War of the Soul

War

of the

Soul

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2017 by Dayananda

This book may not be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews.

First published in 2017 by Dayananda Media

Laredo, TX

Translations and commentaries are by Dayananda with citations from lectures, letters, and conversations of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In many of Prabhupad’s Bhagavad-Gita purports, he has derived philosophical points from the eighteenth-century Gita Bhashan by Baladeva (Bala-dev) Vidyabhushana. Rather than citing just Bala-dev, Dayananda cites both.

All the citations made from Prabhupad are searchable through prabhupadabooks.com and are available from krishna.com. Non-Prabhupad citations are searchable on the internet. Since citations can easily be found through such searches, they may not be explicitly referenced.

Cover and book layout is by Dayananda. Cover painting of the Kuru-kshetra battle in the Mughal style from the sixteenth century, painter unknown, is in the public domain. Pictures of Radha-Krishna, Chaitanya, Bala-dev, Heliodorus pillar, and Prabhupad are also in the public domain.

ISBN: 9781370317752

Readers are invited to write the author at dayananda@msn.com.

For Nandi-mukhi and Nanda-rani,

in memory of our service together

The soul, enslaved by illusion, must revolt

and declare war…

tad-vag-visargo janatagha-viplavo

yasmin prati-slokam abaddhavaty api

namany anantasya yaso ‘nkitani yat

srinvanti gayanti grinanti sadhavah

For revolution, make mystical sound

To o’erthrow evil, poetry profound:

Verse to illume the beauty of the Name

Though without rune, endless powers contain.

The way to accomplish a revolution in materialistic society is to create mystical sound, song in which each verse detonates the splendorous names of the Infinite, and which the sages hear, sing, and extol. Such songs are effective even without the powers of the incantations of the ancient Vedas. [Bhagavatam 1.5.11]

War of the Soul

The Mystical Revolution

Bhagavad-Gita Commentary, Volume One

Dayananda

Dayananda Media

Acknowledgments

This work is an offering to my guru, Shrila Prabhupad. I hope that it will contribute to the Bhagavat culture he desired to establish worldwide. With deepest gratitude, I bow to him.

I’m also grateful to all my past mentors, particularly those who established the San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and Tehran Radha-Krishna temples.

In addition, I offer my appreciation to my dear friend Rupa Vilas for his critique and wise guidance. Without his encouragement, I would never have published this book. Yet, even more importantly I thank his wife Sharad Bihari. She is the one who critiques Rupa and provides him with wise guidance and support. And she kindly hosts me when I intrude upon their hospitality.

Thanks to my prabhus—Heather Hunter, Pranada, Dhanesvara, Danakeli, Bhushaya, Krodhesvara, Sri Arjuna, Sharad Bihari, and Mahashakti—for reading and critiquing pre-publication copies.

I’ve dedicated this book to Nanda-rani and Nandi-mukhi, who toiled and sacrificed with me through decades of service to Prabhupad. They led me by their example. They supported, tolerated, and enriched me. They’re strong, intelligent, and practical women, and deserve to be widely recognized for their contributions to Prabhupad’s movement.

Table of Contents

Preface

Radha Krishna Lila

Chaitanya

Bala-dev

Prabhupad

Bhagavat Culture

Bhagavatam

The Guru

Sankirtan & Mantra

Dharma, Karma, & Bhakti

Samkhya

Soul and Creation

Senses, Mind, Discernment

Brahman and Brahmaa

Chaitanya’s Eight Teachings

Bhagavad-Gita Overview

I – Yoga of Despair

II – Yoga of Analysis

III – Yoga of Work

IV – Yoga of Knowledge

V – Yoga of Detachment

VI – Yoga of Practice

A Manifesto

Dayananda

Preface

The Bhagavad Gita forms the philosophical basis of the Bhagavat culture (see below, page xiv). Krishna speaks the Gita to His disciple Arjuna, and in the ancient Bhagavat culture He’s accepted as an appearance of God on earth.

In the 16th century, Lord Chaitanya updated the tradition by reviving the practice of widely glorifying Krishna’s names and deeds.

In the pages that follow I present summaries of important persons and terms. Then I give translations and commentaries of Chaitanya’s eight stanzas that contain the essence of His doctrine.

Finally, I offer Krishna’s Gita, His song. Each chapter is written in flowing prose as opposed to a literal or poetic translation.

Following the chapter translations are my commentaries. They’re based on Chaitanya’s teachings and those of Prabhupad, who in the 1970s propagated the Bhagavat culture around the world. In my view, he was not only the most effective communicator of the tradition to the world, but also its best modern exemplar.

There are many translations of the Gita. Mine is distinct in a few ways. I’ve introduced gender equality. For example, yogis and gurus are he or she. I emphasize family life over the renounced life of an ascetic. I try to minimize use of the original (Sanskrit) language of the Gita along with some terms that others use but that I consider outdated. I eliminate, perhaps controversially, use of honorifics with names such as Shri Krishna or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And I use phonetic spellings for names instead of the IAST system used by scholars and some devotees.

Finally, beyond mere language translation, I attempt to put Krishna’s teachings into a modern, relevant cultural context.

War of the Soul is intended for someone new to the Gita, but it goes beyond mere introduction. It’s also a guide to practice.

Radha Krishna Lila

In the Bhagavat culture Krishna is the Supreme Lord. He’s God. However, He shouldn’t be understood in the way people conceive of the God of Abraham.

Some describe Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The reason for this complex term is to emphasize two things: Krishna is a person, and He’s the ultimate source of all forms of the Supreme.

Krishna is aloof from His Creation, playing in His own realm. That play is called lila. He has infinite friends, lovers, and associates there. And in contrast to a heaven where virtuous souls partake in pleasures apart from God, the associates of Krishna enjoy relationships of loving reciprocation with Him.

When it’s time for creation, He expands Himself as the Supreme Creator. There’s no need for Krishna to be directly involved since His lila takes precedence over such work. The Supreme Creator also incarnates into the world to have His own lilas, maintain affairs, and encourage the wayward souls to return to Krishna’s abode. Many sweet narrations of His incarnations are in the Bhagavatam.

Radha is Krishna’s potency. As such, She’s united with Him as the power with the powerful, the energy with the energetic, or the beloved with the lover. Their relationship is the pinnacle of love. She’s the Goddess of bhakti, or love. She’s always found playing with Him in Their abode. Their lila is the highest. It’s completely untainted by any worldly concept. And nobody can imitate it.

The followers of Chaitanya don’t revere Krishna separate from Her. For a follower, God is Radha-Krishna, the supreme couple.

Krishna kneels to adorn His beloved Radha

Chaitanya

Chaitanya (1486-1534) was an incarnation, or more correctly an appearance on earth, of Radha-Krishna. He descended to this plane of existence in order to demonstrate the superlative love that Radha has for Krishna.

He was born in Northeast India, in Bengal. After traveling and teaching throughout India, as a young man He settled in the East, in Odisha, where He remained absorbed in the ecstasy of Krishna’s play with Radha and Their friends in the spiritual realm.

He had many disciples, some of whom wrote books about His life and teachings, but He Himself composed only eight verses that serve as the core of His message.

The verses speak about sankirtan, literally glorification, narration, or singing in an assembly. For Chaitanya, sankirtan implied praise of Radha-Krishna. He and His followers also extended its meaning to include teaching about and spreading the Krishna narrative and the Bhagavat culture.

Among the biographies on His life and teachings written by His disciples, the foremost is Chaitanya Charitamrita (Life and Teachings of Chaitanya) by Krishna-das Kavi-raj (1496-?).

Chaitanya and His associates dancing and singing in sankirtan.

Bala-dev

Bala-dev was born in Eastern India in the early eighteenth century. He became a scholar in the traditional Sanskrit subjects, including the ancient writings. And he was thus a well-respected authority on the literatures of the Bhagavat culture. As a young man, he converted to the dharma, or doctrine, of Chaitanya and moved to Vrinda-van, the birthplace of Krishna.

He’s particularly famous for an important debate in Jayapur, Western India, wherein he defeated his opponents in debate to establish the permanent worship of Radha-Govinda in that city.

The king of Jayapur thereupon declared that Govinda, another name for Krishna, was the actual king and that he was merely His viceroy.

To this day one can visit the Radha-Govinda temple in Jayapur and see the townspeople gather for daily worship of the divine couple.

During his life Bala-dev wrote many books, primarily commentaries on the ancient works of the Bhagavat culture. His commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita (Gita) influenced Prabhupad’s, which in turn has influenced mine. Thus, I mention him several times throughout.

Bala-dev with a palm-leaf book in one hand and a bag with his chanting rosary in the other.

Prabhupad

In 1965 Prabhupad (1896-1977), pronounced Prah-boo-pahd, boarded a steamship bound from Kolkata (Calcutta) to New York City. At age sixty-nine with forty rupees ($8) and a trunk full of books, his goal was to introduce the Bhagavat culture to the world outside of India.

During the last eleven years of his life he inspired thousands around the world to devote their lives to that culture. He worked tirelessly, circling the globe fourteen times. He assembled and trained leaders and managers for his organization. He lectured to tens of thousands and personally trained many of his disciples. And each day in the early hours of the morning he diligently translated and wrote commentaries on the Bhagavatam and other traditional works.

After meeting his guru in 1922, he became dedicated to Chaitanya’s sankirtan movement and began practicing karma yoga by contributing to his guru’s organization. In 1933 while still a family man, his guru initiated him, and he continued to assist the organization. After his preceptor passed away in 1937, the organization fractured into smaller groups.

In 1953 Prabhupad established a small League of Devotees, and then took the swami order in 1959.

It wasn’t until he came to America in 1965 that he was able to successfully inaugurate his worldwide movement that in his lifetime became established with over one hundred centers in major cities, even in the Soviet Union, China, Africa, and the Middle East.

His disciples have written many biographies and produced films depicting a variety of perspectives on his life and work.

In San Francisco, 1974, Prabhupad dancing at the end of Ratha-yatra, a grand, yearly sankirtan festival.

Bhagavat Culture

Bhagavat, often pronounced Bahg-what, refers to a culture that is centered on the Supreme Lord, Bhagavat Krishna. The Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord) forms the culture’s basic teaching. And the Bhagavatam contains the narratives that enliven the culture’s arts and sciences.

Roughly three-quarters of a billion people around the world, mainly in India, follow various forms of the Bhagavat culture, making it the world’s third largest religious culture.

According to tradition, it began five thousand years ago when Krishna and other sages reformed the much older Vedic or Indo-European religion. In the sixteenth century Chaitanya again refined the culture and established the sankirtan movement.

Vegetarian is a widespread theme within Bhagavat culture.

In addition to the Gita and Bhagavatam, many adjunct works, not the least of which is the Maha-bharata, containing one hundred thousand stanzas, contribute to the core culture.

Since the Bhagavat culture is an outgrowth of the ancient Indo-European religion, it’s the natural culture of India, Europe, and the other areas that are based on European culture.

The commentary that follows attempts to show how humanity is better off when based on the Bhagavat culture.

Inscription on the Heliodorus Pillar (110 BCE): This pillar of Bhagavat Krishna, the God of gods, was constructed here by Heliodora, Greek ambassador to northeast India.

Bhagavatam

Srimad Bhagavatam, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad

The Bhagavatam is one of the Puranas, which are ancient, voluminous literatures, and which were compiled for the common people as opposed to the priests and ascetics. Out of eighteen Puranas, the Bhagavatam is the most important.

Professor Edwin Bryant of Rutgers University comments, "Whereas most of the Puranas have produced no traditional commentaries at all, and others only one or two, the Bhagavatam has inspired eighty-one commentaries currently available, in Sanskrit alone, as well as others no longer extant."

Along with the teachings of the Gita, the Bhagavatam’s narrative forms the basis for the Bhagavat culture. Traditional authorities date it at 3,000 BCE. They describe it as the natural elucidation of the Vedas, Upanishads, and Vedanta—that is, all the ancient foundational works of the Bhagavat culture.

It contains eighteen thousand verses. And unlike other epics, it’s not about kings and conquests, but Krishna’s divine incarnations and exalted devotees.

Its careful study is meant to bring one to liberation from worldly bondage. And beyond that, one who absorbs oneself in its narrations and who practices bhakti yoga attains Krishna’s abode.

The Guru

Many cultures have a form of initiation, often given when a young man or woman enters adolescence. The Bhagavat culture also has such a ritual. Acquiring knowledge is the most important step for one who wishes to advance in bhakti. And the principal way to do so is by serving one’s gurus with reverence, as Krishna indicates in the Gita.

One can’t become learned without practice. For example, for a doctor or surgeon to receive certification, he or she must have first served under a qualified teacher, performing diagnoses and surgeries.

Traditionally, there are three types of gurus: facilitators, initiators, and instructors. The facilitator lights the path so that one may begin one’s journey toward Krishna bhakti. The initiator presides over the formal commitment of the disciple and inducts him or her into the yoga process. The instructor guru guides one on the path and helps the disciple rise to higher levels of bhakti.

In bhakti, one’s training goes beyond mere ritual. The relationship one has with one’s gurus is particularly important, because it can give a glimpse of one’s relationship with Krishna. Unlike ordinary relationships, they’re not based on sense enjoyment or worldly interactions. Rather, they’re based on bhakti, the exchange of affectionate service.

The ancient literature urges the disciple, from the beginning of his or her tutelage, to assist the master in sacrifice. And for those following Chaitanya, involvement in the sankirtan sacrifice is the focal point in the relationship with the guru.

Sankirtan & Mantra

Sankirtan means celebration or glorification and implies that many come together to sing, praise, and be festive.

It is pure enjoyment and the expression of supreme love.

As explained in the commentary below, it’s sacrifice. It’s the dharma or responsibility of the age. And it’s the highest yoga, bhakti.

Chaitanya practiced sankirtan by dancing in the streets, chanting the great mantra of Krishna’s names, and singing songs about Him.

Prabhupad practiced sankirtan by propagating Krishna’s teachings in the Gita and broadcasting the narrations of Krishna’s incarnations in the Bhagavatam.

Sankirtan is holding grand festivals with singing, dancing, and feasting.

It’s large and small groups dancing and singing about Krishna in public.

It’s going from door to door distributing books, teaching, and narrating.

It’s gathering together in groups and communities, expanding them, and extolling the magnificence of Krishna. It’s establishing institutions, small and large.

It’s spreading the sankirtan movement from community to community, city to city.

It’s establishing a worldwide Bhagavat culture.

Mantra means a sacred or magical verse. The great mantra is a list of Krishna’s and Radha’s names: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Hare is another name for Radha, and Rama is another name for Krishna.

Dharma, Karma, & Bhakti

Dharma means duty or responsibility. Or more elaborately, it’s a set of principles based on the essential nature of things along with a corresponding set of responsibilities. It’s sometimes awkwardly translated as religion. More accurate would be a body of principles that govern the duties of individuals, families, and society.

Karma means work. In the modern vernacular, karma means the good or bad reactions to one’s acts. However, this isn’t an adequate understanding.

As work, karma produces results like money or an agricultural harvest. Along with those results it also causes good or bad reactions.

For example, one may work earnestly as a farmer, tilling the fields and slaughtering animals for the benefit of one’s family and community. However, one may then suffer bad reactions from killing insects in the fields and animals for consumption.

Thus, karma is principally related to one’s occupation, rather than just good or bad actions committed in social interactions.

The Gita discusses karma, the results of karma, and liberation from the bad reactions, or the suffering, that one’s karma produces.

Bhakti means attachment, love, or devotion. To most followers of the Bhagavat culture it means service to Krishna with loving devotion. Pure bhakti means complete absorption in love for Krishna, untainted or undistracted by worldly attachments.

Samkhya

Literally, the word Samkhya means analysis, rational, or mathematical. However, it’s meaning within the context of the ancient culture corresponds roughly to the modern meaning of the word science.

Sometimes, Samkhya is called a philosophical system. However, it is in fact a system of science that’s as complete as modern science with its own perspective on cosmology, creation, the elements of Nature, evolution, sociology, psychology, epistemology, law, ecology, morality, and much more.

Thus, the Samkhya perspectives were a vast and important part of ancient Indo-European or Vedic culture.

Samkhya has existed since creation, but much of its knowledge had been lost and was again taught by Kapila, the incarnation of Krishna, who is described in the Bhagavatam.

The topics below entitled Soul and Creation and Senses, Mind, Discernment explain parts of Samkhya doctrine.

Here in the Gita, many of the ideas that Krishna discusses with Arjuna are based on Samkhya concepts.

Soul and Creation

Soul: Krishna reiterates the primeval teaching that all living beings are souls. The eternal soul is distinct from the temporary body and mind. And the constitution of the soul is to connect with the Supreme. That connection is the function of yoga.

The soul’s misidentification with the body-mind is often called false ego. This mistaken identity, thinking oneself to be man, woman, black, white, is the primary cause of bondage to the world. It’s the source of suffering.

The identity of the soul is lover of Krishna, which implies that one serves Krishna. In this case, service means the active exchange of love. As a lover serves the beloved with various gifts and attentions or as people express love for their families by maintaining, and nurturing them, so Krishna’s followers practice active love for Him through service.

Krishna’s Creation, or His Nature, in its original form is one of His energies. Prior to the creative act it contains all of the subtle elements. These elements unfurl from subtle to gross. In other words, elements like false identity, intelligence, and mind come first and later come fire, water, and earth. This process, which is part of the Samkhya doctrine, is explained more elaborately in the Bhagavatam.

As creation unfolds, the myriad forms and indeed the panorama of color, shape, emotion, attitudes, universal realms, gods, and everything else are influenced by Creation’s attributes of goodness, passion, and ignorance. These three interact something like the three primary colors—yellow, red, and blue—to create unlimited variety.

Senses, Mind, Discernment

Compared to common modern usage, some terms have slightly different meanings in Bhagavat philosophy.

Senses: Krishna often refers to the senses. There are ten: The knowledge senses are hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell. The action senses, or organs of action, are the tongue, hands, legs, excretory organs, and sexual organs.

Sense Objects: The objects of the senses are five: sound, tactile feeling, form or color, taste, and odor. Throughout the early part of the Gita, Krishna discusses the attraction that the senses have for their corresponding objects and how that creates a bondage to this ephemeral world.

Mind: In the Gita, mind is defined differently than the modern mind. Here the mind’s primary function is mechanical—that is, facilitating the senses, particularly in connecting with pleasurable objects and rejecting undesirable ones.

Discernment: Sometimes called intelligence or a component of intelligence, one’s ability to discern can control the mind, which in turn controls the senses. Krishna teaches that yoga practice strengthens the power to discern, which turns the soul away from attachment to the sense objects and towards the Supreme.

Thus, through yoga one learns to discern spirit from matter, reality from illusion.

Brahman and Brahmaa

Brahman is the impersonal aspect of Bhagavat Krishna. It’s everything in Creation, including the collection of all souls and the energies that comprise the physical and subtle aspects of Creation. Prabhupad gives the analogy of the sun and its rays. Bhagavat is the sun, and the rays are Brahman. In one sense, the energy, or the light and heat of the sun rays, are not much different from the source, but in reality, there is a difference between the energetic source and the energy.

Mentioned in the Bhagavatam are three aspects of God: Bhagavat is the highest. He’s the Supreme Person. The next is his personal presence as the Supreme Soul, sometimes called Supersoul, in the hearts of all. The third aspect is Brahman, the supreme collection of all things, spiritual and material.

The eighth chapter covers more about Brahman.

Brahmaa is distinct from Brahman. The Supreme creates Brahmaa, who is the first being in Creation and the ultimate technician. He engineers and assembles the entire Creation by meditating on Krishna. A detailed description of this is given in the Bhagavatam.

Chaitanya’s Eight Teachings

Overview

Chaitanya left eight teachings that form the essence of His dharma. Other than that, He wrote no other literature but assigned the task to His disciples and followers.

The principles and responsibilities that He established can be reduced to one word: sankirtan. He defined it as glorification of the names of Krishna. He also taught that education in and propagation of Bhagavat culture are essential components of sankirtan.

Considering the magnitude of Prabhupad’s worldwide successes, he became the primary teacher and exemplar for most modern followers of Chaitanya. Based on Prabhupad’s life, one may obtain an excellent example of Chaitanya dharma.

In the first stanza Chaitanya begins His eight teachings by exalting sankirtan. Then in verse two He declares that Krishna invests all His divine energy in His Holy Names. In three and four, He subtly affirms that sankirtan doesn’t differ from the teachings of the Gita. While practicing sankirtan, a follower controls the mind and senses, not for personal interest, but for Krishna’s pleasure.

In verse five He hints at the goal of spiritual knowledge. In six and seven, He gives a glimpse of the sublime and pure emotions available to the advanced follower. In verse seven, He introduces love in separation from Krishna wherein He prepares for the culmination, verse eight.

In the final verse, He reveals the highest bhakti, which is in the mood of Radha. This verse is so sweet and sublime that, while an ordinary person can grasp some meaning from it, its full sentiments are available only to Krishna’s associates.

Previous gurus and saints have given many commentaries on these teachings. Bhakti-vinode (1838-1914) writes that Chaitanya’s eight verses cover three types of knowledge: relationship with Krishna, the means of attaining pure love for Him, and intimate interaction with Him.

One may also gain a deeper understanding of these types of knowledge by studying Krishna-das’s Chaitanya Charitamrita.

Eight Teachings

(1) The sankirtan of Sri Krishna is grand and exalted. It cleanses the mirror of the heart and extinguishes the blazing fire of worldly existence. Sankirtan is the moonlight that spreads wide the petals of the night-blooming white lotus of good fortune. It’s the life of wisdom. It’s an overflowing ocean of enjoyment and allows all souls to bathe in that ocean. It enables one to experience immortality at every step.

Commentary:

Here Chaitanya establishes sankirtan as both the path to liberation and the practice of those who are liberated. It’s His prescription for the difficult Age of Kali, the current age. He emphasizes that it’s practical, and it provides humanity with good results;