View source for We recommend you all to read Bhagavad-gita as it is. Do not distort the meaning. Try to understand as it is

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[[Category:My Recommendations (Prabhupada)]]
[[Category:Reading the Bhagavad-gita]]
[[Category:Bhagavad-gita As It Is]]
[[Category:Do Not]]
[[Category:Distort]]
[[Category:Meaning]]
[[Category:Try to Understand]]
[[Category:Understanding the Bhagavad-gita]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - SHARMISTHA]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means trying, the devotees, the followers, to bring him to the platform of goodness, not to stay in the platform of ignorance and passion. That will not help us. Therefore we recommend, who is joining Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement that, "You should give up this habit: illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meat-eating." These four things will keep me in the lower status of life, and it will not allow me to advance in spiritual understanding. Therefore these things should be given up.
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[[Vanisource:751009 - Lecture BG 07.01 - Durban|751009 - Lecture BG 07.01 - Durban]]
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In the Kali-yuga it is not possible to practice any other system of yoga. Mind is so agitated, you cannot concentrate. But if you chant loudly, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" your mind will be forced to be drawn and hear Kṛṣṇa. Then mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. If you practice this, then asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu ([[Vanisource:BG 7.1 (1972)|BG 7.1]]): "If you try to hear Me attentively. . ." Bhagavān uvāca. Who is speaking? Bhagavān, the Supreme Person, the Absolute Person. There is no mistake, there is no cheating, there is no imperfection and there is no illusion. It is perfect.

So if we follow . . . "We follow" means to increase your attachment for Kṛṣṇa. We have got attachment. What is attachment? That is not to be learned. Everyone has got attachment, either he has got attachment for family or for society or for community or for the country, for the nation, and so on, so on, his business, at least for his dog. So attachment there is. One, everyone, can understand what is attachment. But this attachment should be turned over for Kṛṣṇa. Then your life is successful. This is explained here. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. ([[Vanisource:BG 7.1 (1972)|BG 7.1]]) And if you simply turn your attachment to Kṛṣṇa . . . you know what is attachment. "So then I shall have to give up attachment for my family, for my business?" No. Keep the center attachment in Kṛṣṇa and do whatever you are doing. That's all right.

Just like family. So it does not mean because you have turned your attachment, therefore your family attachment should be withdrawn. No. It will be polished. The family attachment will be polished. If you train your family in Kṛṣṇa consciousness . . . just early in the morning rise up. You can control your family in that way, "Now get up. Take your bath. Have maṅgala-ārati. Then chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, read Bhagavad-gītā. Then take prasādam. Then go to office or work." So in this way, if your mind is in Kṛṣṇa and if you act accordingly, then that is perfection. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 10.14.3|SB 10.14.3]]). Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommended this process, that you stay in your position. There is no question of changing your position. But from that position you become Kṛṣṇa conscious. And the easiest process is: chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is not at all difficult, provided we agree to accept it. Then we can gradually understand, "What is God, what I am, what is my relationship with God," and so on, so on. Everything will be clear.

"Everything will be clear" means for the time being our heart is very dirty. We are always full of so many dirty consciousness. It has to be cleansed. This cleansing process is this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam ([[Vanisource:CC Antya 20.12|CC Antya 20.12]]). This Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra means the first business is to cleanse the dirty heart. The dirty heart means rajas-tamas. There are three qualities, three modes of material nature: tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, sattva-guṇa. So generally we are in rajas-tamo-guṇa, ignorance and passion. The ignorance and passion, the symptom is greediness and lusty desires. So this is the dirty things. We have to just cleanse these dirty things, greediness and lusty desires. Then we come to the platform of goodness. And in goodness we can see things as they are. Therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means trying, the devotees, the followers, to bring him to the platform of goodness, not to stay in the platform of ignorance and passion. That will not help us. Therefore we recommend, who is joining Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement that, "You should give up this habit: illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meat-eating." These four things will keep me in the lower status of life, and it will not allow me to advance in spiritual understanding. Therefore these things should be given up. And chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, minimum sixteen rounds.

In this way you see practically, these European, American boys and girls, they are improving. They are not material attached. They do not go anywhere. They always keep in the temple and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, busy in Kṛṣṇa's service from morning three o'clock, early in the morning, up to ten o'clock. And they are also young men. They must have desires. But bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt ([[Vanisource:SB 11.2.42|SB 11.2.42]]). Bhakti is so nice that now they hate any other engagement. This illicit sex, meat-eating and intoxication and gambling, they hate. You bribe them lakhs of rupees, they will not agree. Viraktir anyatra. This is the test of bhakti: virakti, detachment from all these nonsense things. And unless you are purified, you cannot understand God.

So if you . . . that is our only business only business in the human life, to understand God. We have no other business. And if you want to understand God, then you have to become purified.
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