Talk on world Gita day
25th December 2020
Sri Krsna Arjuna ki Jai!

So when I just heard the blowing of conch shell as part of the yajna that is happening there, that reminded me of the blowing of conch shell that took place on this day during early morning hours and that too transported me to Kuruksetra, as I was hearing the blowing of conch shell. Of course otherwise also for past several days and almost month, we are kind of making trips between wherever we are and Kuruksetra. As we are in the mood of this Gita marathon, we are studying and distributing Bhagavad Gita As It Is ki Jai! So what a day? Gita Jayanti Day! Every word I said or sentence I said, that reminds me so much and I wished to talk, but I have only one mouth and I have only few minutes. So how much could I talk?

So today, this morning in fact, this is Moksada ekadashi day, the armies had assembled at Kuruksetra dham, dharmaksetre kuruksetre, and

tatah svetair hayair yukte
mahati syandane sthitau
madhavah pandavas caiva
divyau sankhah pradadhmatuh [BG 1.14]

And there, you see, I mean this is a lila; Krsna is performing His lila in Kuruksetra today and 17 more days He would be in Kuruksetra. But today’s lila is of a prime importance. He is speaking Bhagavad Gita. So He has come. He is riding the chariot. Mahabharat, Bhagavad Gita is part of Mahabharat, Bhisma Parva. So, the chariot is driven by the white horses and mahati syandane sthitau, it’s amazing, beautiful, adbhuta chariot and there are two personalities sited on that chariot, Madhava and Pandava. Madhava is Krsna and Pandava is Arjuna. And they have divyo sankho, they have blown their transcendental conch shells. And then Arjuna is fired up, he wants to battle, fight; his blood is boiling and he said please could you bring my chariot forward.
senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthapaya me ‘cyuta (BG 1.21)

Bring my chariot in between two armies, so that I could see, who is here, who wishes to fight with me? And so that is what Krsna did. He brought the chariot forward and then,

pasyaitan samavetan kurun iti (BG 1.25)

Oh you wanted to fight and you wanted to see who has assembled here to fight with you, so samavetan kurun, Kurus have assembled. So, Arjuna is seeing and also hearing, Oh, Kauravas have assembled to fight with the Kauravas. I am also Kaurava, Kuru-vamsi. And that has made all the big difference as Krsna has Yogamaya into action. And Arjuna is no more Arjuna. And he says mukham ca parisusyati (BG 1.28), my mouth is drying up; sidanti mama gatrani (BG 1.28), my body is trembling, gandivam sramsate hastat (BG 1.29), and Gandiva bow is slipping right out of my hands. Oh, how could I fight? No, I can’t fight. And he is crying and so many things are happening to him and he sat down, not willing to fight.

Well, to such Arjuna, now He is going to begin His speech in second chapter of Bhagavad Gita.
Sri bhagavan uvaca kutas tva kasmalam idam (BG 2.2)

Where has this dirt come that you are talking about and the speech continues and those are the 17 chapters of Bhagavad Gita ki Jai!

ya svayam padmanabhasya mukha-padmad vinihsrta (Gita Mahatmya 4)

ya svayam padmanabhasya, ya gita, that Gita, svayam Padmanabhasya, that Padmanabha, Parthasarathi, from His mouth emanated Bhagavad Gita on this day. So Gita took birth today from the mouth of the Lord. It has originated from the Lord. So Bhagavad Gita is non different from the Lord, it is part of the Lord. Bhagavad Gita is the Lord.
So Lord Krsna, krsnam vande jagat gurum, He has taken the position. Well, that is His eternal position. He is the guru, original instructor and guide and friend and philosopher of the entire human race for generation after generation. And wherever they are He is there. Well there are so many relations, master and friend and lover and certainly He is a guru of the whole world. So He and Arjuna are taking position on behalf of all the living entities.

sisyas te ‘ham sadhi mam tvam prapannam (BG 2.7)

Now I am soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me! So the Lord has spoken this Bhagavad Gita, well Arjuna is just nimitta matram, instrument, but we have to understand the purpose, the intension of the speaker, Sri Krsna, the speaker of Bhagavad Gita, His intention is what I am speaking now, and Prabhupada this is going to be, I am talking about dharma.

dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge (BG 4.8)

I appear to establish the principles of dharma. Srila Prabhupada says (what is dharma?) ‘laws of the Lord’ and he is going to be talking about law during Bhagavad Gita.

So what Lord is doing, by speaking Bhagavad Gita, He is establishing dharma on this planet and His word is a law, governing the whole world and living entities’ life and that is His intension that for all the time that will come, people everywhere should listen to this, read this, hear this. I know there are sufferings and why not? They must suffer, because they have come to the wrong location, duhkhalayam. I tell you in Bhagavad Gita, this is duhkhalayam, don’t try to be sukhi, happy here in this place of sufferings. But there is another place.
yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama (BG 15.6)

So Lord in fact, by talking this Bhagavad Gita, He is extending invitation to all His living entities, all His parts and parcels. They are His, we are His, not Indians only or Hindus only, He is addressing everybody. And for that benefit, please come back to Me and live eternally happy life. Otherwise you will continue here. And He is instructing Arjuna, that yogi bhava, yogi bhava. And as we know, in this world, the world leaders are propagating, what is the propagation or what is the message? ‘Bhogi bhava!’ So this is anti-Gita propaganda, anti-Krsna propaganda. And then you will suffer and that we are seeing.

Lord is saying, ‘patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayascati (BG 9.26), this is diet, you offer these items to Me and then enjoy the remnants, prasadam, but if you don’t become yogi, and will go for bhogi and matanam chickenam and etc and that is what happened right in Wuhan in China in that big meat market, all sorts of meat mixed and corona was the product of that business of selling meat, fish, egg. And as the result the whole world is suffering. So isn’t Gita the solution? Patram pushpam phalam toyam, be happy! Matanam, chickenam, and suffer! And that is what happening. Gita is the solution to all the problems of this world. World leaders should take note of this.

Krsna said, what I am speaking to you Arjuna, rajarsayo viduh (BG 4.2), the saintly kings, they do and they should listen to this and accordingly they should be governing the governments. They could have astra, weapon in one hand, but they have sastra, scriptures in other hand. Your astra should by guided by the sastra and that is Bhagavad Gita, spoken by the Lord on this occasion. And Lord has said, this should be propagated, spoken and understood, evam parampara praptam (BG 4.2), and that does not happen, the disciplic succession is not followed and anyone, any Tom Dick and Harry wants to comment and speak on Bhagavad Gita and mislead and that is what going on. We are celebrating Gita Jayanti, the day Krsna was there on the battlefield Kuruksetra.

But now for them, Kuruksetra means the body and the five Pandavas are the virtuous, good qualities and the Kauravas are the bad qualities, this is not the talking of, not that Krsna was personally there and the battle happened. Lot of people do not believe in this. Even Mahatma Gandhi had no faith in the fact that Krsna on Gita Jayanti day was in Kuruksetra and He personally spoke this Bhagavad Gita. And like that, all those talks and comments and hundred and thousands of versions in the market but as Arjuna became devotee finally after hearing Bhagavad Gita, are those listeners and readers of different editions, are they become devotees? No! But we know, since the Bhagavad Gita As It Is has been published and is being propagated and distributed widely, now we have hundreds and thousands of devotees on the planet and we are organizing this Gita yajna in Kuruksetra and celebrating World Gita Day on this day in Kuruksetra.

Well, I may not get time to say that but that has come to my mind, I think we should be celebrating this day every year in Kuruksetra dham, year after year after year. The BBT should organize this celebration in Kuruksetra ‘World Gita Day’. That is my humble suggestion and I wish we could celebrate every year, why not? And that’s where the Krsna Arjuna temple is also being built. Srila Prabhupada wanted that temple, Krsna Arjuna temple. This concept also of Krsna Arjuna temple in Kuruksetra is Prabhupada’s our founder acarya’s wish and will and if Saksi Gopal and Gopal Krsna Maharaja, if they could also complete the construction, well, it is taking time. From several years they are working and I just heard, in couple of years, but why not in two years from now? If we could also open Krsna Arjuna temple on Gita Jayanti day, that would be wonderful.

So, we have assembled here, well, not many, but on behalf of us, we have Saksi Gopal and we understand that Gopal Krsna Maharaja and others have assembled in Kuruksetra and I think we are there also to announce the book distribution scores for the pleasure, like everyday in the temple, ISKCON temple, we, the temple president or sankirtana leader announces, ‘for the pleasure of Lordships, Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi and for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada, today’s book distribution scores’, so like that, today we here in Kuruksetra making announcement for the pleasure of Krsna Arjuna and Srila Prabhupada that we have made this target, of course the theme is ‘live to give’ otherwise you are dead. If you are not living for giving purpose, you are not living, you are dead. So you live to give and if you keep giving, you may live longer, or you will live forever Krsna conscious life. So we are here to announce and to take further blessings and empowerment from the Lord from Kuruksetra dham.

The target is two millions Bhagavad Gitas this year and as we heard from Vaisasika Prabhu, I will like to thank Vaisasika Prabhu for his words of inspiration not just now but all the time he is a big inspiration. Of course Gopal Krsna Maharaja is a very big inspiration behind the book distribution and the governing body commissioners are inspiring the world to distribute books and Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krsna appeared as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu; He said, I order you, yare dakho tare kaho krsna upadesa, amara ajnaya guru haya tara ei desa (Cc. Madhya 7.128)

You preach the message of Bhagavad Gita, share Bhagavad Gita, Krsna upadesa. So I am thankful for this opportunity to, well almost being there in Kuruksetra I am talking, and to say few words about Srimad Bhagavad Gita Ki Jai!
Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!