View source for Unless you approach a person who is representative of Krsna and tattva-darsi, who has seen the truth, jnani, and full of knowledge, from him you can understand what is Bhagavad-gita, what is Bhagavan. Otherwise you cannot understand

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{{terms|"Unless you approach a person who is representative of Kṛṣṇa and tattva-darśī, who has seen the truth, jñānī, and full of knowledge, from him you can understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, what is Bhagavān. Otherwise you cannot understand"}}
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[[Category:Unless]]
[[Category:Approaching a Guru]]
[[Category:Representing Krsna]]
[[Category:Tattva-darsi]]
[[Category:One Who Has Seen the Truth]]
[[Category:Jnani]]
[[Category:Full of...]]
[[Category:Knowledge]]
[[Category:You Can]]
[[Category:Understanding the Bhagavad-gita]]
[[Category:What Is]]
[[Category:Bhagavan]]
[[Category:Otherwise]]
[[Category:You Cannot]]
[[Category:Understand]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - BHAVESVARI]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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Unless you approach a person who is representative of Kṛṣṇa and tattva-darśī, who has seen the truth, jñānī, and full of knowledge, from him you can understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, what is Bhagavān. Otherwise you cannot understand. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). If you remain covered by the material energy, then you cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā.
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[[Vanisource:751220 - Lecture BG 07.01 - Bombay|751220 - Lecture BG 07.01 - Bombay]]
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One who is reading Bhagavad-gītā. . . In India practically everyone reads, but because one does not take the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā as it was instructed by Kṛṣṇa, he cannot take the benefit of Bhagavad-gītā's instruction. One tries to understand Bhagavad-gītā by erudite scholarship, or good position in the society—political, social, economical—but that is not the way to understand Bhagavad-gītā. The way to understand Bhagavad-gītā is said in the Bhagavad-gītā,

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:tad viddhi praṇipātena
:paripraśnena sevayā
:updekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
:jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ 
:([[Vanisource:BG 4.34 (1972)|BG 4.34]])
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Unless you approach a person who is representative of Kṛṣṇa and tattva-darśī, who has seen the truth, jñānī, and full of knowledge, from him you can understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, what is Bhagavān. Otherwise you cannot understand. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 7.25 (1972)|BG 7.25]]). If you remain covered by the material energy, then you cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. The purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is to understand real religious life. Religion means the order which is given by God to carry out. That is religion. Those who are unknown of this fact, they are not religious. They may be some faith or blind belief, but religion means dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇitam ([[Vanisource:SB 6.3.19|SB 6.3.19]]). Religion means the order, or the law, given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is religion.

So to know God, the God, He is personally giving instruction how to know God. Kṛṣṇa says, bhagavān uvāca. Here it is not. . . Vyāsadeva is not speaking; Kṛṣṇa said. Because sometimes Kṛṣṇa is misunderstood; therefore Vyāsadeva writes or says in this connection, bhagavān uvāca. Bhagavān means the fully opulent, samagrasya. Aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47): He is the most powerful, the supreme rich, supreme wise, supreme beautiful and at the same time supremely renounced. These qualification makes one Bhagavān. So kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam ([[Vanisource:SB 1.3.28|SB 1.3.28]]). That is the verdict of Vedic literature. So īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Bhagavān is also sometimes called Parameśvara. Īśvara means the ruling power or the personality who controls. So every one of us, we have got some controlling power either in the society or family or community or government or international. Everyone has got some capacity to control, but nobody is supreme controller. Supreme controller means that He is no more controlled by anyone. Other controller, they are controllers, but they are controlled by somebody else. But Kṛṣṇa is not that kind of controller. He is the supreme controller means He controls everyone but nobody has above Him to control. Therefore He is called Parameśvara. Īśvaraḥ means controller.

Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). He is not nirākāra; vigraha. Vigraha means form, but His form is different from our form. Therefore He is described as sac-cid-ānanda. Sat means eternal, cit means full of knowledge, and ānanda means full of transcendental bliss, eternal bliss. The beginning is eternal, so eternal life, eternal complete, full knowledge and eternal bliss; this is the composition of Kṛṣṇa's body. But mūḍhas, rascals, they think Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam ([[Vanisource:BG 9.11 (1972)|BG 9.11]]). Fools and rascals, mūḍhāḥ—mūḍhāḥ means fools and rascals—because they see that Kṛṣṇa is incarnation just like ordinary human being, cousin of Arjuna or nephew of Kuntī, like that. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. Kṛṣṇa comes just like ordinary human being, but that does not mean He is ordinary human being. Therefore Vyāsadeva says bhagavān uvāca. If you consider Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being, then you are missing the point.

And I have already given the definition of Bhagavān. One of the qualification of Bhagavān is aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47). Jñāna. He has got full knowledge. He hasn't got to take knowledge from anyone else. Svābhāvikī jñāna. Bhagavān means svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇam. . . this is Vedic injunction.

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:na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate
:na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate
:parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate
:svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca 
:([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 13.65|CC Madhya 13.65, purport]])
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Svābhāvikī, all full knowledge He has got. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 10.8 (1972)|BG 10.8]]): He is the creator of everything. So how He got this knowledge to float these big, big planets in the air? That. . . There is knowledge. There is art. Just like when you float a big aeroplane in the sky, it requires knowledge, it requires technology, art. It is not flying automatically; that is a mistake. So if to float an ordinary airship it requires so much knowledge, so much technology, how much knowledge is there when you see that the biggest planet, the sun, is floating in the air, and it is lying in one corner of the sky and exactly in time it is rotating, yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ? There is knowledge; there is art, who has fixed it. Therefore in the Vedas it is said, yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ (Bs. 5.52). He is also rotating in the orbit by the order of Govinda. Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.

So there are so many things to learn and to understand what is God and what is Kṛṣṇa. God means Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam ([[Vanisource:SB 1.3.28|SB 1.3.28]]). Na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8). God means nobody is equal to Him and nobody is greater than Him. That is God. There is no competition that in this quarter there is one God and another neighborhood there is another God, just like it has become a fashion, so many Gods, competition is going on. No. There is no competition. God is one. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate, na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate. That is God. So because God is complete in knowledge, therefore we have to take knowledge from Him, not from the person who has got incomplete knowledge. That knowledge is not perfect. We must take knowledge from the person. . . we have to take knowledge from the person:

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:tad viddhi praṇipātena
:paripraśnena sevayā
:upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
:jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ 
:([[Vanisource:BG 4.34 (1972)|BG 4.34]])
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We have to approach. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). We have to approach a superior person, guru, and take knowledge from him. The most superior person is Kṛṣṇa. You may doubt others, that may be, but when you come to Kṛṣṇa, that is perfect knowledge. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam ([[Vanisource:SB 1.3.28|SB 1.3.28]]). Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1).
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