The Real Speaker Of Bhagavad-Gītā

Generally the impersonalists like to maintain that I am God, you are God, everyone is God, etc., and their conception of God ends there. Such a philosophy excludes all morality: since I am God, and you are God and we are all God, we can act in any way we please. They deny Lord Sri Krsna as a person, and boldly proclaim that He is not actually the speaker of Bhagavad-gita as it is. In Bhagavad-gita Lord Sri Krsna directly tells Arjuna: "Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, engage your body in My service and surrender unto Me. Completely absorbed in Me, surely will you come to Me." (Bg.9.34) Lord Sri Krsna is actually standing in person before Arjuna and is telling Arjuna to concentrate on Him, to be devoted to Him, to worship Him and to revere Him, and yet the impersonalist commentators write: "It is not the personal Krsna to whom we have to give ourselves up to ultimately, but the unborn, beginningless eternal who speaks through Krsna." (Commentary on Bg. 9.34 by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan)

Thus the Mayavadi impersonalists set up their own teachers and ultimately their own selves as the speaker of Bhagavad-gita, but we receive different information from a pure devotee of Lord Sri Krsna: "The Bhagavad-gita also should be accepted as it is directed by the Speaker Himself. The speaker is Lord Sri Krsna. He is mentioned on every page as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or 'Bhagavan.' Bhagavan sometimes means any powerful person or demigod, but here it means Krsna." (Bg. p. 23) The words "Bhagavad-gita" actually mean "The Song of the Lord," for it is sung by the Lord to Arjuna. Sri Krsna's statements are prefaced with the Sanskrit words sri bhagavan uvaca, which means "Sri Bhagavan said." Srila Prabhupada explains the Sanskrit word bhagavan in this way: "The Sanskrit word bhagavan is explained by the great authority Parasara Muni, the father of Vyasadeva. The Supreme Personality who possesses all riches, entire strength, entire fame, entire beauty, entire knowledge, and entire renunciation is called Bhagavan. There are many persons who are very rich, very powerful, very beautiful, very famous, very learned, and very much detached-but no one can claim that he is possessor of all these opulences entirely. Such a claim is applicable to Krsna only, and as such He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No living entity, including Brahma, can possess such opulence-neither Lord Siva, nor even Narayana can possess such opulence as fully as Krsna. By analytical study of such possessions, it is concluded in the Brahma-samhita by Lord Brahma himself that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nobody is equal to or above Him. He is the primeval Lord, or Bhagavan, known as Govinda, and He is the Supreme Cause of all causes." (Bg., p. 62)

It has been said that the spiritual master is the "representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Supersoul" (NOD, 59), but Lord Sri Krsna is "the Source of both Supersoul and the impersonal Brahman." (Bg., p. 63) Lord Sri Krsna is described in detail throughout Vedic literatures as a beautiful blue boy who plays a flute, and we should know it for certain that it is He and He alone who is the speaker of the Bhagavad-gita. Those who envy Him cannot actually know Bhagavad-gita, although they may make a show of studying it. "In studying the Bhagavad-gita, one should not think that he is the equal of Krsna. Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who wants to understand the Bhagavad-gita should accept Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise it is very hard to understand, and it becomes a great mystery." (Bg., p. 25) Again, Srila Prabhupada says: "Those who are envious of Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead have no bona fide access to this great literature. The nondevotee's approach to the teachings of Bhagavad-gita is something like a bee licking on a bottle. Similarly, the mysticism of the Bhagavad-gita can be understood only by devotees, and no one else can taste it, as is stated in the Fourth Chapter of the book. Nor can the Gita be touched by persons who envy the very existence of the Lord. Therefore the Mayavadi explanation of the Gita is a most misleading presentation of the whole truth. Lord Caitanya has forbidden us to read commentaries made by the Mayavadis, and warns that one who takes to an understanding of the Mayavadi philosophy loses all power to understand the real mystery of the Gita." (Bg., p. 69)