This is the third part of the twelve-part series on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Prakashanand Saraswati. In this discourse, Swamiji continues to elaborate on the eternal nature of dharm and its divine protection by God. He explains how God not only establishes the path to reach Him but also sends His divine associates to guide souls towards true devotion. Swamiji sheds light on the role of Jagadgurus and saints in preserving and propagating bhakti across generations.
Speech 3 by Swami Prakashanand Saraswati :
The Divine souls: Previously I explained about the eternal existence of dharm of both kinds, par and apar – primary and secondary. And this dharm is protected by God Himself because dharm is a part of God’s own personality. So when God establishes this dharm, as I explained yesterday, for instance, when Krishn appeared, the Supreme Personality of the Godhead, He revealed His Divine love power in its full and established the path of raganuga bhakti so souls can reach Krishn and experience Krishn love in full. He also came many times, and then he introduced some other knowledge to the world, for instance sankhya or in the form of Ved Vyas, he revealed all the Scriptures. So in this way, God protects dharm, because dharm is eternal, and dharm is the path to reach God. The path to reach God. So, the path to God, God Himself, and bliss of God, they are all together. Means God Himself reveals how to reach God – true God. So, it is protected by Him always.
Read Part 1 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita – Part 1
So how it comes to common public? That is second phase of Krishn’s grace, you can say. Krishn sends his associates. There are eternal associates of all the forms of God. Eternal means they were never souls, they are always with God. So from the Divine abode, some eternal Divine personality descends on this earth planet, and that Divine personality establishes in public the path of God realization. So again, we have a system. Means we have a complete history from the very beginning of this planetary system up until kaliyug, the age we are in today. So prior to 5,000 years, when kaliyug started, we have brief history, and within 5,000 years we have not very detailed, but enough to know more about the path of God realization. So within the last 5,000 years, there were quite a few Jagadgurus descended on the earth planet. They were sent by Krishn Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Nimbarkacharya, Vallabhacharya, Shankaracharya, they were all great Divine personalities. They were called Jagadgurus. Jagadguru means they explained the philosophy of God realization in their own words in detail. It’s called bhashya. And they had particular names of the bhashya. So all these books, they are in great detail. They just show the path logically (and) explain the philosophy of God, soul, and maya. So these Jagadgurus who were Divine personalities, they established in this world the path of God realization, or the path of bhakti. In one word you can say, bhakti.
Bhakti means dedication to Supreme God with no worldly desire. Only one desire – to receive His grace. That’s a simple explanation of the word bhakti. So, they established bhakti in this world, one line of those great Divine personalities. Those Divine personalities never made a religion, sampraday, but sampradayas started after them. So sampraday (Sanskrit) literally means to give properly. What to give? They gave, they showed, they described, the path to God realization. That’s it. They gave us the path. It was called sampraday. Sampraday means religion, English term.
Read Part 2 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita – Part 2
Sampraday is a religion, but dharm is eternal. So sampraday, that has a beginning. Religion, that has a beginning. So, everything that begins is bound to come to an end sooner or later. But dharm, eternal dharm, it has no beginning, so it will have no end. So primary dharm, means dharm that comes from the Vedas, is protected by God Himself. That dharm is eternal. But on the basis of that dharm, when those Saints come on this earth planet and they reveal the detailed path of bhakti, then that becomes a religion or a sampraday. So we have Ramanu sampraday from Ramanujacharya, Valla sampraday from Vallabhacharya, Nimbark sampraday from Nimbarkacharya, Madv sampraday from Madhvacharya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. We have all these sampradayas. Means religions.
Then there are many more Saints who don’t come as Jagadguru, but they also come directly from the Divine abode, and they are also descended Divine personalities, but not Jagadgurus. So out of them, some of them were less literate; some of them were more literate. Some of them followed a path to find God in the form of Vishnu or the form of Ram or the form of Radha-Krishn – various kinds of Saints. But they were all Saints, not scholars, not researchers, not devotees, Saints. So there are many small, small religions also formed, sampradayas formed, in those names.
But the fact is that a Saint never forms a religion. Saint never forms a religion. He establishes a simple path of worship to find God. I’ll give you an example. Suppose take Roop Goswami, and Sanatan Goswami from Chaitanya sampradaya. Take one more example, Vallabhacharya. So Vallabhacharya, he explained to his disciples that “You know Krishn is the beloved of your soul, mind, body, everything. You have to live for Him. And everything that belongs to you should be for His service.” His philosophy. What Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji said or Roop Goswamiji said? The same thing. “Radha-Krishn are our Divine beloved. You have to find Their love. That’s the only aim of your life. You have to live for Him, worship Him, adore Him and live for Him.” So both said the same thing – the aim of life. Both mentioned bhakti, dedication, surrender, submission. So, there was no difference in their initial teachings
But how to implement their teachings? There come some differences. How to practice that teaching? How to practice that bhakti? There are some differences. For instance, Vallabhacharya said you have to worship elaborately, have a deity in your house. Or, if you have no deity in your house, just have a picture of Naradji in your house and worship him from morning to night. Wake him up. Decorate him, give him breakfast. In the noontime give him lunch. Then make him rest. Afternoon again some snacks and fruit, offer him. In the night, offer him dinner. And do arti twice, morning and night. But the food you offer, such an elaborate description… In summer offer the foods which have a cooling nature like ice cream or cold kheer. In winter offer such food that warms your body. Just like there are some spices when you add to the food, they give you some warmth. So it is a very elaborate service. Very elaborate, especially on the offering food system, and rigid to the timings.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji and his disciples, they said that it is your option. You have a deity for your remembrance or have a picture for remembrance, or have nothing. Form an image of Radha and Krishn in your own mind. That will help you. Don’t enter into too much physical service because it tends to physically attached to a particular type of duties. So, it becomes a duty. Get up early morning, offer food. Don’t do as a duty or as a commitment. Do as offering of love, as offering of your love. So you can worship Him in any style you want. Follow your own style, but one thing very important: remember His name in your heart all the time. That’s the most important aspect. Keep Him in your heart. How? Remember His name. And to remember His name in the heart, you have to do chanting. Loud chanting. When you are doing loud chanting, at least outside disturbance is not disturbing you – who is coming, who is going, who is sneezing, who is coughing. You are doing loud chanting. And loud chanting will also absorb your mind deep in the love of Radha and Krishn. So he mostly stressed on chanting loudly, because if you are sitting quietly, even the tick tick of a clock disturbs you. Any bird chirping disturbs you. So do chanting loudly.
But you see, these are just the style of devotion. Style. The theory of bhakti is same. Whatever Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji said or Vallabhacharya said or Nimbarkacharya said or Ramanujacharya said, description of bhakti is same. But the doing of bhakti, doing of practice, that differs. So what happens when the Saint leaves this earth planet and goes back to his Divine abode, he leaves his disciples on the earth planet, and those disciples, then they form a group, and they keep doing that style of devotion described by their master, and that’s how it becomes a sampraday or a religion. Religions are formed practically, on devotional activities basis, not on philosophical basis. There are some differences in the philosophy or in the explanation of Divine truth because Divine truth has to be explained in Divine language, and Divine language cannot be understood by material people. So, using material words, it cannot be exactly explained. So there remain some differences in the explanation of those great personalities, but that’s not that critical, because they all say bhakti is important, and bhakti takes you to Krishn. But again, the worshipping style differs from religion to religion. That’s how they form the religion, sampraday. Little philosophical differences and their worshipping formalities. Then after a few generations, what happens? The religions, they become rigid. Only formalities are left, and inner value of devotional heart slowly goes away. That’s how all the religions were formed in India.
Just take one more thing.. Suppose there is a devotee worshipping God. Yes. And suppose he is a good scholar or he has influence in society, and he has some following who accept him as their teacher. Suppose a devotee of that kind of any class, and he has some following, and he expires. That can also become a religion later on. That can also become later on. Suppose there is a great scholar, pious hearted, good hearted , good orator that writes his own philosophy. He has some followers. After he has expired from the world, that could become a religion. So in the world, especially in India, all the religions were started from Divine personalities. But there are many more religions in the world, we cannot say if they started from real Divine personality or a devotee class of person, or whatever it is. But religions are religions. So, in this way there are hundreds and thousands of religions. Hundreds and thousands in the world. Out of that there are seven very important religions in the world, in the Western world. For instance, Jewish religion, Christianity, Islam, Shinto, Taoism in China, Confucius, Parsees, these are all important ones in the world, the world religions.
In India, we have many religions but we can form them into seven groups of religions. Seven groups. But they all were started from Divine personalities, none from a devotee or a scholar. We can say, just like one group of religion that only takes you up to mind and soul, not beyond that. Others could take you up to soul and general form of God. Third could be specific, just like takes you to Shiv, or fourth, it could take you or Durga or Shakti. Fifth it could take you to Maha Vishnu, to a particular form of God. And suppose some religions can take you to Krishn or Radha and Krishn. So in this way, there are seven main groups of religions in India. And out of those seven groups of religions, there are many branches. So there could be 15, 20 big religions in India, but however, they could be in seven groups.
So, what are details of these Western and Indian religions I’ll explain from tomorrow and how they originated from the Gita. I’ll also explain that all the religions of the world, they started from Gita philosophy, the philosophy of the Gita. So that’s all for today.
Summary:
In this speech, Swami Prakashanand Saraswati has explained the eternal nature of dharm. He emphasizes that for the sake of the souls, Krishn ensures the preservation of the knowledge of God-Realization (the path of Bhakti) through divine incarnations, Jagadgurus and Saints on the earth planet. He has also highlighted the distinction between dharm and sampraday, emphasizing that Saints do not establish religions but rather reveal the path to God. Stay tuned for Part 4 tomorrow.