BG 12.12 by HG Shyamsundar Prabhu

BG 12.12: If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.

We are talking about dev service in this chapter and in this chapter in the starting Arjuna is asking which process is better and Krsna says Dev. Service is the best, just fix your mind upon me, your intelligence upon me and then you will be living in me without a doubt. That is the process but he is encouraging all kinds of people who are willing to get on the path of dharma. This teaches us a very imp lesson:

1. We should completely dedicate our lives to serve Krnsa. Just like ganga is flowing without any hindrance into the sea, same way let my mind cross over all obstacles and let if flow towards your lotus feet. When mind is completely fixed on Krsna then it becomes perfect.

We need to make Krsna our only goal.When we make something else as our goal then for that one thing we need to give up Krsna. "If we are expecting respect even from one person in this world then we are going to be left behind in this material world". If anything other than Krsna is of priority to us then we take on one thing after another and after this thing is over, I will become a serious devotee. It's always one little thing and that keeps us in the material world. Hence Krsna is urging us and SP also talks to us in the sense of urgency - this human life is so rare and by all means we should direct our energy to serve Krsna. Arjuna is directly on the platform of devotional service and that is the highest level - their challenges are should I pick Krsna or something else and in that war of maya the sadhaka needs to win by service to Vaisnava and just performing bhakti yoga.

How we view the world in the light of BG. Uttama adhikari is always seeing that everybody is engaged in nice seva. Krsna wants us to come to that level - that we give all respect to others and expect no respect for ourselves. When we feel all others around me are so advanced and I'm so lowly and just by Mahaprabhu's causeless mercy I'm here - without Krsna's mercy nothing is possible. Ultimately, goal is Krsna. How do we get to that stage by reading SB everyday. The words of SB bring the conditioned soul which is stuck in the cluthes of the material nature and by reading the SB we will like we have conquered material world.  We need to do in pure faith engage in this method and 

how

1. Reading SB everyday very sincrely.

2. Chanting the Hare Krsna mahamantra very sincerely. 

If we chant Hare Krsna sincerely and attentively, then we can actually remember Krsna at time of death.If you chant distinctly during your life then it is definitely possible that at time of death you can chant Hare Krsna maha mantra and make this life a success.  Actually this Kali-yuga you need to do vaishnava seva. Only then we get taste of the Holy name only when we do vaishnava seva - mood of trinand api sunecena. 

Become absorbed in chanting the holy name for 24 hours - kirtanaya sada hari - taking a humble position - Only when we are in the mood the holy name can penetrate our heart. This whole practise we are doing is only for one purpose to get the taste of the Holy name.

Ways to do vaishnava seva - most important ingredient is the mood. When we have the mood only then can we do our seva. In grahasta we should feel the family people are vaishnavas and if we can serve them very very sincerely then our life has become successful. Also those devotees who have dedicated their lives to preaching is wonderful, peer vaishnavas is also very important (even the fellow devotee) - just thinking you are the lowest of lowest and if you can serve everybody around you then you do vaishnava seva. example  - washing the plates of all the devotees ISKCON bombay. We should also engage ourselves in some very menial service every sunday to serve the Vaishnavas - clean the foor of the deity room, wash the pots - in one shot we can serve all the devotees. In this way when we have a balanced way of serving different vaishnavas in that way Krsna will be pleased with us. Prabhuji gave so many examples of devotees on our Thursday call how all the devotees are serving Krsna and the devotees. This made me feel so low that what kind of service am I doing compared to all of such great vaishnavas. Hopefully Krsna and Radharani can engage me in their loving service. Haribol!