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.

• Lord is beyond, He is different. We can only understand the Lord when He explains about Himself. Otherwise, there is a limit to our own understanding
• We relate to things only how they are connected to our qualities.

• According to work people attain facilities. Krishna reciprocates as people surrender - devotionally, with material facility or impiety. Facility is maintained if we utilize it in the relationship. If we do what we want with the facility we have, we will lose it
• Our present has come as a result of our past, and our present activity generates the future. Rascals enjoying is overlap between their pious past, and their present sins having not fructified yet.
• Devotees continue their service whether it's good facility or not.
• 9:20 "Devotional service, whether you have nothing or something, you can still do devotional service. Let us say, you have ten dollars in the bank. Can you chant Hare Krishna? Yeah.
• 15:00 How to attract more facility - we must do the activity that we intend to use the facility for.
• The meaning of facility is only because it enables us to do something with it. Doing something is the real thing.
• 18:40 If we have authority issues, we cannot know God, because He is the Supreme Authority.
• Even if we want to study something in the world, things only work because they are connected to Krishna. To think that mundane knowledge has a standing on its own, this is foolishness.
• Modern academics can't do anything with their knowledge, because there is no conclusion. Knowledge concludes with the Supreme Lord, and therefore one engages in devotional service.
• If one is engaged in devotional service, there is no need of jnana. But studying Gita is not jnana, it is devotional service.
• 33:40 Can we put big bhakti in a small cup? Sudhama Brahmana had just chira.
• Bhakti is not about facility, it's about the attitude.
• 4 kinds of people surrender to Krishna, and 3 of them want facilities, but all of them have to come to the point of wanting to please Krishna, then they become steady. Otherwise, one will go away when one receives that which one came to Krishna for.
• 38:10 - what if one is not satisfied approaching Krishna - there actually has to be some qualification to be satisfied.
• Devotional service works on its own. Other systems, we have to get rid of the sin first. Devotional service works and gets rid of the sin. One should not focus on sin or on getting rid of the sin. The problem of sin is only because it gets in the way of devotional service.
• Weakness of heart is much more of a problem than sin. If one is bold and strong, one will also be bold and strong in devotional service.
• It's not the facility that makes us fall down, it's our purpose.
• If our heart is weak, our material desires will triumph over spiritual desires.
• Facility does not have any value other than being engaged in Krishna's service.
• One who gives money, but is not chanting, should not be telling what to do with the money.
• By separating oneself from the modes, we overcome our weakness of heart, but once we separate ourselves from the modes, we should connect to the Supreme Person.
• First 6 chapters define how to separate ourself from matter, the rest discuss how to connect ourselves to the Supreme Person.
• Purushottama yoga - seeing the Supreme Person, connecting to Him. To do that, we should see ourselves as separate from matter and understand that we are an instrument to engage that matter in Krishna's service.
• We are going to connect to the Supreme Brahman by engaging His energy in His service.
• Buddhists accept soul, but not the Supersoul, because their knowledge is stolen by illusion.
• Buddhists help others, but their goal is to get to nirvana.
• Thieves don't discuss whether stealing is good or not, they only discuss what to steal.
• 68:50 STARTING CH. 16
• What defines whether we see ourself separate from material nature or not?
• Divine and demoniac qualities - because the mentality to lord it over material nature is demoniac.
• That we do not want to follow rules is demoniac.
• To explain to pious people demoniac mentalities and needs, pious methods have to be used.
• Identifying with demoniac mentality means to be a demon, but even devotees can have such mentality. In Kali yuga demons and devotees live in the same body.
• Faultfinding means that I feel superior and can make myself a lord. Therefore one of the divine qualities is aversion to faultfinding.
• Even the demoniac may have some divine qualities. The divine qualities do not stand on their own, but they are more useful in the devotional service.
• Divine qualities connected to the Supreme Lord is what we are looking for.