Bhagavad-Gita Thematic #8 - The Transcendental Teachings of HH Bhaktividyā Pūrṇa Svāmī

This course is part of Sastra-Caksus, Year 2 and consists of 101 lectures, available on:

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 original taste in everything is Krishna.
Intelligence is the most important aspect on our path to Krishna consciousness because even though we have to absorb our mind in Krishna, we find a position to do so through intelligence.

That the material world is a reflection of the spiritual world means that it is based on the same principle, not that everything in detail is the same.
18:00 mother taking care of her child in this world and in the spiritual world.
We become emotional over what happens to our material conditioning because we identify with it.
If we want to remain attached to the material environment, we will not be happy if Krishna gives us knowledge and detachment. So Krishna can be merciful to us to the degree that we surrender.
29:00 Sundarim means opulence. The false masculine position has the idea that by doing something just once, the woman will be grateful eternally. Similarly, we think that by doing something once in devotional service the internal potency should shower blessings upon us eternally.
30:30 But what if we want some money... We should only desire money for Krishna's service.
38:00 There is always an emerging middle class.
New Age has always been around.
There is both Christians and Jews in India that have been here for the last 2,000 years.
45:00 Mother Yashoda is her form, but a mother here is not.
48:00 Gardener and Yamaraja: we tend to use philosophy for our own purposes.
Pious lifestyle is the one of the spiritual world, but most manifestations here are less than that.
63:00 Did jiva fall from Brahman? One can be on the spiritual platform, with a spiritual form, but not have attraction for the Lord. That is the Brahman platform. Neither of the arguing parties acknowledge that Gokula, Bhauma-lila is also spiritual world. That is the real place of tatastha-shakti.
It is not whether we have a spiritual or a material body that is the most important thing - it is what we do with it.
We worry about free will in the spiritual world, but it is from a materialistic viewpoint. Once one has tried the material world and returned to spiritual, the material is so insignificant that one would never want to come back. And one does not want to change one's spiritual position because that is one's taste, even though one could if one wanted.
88:50 How is it that Sukadeva Goswami is in shanta-rasa, but is speaking in detail about all the other rasas in the Bhagavatam?
Cows, trees etc in Krishna's pastimes are not necessarily always jivas, but can be manifestations of sandhini-shakti. They are like 'stage props' that can move around and do all other things required of them - every movie maker's dream.
One does not use analysis in the relationships, it is only used to understand everything before one interacts, so that that interaction would be of a better quality.
We are originally manifest in Gokula, in our eternal form of natural relationship with Krishna, but if we do not take it seriously, we will turn away from Him and come to the material world. If we are here, we were never on the platform of prema, because one does not fall from there. But from the platform of bhava one can still fall.
107:40 The problems that got as here are the problems that are keeping us here, and we are not even having a good time here.
We are eternal, we have a relationship with Krishna eternally, it's just a matter of taking advantage of it.
In one moment we can become Krishna conscious, but Maya can also take over in one moment. Therefore we have to have the determination to remain Krishna conscious until prema.