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Om Śrī Purujī Mahādeva Kī Jai, Dīwadī Devadeva Viśvar Mahādeva Kī Jai, Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai, Hindu Dharm Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Madanpurījī Mahārāj Kī Jai, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Śrī Maheśvar Anantpurījī Mahārāj Kī Jai. The one who is taking care of the whole humanity, who is taking care of the whole world, the one who is full of mercy, I bow in front of that Sadguru, that Brahma who is even above the Brahma, our dear Gurudeva Shogurujī. Good evening, dear brothers and sisters. Today, I will begin. We will be talking about the Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā. First, the Bhagavad Gītā is like our mother. So the first thing we do is we touch and make praṇām to the holy scripture, the holy book, the Bhagavad Gītā, before we start. What is the Bhagavad Gītā actually? The Gītā was spoken when Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna were on the battlefield, while the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas were fighting each other. All the Pāṇḍavas versus all the Kauravas. As you might know from the Mahābhārata, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was the sārathi. Sārathi means the driver, the charioteer. Rathī means the one who is the owner of the chariot, the king or whoever. Arjuna told Lord Kṛṣṇa, "Please take me, O Sārathi, oh my driver, please take me to the middle of the battlefield where I can see both sides." He was fighting the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas, and he was full of confusion when he was in the middle. He saw both sides were his family. He got a little confused, thinking, "I am a Pāṇḍava, and the Kauravas' fathers are brothers to my father, and I have to fight them." Lord Kṛṣṇa then showed him the path and spoke these 18 chapters called the Bhagavad Gītā, and He gave the darśan of His vikrāl, meaning a huge, immense embodiment of Himself—His real darśan which He gave to Arjuna at that time. We will be talking about the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, Bhakti Yoga. In this, Arjuna is asking Lord Kṛṣṇa, which form should we worship? Is it Your physical form which we should worship, or is it the nirguṇa, the nirākāra, which has no form? Which form of that should we worship? Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the next śloka that it is better; He prefers when people worship His form, His physical form. I will give you an example from the Śrīmad Bhāgavat, in the section called the Uddhava Prakaraṇa. Once upon a time, when Lord Kṛṣṇa was ruling in Vṛndāvan, He stayed there for 11 years and 55 days. After He completed His ruling period in Vṛndāvan, He had such a big impact on the people. All the Bṛjavāsīs—the people who lived in Vṛndāvan—and all the gopīs were just full of love and joy. They were in a state where they could not live without Lord Kṛṣṇa. So Lord Kṛṣṇa decided to leave Vṛndāvan for Mathurā, which is 12 kilometers away. At that time, with a horse chariot, it took approximately two hours. He left Vṛndāvan and established His new kingdom in Mathurā. In Mathurā, He had a great friend named Uddhava. Uddhava was a great jñānī, a very knowledgeable person. He knew all the Vedas, Purāṇas, and Śāstras. But Kṛṣṇa used to follow and teach the philosophy where He wants everyone to worship His physical form. His very good friend Uddhava, however, was following the nirguṇa, nirākāra form of worship. For the sake of future generations, and so that people would not say Lord Kṛṣṇa was following one path while His best friend followed another, Lord Kṛṣṇa called Uddhava to Him. He said, "Look, my dear friend Uddhava, would you do one work for me?" He asked as a friend, for Uddhava was not His disciple or servant. Uddhava said, "Yes, sure. What is it?" Lord Kṛṣṇa said, "Look, I was so many years in Vṛndāvana. All the Vṛndāvana gopīs and all the Bṛjavāsīs will be missing me a lot. They cannot live without me. As you are my friend, could you go there? I am now Dvārakādhīś; I live in Mathurā and have a lot of work. It is not possible for me in this avatāra to go back to Vṛndāvana. If, as a friend, I am asking you, can you go and give them my message? Tell them I am really happy here in Mathurā. And you can give your knowledge about Advaita." Uddhava used to follow "Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi," "Tattvamasi"—the principle that everything is Brahman, "I am Brahma." So Kṛṣṇa said, "Go and share your knowledge with all the gopīs and everyone there." You know, when you are a knowledgeable person, a jñānī, you never skip an option to give a lecture or a satsaṅg. Uddhava was really happy that Kṛṣṇa was giving him a chance to give a lecture in front of the Bṛjavāsīs and the people there. He asked Lord Kṛṣṇa, "If I go there and talk to the Bṛjavāsīs and the gopīs, your mother would also be hurt a little. She might think, 'My son sent someone to talk to the people, but he didn't give any message for his own mother, who fed him and took care of him for so many years.'" Lord Kṛṣṇa said, "Okay. First, go and touch the lotus feet of my mother and convey my praṇāms to her." Uddhava said, "She will be very happy to hear from you, but she would probably prefer if you sent a specific message for her." Lord Kṛṣṇa said, "Okay. Please tell her she should be proud of her son, that her son Kṛṣṇa is now Dvārakādhīś, the king of Mathurā. He is ruling, he is dhanadhani (full of prosperity), he is very happy here, and he is taking care of his people. So she should be a proud mother now." Uddhava said, "But if I tell her that, she will say, 'Why didn't Kṛṣṇa himself come to tell me this? He is just 12 kilometers away. It would take him two hours; he can come on a chariot and convey this message himself.' Then what am I supposed to say?" Lord Kṛṣṇa said, "Tell her that when she... fed me so much and took care of me since my childhood, I incurred so much debt to her. You know, when you have a debt to a bank and you cannot pay it back, you might run away to a different country. You earn money, and when you have enough to pay it back, you return and pay it off. But she has so much, so much debt from me that I cannot pay it back." The reason Kṛṣṇa said this was that the rākṣasī Pūtanā, who was breastfeeding Him with poison to kill Him when He was a baby, was killed by Him. It is said in the Purāṇas that whoever Lord Viṣṇu kills goes to Goloka, to His abode. That rākṣasī did not go to hell; she went to heaven. "I cannot give my mother the same place as I gave the rākṣasī, Goloka. I have to give her something higher, but I have a lot of debt which I cannot pay back. That is the reason I am not going back to her right now. So please convey this message to her." Uddhava said, "Okay, I will go and convey that message." The next day, Uddhava started his journey towards Vṛndāvana. When you go to Vṛndāvana, there is a holy river named Yamunā. Mainly, there are three rivers: Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī. In Uttar Pradesh, where Vṛndāvan is, it is the Yamunā River. When he entered Vṛndāvana, there were small canals all merging into the Yamunā. He asked one of the Bṛjavāsīs living there, "Please direct me to the house of Yaśodā and Nanda. How do I go to Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān's birthplace, where I can meet them?" The Bṛjavāsī said, "You see the small canals? Just follow the thickest one, the biggest channel. Follow that, and you will reach the house." Uddhava started slowly walking next to the biggest, thickest canal and reached the house. As soon as he reached, he was shocked. He saw that Māta Yaśodā and Nanda were crying. Their tears, from so long—because Lord Kṛṣṇa had said, "I am going to Mathurā and I will be back in two days"—every morning after those two days, they started crying. That channel of water going to the Yamunā was actually the tears of none other than Yaśodā. He was in a state of shock, wondering why they were so sad. The other small channels throughout Vṛndāvana going to the Yamunā were actually the tears of every single household, sad because of Kṛṣṇa's departure. Those tears had accumulated over many years and flowed into the Yamunā. He entered the house, made praṇām to Yaśodā, bowed his hands, and conveyed Kṛṣṇa's message. She was delighted to hear about Him and asked, "How is he?" Knowing Uddhava was Kṛṣṇa's good friend, she started showing him around. "This is the place where he was. This is his bed where he used to sleep. This is the kitchen where he used to play, where he used to hold my finger and run around." She got emotional and then told him, "Thank you for your messages. Now, probably all the rest of the Bṛjavāsīs and the gopīs are missing Kṛṣṇa. I don't want any of the gopīs to attempt suicide because they are in such a sad state. Please go and convey your message to them also. They are sitting by the bank of the river, under that tree." Uddhava slowly proceeded to where the Bṛjavāsīs and gopīs were sitting under the tree. He saw they were all very sad and crying. He went and sat down. They were delighted to see him because he was Lord Kṛṣṇa's friend, a messenger from Him. He even looked a little like Kṛṣṇa to them. They said, "Please come, you're welcome. Please sit. How is our dear Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān? How is he? Where is he?" He then started his lecture. He said, "Why are you in such pain? Why do you have to look at Him only in His present form? He is everywhere. It is nirguṇa. You should follow the 'ahaṁ brahmāsmi' principle. Everything is Brahman. Follow this principle." After he finished his long lecture, the gopīs asked him, "We are not jñānīs; we don't know anything. So please tell us one thing: who am I? Who are you?" He said, "I am Brahma. Who is she? She is Brahma. Who am I? I am Brahma." Then they said, "If everything is Brahma, then who are you giving your lecture to? If you are following Advaita (non-duality), then you should say, 'This is Uddhava, this is Uddhava, and I am Uddhava.' So you are actually talking to yourself. If you look at that concept, you are actually not looking at nirguṇa, nirākāra. If you are seeing gopīs and the other Bṛjavāsīs, that means they are more than one; they are dvaita (duality). So you are following the dvaita principle." Uddhava was a little shocked. He thought, "Kṛṣṇa told me they are all illiterate people." At that time, villagers were not so literate. But as he was lecturing, the gopīs were smiling a little because they thought, "He is giving us the same knowledge we gave him." The gopīs were of three categories. The first category were all the ṛṣis, munis, servants, and pupils who were with Lord Viṣṇu in His Goloka previously. They all came to Pṛthvīloka, to earth, when Lord Kṛṣṇa took His avatāra, to help Him in worldly matters. The second group were sages from Tretā Yuga who were with Lord Rāma. When Lord Rāma was crossing the forest (Araṇya), He met many ṛṣis and munis and gave them darśan. They said, "Being in Your presence is so blissful and amazing. We would like to be more in Your presence and experience Your madhur svara and rasa." Lord Rāma said, "In this avatāra, I am Maryādā Puruṣottama. In Dvāpar Yuga, I will take another avatāra as Kṛṣṇa, and you will be born as gopīs so you can experience the rasa-bhāva." That was the second group. The third group of gopīs were actually the Vedas and Purāṇas themselves. They are called ṛṣis. These were the third group who were there to experience being with Lord Kṛṣṇa. All this knowledge Uddhava was giving them was actually from the Vedas and the ṛṣis, which they had given him. So when he was lecturing, they were smiling and laughing a little, thinking, "You are giving the knowledge that we gave you." Thereafter, they said, "Okay, Uddhavjī." They knew why Kṛṣṇa had sent him—to break his myth and bring him to follow what Kṛṣṇa was preaching: that they should follow the physical form of Kṛṣṇa. They told him, "We are not abalā." Abalā means someone without strength (bal). People used to call women abalā. They said, "We are not abalās. We are abalās, which means we are full of strength. And Kṛṣṇa cannot leave us. Maybe He left us in the physical form, but He is always here with us." Uddhava said, "If He were here, He wouldn't have sent me to preach to you. He is in Mathurā, and I am in Vṛndāvan." A gopī said, "No. Look under that tree over there. He, Kṛṣṇa, is there." He looked and didn't see anyone. "Look, He is here. He is sitting with us." He said, "I don't see anyone." They said, "He is everywhere. Maybe physically, in the physical form, He is not with us, but He cannot leave us. Our powers are so strong, and He loves us so much that He cannot leave Vṛndāvan. He is always here with us." Then Uddhava had the darśana of Lord Kṛṣṇa and finally realized the truth. After this experience from the gopīs, he bowed down to them. The gopīs said, "Please do not bow down to us. We are just normal village women. If the villagers see such a big jñānī as Uddhava touching our feet, it does not look good. Go back to Kṛṣṇa." He got up, and the same route from Mathurā to Vṛndāvan that took him two hours took him six months to return. He was hugging every single tree, every single plant, every single animal on the way back, saying "Hare Kṛṣṇa" and "Kṛṣṇa brahmāsmi." He was very delighted and happy; he got the knowledge he had been seeking forever. When he reached back to Mathurā, he hugged Kṛṣṇa, and they both started crying and fell on the floor. As friends, he said, "You stupid one, why didn't you just tell me this old knowledge? Why did you have to send me all the way there to the gopīs to get this experience and learn from them?" Kṛṣṇa said, "Because, my friend, if I had told you all this, you would not have listened to me. You were stuck on your Advaita philosophy. Now, by sending you there to give your lecture, you got this knowledge through that experience. It is different." Then Uddhava got that knowledge and said, "I want to be present, and I also want to feel Your physical form forever. I want to be in Mathurā forever." So Kṛṣṇa gave him blessings, and he became the grass of that place in Mathurā near Barsaṇā, between Mathurā and Barsaṇā. When you go for the parikramā of Vṛndāvana, there is an Uddhavjī temple there. All the gopīs, Bṛjavāsīs, and Lord Kṛṣṇa walked over that grass, so he always had the presence of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Now there is a very big Uddhavjī temple there. Tomorrow we will continue with the third śloka. Thank you very much. Hari Om Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai.