Otherwise, in spiritual qualities, we are very similar to Him. There is little qualitative difference between ourselves and God. The difference between ourselves and God is principally quantitative. When Lord Brahma says,

isvarah paramah Kṛṣṇah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah

“Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body.” [Brahma-samhita 5.1]

He is talking about both Kṛṣṇa and ourselves in our spiritual forms, our eternal perfect bodies. We are similar to Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual qualities of eternity, blissfulness, and knowledge or consciousness. We have the same qualities, but Kṛṣṇa’s existence and our existence, His knowledge and our knowledge, His bliss and ours are immeasurably different in quantity. Just like Kṛṣṇa said,

imam vivasvate yogam
proktavan aham avyayam
vivasvan manave praha
manur iksvakave ’bravit

“I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.1]

Imam vivasvate yogam: “I spoke this yoga system, Bhagavad-gita, long, long ago to the sun-god.” Vivasvan manave praha: “And the sun-god explained it to his son, Manu; and Manu again, in his turn, explained to his son, Iksvaku. In this way, the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita is coming down by the disciplic succession.”

Kṛṣṇa says, “I spoke this Bhagavad-gita, at least four hundred thousand million years ago,” according to the calculation of the age of Manu. So Kṛṣṇa spoke this Bhagavad-gita millions of years ago, and He remembers. But Arjuna inquired from Him that “How can I believe that You spoke this Bhagavad-gita millions of millions years ago to the sun-god, because we are contemporary?” because Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna were apparently the same age.

Apparently Arjuna was calculating about Kṛṣṇa as a human being. That was apparently his mistake. Actually, it was not a mistake; he was making as inquiry to clear our mistake. We mistake Kṛṣṇa as one of us, and want to treat Him as a human being. Because Kṛṣṇa comes down to our planet and plays as a human being, due to our lack of knowledge about spiritual things, we think Kṛṣṇa is like us.

But actually He is not an ordinary human being. As stated in Brahma-samhita, Mahabharata and so many other Vedic scriptures, Kṛṣṇa is God. We are ordinary living entities. His knowledge, His power of memory, His power of knowing everything perfectly is vastly different from ours. Kṛṣṇa can remember everything from the distant past; we have trouble remembering what we did yesterday.

Unfortunately we think, “Kṛṣṇa may be a little greater than me.” That is Dr. Frog philosophy. We have already told this story. Kupa-manduka-nyaya: the frog within the well is calculating the dimension of the Pacific Ocean in terms of his limited experience: “Is it twice the size of this well? Three times?”

We cannot understand God by this frog philosophy, by comparing Kṛṣṇa with our own limited existence. We must receive the knowledge from God Himself, or from a person who knows God. Otherwise, there is no possibility of reaching a correct understanding of God. Therefore we study Bhagavad-gita, because it is God Himself giving information of His existence and qualities.

Now, according to Mayavadi philosophy, there is no duality. They speculate that the only reason we see any difference between God and ourselves is a kind of illusion, or maya. They also say that God is ultimately impersonal, and the goal of spiritual life is to lose our individuality and merge into His existence.

But Kṛṣṇa does not support the impersonal theory of the Mayavadis. He is God Himself. He says “I always existed as I exist now, as an individual person, and in future also, I shall exist like this.” So why do the Mayavadi philosophers misunderstand this direct version from the Supreme Personality of Godhead?

na mam duskrtino mudhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayayapahrta-jnana
asuram bhavam asritah

“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.15]

Because asuram bhavam asritah: the Mayavadi philosophers do not accept the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead. They think they are as good as God; therefore they introduce themselves as Narayana. But according to Vedic philosophy or the Esoteric Teaching, we cannot be equal to Narayana. What speak of us, the position of Narayana cannot even be estimated by great demigods like Lord Brahma, Lord Siva.

sarvam etad rtam manye
yan mam vadasi kesava
na hi te bhagavan vyaktim
vidur deva na danavah

“O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the gods nor demons, O Lord, know Thy personality.” [Bhagavad-gita 10.14]

Therefore the Vaiṣṇava Purana says,

yas tu narayanam devam
brahma-rudradi-daivataih
samatvenaiva vikseta
sa pasandi bhaved dhruvam

“A person who considers demigods like Brahma and Siva to be on an equal level with Narayana is to be considered an offender and a pasandi (atheist).” [Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 18.116]

The Mayavadi philosophers put forward the argument that “Because we are now in maya, we are thinking that we are different from God.” But Kṛṣṇa is saying, “You and I and all these are eternally individuals.” He is very clearly differentiating between Himself and the living entities, and treating all, including Himself, as individuals. Does this mean that Kṛṣṇa is also covered by maya or illusion?

If the Mayavadi philosophers are right that the differentiation of individuality is due simply to our illusion, then Kṛṣṇa would also be in illusion, because He’s making a differentiation between Himself and other individuals. If Kṛṣṇa is in illusion, then what is the use of hearing His teaching in Bhagavad-gita? Our value proposition is that we have taken knowledge from the perfect person, Kṛṣṇa. So if Kṛṣṇa is in illusion, then He cannot be accepted as the perfect person, and the knowledge delivered by Him is imperfect.

But Kṛṣṇa is not illusioned; we are in illusion. Kṛṣṇa cannot be in illusion. The clouds can cover our eyes, but they never can cover the sun, because the sun is far, far above the clouds. Similarly, maya can illusion us, but she can never illusion Kṛṣṇa. It takes a sober mind and sharp intelligence to understand this. In the Vedas, in the Katha Upanisad as well as in the Svetasvatara Upanisad, it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the maintainer of innumerable living entities.

nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam
eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman
tam atmastham ye 'nupasyanti dhiras
tesam santih sasvati netaresam

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the maintainer of innumerable living entities, in terms of their different situations according to individual work and reaction of work. That Supreme Personality of Godhead is also, by His plenary portions, alive in the heart of every living entity. Only saintly persons who can see, within and without, the same Supreme Lord, can actually attain to perfect and eternal peace.” [Katha Upanisad 2.2.13]

There is eka, the one Supreme Personality of Godhead, and bahu, the many living entities. The bahu, we living entities, are also nitya and cetana, eternal and conscious. That means Kṛṣṇa is nitya and cetana, and we are also nitya and cetana. Therefore, as far the living symptoms and eternity is concerned, both the living entities and God, Kṛṣṇa, are similar. Still, they are different in quantity.

The difference is that eko bahunam vidadhati kaman, that one, that chief living entity, although He’s eternal and living force just as we are, He is the chief. He maintains all others. That is the version from Kathopanisad. Nityo nityanam. He’s the supreme eternal amongst all the other eternals. Cetanas cetananam. He’s the supreme living force amongst all other living forces. Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman. That one, singular number, eka, He is providing, maintaining bahunam, all other living entities. Tam atma-stham. He is also in everyone’s heart.

isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya

“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine made of the material energy.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.61]

The Upanisads say, tam atma-stham ye ’nupasyanti dhirah: anyone who can perceive His presence is very highly learned and gentle, dhira. Dhira means one who is undisturbed. Adhira means those who are disturbed. Those who are in material consciousness are always disturbed; but those who are on the spiritual platform, in the transcendental position or spiritual consciousness, are dhira.

The Vaiṣṇava poet Kalidasa has described that dhira means: “One who is not disturbed, even in the presence of provocation, is called dhira.” A real spiritual master, a Master Teacher, has to be dhira. Otherwise, he cannot become a successful preacher. A preacher has to meet so many fallen souls. So if he also becomes disturbed by dealing with them, then he cannot preach.

Therefore the Master Teacher is dhira. Tam atma-stham ye anupasyanti dhira. Without being dhira, you cannot perceive the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead within your heart. God is there within everyone’s heart in His Paramatma feature. But you have to become dhira, without any disturbance, then you can understand: “Here is Kṛṣṇa within my heart. Let me love Him.”

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti
yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Syamasundara, Kṛṣṇa Himself with innumerable inconceivable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.” [Brahma-samhita 5.38]

This dhira is possible when we develop love for Kṛṣṇa. When we are engaged in pure devotional service, pure love, we become dhira. Otherwise, it is not possible. Otherwise we shall be disturbed.

Premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena: and how we can see God? Not with these defective material eyes. There must be some ointment, some medicine to cure our spiritual blindness. That is called prema, spiritual love; just like a mother sees her child as very beautiful, because she has love for the child. Others are seeing the same child as ordinary, but the mother sees the child as very beautiful out of love. Similarly, when we have developed our love for Kṛṣṇa, we can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not only within our heart, but everywhere. Then there is no question of impersonal misunderstanding.