Bhakti Shastri Chapter 2 Verses 1-9 Contents of the Gita Summarized

We should try to remember the name of each chapter so then we can understand what it is all about.

In this chapter Arjuna gives us his role as a Kstariya warrior and also his friend and he talks about he wants to be his disciple. There is a change in the rasas - from Guru to a disciple. Chapter 2 is a little more technical - lot of gyana. We should hence pay careful attention to SP's purports. It is the process of transmigration. He finally ends with the characteristics of a self realized person. Connection between chapter 1 and chapter 2 - 1st chapter doubts and lots of reasons to avoid fighting. He shows lots of doubts and Krsna in chapter 2 answers these doubts. We also see Arjuna is getting very confused. His relations towards Krsna hence changes completely. Burijan prabhu's book divides chapter 2 into 5 parts. Chapter 2 is more about Jyana yoga and some parts of Karma Yoga.

1-10 : Arjuna continues to give his last reason and surrenders to Krsna.
11-30 - Krsna speaks for the first time. He gives him the technical knowledge about the spirit soul. He directly or indirectly tells Arjuna to fight.
31-38: Counters Arjuna's reasons to not fight. Lots of ways he gives to counter his points. Karma kanda section
39-53: Buddhi Yoga. Understand the knowledge and apply that knowledge. How I can fight and not accumulate any reactions. Niskam karma yoga. Not be attached to the outcome of the battle. Just fight for the pleasure of Krsna and no reactions.
54-72: How one who works in buddhi yoga can get samadhi - All these yogas means to be connected to the Supreme then we are always situated in KC with body, mind and soul.

2 Chapters in BG 2 and 18 chapters are the longest and chapter 18 has the longest verses.

V1: Krsna has waited all this time to now speak to Krsna. Madhusudhana refers to Krsna. Krsna killed the Madhusudhana demon - kill the demon of misunderstanding that had overtaken him in the discharge of his duty. At this point Dhirtarastra is very happy but sanjaya says Krsna now says to tell him it's not done yet but just the beginning.

V2: Krsna knows Arjuna is coming from a very exalted lineage - not ordinary personality. Guided by the proper Ksatriya code and principles. Hence he says these statements - impurities have come upon you. You should know the value of life. When Ksatriya when they fight and die go to the higher planets and he is directly referring to Arjuna. Lot of sarcasam and ridicules Arjuna in these verses.
Bhagavan = Supreme Personality of Godhead = Krsna. 3 aspects of Krsna = Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan; example of the Sun is given here. This paragraph is very important. Analogy of the 3 features of Krsna with Sun.  Please learn the next paragraph also very nicesly. Prabhuji has given examples of Krsna to be full in all 6 opulences.
Aim of Life - to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead and to go back to Godhead and if Krsna wants us to come back then we will go back to serve Krsna but if our Spiritual Master says we need to stick around and preach then we preach. Not bound by the material nature.

V3: It;s important how the names are being used to address each other. Son of Prtha - Kunti is related to Krsna, sister of Vasudeva. So you are related to me and we come from such a pious background, how can you behave like this. If someone can't behave according to their status then it's not good.

V4: O killer of Madhu, again brings back point about superiors. It is the ettiquitte in those days that you don't fight with your superiors but give respect to them.

V5: Again looks at dharma shastra (religious) vs artha shastra (political). Killing of an agressor vs fighting with superiors. Religious principles says you forgive - tolerate more than react. Political principles you need to rule in the benefit of the person you has done right vs wrong. Arjuna is thinking he rather practice Dharma Shastra vs Artha Shastra but that is wrong as he is a Ksatriya and not a brahmana to go out and beg and hence he says he would rather go and beg like a mendicant in the street begging for survival than to kill his Guru and Grandfather to get a kingdom.

V6: So here he is confused conquering them or getting conquered by them. If he killed his brother the Ksatriyas what kind of enjoyment is there to live in a kingdom when there is nobody to enjoy with. Hence KC says we need to make sound judgments so we can please Krsna more and more and not be selfish to please our sense pleasures. He is saying many times that he wants to beg and live shows that he has detachment and he keeps turning to Krsna to show us that we should also keep turning to our Spiritual Master for guidance whenever we have questions. If senses are not controlled then we won't be able to understand the knowledge we read, otherwise it will be just reading, appreciating but not applying it in our daily lives. The most important thing about reading BG is to apply it to our daily lives and that is only possible by controlling the senses.

V7: This is good intelligence. The fact that he accepts that he is lost and can't make good decision and he turns to the person who has lot of faith in Krsna and he surrenders to him to ask what should I do. Same way we should turn to our Spiritual Master and not have our big egos that we can make our best decision ourselves. We should surrender to an authority and a well wisher. We should very carefully see who is our well wisher so we can share our problems, our questions so they can help us get out of these material life. On our own we won't be able to get out of this material life. Everybody in this material life is perplexed. We are always perplexed. But because we are covered we are not able to realize this. Here he is saying I'm not your friend but your disciple and now you show me the path. This is not easy. Even after initiation sometimes we don't want to listen to our Spiritual Master and just keep doing what we want to do. Kripanas - We should consider our kids, wife are guests of Krsna and we should take care of them but not have overly affection for them.

V8: He says nobody can help him at this stage. Even if he gets kingdom or wealth he won't be happy. So very nicely he is approaching Krsna and in the same way we need to approach the SM and how they can help us. In general we should approach them for spiritual matters and not a lot for material problems. We need to know the science of Krsna and only then we can help any person. He quotes a verse from CC.Anyone can preach and all we need to know who is Krsna and how can we approach him. Hence we need to be properly situated with shastras so we can always use it to help us in our preaching purposes. Aim is to become a Uttama Adhikari to guide other people. Key is to follow in the footsteps of a pure devotee like we are following in the footsteps of SP - exactly what he wants to do we are doing it and because we are sincerely following his instructions we will also become pure. In time all our bad qualities will go away and we will be properly situated in KC. To solve his problems of KC he is surrendering to Krsna.

V9: He still says he is competent to kill the enemies. Now because he has surrendered to Krsna he will be ready to fight again soon. 

Real meaning of Diwali.

The real celebration of Diwali is for us to go into our hearts and pray to Krsna to further ourselves in KC and also exchanges between devotees as Srila Rupa Gosvami has mentioned in NOI. When you pray to Krsna, all the thousands of Lakshmi's (Goddesses of fortune) are also worshiping him. If our rituals have Krsna in the center then all these rituals will bring us closer to Krsna, but if Krsna isn't there then these rituals will just become a matter to doing it. It won't bring any transformation of heart. It is hence very important to reflect on what Srila Prabhupada has given us.

One of the most important days in our vedic tradition. It is because Lord Rama came back to Ayodhya. In the old days people were so KC and Ram Conscious, everybody in every house would celebrate it. This is actually KC, celebrate auspicious days and commemorating the appearance and pastimes of the Lord. These festivals are the mothers of devotion and they nurture our bhakti and they help us to remember Krsna. He takes inauspicious days like amavaysa (no moon day) and he makes it Diwali. The Lord shows when someone is inauspicious but when he does something on that day it becomes auspicious. His activities and pastimes creates auspiciousness. He came back after 18 years. Let us understand what did the residents of Ayodhya were feeling.

If we love our parents a lot and we haven't seen our parents for 14 years, when we are going back after so long, imagine how happy parents are or how happy we feel going to India. We decorate, we celebrate and we make the coming of this person very special. When we love somebody, we do some much preparation for this person to come. When Bharat came to know about Ram was exiled, he said he wanted to live in the forest with Krsna, so after 14 years of separations, imagine how everybody was feeling. They were longing and meditating on the lotus feet of Sri Rama. They were feelings of pure love, that is the understanding. On Diwali day, their emotions were at the peak and they welcome Sri Rama back to Ayodya.

Acaryas say how our life if bereft of Krsna is so tasteless and no fulfillment of the heart if Krsna is not in the center. Krsna is like the sun and Maya is like the darkness. If Krsna isn't in our lives, there is darkness and hence we need to invite Krsna,Ram in our hearts and our lives will become joyful. We have all banished Krsna to the forest and we have told Krsna we don't need you and there are more things important than you and we don't care for you and now by the mercy of pure devotees like SP we are given a chance to bring back the lord. The demons who are keeping us away from the Lord like Ravana and we pray on Diwali our Lord Krsna and Rama kill the demons in our heart and invite him to come back into our heart. We pray, we offer to Krsna  - lamps, prasad. These lamps signify knowledge, the importance of spiritual knowledge and taking shelter of Krsna that is the true Diwali. That is true Diwali by celebrating the return of Rama into our hearts by taking to KC wholeheartedly and removing the darkness of our hearts. On this day Krsna also kills Narkasura and it is the broadcast that Krsna on this day kills all the demons. Krsna set free the 16,000 princesses and marries them. Saying the same thing. Our heart has so many coverings and this is keeping us from Krsna. But just by our heart, we can break all these coverings and come to Krsna. We can't even chant properly because of these layers. Krsna can kill all these demons, cut these layers so we can come closer to Krsna. Intelligence is material at the moment and it is dirty. When the soul is covered over, the heart has so many layers it is considered the covering of the soul. Mind and intelligence are part of the same thing. When the covering is there on the heart, it is reflect by the dirty mind and intelligence.

Also same day when Mother Yashoda bound Krsna. Krsna is showing that he is bound by the love of his devotees. Just simple unalloyed Love. If we understand Krsna loves us at every moment of our life, then everyday can be Diwali.

JAPA is the only way - If our Japa is good then nothing can stop us to get to Krsna. Quality and Quantity is important. The more we chant quality rounds, the faster we will have purification of the heart and the faster we will get to Krsna. It is like when you go for war, you need to refill your ammunition and next day you are again ready. So same way we need to refill ourselves everyday by chanting 16 rounds so we won't be beaten by maya and slowly we will also be able to get rid of all the coverings we have for the million of years. But if we don't chant properly then we are in illusion that we have good bullets, but actually they are all duds and we can fall prey to the war of maya. Hence very important to chant very properly so all our bullets are sharp to fight the war of maya and we are ready to fight maya - but these bullets needs to be very very sharp and hence our japa should be very sincere and refill ourselves with these bullets. There is no limit to devotional service. SP has been very merciful to say that in this Kali yuga especially in this age do at least 16 rounds so that we have our ammunition to fight maya. Holy name and Hari Katha are what is the most most most important so at every step we need to give this to all our family members this.