View source for We are consciousness. Now, some way or other, we are in contact with this matter. Therefore our freedom is checked. As spiritual beings, we are free, free to act, free to have anything, pure, no contamination, no disease, no birth, no death, no old age

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{{terms|"We are consciousness. Now, some way or other,  we are in contact with this matter. Therefore our freedom is checked. As spiritual beings, we are free, free to act, free to have anything, pure, no contamination, no disease, no birth, no death, no old age"}}
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{{compiler|Visnu Murti}}
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[[Category:We Are]]
[[Category:Consciousness]]
[[Category:Now]]
[[Category:Somehow or Other]]
[[Category:Contact]]
[[Category:With]]
[[Category:Inferior Energy - Material Matter]]
[[Category:Therefore]]
[[Category:Our]]
[[Category:Freedom]]
[[Category:Check]]
[[Category:Spiritual]]
[[Category:Beings]]
[[Category:Free]]
[[Category:Act]]
[[Category:To Have]]
[[Category:Anything]]
[[Category:Pure]]
[[Category:Not Contaminated]]
[[Category:Birth, Death, Old Age and Disease]]
[[Category:1966 Pages Needing Audio]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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We are not this dull body, but we are consciousness. Now, some way or other, we are in contact with this matter. Therefore our freedom is checked. As spiritual beings, we are free, free to act, free to have anything, pure, no contamination, no disease, no birth, no death, no old age, and besides that, we have got many, many other qualifications in our spiritual life. So unfortunately, because we are in contact with this matter, we are hampered in so many ways.
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[[Vanisource:660405 - Lecture BG 02.49-51 - New York|660405 - Lecture BG 02.49-51 - New York]]
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Now Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is just trying to place Arjuna in the platform of working on pure consciousness. The... We have already discussed for so many days that we are not this dull body, but we are consciousness. Now, some way or other, we are in contact with this matter. Therefore our freedom is checked. As spiritual beings, we are free, free to act, free to have anything, pure, no contamination, no disease, no birth, no death, no old age, and besides that, we have got many, many other qualifications in our spiritual life. So unfortunately, because we are in contact with this matter, we are hampered in so many ways. This we should understand, and this is the opportunity; this human life is the only opportunity. If we miss this opportunity, then it may be that in our next life we may not have again this nice, civilized human form of life according to our karma. But one thing is sure. You'll be glad to hear that once begun, this process of spiritual realization, one is guaranteed to have next life as human being. You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā that śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate ([[Vanisource:BG 6.41|BG 6.41]]). You'll find in course of this discussion with Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa when Kṛṣṇa will describe about the yoga system, how to act it. This is also yoga system, yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi. This is karma-yoga. This is karma-yoga.

So any yoga, either karma-yoga or dhyāna-yoga or jñāna-yoga, any system of yoga, once begun in this life, that will continue. That will continue. Yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi. The Bhāgavata says, Śrīmad-Bhāgavata says, tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ ko vārtha āptaḥ, āptaḥ abhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 1.5.17|SB 1.5.17]]). This is speech by Nārada to his disciple, Śrīla Vyāsadeva, that "You should try, people, to connect them in spiritual life, in conducting spiritual life. It doesn't matter even if he fails to complete the course; still, he's not loser. Still, he's not loser. He..." The whole system of Vedic knowledge, especially the Kṛṣṇa philosophy... Kṛṣṇa philosophy—the whole philosophy. Vedic philosophy means Kṛṣṇa philosophy. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam ([[Vanisource:BG 15.15|BG 15.15]]). The all Vedic knowledge, all Vedic wisdom means to understand Kṛṣṇa philosophy. That's all. Nothing else. The Kṛṣṇa philosophy in different ways all over the world, they have been described according to the time, place and people, but you must know the whole thing is Kṛṣṇa philosophy. Kṛṣṇa philosophy is... When we speak of Kṛṣṇa, you don't take this word, Sanskrit word, Kṛṣṇa, in a sectarian meaning. Kṛṣṇa means the Supreme, the highest pleasure, highest pleasure.

So now, yoga-sthaḥ. In the previous verse we have been advised to work, continue work, being situated in yoga. And in the next śloka Lord Kṛṣṇa says,

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:dūreṇa hy avaraṁ karma
:buddhi-yogād dhanañjaya
:buddhau śaraṇam anviccha
:kṛpaṇāḥ phala-hetavaḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 2.49|BG 2.49]])
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Dūreṇa. Dūreṇa: "By force..." Just like unwanted things which we don't like, we throw it aside. Suppose something is given to me in my, during my dinner which I don't like... Sometimes we throw it, "Oh, I don't want it." You see? So similarly, our discrimination... "Discrimination is the best part of valor." Simply we have to learn how to discriminate whether we are working on material platform or on the spiritual platform. That's all. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was being advised to work on the spiritual platform. That's all. The whole instruction of Bhagavad-gītā is based on this principle, that Arjuna was perplexed with material thoughts. And Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to pose him, or to place him in the spiritual platform. That's all. So now, from Arjuna's activity, you can understand that what is spiritual platform and what is material platform.

Now, those who have studied Bhagavad-gītā up to the end, and I hope some of you have already read Bhagavad-gītā... Arjuna was a military man, and Kṛṣṇa was trying to induce him to his duty as military man, that "You must fight." But Arjuna was declining that "I cannot kill my relatives, my friends, my brothers, my teacher, my grandfather." That was his consideration. Now, this consideration is material platform. When we think of in relation with this body, that is material platform. Anything done in consideration of this body... This body means senses. The body means the senses. That means anything which we do for sense gratification, that is material. And anything which we do for the satisfaction of the Supreme, that is spiritual platform. That's all. So we have to discriminate "Whether I am working for sense gratification or whether I am working for the satisfaction of the Supreme?" If this art we can learn, then our life becomes spiritualized. Spiritual life does not mean that we have to change something of these activities which we are, already we are engaged, or our form of the body will change to something extraordinary. Nothing. The same body, the same feature, the same activity, same engagement—everything same. But we have to know the art, "Whether these activities are being done from the spiritual platform or from the material platform?" If we can discriminate in that way, as Lord Kṛṣṇa advises to Arjuna, dūreṇa hy avaraṁ karma buddhi-yogād dhanañjaya: "O Dhanañjaya..." Dhanañjaya is another name of Arjuna. "My dear Dhanañjaya, buddhi-yogāt, by your intelligence..." And as we have explained, buddhi-yoga means devotional service to the Lord. So on the criterion of buddhi-yoga, on the criterion of devotional service to the Lord, you have to do everything. That is the, I mean to say, technique. That is the technique. Dūreṇa hy avaraṁ karma buddhi-yogāt, buddhi-yogāt. You have to use your intelligence, "Whether I am doing this on the platform of pure consciousness or on the platform of this body?"
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