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.

• Things are only forms to achieve particular qualities.
• We may be perplexed - how to give up this form? - but such worry is useless, because we are aspiring to attain Krishna, and if we attain certain quality, it does not matter which form it is.

• We give too much importance to forms. The Buddhist monk and the extreme sportsman are both enjoyers, but the forms are very different.
• 15:00 Giving up religion, we only adopt those forms that will express our surrender. Before, we adopted certain forms to obtain that form of surrender.
• Form is only a tool for serving Krishna. If one is only focused on form, one can easily leave Krishna consciousness, and continue working just with forms in the material consciousness.
• 20:00 Many times acting in emergency is just the opposite of ordinary dealings.
• Person might have given something up - changed ashrama, or given up a certain position, but the main thing to look at is not how they have situated themselves, but - is the surrender involved? Does the person have a deeper knowledge and understanding of how their situation connects to Krishna?
• The ultimate thing is just to surrender. But to surrender, it may require a whole background of knowledge and practice to make that practical. So that's why Krishna is saying this at the end of the Gita, after 17 chapters of instruction.
  It's not that those 17 chapters don't matter, if we are not able to always just think how a thing would please Krishna, we go back and look at the details.
• Each of our communities - you got enough people there to run the whole country. But they are not. They are buying groceries, or changing diapers, or something else. Important, but...
• If the teacher is there, then you can look for qualified students, but if there is no teacher, there is no discussion. There is no use discussing qualified students, if there is no teacher.
• 35:30 The internal potency is special, because all the forms are in connection to the Lord. In material world they are not.
  Managing is not the big thing, all managers retire. Main thing is training others, guiding them how to properly see their activities in connection to Krishna.
• All Krishna is saying in the 18th chapter He has already said before, but now He is giving the conclusion.
• 42:50 200 RS TO START A UNIVERSITY
• Vedanta cuts beyond everything, it resolves all contradictions.
• If one desires pure, unalloyed devotion, one will get it. One gets it by Krishna's special mercy. Even if one desires something else, but if one follows the order of Guru, to please Guru, there is a good chance  - one will get it.
• There is always a few devotees who are directly interacting with Krishna, but we should not try it, we should go through the spiritual master.
• Bhagavad-gita should not be explained to one who is not austere - austere means they are performing their duties.
• 55:00 Raga and vaidhi
• Pure devotion mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita applies to any Vaishnava. Pure unalloyed is only Vraja bhakti.
• Those  who say there is no need of rules are not austere.
• The Socratic method is meant for people who have a foundation in knowledge, and then spontaneous platform can be brought out.
• 60:20 Preaching is not just to make devotees. Once they are made devotees, now they are really qualified, so that pure devotional service can be explained to them.
• When preaching to non-devotees we may not explain the most confidential aspects of Bhagavan, but we can explain to them confidential knowledge about Brahman or Paramatma.
• One who is still on the material platform technically is not pious.
  Only Vaikuntha planets are actually pious.
• 71:30 The light of the stars are actually the effulgence of the pious activities of great personalities.
• 75:15 Srila Prabhupada actually said that senior men should not be doing outside programs, they should be preaching to the devotees.

  We should only do outside programs to find more people to be preached to as devotees.
• Moving slowly up through all the planetary systems is for people who are more focused on the form than the essence.
• There is sometimes confusion that we do not care for the forms. We should only reject forms that are impious, and try to connect forms more and more to the service of the Lord.
• There are people very nicely situated in the mode of goodness, but they are not desireless. Desirelessness doesn't mean to be void, or not wanting to do anything, it is the desire to act for Krishna's satisfaction. One does not desire for oneself, one only desires to please the Lord. One should not even desire for other people, ideals etc, but only for the satisfaction of the Lord.
• People think they are their bodies, and consider themselves the actual cause of their activities and the results. But actually only the modes are carrying things out, and we are only a small assistant the size of the tip of the hair.
• 90:00 When we understand the living entities are coming from Krishna and are not part of the material energy, we are no longer able to deal with them as dead matter.
• The Lord is especially affectionate to devotees, because they respond. He reciprocates with everybody the way they surrender to Him.
• 96:00 Actual personal element only comes when we recognize the soul.