Bhagavad-gita As It Is - Macmillan 1972 Edition -- Prabhupada Books

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is -
Macmillan 1972 Edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMPLETE EDITION
with original Sanskrit text,
Roman transliteration, English equivalents,
translation and elaborate purports

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

Collier Books
A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
NEW YORK
Collier Macmillan Publishers
LONDON

To
ŚRĪLA BALADEVA VIDYĀBHŪṢAṆA
who presented so nicely
the
"Govinda-bhāṣya"
commentary
on
Vedānta philosophy

Bg: Foreword

Foreword

The
Bhagavad-gītā
is the best known and the most frequently translated of Vedic religious texts. Why it should be so appealing to the Western mind is an interesting question. It has drama, for its setting is a scene of two great armies, banners flying, drawn up opposite one another on the field, poised for battle. It has ambiguity, and the fact that Arjuna and his charioteer Kṛṣṇa are carrying on their dialogue between the two armies suggests the indecision of Arjuna about the basic question: should he enter battle against and kill those who are friends and kinsmen? It has mystery, as Kṛṣṇa demonstrates to Arjuna His cosmic form. It has a properly complicated view of the ways of the religious life and treats of the paths of knowledge, works, discipline and faith and their inter-relationships, problems that have bothered adherents of other religions in other times and places. The devotion spoken of is a deliberate means of religious satisfaction, not a mere outpouring of poetic emotion. Next to the
Bhāgavata-purāṇa,
a long work from South India, the
Gītā
is the text most frequently quoted in the philosophical writings of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava school, the school represented by Swami Bhaktivedanta as the latest in a long succession of teachers. It can be said that this school of Vaiṣṇavism was founded, or revived, by Śrī Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Mahāprabhu (1486-1533) in Bengal, and that it is currently the strongest single religious force in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava school, for whom Kṛṣṇa is Himself the Supreme God, and not merely an incarnation of another deity, sees
bhakti
as an immediate and powerful religious force, consisting of love between man and God. Its discipline consists of devoting all one's actions to the Deity, and one listens to the stories of Kṛṣṇa from the sacred texts, one chants Kṛṣṇa's name, washes, bathes, and dresses the
mūrti
of Kṛṣṇa, feeds Him and takes the remains of the food offered to Him, thus absorbing His grace; one does these things and many more, until one has been changed: the devotee has become transformed into one close to Kṛṣṇa, and sees the Lord face to face.

Swami Bhaktivedanta comments upon the
Gītā
from this point of view, and that is legitimate. More than that, in this translation the Western reader has the unique opportunity of seeing how a Kṛṣṇa devotee interprets his own texts. It is the Vedic exegetical tradition, justly famous, in action. This book is then a welcome addition from many points of view. It can serve as a valuable textbook for the college student. It allows us to listen to a skilled interpreter explicating a text which has profound religious meaning. It gives us insights into the original and highly convincing ideas of the Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava school. In providing the Sanskrit in both Devanagari and transliteration, it offers the Sanskrit specialist the opportunity to re-interpret, or debate particular Sanskrit meanings-although I think there will be little disagreement about the quality of the Swami's Sanskrit scholarship. And finally, for the nonspecialist, there is readable English and a devotional attitude which cannot help but move the sensitive reader. And there are the paintings, which, incredibly as it may seem to those familiar with contemporary Indian religious art, were done by American devotees.

The scholar, the student of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, and the increasing number of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold; and arguments for understanding, in these days of estrangement, need not be made.

Professor Edward C. Dimock, Jr.
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization
University of Chicago

Bg: Preface

Preface

Originally I wrote
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in the form in which it is presented now. When this book was first published, the original manuscript was, unfortunately, cut short to less than 400 pages, without illustrations and without explanations for most of the original verses of the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā.
In all of my other books-
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Śrī Īśopaniṣad,
etc.-the system is that I give the original verse, its English transliteration, word-for-word Sanskrit-English equivalents, translations and purports. This makes the book very authentic and scholarly and makes the meaning self-evident. I was not very happy, therefore, when I had to minimize my original manuscript. But later on, when the demand for
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
considerably increased, I was requested by many scholars and devotees to present the book in its original form, and Messrs. Macmillan and Co. agreed to publish the complete edition. Thus the present attempt is to offer the original manuscript of this great book of knowledge with full
paramparā
explanation in order to establish the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement more soundly and progressively.

Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is genuine, historically authorized, natural and transcendental due to its being based on
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
. It is gradually becoming the most popular movement in the entire world, especially amongst the younger generation. It is becoming more and more interesting to the older generation also. Older gentlemen are becoming interested, so much so that the fathers and grandfathers of my disciples are encouraging us by becoming life members of our great society, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In Los Angeles many fathers and mothers used to come to see me to express their feelings of gratitude for my leading the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement throughout the entire world. Some of them said that it is greatly fortunate for the Americans that I have started the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in America. But actually the original father of this movement is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, since it was started a very long time ago but is coming down to human society by disciplic succession. If I have any credit in this connection, it does not belong to me personally, but it is due to my eternal spiritual master, His Divine Grace Om Viṣṇupāda Paramahaṁsa Parivrājakācārya 108 Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja Prabhupāda.

If personally I have any credit in this matter, it is only that I have tried to present
Bhagavad-gītā
as it is, without adulteration. Before my presentation of
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is,
almost all the English editions of
Bhagavad-gītā
were introduced to fulfill someone's personal ambition. But our attempt, in presenting
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is,
is
to present the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Our business is to present the will of Kṛṣṇa, not that of any mundane speculator like the politician, philosopher or scientist, for they have very little knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, despite all their other knowledge. When Kṛṣṇa says,
man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru,
etc., we, unlike the so-called scholars, do not say that Kṛṣṇa and His inner spirit are different. Kṛṣṇa is absolute, and there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's quality, Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, etc. This absolute position of Kṛṣṇa is difflcult to understand for any person who is not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa in the
paramparā
(disciplic succession) system. Generally the so-called scholars, politicians, philosophers, and
svāmīs
, without perfect knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, try to banish or kill Kṛṣṇa when writing commentary on
Bhagavad-gītā.
Such unauthorized commentary upon
Bhagavad-gītā
is known as
Māyāvādī-Bhāṣya,
and Lord Caitanya has warned us about these unauthorized men. Lord Caitanya clearly says that anyone who tries to understand
Bhagavad-gītā
from the Māyāvādī point of view will commit a great blunder. The result of such a blunder will be that the misguided student of
Bhagavad-gītā
will certainly be bewildered on the path of spiritual guidance and will not be able to go back home, back to Godhead.

Our only purpose is to present this
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
in order to guide the conditioned student to the same purpose for which Kṛṣṇa descends to this planet once in a day of Brahmā, or every 8,600,000,000 years. This purpose is stated in
Bhagavad-gītā,
and we have to accept it as it is; otherwise there is no point in trying to understand the
Bhagavad-gītā
and its speaker, Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa first spoke
Bhagavad-gītā
to
the sun-god some hundreds of millions of years ago. We have to accept this fact and thus understand the historical significance of
Bhagavad-gītā,
without misinterpretation, on the authority of Kṛṣṇa. To interpret
Bhagavad-gītā
without any reference to the will of Kṛṣṇa is the greatest offense. In order to save oneself from this offense, one has to understand the Lord as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He was directly understood by Arjuna, Lord Kṛṣṇa's first disciple. Such understanding of
Bhagavad-gītā
is really profitable and authorized for the welfare of human society in fulfilling the mission of life.

The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is essential in human society, for it offers the highest perfection of life. How this is so is explained fully in the
Bhagavad-gītā.
Unfortunately, mundane wranglers have taken advantage of
Bhagavad-gītā
to push forward their demonic propensities and mislead people regarding right understanding of the simple principles of life. Everyone should know how God or Kṛṣṇa is great, and everyone should know the factual position of the living entities. Everyone should know that a living entity is eternally a servant and that unless one serves Kṛṣṇa one has to serve illusion in different varieties of the three modes of material nature, and thus perpetually one has to wander within the cycle of birth and death; even the so-called liberated Māyāvādī speculator has to undergo this process. This knowledge constitutes a great science, and each and every living being has to hear it for his own interest.

People in general, especially in this age of Kali, are enamored by the external energy of Kṛṣṇa, and they wrongly think that by advancement of material comforts every man will be happy. They have no knowledge that the material or external nature is very strong, for everyone is strongly bound by the stringent laws of material nature. A living entity is happily the part and parcel of the Lord, and thus his natural function is to render immediate service to the Lord. By the spell of illusion one tries to be happy by serving his personal sense gratification in different forms which will never make him happy. Instead of satisfying his own personal material senses, he has to satisfy the senses of the Lord. That is the highest perfection of life. The Lord wants this, and He demands it. One has to understand this central point of
Bhagavad-gītā.
Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching the whole world this central point, and because we are not polluting the theme of
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is,
anyone seriously interested in deriving benefit by studying the
Bhagavad-gītā
must take help from the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for practical understanding of
Bhagavad-gītā
under the direct guidance of the Lord. We hope, therefore, that people will derive the greatest benefit by studying
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
as we have presented it here, and if even one man becomes a pure devotee of the Lord we shall consider our attempt a success.

[signed] A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
12 May 1971
Sydney, Australia

Bg: introduction

INTRODUCTION

om ajñāna-timirāndhasya
jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena
tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ
sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale
svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ
dadāti sva-padāntikam

I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.

When will Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī Prabhupāda, who has established within this material world the mission to fulfill the desire of Lord Caitanya, give me shelter under his lotus feet?