Notes
Part V: “Let Sacred Love Be Your Only Goal”
1 Bhagavad Gita, 13.10:
bhaktir avyabhicharini, “the unwavering offering of love”. Krishna advises Arjuna to pursue no other form of yoga.
4 For example,
Bhagavad Gita, 5.18.
5 Bhagavad Gita, 6.32. See also
Bhagavata Purana, 6.10.9 and
Mahabharata, 5.36.16.
6 Bhagavad Gita, 10.11: Krishna is
atma-bhava-stha, “situated in the existence of the soul”. See also
Bhagavata Purana, 10.14.55: Krishna is
atmanam akhilatmanam, “the Soul of all souls”.
8 This form is known as Vishva-rupa, which means, literally, having all things as its form. It contains the entire universe across all time, including past and future.
9 Debashis Chatterjee,
Timeless Leadership: 18 Leadership Sutras from The Bhagavad Gita (2012), p. 18. Chatterjee acknowledges Prasad Kaipa for the humorous acronym.
10 Bhagavad Gita, 9.27: “Whatever you do, whatever you accept, whatever you sacrifice, whatever you give away, whatever discipline you undertake—make that an offering to me, O Son of Kunti.”
12 Krishna is Yogeshvara, the “Lord of Yoga”:
Bhagavad Gita, 11.4, 11.9, 18.75 and 18.78. Arjuna also addresses Krishna as “O Yogi” (
Bhagavad Gita, 10.17).
13 Bhagavad Gita, 18.66. In following Karma-yoga and other practices described in the first six chapters of the
Gita, one relies on one’s own efforts to transform oneself. However, Krishna, seated within the heart of all beings, directly frees one who is devoted to him. This is apparent from
Gita, 7.14, 10.11, 12.6–7 and 18.66.
14 This is the first time in the
Bhagavad Gita that the word
bhakta, from the noun
bhakti, appears. This verse, which is found in the context of Krishna’s Karma-yoga teachings, highlights the role of sacred love in nurturing all forms of yoga.
15 Adapted with permission from Kat Byles, “A Trump Calling to Go Deeper into Your Heart” [blog], published 2 Mar. 2017.
16 To learn more, go to www.katbyles.com.
17 According to estimates from ground-penetrating radar, Pi-Ramses was spread over about seven square miles. The City of London, colloquially known as the “Square Mile” (after its approximate size), is the area of London originally within the ancient city walls, and is today the world’s leading international finance centre.
18 Diodorus Siculus,
Library of History (1961). This is paraphrased in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”, first published in 1818.
19 Shri Madhvacharya explains that Duryodhana represents Kali-yuga, the societal dark night of the soul. See Shri Madhvacharya,
Mahabharata-tatparya-nirnaya, 2.146. The battle of Kurukshetra occurs just before the onset of Kali-yuga at
yuga-sandhi, the point of transition of one age to another. Hence, Krishna’s yoga teachings in the
Bhagavad Gita are meant specially to help us in Kali-yuga, the present age of darkness and despair.
20 Bhagavad Gita, 6.32 and 6.47. As we’ll see in the next chapter, sacred love extends to all beings, as a result of directing that love to the sacred source of all beings, the Soul of all souls.
21 Shri Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja,
Beyond Liberation (2003), p. 14. Adapted from commentaries.
22 The Ancient Greeks’ six words for love were (1)
eros, or sexual passion, (2)
ludus, or playful love, (3)
philia, or deep friendship, (4)
pragma, or longstanding love, (5)
philautia, or love of the self, and (6)
agape, or love for everyone.
23 Bhagavad Gita, 7.17. This is the first time the word
bhakti appears as a noun. Catherine Ghosh makes this insightful observation in “Remaining Loving When All Our Triggers Go Off”, in Catherine Ghosh and Braja Sorensen,
Yoga in the Gita: Krishna and Patanjali: The Bhakti Dimension (2016), Chapter 5.
24 Bhagavad Gita, 18.64:
sarva-guhyatama, “the greatest secret of all”.
25 Indra, chief of the celestials, thought the Parijata far too beautiful for the earth. He therefore seized this tree and gave it to his wife, Indrani. Known to have the most beautiful eyes, Indrani is the goddess of wrath and jealousy. She planted the Parijata in her heavenly garden. There it grew as one of Indra’s five celestial trees, until Krishna brought it to earth.
26 Sometimes attributed to the
Vishnu Purana or
Vayu Purana. For example, see Nanditha Krishna and M. Amirthalingam,
Sacred Plants of India (Kindle edition; 2009), locations 3997–4000.
27 This teaching is also found in the
Bhagavata Purana, 4.31.14.
28 One name of Krishna, or Vishnu, listed in
Vishnu-sahasranama is Vriksha, “The Tree”. Krishna is the tree of life that nourishes and supports all beings.
29 The yogi connects with Krishna in the heart through yoga, by developing yoga perception that is inward-facing (
antar-mukha), rather than outward-facing (
bahir-mukha).
31 Vishnu-sahasranama lists one of Krishna’s names as Shoka-nashana, “Destroyer of Sorrow”. Krishna is also known as Arti-hara, “The Remover of Distress”. For example,
Bhagavata Purana, 10.73.8:
prapanna arti-hara, “Remover of the distress of those who have taken shelter”.
32 Traditionally, flowers used in the ritual worship of Krishna are picked directly from a plant, but the Parijata flower is an exception. It is the only flower used for worship that is collected from the ground.
33 The
Padma Purana (4.10.1–4) states that the Parijata is a
kalpa-vriksha, a tree that fulfils wishes.
34 Vishnu-sahasranama, Dhyana, verses 6–7. After the battle of Kurukshetra, the Pandavas headed by Yudhishtira approached Bhishma on his deathbed, to seek advice and wisdom. Bhishma, the grandfather of Arjuna and the Pandavas, lying on a bed of arrows, uttered this prayer with great feeling.
35 Names of Vishnu, or Krishna, listed in
Vishnu-sahasranama include Guru (“Teacher”), Gurutamah (“Greatest teacher”), Neyah (“Guide”) and Guhah (“He who dwells in the cave of the heart”).
36 Bhagavad Gita, 10.17. O you who possess all potency: translates Bhagavan, following Parashara Muni in
Vishnu Purana, 6.5.74. Bhagavan is the source of all beauty, strength, fame, wealth, knowledge and renunciation. As these attributes have the power to influence or make an impression, they may be described, individually or collectively, as “potency”. They are sometimes referred to in English as Bhagavan’s “six opulences”.
37 See
Bhagavad Gita, 7.8–12.
38 See
Bhagavad Gita, 10.20–40.
41 Names of Vishnu, or Krishna, in
Vishnu-sahasranama include Naikarupah, “He who takes infinite forms”.
42 Krishna tells Arjuna that he is the foundation on which the unchanging impersonal Brahman exists (
Bhagavad Gita, 14.27).
43 For example,
Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 4.20 and
Kena Upanishad, 1.3–8. Krishna is known as Adhokshaja because he is beyond the purview of the material senses and mind.
44 Shri Brahma-samhita, 5.38. Names of Vishnu, or Krishna, in
Vishnu-sahasranama include Yogah (“He who is realized through yoga”) and Yoga-vidam-neta (“The guide of those who know yoga”). Krishna tells Arjuna that those who focus their minds on his personal form are considered by him to be the most absorbed in yoga (
Bhagavad Gita, 12.2).
45 See
Bhagavad Gita, 18.67–71. Sharing Krishna’s most confidential yoga teachings with those who are ready to hear them, Krishna tells Arjuna, pleases him most of all and is the highest act of loving service. But Krishna also warns Arjuna that these teachings should never be shared with anyone who is without discipline, who is bereft of love, who doesn’t wish to hear them, or who holds envy in their heart.
46 In the Bhakti lineage of Shrila Rupa Goswami, we worship both the masculine and feminine aspects of divinity (which are, in truth, non-different from each other), but with emphasis on the divine feminine. This is because Shri Radha is the embodiment of the highest devotion, and completely controls Krishna through her love. She is
parama-devata, the “supreme object of worship” (Shrila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami,
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.90). Shri Radha is our main worshipful deity, and our relationship with Krishna is through her (see Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, “Gandharva-prarthanashtakam”, 2; Shri Shrimad B. R. Shridhar Goswami Maharaja, “With Pride He Announced: ‘It Is the Best Day’” [lecture], Navadwip, 9 Sep. 1983; and Shri Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, “
Vilap-kusmanjali: Verse Seven” [lecture], Mathura, 20 Oct. 1991).
49 Bhagavad Gita, 6.4. See also
Gita, 6.24.
50 For example,
Bhagavad Purana, 2.9.28.
52 Shrila B. V. Narayan Goswami, lecture, Odessa (Ukraine), 22 Sep. 2002. See also
Bhagavata Purana, 10.22.33–35.
54 Bhagavad Gita, 13.8–12.
55 Lecture published in Shri Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja,
Bhakti-rasayana (2006), pp. 84–5.
57 Apagata radha yasmat iti aparadha, “
Aparadha is that by which Shri Radha is lost to us”. The Bhakti tradition eschews disrespect to all that is sacred, including other living beings, known as
jiva-aparadha.
58 Chapter 12 of the
Bhagavad Gita, entitled “Bhakti-yoga”, describes a yogi as “one who is the same toward both enemy and friend” (12.18:
samah shatrau cha mitre cha). Such a yogi, Krishna says, is dearly loved by him. See also
Bhagavad Gita, 6.9, which describes the preeminent yogi whose discernment remains the same when considering friends, allies, enemies, the disinterested, neutrals, the hateful, relatives, the virtuous and the wicked.
60 Mahabharata, 13.117.38 (
ahimsa paramam mitram).
61 Krishna gives an indication of his
sankalpa to Arjuna in the
Adi Purana, but not in the
Bhagavad Gita. See Shrila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami,
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita,
Adi-lila, 4.216, quoting the
Adi Purana.
62 Prema-sarovara, Kamyavana and Shri Radha-kunda, respectively.
63 Shri Brahma-samhita, 5.56.
64 Shrila Rupa Goswami,
Shri Upadeshamrita, 11.
65 For example,
Bhagavata Purana, 10.32.22 and “Shri Radha-Kripa-Kataksha-Stava-Raja” (spoken by Shiva to Gauri in the
Urdhvamnaya-tantra), verse 3. To understand and taste the sacred of love of Shri Radha, Krishna comes to this world as Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a Bhakti practitioner in search of the summit of mystical devotional ecstasy. See Shrila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami,
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita,
Adi-lila, Chapter 4.
66 Shrila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura,
Shri Vraja-riti-chintamani, 1.62.
67 Shrila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami,
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita,
Adi-lila, 4.124.
68 Shrila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami,
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.90:
parama-devata, “the supreme object of worship”. See also
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita,
Adi-lila, 4.95.
69 For example, see Shri Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, “
Vilap-kusmanjali: Verse Seven” [lecture], Mathura, 20 Oct. 1991.
70 See “Shri Radhikashtakam” by Shrila Rupa Goswami, “Shri Radha-Kripa-Kataksha-Stava-Raja” and other Sanskrit prayers and poems.
71 Padma Purana (
Uttara-khanda), 272.166–7, quoted by Shrila Rupa Goswami in
Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, 1.2.301–2. These verses describe the highest attainment in yoga of the great rishis of ancient times dwelling in the Dandaka Forest. Also, see
Bhagavata Purana, 10.82.39 and 10.87.23; Shrila Rupa Goswami,
Shri Upadeshamrita, 10; Shrila Rupa Goswami,
Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, 2.5.38; Shrila Prabodhananda Saraswati,
Shri Radha-rasa-sudha-nidhi, 33, 78, 148 and 240; and Shrila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami,
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita,
Madhya-lila, 8.98, 8.196 and 23.53.