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

Given in Bhaktivedanta Academy, Sridham Mayapur, November 2011-April 2012

The following are lecture notes briefly delineating its contents.

• The impersonal aspect doesn't mean that there is no person. The person is there, but impersonal means only dealing with things that are connected to the person.
• The impersonalists still describe the qualities of Brahman, and qualities do not come from nothingness, they come from a person.

• The concept of impersonal is a materialistic concept that comes from material.
• What we call happiness here is simply the removal of pain.
• Brahman and Paramatma features can be understood even from materialists who know scriptures. But Bhagavan can be understood only by devotees.
• Paramatma is manifesting only a spark of the Lord's potency because that's all it takes to manage even the most amazing things of this world.
• Actual liberation is only there in relationship with the Lord. The liberation of impersonalists is short-lived.
• Karanodakashayi Vishnu as Purushavatara is just lying in the Causal Ocean, but someone on the platform of Bhagavan realization, like Arjuna, can see that He has servants, palaces etc.
• Same for Paramatma - for a pure Vaishnava the Bhagavan feature is sitting in the heart.
• If we are not conscious of something, or if we do not value something, it does not bother us.
• We can change our values by hearing from proper sources and properly applying the intelligence. Armchair speculators do not change their values.
• Values and cooking in 5 levels of consciousness.
• The modern is always changing, but the eternal always applies.
• The Vedic principles always apply, but those who just stick to the details are called smartas.
• For every philosophy that is not Vaishnava, life comes from matter.
• Each and every materialistic philosophy is either about enjoying or getting liberated and becoming God, or a combination of both.
• Those who do not know cit, acit and Ishvara actually do not have real knowledge.
• The soul is never lost, what is lost with death is the interaction between the particular material bodies.
• Attachment and repulsion are both misapplied prema. By stating that the living entity is eternal and that Krsna is taking care of him takes care of both the problems.
• Even though it appears that the living entities are maintaining themselves by work, the concept of work is created by the Lord. He has given the process that one can maintain oneself through proper performance of the duties.
• For the gross body one requires place of living, facility, food, drink etc, but it is the subtle body who requires occupation, to keep oneself busy. It is actually the subtle body that performs the occupational duties.
• Mind does not require physical facility, but it requires connection to physical facility, either to be controller and enjoyer, or to express one's relationship to Krsna.
• Dhira means that one is able to act on the knowledge that one has.
• Values are one's realization.
• Feminine nature works the same way in spiritual, material and marginal.
• Stages of anartha-nivrtti.
• Only devotees can be fully dhiras.
• Sages like Durvasa are mostly dhira, so they are called sages because that is what is prominent. But occasionally they are not at all dhira.
• Brahmanas are in the mode of goodness, but depending on the proportion of the other modes, they have a particular area of study and teaching.
• Mixed varnas.
• Relationships vs getting things done in management, business and skills.
• Management, business and skills are only there to support devotion. Relationships are always higher than occupation because they are part of the ashrama.