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.

  • 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.
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