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.

• Most non-modern societies, there is a concept of proper culture and philosophy combined.
• Karma yoga is based on good qualities with work and endeavor, jnana yoga is based on those good qualities with renunciation. Yoga is based on ability to concentrate. Traditionally, one is automatically expected to have proper culture.

• In modern culture, the good qualities are only there, so that artha and kama go on undisturbed.
• The leaders of modern society think ahead 20 yrs, top of the common people ahead 5 years, but most people only some months and weeks
• Traditional businessman does business, because it is his nature, accordingly his dharma.
• But in the modern society there is no concept of dharma, it's just the desire of the person.
• 08:30 Laziness and renunciation
• When there is no proper training in karma, hearing and chanting still work, they are always the primary.
• For one engaged in karma yoga, jnana and dhyana are secondary, one engaged in jnana yoga, karma and dhyana are secondary, for one engaged in astanga yoga for the first 6 stages, karma and jnana are secondary.
• For one engaged in devotional service, hearing and chanting are primary, one of the yogas, according to their conditioned nature, is primary, and the other yogas are tertiary.
• "Pasta pickle"
• The basis of good qualities in modern life is simply the development of economics.
• On losing taste for prakrti - taste for prakrti is illusion, but taste for prakrti engaged in Krishna's service is not actually taste for prakriti
• 48:00 Sambandha, abhideya and prayojana - one who understands cit, acit and ishwara (sambandha), can understand the process of liberation - abhideya and attain Krishna - prayojana
• If there is only eternity, like mayavadis say, there is no consciousness to understand that one is eternal and happy.
• Shastra is defining Supreme Lord, but from so many different angles, different levels of realization, for different purposes. Therefore to have acharyas who show how to see the Lord in a specific way and connect us to Him is essential. And previous acharyas should be approached through one's own spiritual master.
• 68:00 Explanation of diksha guru, siksha guru and Founder-acarya
• 75:00 Both siksha and diksha gurus can be on the level of sat
• 76:45 Why diksha is considered to be on the conditioned level?
• Only after ceremony does the conditioned soul think that something has happened. But on the liberated platform, one is automatically serious about taking siksha.
• For a conditioned soul, unless there is diksha, it won't be focused.
• 79:45 Harmony between the gurus - harmony is that they work cooperatively for Srila Prabhupada.
• 82:30 STARTING CHAPTER 14
• True, useful philosophical speculation - vichara - is taking what's there and trying to analyze it from different angles.
• Philosophical speculation - focused more on the intellect, but still there is a mental need
• Mental speculation - more on the mind
• Usually the connotation is negative, but devotee uses the same process.
• The knowledge of the three modes of nature can be used to get out of he material world, but if we don't follow the direction of the acaryas, we will be going deeper in. Out of the material world is up.
• One absorbed in spiritual or material rasa doesn't worry about distinctions, but to make a transfer and put ourselves under sat-cit-ananda instead of goodness, passion and ignorance, we must distinguish.
• Everything that goes on is by the modes, so it's a major topic.
• To give up mode of passion, we have to do naishkarmya
• All the gates of the body illuminated by knowledge - one deals with all the gates of the body according to shastra.
• 108:10 "Something is good, don't get too excited, because within time it will go bad. And if it's bad, don't lament, because with time it will go good."
• Craziness comes when there is too much material desire.
• Everybody is crazy, but if it's unworkable, then it's clinical.
• 118:30 Brahma is the most pious living entity in the universe, because who is more pious than one who has not been here?
• In the spiritual world the soul is the body, what it thinks and desires they do with the form, therefore there is no mechanics necessary. But here soul is different from the form, so therefore there is a mechanics.
• Chemicals in the body create an effect, but that effect can manifest in so many ways, depending on the various situations, depending on the modes we are in.
• Modes act the way they do but we can be either entangled or liberated by them. Pure devotee acts within the material world, gets things done by the modes, but is not entangled. This depends on our consciousness.