This is Part 2 of a 12-part series based on Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s enlightening speech. In this series, he continues to reveal deep spiritual wisdom, guiding seekers toward a profound understanding of devotion and Divine love.
Speech 2 by Swami Prakashanand Saraswati :
The Divine souls: Previously I explained that dharm is of two kinds, par and apar, primary and secondary, and they are both for receiving eternal happiness. Dharm originates from the Vedas, and Vedas were conceived by Brahm with the grace of Krishn during his par vidya, when he requested Krishn to come and help him and guide him how to create this planetary system.
So when Brahm was conceived with the knowledge of the Vedas, he transferred that knowledge to those saints on the very first day of his creation who were on this earth planet in Bharatvarsh. Quite a few generations of saints happened, and they were all just produced by Brahm, and all through generations this knowledge of Ved was transferred to them just by telling. They all had Divine minds. They listened, heard, and just conceived. So it was called shruti. Shruti means just by listening, those saints understood each and every aspect of the Vedas and also the meaning of the Vedas. So then afterwards, when human civilization started, those Vedas had to be written so the souls desiring perfect happiness could also learn the Vedas.
So both dharmas, means for material happiness in the form of peace of the mind and a normal living of well-being, and spiritual happiness, means God realization, both dharmas came from Vedas. It means they are protected by God Himself. So they are called eternal dharm. Eternal means sanatan. Sanatan dharm. Vedic dharm. So this Vedic dharm, this sanatan dharm, this eternal dharm is not only protected by God Himself, it’s a part of God Himself. Ved is a part of God’s knowledge, the aspect of knowledge in God Himself. Ved is a part of that. So it is protected by God. And when it’s protected by God forever, it may deteriorate in the world to some extent, but it won’t disappear. It won’t be mutilated. It cannot be changed. It cannot be destroyed. It remains in its original form always on the earth planet. Always. Never changing, non-changing.
Read Part 1 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita – Part 1
Gita is the essence of the Vedas. So these two dharmas are in the Vedas, so they are in the Gita also. See briefly, Krishn says “Oh, Arjun, don’t leave your dharm, apar dharm, secondary dharm or physical dharm,(Sanskrit). If you die while doing your dharm, you will enjoy the celestial abodes’ luxuries. (Sanskrit) And if you win the battle, then you will enjoy the luxuries of this world. You will be king. So on both sides, you are the winner. Either you die or you live and win. You are not the loser, you are winner from both sides (Sanskrit) . So follow your dharm.” What is this? Seemit dharm. Seemit means limited, secondary, material, for material peace and happiness. Gita also explains that. But Gita tells further. “No, this is not the only thing. This is the first part. With a peaceful mind that surrendered that mind to God. It is a step. A step ahead from a sinful mind, from an unhappy mind. So have a pious mind, have a peaceful mind. One step ahead. Dharm takes you one step ahead towards peace and happiness. That, dharm is for.”
But now we have to rise above. That’s not the final thing. So when Arjun asked Krishn that “Is it all? Is something beyond that?” Krishn said “Yes. because both kinds of good, bad karmas are a kind of bondage. So if you want to be above bondage, if you want to enjoy eternal happiness, then come to Me and forget everything.” Means par dharn. Surrendering to Krishn wholeheartedly is pa dharm. Bhakti is par dharm. Bhakti means devoting your heart and mind and soul to the realization of God’s love. That is bhakti. Entering into Divine love consciousness, selflessly. with a desire to receive Divine love is bhakti. par dharm. So both dharmas are in the Gita because Gita is the essence of all the Upnishads, and Upnishads are the essecnce of total Vedas. Upnishad is the essence of all the Vedas, and the essence of all Upnishads is Gita. So Gita is the essence of the essence, so it contains everything. So you can say Gita is the origin of all kinds of dharmas, par and apar.
But these two dharmas are protected by God Himself. Gita itself says, in Krishn’s words (Sanskrit quote) abutanum & glanni(?) There are 2 words. Glanni means when this dharm, any kind of dharm, physical dharm or material dharm or apar dharm, there are various words, when this apar dharm or par dharm, when they begin to deteriorate, when they begin to fall down, so I give a lift, and they rise again. Although dharm never changes, question of followers. When materialism rises high, so dharm has to come down without losing its shape. When people are more of material consciousness, worldly consciousness, selfish consciousness, then the consciousness of God comes down. So Krishn says that I lift it up. And adharm, means adharm has to come down, worldliness, and dharm has to go up. (Sanskrit quote) because dharm is protected by God Himself. Dharm. Ved itself is dharm, and Ved is a power of Krishn. It’s protected by Krishn, so Krishn Himself takes care of dharm to remain in this world in its original form. (Sanskrit quote) Krishn says “Aham. Myself. Sojan”. Sojan means “I produce Myself in this world. I come in this world. Personally I come in this world, and when personally I come in this world, then I lift this dharm up.” It keeps on going forever. When adharm. (adhar means against dharm, a means against, means materialism.) “When materialism rises to its climax, then I come. I drop it and give rise to dharm. Again materialism rises, then agan I come, and I give rise to dharm. It keeps on going forever, so I keep on coming from time to time. Always.”
(Sanskrit words) means actually “Krishn, He comes”. Sometimes He may come in His original Divine form as Krishn. Sometimes He may come only showing a part of His Divineness. Part of His Divine powers, not the full Divine powers. But it is His duty to come in the world and establish this dharm in this world. So He always keeps coming. (Sanskrit quote) Yuge yuge – from time to time. Means his next coming, or previous coming, or next after next coming, it might take millions of years, because this world goes on for billions and trillions of years, but He keeps coming. (Sanskrit ) The word meaning, literal meaning, is to kill the demons. And paritranay sadhanam, those who are pious people, paritran – to relieve him from the pains that demons give to him. Paritranam (means protection, rescue).
You see when Bhagwan Ram came on the earth planet many million years ago, in those days, Vishwamitr, all the rishis, munis, they were doing their devotions, staying in meditation, doing their rituals, devotional rituals, and those demons used to come and try to destroy their peace, throwing dirty things in their puja, making big noises, killing the animals, destroying food, means fruit, terrorizing them. So Bhagwan Ram killed those demons – all those demons. And all those sages were happy. “Oh great. Oh Bhagwan Ram, you came, you killed those demons, now I can freely do my devotions.” So this line is for that particular event when Ram killed all those demons. (Paritranam etc. Sanskrit)
And also in Krishn avatar, you see they were all Krishn’s own people, all the Brajwasis. Krishn loved them like His own self because they were one with Krishn all the time. So to His so much loving Brajwasis, although demons were coming again, terrorizing (Sanskrit) Sometime when there was a big bush fire, Braj was burning, Krishn came, swallowed the fire because it was done by a demon, and killed the demon by itself. Once a big, huge monstrous bird came and was just destroying the vicinity. Krishn came and killed that big bird, that demon. Pootna came. She was killing all the young ones who were born at that time of Krishn’s appearance. Killing all those young kids. Krishn killed that demoness, Pootna. Once Vatsasura (?) came, he took the shape of a small calf, but he was so strong, he was killing all the cows, Krishn came and killed that demon. So killing the demons and protecting His own people: paritran – protecting His own people. And vanashay banishkatam: killing all those demons. This line is for this purpose .
Dharm (more Sanskrit) Both dharmas, par and apar, because both dharmas are important. The apar dharm, or the secondary dharm is important to establish peace and harmony in the society. It is a social dharm, how to live in the society peacefully, happily, having no jealousy, friendship to everyone, no crime. This kind of dharm is the only way to have a peaceful society. That’s also very important, to keep the society peaceful. And then out of those people who are really desiring eternal happiness, then they can turn to that path of par, means bhakti, par dharm, and realize God. So both are most important to establish, apar dharm and par dharm.
So Krishn etablishes both dharmas, appearing in various forms, but He appears. Say for instance He appeared as Krishn, and as Ved Vyas. He also appeared as Ved Vyas, a power of Krishn. Ved Vyas established all the dharmas through Scriptures. He rewrote all the Vedas, wrote all the Puranas, wrote all the Uparanas, wrote all the smritigruntas. Smritigrunta means rules and regulations how to live in the society. Social dharm. So He established social dharm by writing all those smritigruntas, all those. And Krishn was also there establishing the supreme dharm of raganuga bhakti. Krishn once again appeared as a great saint, Kapil, Maharishi Kapil, and he established a form of complete renunciation from the world, sankhya yoga. Sankhya, So sankhya knowledge was produced by Maharishi Kapil who was a descension of Krishn also. Means all the descensions, all the Divine descensions, they relate to Krishn Himself.
So there are two kinds of descensions, the complete descension, and the other, also complete descension. It cannot be incomplete, but the powers are not shown in full. So as a Kapil descension or a Ved Vyas descension, Krishn showed a fraction of His power and established dharm. But when He came as Krishn Himself, He showed His complete power of Divine love. You can say suppose there is a bright lamp, and it’s covered with something so light is not coming out. Remove a part of that covering, some light is coming out. Remove all the covering, full light is there. So Krishn covers Himself. With what? His yogamaya power. Yogamaya (Sanskrit) Krishn is samavrita with yogamaya. He envelops Himself with yogamaya. So He is always complete. All descensions are complete of God. There is not an incomplete descension. It cannot be incomplete because God is God. There cannot be a fraction of God. God is always complete wherever He comes, wherever He goes, whatever He becomes, He is always complete, totally complete. But because He is yogamaya samitrivatah(?), so through yogamaya He reveals a fraction of His knowledge or His full knowledge, a fraction of His love or the full love. So whatever is revealed in this world, we take it from that point of view that “Oh, that descension was the great. Other was not that great.” But it was complete in all the sense.
So in this way, in those other descensions, He simply revealed some of His knowledge as sankhyayoga or more of His knowledge as through Ved Vyas when he wrote all the Scriptures. And as Krishn Himself, He revealed Himself in total. When He came as Bagwhan Ram, He revealed Himself in total, but His Divine love form was somewhat to some extent concealed. He revealed His almightyness in total, but in His Divine love form, He introduced a modest form of Divine love. So in this way, descensions of God are always complete, yet He reveals whatever is required for the society. In this way He protects His dharm Himself. So dharm is totally protected by God that remains always on this earth planet forever in its original form.
To briefly summarize Part 2, Swami Prakashanand Saraswati shed light on dharm as well as some of the various powers and descensions of Lord Krishn. He explained how Krishn’s descensions are always complete, even if some of His powers are covered or hidden by His Yogamaya power. Krishn’s graciousness ensures that the true knowledge of dharm and bhakti are always on the earth to assist those striving to maintain harmony and selfless loving devotion to God, which can lead the soul toward divine love and eternal bliss. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s wisdom continues to guide seekers on the path of Krishn’s devotion.
Connect with Part 3.