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.

• Advanced devotees see the connection between the energy and Energetic, therefore they see Krishna within the material energy.
• Sense objects are made of material elements, senses can perceive them, and the concepts of hearing, tasting, smelling are created by Krishna. But there is nothing else within the material world. Krishna has put His energies here, but He is separate.

• 5:00 All manifestations are within Krishna, the attractiveness in matter comes from Krishna, Krishna as a person is making everything work, but at the same time He is separate. If lower taste bothers us, we should understand how it is coming from Krishna the Person. It is a very important technique.
• 10:00 There are many ways to see Krishna, but some are more special than others. The best is seeing Krishna as a person.
• 13:00 Separated energy does not mean that the potency is not there. Prabhupada's lecture recording are just as potent as he himself, because the spiritual is always present. The concept that one always has to physically be with the spiritual master, is bogus.
• False ego includes the ten sense organs for material activities, 5 working and 5 knowledge-acquiring.
• 18:30 Materialistic sciences work with 5 gross elements, and with 5 sense objects, the tan-matras.
• Soft sciences supposedly work with mind, intelligence and false ego, but actually they don't.
• 24 Material elements = 5 gross elements + 5 sense objects + 10 senses + mind, intelligence and false ego + polluted consciousness "I and mine", that comes from false ego
• These elements can be taken back to 3 modes: mind comes from goodness, intelligence, senses and sense objects from passion, gross elements and false ego from ignorance.
• Polluted consciousness is false ego, pure consciousness is real ego.
• Atheistic Sankhya discuss these 24 elements, but Gita defines them in their actual connection to Krishna.
• 25:00 Different viewpoints and interpretation of scriptural verses still have to be in line with what the acaryas say. This is called vichara. Some devotees do not wish to study, because they say that so many interpretations are possible, but they may deviate from the actual Vedanta viewpoint and take up a different other mimamsas.
• 27:00 Trying to understand the philosophy, one's devotion develops, because philosophy explains how Krishna and His energies work, so therefore one develops one's affection for Krishna.
• By understanding Krishna's opulences, name, form, qualities and pastimes, we actually get out of the material world and into the spiritual. Otherwise, brahmavadis don't.
• 28:15 We render service according to what we have heard, we do not make it up. Devotees use term "yukta-vairagya", but if they cannot connect it back to Vedanta, it is sentimental and ultimately causes disturbances.
• 31:15 What makes us believe that material world will work?
• Material world sounds great, but if it's not connected to Vedanta it will not work. Using Vedanta we can make the best out of the material world, but otherwise it is planned obsolescence. It's made so that the living entity starts contemplating "Why am I so frustrated."
• 34:45 You can only get because you are working on naishkarmya. We have this false concept that I'll want and I'll get. It's only when you don't want you get, when you want you can't get, it's just the way it works. The problem is is we have a false premise on how it should function, and it will never function according to that false premise.
• 35:30 The secondary manifestation is coming from Mahat-tattva that is connected to the intelligence. Therefore by spiritual intelligence connected to Krishna, we can work with the material world in connection to Krishna.
• 36:30 Planned obsolescence
• Modern systems may give some result to offer to Krishna, but their mechanics are not defined by Krishna, therefore they are limited.
• While preaching and helping devotees, we should start from their situation, but we should not be sentimental, we should know the philosophy and know how to connect it to their lives. Madhyama, preacher should base things on the Vedic literatures, otherwise one is not knowledgeable.
• 63:00 Material worlds are sustained by the jivas, although Krishna arranges them, just as diapers are sustained by the baby, although the parents arrange them.
• 67:00 Discussion on 'Why are there less questions?'
• Krishna is beyond the spiritual.
• Krishna is absorbed in His pastimes, so He is not specifically aware of material creation, but if He wants, He can be, just as we may be absorbed in an interaction with someone and not be specifically aware of our body, but if we want we can.
• Actual impersonal concept comes from material energy, because it is dead matter. But material energy is not illusion, it is a transformation of the Supreme Lord's energy. (Parinama-vada - the theory of transformations, just because energy has transformed, doesn't mean it's illusion; Vivarta-vada, Mayavadi theory, says that material energy is illusory)
• 84:00 Krishna is the taste of wine. How a drunkard became devotee.
• Krishna's energies power everything, but Krishna is not contaminated by that.
• One should not misuse the understanding of Krishna being the taste of wine