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.

• Seeing someone important just by our whim does not even work in the material world.
• Krishna wants to see the living entity dealing in devotion. Otherwise, as Paramatma He is already seeing everyone.

• Whether there is material manifestation or not, everything is always resting on the Lord. There is no situation where the living entities are independent.
• Garbhodakashayi Vishnu, Pradyumna - generic position of what forms are there in the material manifestation. Controls our attraction to material energy.
• Ksirodakashayi Vishnu, Aniruddha - the Lord sanctioning of what forms are available to us and what can we work with. Controls our interaction with the material energy.
• Purusha-sukta describes Garbhodakashayi Vishnu. But since the forms of the Lord are also non-different from each others, many times prayers describe several or all of His aspects.
• Even plants have intelligence, but it is very limited.
• 19:50 Control is masculine, enjoyment is feminine. Woman's and man's control are different.
• Without activity, abhideya, there is neither security, nor enjoyement.
• Logic allows us to appreciate more what the acaryas are saying, but it does not make one more advanced on its own.
• 35:00 Morons and lessons
• 41:00 Only devotees can honestly use the saying 'been there, done that.'
• 46:00 Every living entity perceives their duration of life as a hundred years.
• There is 9 months between leaving one body and being transferred to another.
• 51:30 How the living entity adjusts when being transferred to a body of an animal.
• We should not be overthinking and asking irrelevant questions.
• 62:30 Millions upon millions in the Vedic and modern understanding.
• 64:40 We have to be careful about poetry and comparisons. 'Lotus eyes.'
• 69:00 How to attain focus in chanting?
• Unmanifest here means it is not manifest through the temporary external energy, it is existing eternally.
• 76:00 We tend to think that the spiritual world must be completely different from the material, but it is not so.
• 85:00 We use direct Krishna consciousness wherever possible, and use Brahman and Paramatma understanding in all other situations.
• The living entity is the cause of his own suffering or enjoyment, but its mechanics is carried out by material nature.