(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, Cape Town, 28th June 2012) Lecture: Bg 3.10
In the beginning, I was reading the Bhagavad-Gita and thinking that it was a deep book full of revelations. But after so many years there is always something else to read. Actually, if we don’t experience a lot of taste in the Bhagavad-Gita, then it means that we have lost that mood of looking for purification.
There are devotees who have memorised the entire Bhagavad-Gita, and if one meditates on the entire Bhagavad-Gita then he is very rich. I was thinking about the Gita, since it gives us different levels… first karma-yoga, jnana-yoga and then bhakti-yoga.
In bhakti-yoga, we know that devotional service is everything, but when we are falling short in that, then we are somehow or other having difficulty tasting the nectar of devotional service, and sometimes we need to retreat on the jnana platform… the platform of: ‘I am not this body, I am eternal spirit soul’. So, on the days when we are not so inspired, or when life becomes very heavy, or when something unpleasant happens – then we can retreat on that – ‘I am not this body, and actually this world is not so important.’
The karma-yoga aspect is talking about engaging our senses in the service of Krsna. We need to move some material energy around, like gardening for Krsna, singing for Krsna, organizing for Krsna. So we can see how karma-yoga is coming in. We need all these 3 levels and we see that the Bhagavad-Gita is offering very practical solutions for our daily life. The Bhagavad-Gita is giving us the full package of shelter by descriptions of karma-yoga, jnana-yoga and bhakti-yoga, because Krsna gave us, the Gita in this format, not by chance, but he gave it so it relates to us!
