Chapter 3 · Class prep
A printable handout for teaching this chapter. For each verse with Personal Guidance, you'll see Prabhupāda's translation, the essence, two or three practical applications, and a discussion prompt. Press ⌘P / Ctrl P to print as a handout.
BG 3.1
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Mahārāja Parīkṣit, as you have inquired from me as to the duty of the intelligent man who is on the threshold of death, so I have answered you.
Essence. Out of millions, few inquire about the soul; out of those, few find a realized teacher; out of those, very few truly know Kṛṣṇa. To be even on the threshold of such inquiry is already grace — don't waste it.
BG 3.2-7
One who desires to be absorbed in the impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence should worship the master of the Vedas [Lord Brahmā or Bṛhaspati, the learned priest], one who desires powerful sex should worship the heavenly King, Indra, and one who desires good progeny should worship the great progenitors called the Prajāpatis. One who desires good fortune should worship Durgādevī, the superintendent of the material world. One desiring to be very powerful should worship fire, and one who aspires only after money should worship the Vasus. One should worship the Rudra incarnations of Lord Śiva if he wants to be a great hero. One who wants a large stock of grains should worship Aditi. One who desires to attain the heavenly planets should worship the sons of Aditi. One who desires a worldly kingdom should worship Viśvadeva, and one who wants to be popular with the general mass of population should worship the Sādhya demigod. One who desires a long span of life should worship the demigods known as the Aśvinī-kumāras, and a person desiring a strongly built body should worship the earth. One who desires stability in his post should worship the horizon and the earth combined. One who desires to be beautiful should worship the beautiful residents of the Gandharva planet, and one who desires a good wife should worship the Apsarās and the Urvaśī society girls of the heavenly kingdom. One who desires domination over others should worship Lord Brahmā, the head of the universe. One who desires tangible fame should worship the Personality of Godhead, and one who desires a good bank balance should worship the demigod Varuṇa. If one desires to be a greatly learned man he should worship Lord Śiva, and if one desires a good marital relation he should worship the chaste goddess Umā, the wife of Lord Śiva.
Essence. Almost every material desire has a corresponding demigod to worship — power, wealth, beauty, fame, fertility. The verse lists the menu not to recommend it, but to expose how endless and oddly specific the catalog of materialism really is.
BG 3.8
One should worship Lord Viṣṇu or His devotee for spiritual advancement in knowledge, and for protection of heredity and advancement of a dynasty one should worship the various demigods.
Essence. Worship Viṣṇu or His devotee for spiritual advancement; everything else, including dynasty and worldly stability, gets you what it gets you — temporary planets and temporary bodies.
BG 3.9
One who desires domination over a kingdom or an empire should worship the Manus. One who desires victory over an enemy should worship the demons, and one who desires sense gratification should worship the moon. But one who desires nothing of material enjoyment should worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Essence. Whatever you want — kingdom, victory, sense pleasure — has its appropriate object of worship. But the one who wants nothing material should worship the Supreme Lord directly. Wanting less is itself a qualification for the highest worship.
BG 3.10
A person who has broader intelligence, whether he be full of all material desire, without any material desire, or desiring liberation, must by all means worship the supreme whole, the Personality of Godhead.
Essence. Whether you are full of desires, empty of them, or seeking liberation, the broader intelligence chooses to worship the Supreme Person. He alone can grant every kind of result, including impersonal merging.
BG 3.11
All the different kinds of worshipers of multidemigods can attain the highest perfectional benediction, which is spontaneous attraction unflinchingly fixed upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by the association of the pure devotee of the Lord.
Essence. Even worshippers of many demigods can be lifted into spontaneous fixed attraction to the Supreme — but only through association with a pure devotee. The shortcut around scattered worship is the company we keep.
BG 3.12
Transcendental knowledge in relation with the Supreme Lord Hari is knowledge resulting in the complete suspension of the waves and whirlpools of the material modes. Such knowledge is self-satisfying due to its being free from material attachment, and being transcendental it is approved by authorities. Who could fail to be attracted?
Essence. Transcendental knowledge of Hari quiets the waves of the modes. It is self-satisfying because it carries no material attachment — and once tasted, who could fail to be drawn?
BG 3.13
Śaunaka said: The son of Vyāsadeva, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, was a highly learned sage and was able to describe things in a poetic manner. What did Mahārāja Parīkṣit again inquire from him after hearing all that he had said?
Essence. Śukadeva is praised for being able to describe things in a poetic manner. Spiritual depth is not lost in beauty — the most learned sage was also the most poetic. Truth and grace travel together.
BG 3.14
O learned Sūta Gosvāmī! Please continue to explain such topics to us because we are all eager to hear. Besides that, topics which result in the discussion of the Lord Hari should certainly be discussed in the assembly of devotees.
Essence. Topics about Hari belong in the assembly of devotees. The eagerness to keep hearing more is itself a sign of life — the absence of that eagerness is the symptom to worry about.
BG 3.15
Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the grandson of the Pāṇḍavas, was from his very childhood a great devotee of the Lord. Even while playing with dolls, he used to worship Lord Kṛṣṇa by imitating the worship of the family Deity.
Essence. Parīkṣit was a devotee even as a child, imitating worship in play. Children absorb what they see — devotion in the home shapes the next generation far more than instruction does.
BG 3.16
Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the son of Vyāsadeva, was also full in transcendental knowledge and was a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva. So there must have been discussion of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is glorified by great philosophers and in the company of great devotees.
Essence. When pure devotees meet, conversation naturally turns to Kṛṣṇa. The subject is not chosen by effort but flows from the heart's actual love. The test of devotional company is what surfaces when no one is enforcing the topic.
BG 3.17
Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.
Essence. Each sunrise and sunset shortens your life — except when you spend that time in topics of the all-good Lord. Time consumed by Him is time saved from death; everything else is quiet erosion.
BG 3.18
Do the trees not live? Do the bellows of the blacksmith not breathe? All around us, do the beasts not eat and discharge semen?
Essence. Trees live, bellows breathe, beasts eat and reproduce. Bodily existence alone is not human — it is shared by every species. What sets human life apart is the use we make of it for tapasya and transcendence.
BG 3.19
Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from evils.
Essence. Those who never hear of Kṛṣṇa are praised by people who themselves live like dogs, hogs, camels, and asses. The verse is harsh because it wants to wake us up: whose praise are we actually living for?
BG 3.20
One who has not listened to the messages about the prowess and marvelous acts of the Personality of Godhead and has not sung or chanted loudly the worthy songs about the Lord is to be considered to possess earholes like the holes of snakes and a tongue like the tongue of a frog.
Essence. Ears that have never heard the Lord's pastimes are like snake holes; a tongue that has never sung His glories is like a frog's. The verse measures bodily parts by their devotional use, not by their decoration.
BG 3.21
The upper portion of the body, though crowned with a silk turban, is only a heavy burden if not bowed down before the Personality of Godhead who can award mukti [freedom]. And the hands, though decorated with glittering bangles, are like those of a dead man if not engaged in the service of the Personality of Godhead Hari.
Essence. A head in a silken turban that never bows to the Lord is a burden; hands wearing bangles but not in His service are like a corpse's. Ornament without devotion is just weight.
BG 3.22
The eyes which do not look at the symbolic representations of the Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu [His forms, name, quality, etc.] are like those printed on the plumes of the peacock, and the legs which do not move to the holy places [where the Lord is remembered] are considered to be like tree trunks.
Essence. Eyes that don't see the Lord's form are like the false eyes on a peacock feather; legs that don't go to holy places are tree trunks. The senses are meant to move us toward Him, not just to function biologically.
BG 3.23
The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasī leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.
Essence. Someone who has never received dust from a pure devotee's feet, never smelled tulasī from the Lord's feet, is breathing but spiritually a corpse. Real life begins when reverence enters the body.
BG 3.24
Certainly that heart is steel-framed which, in spite of one’s chanting the holy name of the Lord with concentration, does not change when ecstasy takes place, tears fill the eyes and the hairs stand on end.
Essence. If the heart does not melt — eyes wet, hair standing on end — when the holy name is chanted, that heart is made of steel. The sign of bhakti is softness; the sign of stagnation is being unmoved.
BG 3.25
O Sūta Gosvāmī, your words are pleasing to our minds. Please therefore explain this to us as it was spoken by the great devotee Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who is very expert in transcendental knowledge, and who spoke to Mahārāja Parīkṣit upon being asked.
Essence. Sūta is asked to keep speaking because words from a true teacher about an earlier true teacher carry transcendental power. Reception of paramparā is itself a transcendental act, not just data transfer.