http://seminary.bhaktivedantaacademy.com/classes/bhagavad-gita-seriatim/

Given in Bhaktivedanta Academy, Sridham Mayapur, September 2010-April 2011

The following are lecture notes briefly delineating its contents.

• While practicing yoga one is left with one's mind and one's determination to control it.
• 6:00 Asana is perfect when one can perfectly relaxed hold it for 2 hrs 45 min
• Pranayama is perfect when breathing is stopped, because as long as the breath is moving, mind will be restless
• Serious yoga starts at dhyana and samadhi.

• Real yoga means how to connect the mind to Krishna in any situation.
• 17:00 Birds making noises ("7 brothers")
• Bhakti means connecting to Krishna now, not later.
• Mind is one of the material elements, and it is big. Just as wind makes us feel cold, the movements of the Universal mind influence us.
• By hearing about Krishna, misgivings from the mind are removed.
• Jnana, karma etc should be applied in day-to-day life in connection to Krishna.
• Is eating prasadam sense gratification?
• Arjuna's doubts regarding the destiny of unsuccessful yogi come from material conceptions (will the soul disappear like a riven cloud etc.), due to material attachments many doubts and misgivings come up.
• 45:00 Previously, only Pujari used to bathe the Deities in Abhisheka, but now everyone wants to do it, because they have doubt that they will get the benefit, unless they themselves do it.
• In yogarurukshu stage one connects one's attachments to Krishna, but in yogarudha stage one sees Krishna first, then looks for opportunities to serve Him within the material energy.
• Unless one sees Krishna in everything, it is not possible to retire from sense gratification.
• The path of devotional service is not dry.
• 58:00 If one advances a little, it still gives great assets on the material platform, because the transcendental is actual reality, while material is illusory.
• Children appear in devotee families simply to get opportunity to practice Krishna consciousness.
• 68:00 the concept that only priest teaches children religion comes from Christianity, because it does not have a lifestyle. Jesus and his disciples were Jewish, but later others who joined accepted just the philosophy, not the culture.
• 2nd generation, Krishna consciousness is their culture. First generation doesn't have a culture.
• 85:20 What does it mean that a Krishna conscious person is above the rituals of the scriptures
• Rituals are meant to create piety to take up Krishna consciousness. Uncultured person having some taste for the holy name is better than very pious ritualists who are not Krishna conscious, but still they have to refine their unculturedness.
• Unless we like following Vaishnava etiquette we will not like it in the spiritual world.
• Bhakti yoga is the whole process together, it includes all the other yogas, but to study bhakti-yoga minutely, one has to understand all the other yogas. We are only discussing other yogas in connection with bhakti.