# Bhagavad-gita 2.13, NYC, 1973 **Location:** New York City (1973) **Related verse:** [[bg/2/13]] **Duration:** 50:40 <div class="video-container" style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%;"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l1r0VOCLw20" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; pointer-events: auto; z-index: 10;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1r0VOCLw20) --- ## Transcript **[09:24]** dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara **[09:35]** tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati [[books/bg/2/13|[Bg. 2.13] ]] **[09:54]** So this is a statement by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, bhagavan uvaca, **[10:05]** that you are not this body. The first instruction for spiritual understanding **[10:18]** is to know that I am not this body. This is the beginning. The so-called yogis, **[10:33]** they are exercising the body, studying the psychology of the mind by charts, **[10:44]** by so many humbugs. But our philosophy (is) that we are not this body. **[10:52]** Then where is the question of exercising the body and spiritual realization? **[11:01]** If I am not this body, then how I can realize myself simply by some gymnastic process? **[11:11]** So this is the mistake-the karmis, jnanis and the yogis. The karmis, fruitive workers, **[11:27]** materialistic persons, they want bodily comforts. Their only idea is how to get the best **[11:39]** comfort of this body. This body means the senses. We have got eyes, ears, nose, mouth, **[11:54]** tongue, hands, genital-so many senses we have got. **[12:01]** So as soon as we are in the bodily concept of life, immediately the necessity is for sense gratification. **[12:14]** But Krsna says to Arjuna that "You are not this body." So therefore my self-interest **[12:30]** does not depend on my bodily comforts. They do not know this. Everyone, at the present moment, **[12:42]** in this age, their only business is how to gratify the senses. Atheistic principle. Just like there was **[12:56]** a great atheist, Carvaka Muni, all classes of philosophers there were in India. The Western countries, **[13:12]** they have got little information, but in India, there was cultivation of all kinds of philosophy. **[13:22]** So atheist philosophy was there. Carvaka Muni is the chief of the atheist class of philosophers. **[13:32]** So he said, hedonism. The Western philosophy is hedonism, that eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. **[13:45]** This philosophy. So long you have got this body, eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. **[13:55]** The Carvaka Muni also said like that. Rnam krtva ghrtam pibet. In India, bodily enjoyment means first, tongue. **[14:11]** Tongue's enjoyment. Everywhere. Here also. Tongue's enjoyment. So if we want to control our senses... **[14:25]** Therefore Bhaktivinoda Thakura, following the footsteps of previous acarya, he says that **[14:36]** "Control your tongue." Control your tongue. And in the Bhagavata also it is said, **[14:47]** atah sri-krsna-namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih [Brs. 1.2.234]. With our, these blunt senses, **[14:57]** we cannot understand Krsna. It is not possible. The senses are so imperfect **[15:08]** that you cannot acquire any perfect knowledge, material or spiritual, by the senses. **[15:15]** That is not possible. Atah. Even if you cannot know perfectly the affairs of this material world. **[15:25]** Just like they are studying the moon planet, the nearest planet. Besides this moon planet, **[15:33]** there are millions and trillions of other planets. They cannot say anything. **[15:37]** Because the senses are imperfect. How you can understand? I can see, say up to one mile. **[15:52]** But when there is question of millions and trillions of miles, how you can use your senses **[15:58]** and have the perfect knowledge? So you cannot have even material knowledge perfectly **[16:06]** by using these senses. What to speak of God and spiritual knowledge? That is beyond, **[16:16]** manasa-gocara, beyond your conception. Therefore sastra says: **[16:23]** atah sri-krsna-namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih [Brs. 1.2.234]. **[16:28]** If you want to know God by mental speculation, that is frog philosophy, **[16:37]** Dr. Frog, calculating Atlantic Ocean, sitting down in the well. This is called frog philosophy. **[16:49]** You cannot understand. Then how it is possible to understand? The next line is **[16:57]** sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty. If you employ your tongue in the service of the Lord, **[17:06]** He'll reveal Himself to you. He'll reveal, revelation. **[17:15]** So therefore we have to control the tongue. What is the tongue's business? **[17:25]** The tongue's business is taste and vibrate. So you vibrate in service of the Lord, **[17:38]** Hare Krsna. Hare Krsna means "O Krsna, O the energy of the Lord, kindly engage me in Your service." **[17:47]** Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare... This is the meaning of Hare Krsna. **[17:52]** It has no other meaning. "O my Lord Krsna and O the energy of Krsna, Radharani, **[18:00]** especially, kindly both of You engage me in Your service." As Narottama dasa Thakura says: **[18:10]** ha ha prabhu nanda-suta vrsabhanu-suta-juta: "My Lord, Krsna, You are well known as **[18:24]** the son of Nanda Maharaja. And Your eternal consort, Radharani, She's also known as the **[18:32]** daughter of King Vrsabhanu. So both of You are here." Ha ha prabhu nanda-suta vrsabhanu-suta... **[18:42]** koruna karoho ei-bara. "Now I have come to You. Please both of You be merciful upon me." **[18:51]** This is Hare Krsna: "Be merciful upon me." Narottama-dasa koy na theliho ranga pay: **[19:02]** "Your lotus feet, You have got, don't neglect me or push away with Your lotus feet." **[19:13]** I think if Krsna kicks and push away, that is our great fortune. You see. **[19:24]** If Krsna kicks with His lotus feet: "You go away," that is also a great fortune. **[19:30]** What to speak of accepting? Just like when Krsna was kicking on the hood of the Kaliya. **[19:43]** So the Kaliya's wives prayed: "My dear Sir, I do not know, this culprit, Kaliya, **[19:56]** how he became so fortunate that his hood is being kicked by You? **[20:03]** Your touch of lotus feet, great, great sages, saintly persons are trying to meditate **[20:15]** upon millions of years, but this Kaliya... I do not know, what did he do in his past life **[20:25]** that he's fortunate that his hood is being kicked by You?" **[20:30]** So this is our position, that we cannot understand Krsna by our mental speculation, **[20:45]** limited sense. That is not possible. We have to engage-sevonmukhe hi jihvadau- **[20:51]** beginning from jihva, tongue. Tongue is the greatest enemy, and it is the greatest friend also. **[21:02]** If you allow the tongue to do whatever it likes, smoking, drinking, eating meat, **[21:14]** and this and that, then it is your greatest enemy. And if you do not allow the tongue, **[21:22]** you can control the tongue, then you can control the, all the senses. Automatically. **[21:30]** Ta'ra madhye jihva ati lobhamoy sudurmati, ta'ke jeta kathina samsare, krsna bado **[21:41]** doyamoy koribare jihva jay, sva-prasad-anna dilo bhai, sei annamrta pao, radha-krsna- **[21:51]** guna gao, preme dako caitanya-nitai. So tongue should be used always for glorifying the **[22:03]** Supreme Lord. That is our business with the tongue. And the tongue should not be **[22:11]** allowed to eat anything except krsna-prasada. Then you become liberated, **[22:18]** simply by controlling the tongue. And if you allow the tongue to do anything, **[22:25]** then it very difficult. So the spiritual education, as Krsna says, begins when you **[22:39]** understand that I am not this body. And satisfying the senses is not my business, **[22:48]** because I am not this body. If I am not this body, why shall I bother myself to satisfy **[22:59]** the body only? Body means the senses. This is the first instruction. **[23:04]** So the karmis, jnanis, yogis, they're all trying to satisfy the demands of the body. **[23:14]** The karmis are directly doing that. "Eat, drink, be merry, enjoy." That is their philosophy. **[23:24]** Jnani also, he's simply trying to understand that "I am not this body." Neti neti neti neti: **[23:39]** "This is not, this is not, this is not, this is not, this is no..." The yogis, they are also trying **[23:47]** to come to the point of controlling the senses by bodily exercise, hatha-yoga. **[23:56]** So their center of activity is body. Center of activity is body. And our philosophy begins that, **[24:11]** "You are not this body." You see? When they will pass their M.A. examination in studying this **[24:20]** body, then they may be able to understand what is their function. But our philosophy begins that **[24:31]** "You are not this body." Postgraduate study. "You are not this body." That is Krsna's instruction. **[24:39]** We have seen so many big, big politicians and scholars in India. They write comments **[24:52]** on Bhagavad-gita, but they write on this bodily concept of life. We have seen in our country **[25:03]** the great leader, Mahatma Gandhi, his photo is with Bhagavad-gita. But what did he do **[25:10]** throughout his whole life? The bodily concept: "I am Indian. I am Indian." **[25:17]** Nationalism means that bodily concept of life. "I am Indian." "I am American." **[25:24]** "I am Canadian." But we are not this body. Then were is the question of "I am Indian," **[25:32]** "I am American," "I am Canadian"? So they have no, this knowledge, the bodily concept of life, **[25:41]** they're absorbed, and still they're authority of Bhagavad-gita. Just see the fun. **[25:48]** And Bhagavad-gita teaches in the beginning "You are not this body." **[25:53]** And they are in the bodily concept of life. Then just try to understand what is their position. **[26:01]** What they can understand Bhagavad-gita? If one is feeling that "I belong to this nation, **[26:10]** I belong to this family, I belong to this community, I belong to this cult, **[26:15]** I belong to this, I belong to this religion...," everything is bodily concept of life. **[26:24]** The yogis, they are also trying to understand by bodily exercise. **[26:28]** The jnani is also trying to know, understand fully that "I am not this body." **[26:36]** And the karmis, they cannot understand. They are as animals. **[26:40]** The animals cannot understand that he's not body. **[26:43]** So factually the karmis, jnanis, yogis, are a little, maybe elevated than the animals. **[26:56]** That's all. They are on the animal platform, but it is little elevated. **[27:05]** So I give this example-perhaps you heard it-that the dry side of the stool. **[27:16]** India, they pass stool on the open field. So at the end of day, because there is sunshine, **[27:29]** the upper side of the stool becomes dried up. And the lower side, still moist. **[27:37]** So somebody says, "This side is very good." He does not know. It is stool after all. **[27:45]** This side, or that side. So these rascals, they are on the bodily concept of life, **[27:56]** and they are thinking that "I am nationalist," "I am yogi," "I am this, I am that, I am that..." **[28:03]** You see. This is the philosophy. **[28:07]** So long you are in the bodily concept of life, we are no better than the animal. **[28:15]** That is the Bhagavata philosophy. You are animal. Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke. **[28:24]** Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dha... [SB 10.84.13], sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih, **[28:32]** yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij janesv abhijnesu sa eva go-kharah [SB 10.84.13]. So go-khara **[28:45]** means, go means cow, khara means ass. Animals. So who is that? Now yasyatma-buddhih kunape **[28:53]** tri-dhatu. This bag of tri-dhatu-kapha pitta vayu-if one thinks that "I am this body, **[29:04]** I am this body, and, in bodily relation,..." Because in bodily relation I have got my family, **[29:12]** society, children, wife, country, and therefore they are mine. So yasyatma-buddhih **[29:21]** kunape tri-dha..., sva-dhih. Sva-dhih means thinking: "They are mine. I am theirs." **[29:28]** Sva-dhih kalatradisu. Kalatra means wife. Through wife, we get children, we expand. **[29:37]** The Sanskrit word is stri. Stri means expansion. I remain one. As soon as I get wife, **[29:46]** I get, become two. Then three, then four, then five. Like that. That is called stri. **[29:56]** So, our expansion, these expansions, these material expansion, bodily expansion, **[30:03]** means illusion. Janasya moho 'yam aham mameti [[books/sb/5/5/8|[Bhag. 5.5.8] ]]. This illusion increases, **[30:13]** that "I am this body, and in bodily relation, everything is mine." Aham mama. **[30:22]** Aham means "I", and mama means "my." **[30:25]** So, so long one shall remain in the bodily concept of life, his illusion will increase. **[30:37]** It will never decrease. Therefore the first instruction of Krsna to Arjuna... **[30:47]** Because if Arjuna would not have been in that position of illusion, that **[30:56]** "I am this body, and the other side, my brother, my grandfather, my nephews, **[31:03]** they're all my relations. How can I kill?" This is the illusion. Therefore to dissipate **[31:14]** this illusion, darkness, Krsna begins the first lesson that "You are not this body." **[31:23]** Dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara, tatha dehantara-praptih [[books/bg/2/13|[Bg. 2.13] ]]. **[31:32]** You'll have to change this body as you have already changed. You have already changed. **[31:39]** You were a baby. You change your body to child. You change your body to boyhood. **[31:56]** You change your body to youthhood. You change your body to old man. Now, after change is ... **[32:00]** As you have already changed so many times, similarly, there will be another change. **[32:06]** You'll have to accept another body. Very simply logic. You have already changed. **[32:12]** So tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati: [[books/bg/2/13|[Bg. 2.13] ]] **[32:18]** ...Because they are in the bodily concept of life, "I am this body. **[32:22]** And the body has no change." Body's changing. He's seeing actually in this life. **[32:31]** Still he'll not believe that "After changing this body, I'll get another body." It is very logical. **[32:39]** Dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara, tatha dehantara-praptih [[books/bg/2/13|[Bg. 2.13] ]]. **[32:45]** Exactly in the same way, as we have changed so many times this body, I'll have to change. **[32:51]** Therefore, one who is intelligent, he should try to understand that "What kind of body am **[33:01]** I going to get next?" That is intelligence. So that is also explained in the Bhagavad-gita, **[33:10]** what kind of body you can get. **[33:16]** yanti deva-vrata devan **[33:26]** If you want to go to the higher planetary system where demigods live for hundreds and **[33:33]** thousands and millions of years... Just like Brahma. Brahma's one day you cannot calculate. **[33:41]** So in higher planetary system, you have got thousands and thousands of better facility **[33:48]** for sense gratification and duration of life. Everything. Otherwise, why the karmis, **[33:56]** they want to go to the heavenly planet? So yanti deva-vrata devan [Bg. 9.25]. **[34:07]** So if you try to go the higher planetary system, you can go. Krsna says. **[34:12]** There is process. Just like for going to the moon planet, one must be very expert **[34:21]** in the karma-kanda, fruitive activities. By karma-kanda, you get, by the resultant **[34:29]** action of your pious activities, you can be promoted to the moon planet. **[34:34]** That is mentioned in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. But you cannot enter moon planet by your, **[34:41]** this process: "By force we shall go with this aeroplane and jets and sputniks. Oh..." **[34:50]** Suppose I got a nice motorcar in America. If I want to enter in **[35:01]** another country forcibly, is it possible? No. You must get the passport, visa. **[35:07]** You must get sanction from the government. Then you can enter. **[35:11]** Not that because you have got a very good car, you'll be allowed. So we cannot by force... **[35:19]** This is foolish attempt, childish attempt. They cannot go. Therefore nowadays they stopped. **[35:24]** They do not speak. They are realizing their failure. In this way, you cannot. **[35:30]** So, but there is possibility. You can go if you adopt the real process. **[35:39]** You can be promoted. Similarly you can go to the Pitrlokas by offering sraddhas **[35:49]** and pinda; you can go to the Pitrloka. Similarly you can remain in this loka. Bhutejya. **[35:57]** Similarly you can go back to home, back to Godhead. So who is intelligent? And if you ask: **[36:02]** What is the benefit by going to the planet, back to home, back to Godhead? **[36:05]** So who is intelligent? If you ask what is the benefit in going to the planet, back home, back **[36:13]** to Godhead. That is assured in the Bhagavad-gita: mam upetya tu kaunteya duhkhalayam asasvatam **[36:22]** napnuvanti: [[books/bg/8/15|[Bg. 8.15] ]] "If you come to Me, then you won't have to accept again this material body, **[36:32]** which is full of miserable conditions. You will remain in your spiritual body." **[36:39]** So our Krsna consciousness movement is meant for, I mean to say, allowing, **[36:50]** elevating all living entities... Of course, it is not for all. It is very difficult. **[36:57]** But anyone who has accepted this Krsna consciousness movement, **[37:02]** if he follows the principles, then he's surely going to home, back to home, back to Godhead. **[37:13]** That is certain. But if you deviate, if you become attracted by maya, that is your business. **[37:22]** But we are giving you information: This is the process, a simple process. **[37:28]** Chant Hare Krsna maha-mantra, be purified, be..., remain always liberated from material clutches, **[37:39]** and tyaktva deham. Mam upetya. Janma karma me divyam yo janati... If you simply try to understand **[37:47]** Krsna, then tyaktva deham, after quitting this body, mam eti, "You'll come to Me." **[37:58]** So this is our philosophy. It is very simple. And everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gita. **[38:03]** You try to realize and preach this cult for the benefit of the whole world. Then everyone will be happy. **[38:17]** Thank you very much. (end)