Chapter 19 · 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 19.1
Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear King, in Kimpuruṣa-varṣa the great devotee Hanumān is always engaged with the inhabitants of that land in devotional service to Lord Rāmacandra, the elder brother of Lakṣmaṇa and dear husband of Sītādevī.
Essence. Hanumān, the model devotee, is forever engaged in service to Rāmacandra together with his community. The point is not that Hanumān is unique — it is that this same devotional engagement is open to any of us, and like him, we are happiest when serving with others.
BG 19.2
A host of Gandharvas is always engaged in chanting the glories of Lord Rāmacandra. That chanting is always extremely auspicious. Hanumānjī and Arṣṭiṣeṇa, the chief person in Kimpuruṣa-varṣa, constantly hear those glories with complete attention. Hanumān chants the following mantras.
Essence. Gandharvas sing the Lord's glories, Hanumān listens fully. Real spiritual life is half singing, half listening — and the listening half is often missed. Cultivate the discipline of receiving holy sound with complete attention.
BG 19.3
Let me please Your Lordship by chanting the bīja-mantra oṁkāra. I wish to offer my respectful obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, who is the best among the most highly elevated personalities. Your Lordship is the reservoir of all the good qualities of Āryans, people who are advanced. Your character and behavior are always consistent, and You always control Your senses and mind. Acting just like an ordinary human being, You exhibit exemplary character to teach others how to behave. There is a touchstone that can be used to examine the quality of gold, but You are like a touchstone that can verify all good qualities. You are worshiped by brāhmaṇas who are the foremost of all devotees. You, the Supreme Person, are the King of kings, and therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
Essence. Lord Rāma exhibits exemplary character — consistent behavior, mastered senses, full integrity — to teach others how to live. The lesson is that real teaching is by example, not exhortation. If you want to instruct others, become the demonstration.
BG 19.4
The Lord, whose pure form [sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha] is uncontaminated by the modes of material nature, can be perceived by pure consciousness. In the Vedānta He is described as being one without a second. Because of His spiritual potency, He is untouched by the contamination of material nature, and because He is not subjected to material vision, He is known as transcendental. He has no material activities, nor has He a material form or name. Only in pure consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, can one perceive the transcendental form of the Lord. Let us be firmly fixed at the lotus feet of Lord Rāmacandra, and let us offer our respectful obeisances unto those transcendental lotus feet.
Essence. The Lord's transcendental form, name, and activities are not material and cannot be reached through material methods. Only pure consciousness (Kṛṣṇa consciousness) perceives Him. Stop trying to grasp the Lord with the same tools you grasp objects.
BG 19.5
It was ordained that Rāvaṇa, chief of the Rākṣasas, could not be killed by anyone but a man, and for this reason Lord Rāmacandra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appeared in the form of a human being. Lord Rāmacandra’s mission, however, was not only to kill Rāvaṇa but also to teach mortal beings that material happiness centered around sex life or centered around one’s wife is the cause of many miseries. He is the self-sufficient Supreme Personality of Godhead, and nothing is lamentable for Him. Therefore why else could He be subjected to tribulations by the kidnapping of mother Sītā?
Essence. Rāma showed by His own life that material happiness centered around sex and wife is the cause of great miseries — even when one is the Supreme Lord. If even He went through that lesson outwardly for our sake, we should take the teaching seriously.
BG 19.6
Since Lord Śrī Rāmacandra is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, He is not attached to anything in this material world. He is the most beloved Supersoul of all self-realized souls, and He is their very intimate friend. He is full of all opulences. Therefore He could not possibly have suffered because of separation from His wife, nor could He have given up His wife and Lakṣmaṇa, His younger brother. To give up either would have been absolutely impossible.
Essence. Rāma is not actually attached to anything material, so it was impossible for Him to truly suffer separation. What looked like His pain was a teaching display. Do not project your psychology onto the Lord; He plays roles to teach, not because He is bound.
BG 19.7
One cannot establish a friendship with the Supreme Lord Rāmacandra on the basis of material qualities such as one’s birth in an aristocratic family, one’s personal beauty, one’s eloquence, one’s sharp intelligence or one’s superior race or nation. None of these qualifications is actually a prerequisite for friendship with Lord Śrī Rāmacandra. Otherwise how is it possible that although we uncivilized inhabitants of the forest have not taken noble births, although we have no physical beauty and although we cannot speak like gentlemen, Lord Rāmacandra has nevertheless accepted us as friends?
Essence. Friendship with the Lord does not depend on birth, beauty, eloquence, intelligence, or nationality. The forest dwellers of Kimpuruṣa-varṣa are proof — none of those qualifications was needed. Whatever you lack on the world's resume is not a barrier to the Lord.
BG 19.8
Therefore, whether one is a demigod or a demon, a man or a creature other than man, such as a beast or bird, everyone should worship Lord Rāmacandra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appears on this earth just like a human being. There is no need of great austerities or penances to worship the Lord, for He accepts even a small service offered by His devotee. Thus He is satisfied, and as soon as He is satisfied, the devotee is successful. Indeed, Lord Śrī Rāmacandra brought all the devotees of Ayodhyā back home, back to Godhead [Vaikuṇṭha].
Essence. Demigod, demon, human, beast, bird — anyone can worship Rāma, and even a small service satisfies Him. There is no austerity-quota required. The Lord is moved by sincerity, not size of offering. Start where you are with what you have.
BG 19.9
[Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued:] The glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are inconceivable. He has appeared in the form of Nara-Nārāyaṇa in the land of Bhārata-varṣa, at the place known as Badarikāśrama, to favor His devotees by teaching them religion, knowledge, renunciation, spiritual power, sense control and freedom from false ego. He is advanced in the opulence of spiritual assets, and He engages in executing austerity until the end of this millennium. This is the process of self-realization.
Essence. Nara-Nārāyaṇa performs unceasing austerity to teach by example: religion, knowledge, renunciation, sense control, and freedom from ego are achieved by serious practice, not by speculation. Self-realization is not a thought experiment.
BG 19.10
In his own book, known as Nārada Pañcarātra, Bhagavān Nārada has very vividly described how to work to achieve the ultimate goal of life — devotion — through knowledge and through execution of the mystic yoga system. He has also described the glories of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The great sage Nārada instructed the tenets of this transcendental literature to Sāvarṇi Manu in order to teach those inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa who strictly follow the principles of varṇāśrama-dharma how to achieve the devotional service of the Lord. Thus Nārada Muni, along with the other inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa, always engages in the service of Nara-Nārāyaṇa, and he chants as follows.
Essence. Nārada taught Sāvarṇi Manu the path of devotion through both knowledge and yoga, so that those who follow varṇāśrama can also reach the ultimate goal. Spiritual life is to be passed on through structured teaching, not absorbed by accident.
BG 19.11
Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Nara-Nārāyaṇa, the best of all saintly persons, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the most self-controlled and self-realized, He is free from false prestige, and He is the asset of persons who have no material possessions. He is the spiritual master of all paramahaṁsas, who are the most exalted human beings, and He is the master of the self-realized. Let me offer my repeated obeisances at His lotus feet.
Essence. Nara-Nārāyaṇa is praised as the asset of those with no material possessions and the master of paramahaṁsas. The Lord is the wealth of the renounced. If you have less of the world, you have more room for Him — that is not loss, it is opportunity.
BG 19.12
Nārada, the most powerful saintly sage, also worships Nara-Nārāyaṇa by chanting the following mantra: The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the master of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of this visible cosmic manifestation, yet He is completely free from false prestige. Although to the foolish He appears to have accepted a material body like us, He is unaffected by bodily tribulations like hunger, thirst and fatigue. Although He is the witness who sees everything, His senses are unpolluted by the objects He sees. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that unattached, pure witness of the world, the Supreme Soul, the Personality of Godhead.
Essence. The Lord creates, maintains, and destroys yet has no false prestige, no hunger or fatigue, no sensual contamination. He works without being worked. Aim to act in the world without becoming what you do.
BG 19.13
O my Lord, master of all mystic yoga, this is the explanation of the yogic process spoken of by Lord Brahmā [Hiraṇyagarbha], who is self-realized. At the time of death, all yogīs give up the material body with full detachment simply by placing their minds at Your lotus feet. That is the perfection of yoga.
Essence. The perfection of yoga at the moment of death is placing the mind at the Lord's feet with full detachment. That perfection is not built in the last hour; it is the harvest of how we trained the mind all our years. Practice the dying now.
BG 19.14
Materialists are generally very attached to their present bodily comforts and to the bodily comforts they expect in the future. Therefore they are always absorbed in thoughts of their wives, children and wealth and are afraid of giving up their bodies, which are full of stool and urine. If a person engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, is also afraid of giving up his body, what is the use of his having labored to study the śāstras? It was simply a waste of time.
Essence. If a person who has studied scripture and practiced bhakti-yoga is still afraid to give up the body, all that effort has been wasted. The test of practice is whether the fear is going down. If not, our practice has been pretending.
BG 19.15
Therefore, O Lord, O Transcendence, kindly help us by giving us the power to execute bhakti-yoga so that we can control our restless minds and fix them upon You. We are all infected by Your illusory energy; therefore we are very attached to the body, which is full of stool and urine, and to anything related with the body. Except for devotional service, there is no way to give up this attachment. Therefore kindly bestow upon us this benediction.
Essence. We ask the Lord directly: please give us the power to do bhakti-yoga, because attachment to the body is impossible to escape any other way. The first prayer is for the ability to pray. Honesty about our incapacity invites grace.
BG 19.16
In the tract of land known as Bhārata-varṣa, as in Ilāvṛta-varṣa, there are many mountains and rivers. Some of the mountains are known as Malaya, Maṅgala-prastha, Maināka, Trikūṭa, Ṛṣabha, Kūṭaka, Kollaka, Sahya, Devagiri, Ṛṣyamūka, Śrī-śaila, Veṅkaṭa, Mahendra, Vāridhāra, Vindhya, Śuktimān, Ṛkṣagiri, Pāriyātra, Droṇa, Citrakūṭa, Govardhana, Raivataka, Kakubha, Nīla, Gokāmukha, Indrakīla and Kāmagiri. Besides these, there are many other hills, with many large and small rivers flowing from their slopes.
Essence. Bhārata-varṣa is full of mountains and rivers — many sacred geographies overlap in one land. So too, our lives contain many holy reference points. Notice the abundance of opportunities for purification near you instead of seeking exotic ones far away.
BG 19.17-18
Two of the rivers — the Brahmaputra and the Śoṇa — are called nadas, or main rivers. These are other great rivers that are very prominent: Candravasā, Tāmraparṇī, Avaṭodā, Kṛtamālā, Vaihāyasī, Kāverī, Veṇī, Payasvinī, Śarkarāvartā, Tuṅgabhadrā, Kṛṣṇāveṇyā, Bhīmarathī, Godāvarī, Nirvindhyā, Payoṣṇī, Tāpī, Revā, Surasā, Narmadā, Carmaṇvatī, Mahānadī, Vedasmṛti, Ṛṣikulyā, Trisāmā, Kauśikī, Mandākinī, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Dṛṣadvatī, Gomatī, Sarayū, Rodhasvatī, Saptavatī, Suṣomā, Śatadrū, Candrabhāgā, Marudvṛdhā, Vitastā, Asiknī and Viśvā. The inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa are purified because they always remember these rivers. Sometimes they chant the names of these rivers as mantras, and sometimes they go directly to the rivers to touch them and bathe in them. Thus the inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa become purified.
Essence. Sacred rivers purify simply by being remembered, touched, or bathed in. Holy presences work even at the level of memory. If you cannot visit the sacred, recall it — that recall is already a beginning of purification.
BG 19.19
The people who take birth in this tract of land are divided according to the qualities of material nature — the modes of goodness [sattva-guṇa], passion [rajo-guṇa], and ignorance [tamo-guṇa]. Some of them are born as exalted personalities, some are ordinary human beings, and some are extremely abominable, for in Bhārata-varṣa one takes birth exactly according to one’s past karma. If one’s position is ascertained by a bona fide spiritual master and one is properly trained to engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu according to the four social divisions [brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra] and the four spiritual divisions [brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa], one’s life becomes perfect.
Essence. We are born in this land according to the modes of our past karma — some elevated, some ordinary, some abominable. But under a bona fide spiritual master, anyone can transcend the modes through devotional service. Birth is not destiny if guidance is present.
BG 19.20
After many, many births, when the results of one’s pious activities mature, one gets an opportunity to associate with pure devotees. Then one is able to cut the knot of bondage to ignorance, which bound him because of varied fruitive activities. As a result of associating with devotees, one gradually renders service to Lord Vāsudeva, who is transcendental, free from attachment to the material world, beyond the mind and words, and independent of everything else. That bhakti-yoga, devotional service to Lord Vāsudeva, is the real path of liberation.
Essence. After many births of pious activity, finally one gets the association of pure devotees — and that is when the knot of ignorance is actually cut. The breakthrough is not earned by effort alone but by the company we finally land in.
BG 19.21
Since the human form of life is the sublime position for spiritual realization, all the demigods in heaven speak in this way: How wonderful it is for these human beings to have been born in the land of Bhārata-varṣa. They must have executed pious acts of austerity in the past, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself must have been pleased with them. Otherwise, how could they engage in devotional service in so many ways? We demigods can only aspire to achieve human births in Bhārata-varṣa to execute devotional service, but these human beings are already engaged there.
Essence. Even the demigods envy a human birth in Bhārata-varṣa because here, devotional service is so available. Don't waste the rare opportunity of a human life by treating it like just another stretch of existence. Demigods would change places with you.
BG 19.22
The demigods continue: After performing the very difficult tasks of executing Vedic ritualistic sacrifices, undergoing austerities, observing vows and giving charity, we have achieved this position as inhabitants of the heavenly planets. But what is the value of this achievement? Here we are certainly very engaged in material sense gratification, and therefore we can hardly remember the lotus feet of Lord Nārāyaṇa. Indeed, because of our excessive sense gratification, we have almost forgotten His lotus feet.
Essence. The demigods admit that excessive sense gratification on the heavenly planets has caused them to almost forget Nārāyaṇa. Comfort dulls memory. Watch out for spiritual life being drowned out not by suffering but by satisfaction.
BG 19.23
A short life in the land of Bharata-varṣa is preferable to a life achieved in Brahmaloka for millions and billions of years because even if one is elevated to Brahmaloka, he must return to repeated birth and death. Although life in Bhārata-varṣa, in a lower planetary system, is very short, one who lives there can elevate himself to full Kṛṣṇa consciousness and achieve the highest perfection, even in this short life, by fully surrendering unto the lotus feet of the Lord. Thus one attains Vaikuṇṭhaloka, where there is neither anxiety nor repeated birth in a material body.
Essence. A short human life that surrenders to the Lord beats billions of years on Brahmaloka, which still ends. Don't envy long-lived comfort; what matters is the direction set, not the length of the road. Time used for surrender is time well spent.
BG 19.24
An intelligent person does not take interest in a place, even in the topmost planetary system, if the pure Ganges of topics concerning the Supreme Lord’s activities does not flow there, if there are not devotees engaged in service on the banks of such a river of piety, or if there are no festivals of saṅkīrtana-yajña to satisfy the Lord [especially since saṅkīrtana-yajña is recommended in this age].
Essence. Intelligent people do not value any planet — however elevated — that lacks the flow of the Lord's stories, the company of devotees, and the festival of saṅkīrtana. Choose your environment by these criteria, not by status or comfort.
BG 19.25
Bhārata-varṣa offers the proper land and circumstances in which to execute devotional service, which can free one from the results of jñāna and karma. If one obtains a human body in the land of Bhārata-varṣa, with clear sensory organs with which to execute the saṅkīrtana-yajña, but in spite of this opportunity he does not take to devotional service, he is certainly like liberated forest animals and birds that are careless and are therefore again bound by a hunter.
Essence. Having the body, the land, the clear senses, and the opportunity for saṅkīrtana yet not engaging in devotional service is like a freed bird that wanders back into the trap. Freedom unused is freedom lost. Use the opening while you have it.
BG 19.26
In India [Bhārata-varṣa], there are many worshipers of the demigods, the various officials appointed by the Supreme Lord, such as Indra, Candra and Sūrya, all of whom are worshiped differently. The worshipers offer the demigods their oblations, considering the demigods part and parcel of the whole, the Supreme Lord. Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead accepts these offerings and gradually raises the worshipers to the real standard of devotional service by fulfilling their desires and aspirations. Because the Lord is complete, He offers the worshipers the benedictions they desire even if they worship only part of His transcendental body.
Essence. Even those who worship demigods are gradually raised by the Lord, who accepts their offerings and lifts them toward true devotional service. The Lord meets every sincere worship at the level it begins. Don't despair of an imperfect start.
BG 19.27
The Supreme Personality of Godhead fulfills the material desires of a devotee who approaches Him with such motives, but He does not bestow benedictions upon the devotee that will cause him to demand more benedictions again. However, the Lord willingly gives the devotee shelter at His own lotus feet, even though such a person does not aspire for it, and that shelter satisfies all his desires. That is the Supreme Personality’s special mercy.
Essence. The Lord may grant a devotee's material wish, but He saves us from the wishes that would deepen our bondage. The greater mercy is when He gives shelter at His feet — even when we didn't ask for it. He sometimes 'denies' us into freedom.
BG 19.28
We are now living in the heavenly planets, undoubtedly as a result of our having performed ritualistic ceremonies, pious activities and yajñas and having studied the Vedas. However, our lives here will one day be finished. We pray that at that time, if any merit remains from our pious activities, we may again take birth in Bhārata-varṣa as human beings able to remember the lotus feet of the Lord. The Lord is so kind that He personally comes to the land of Bhārata-varṣa and expands the good fortune of its people.
Essence. Demigods themselves pray for any leftover merit to deliver them to Bhārata-varṣa, so they can remember the Lord. Heaven is not the destination they really want — remembrance is. Re-examine what you actually want from your spiritual investments.
BG 19.29-30
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear King, in the opinion of some learned scholars, eight smaller islands surround Jambūdvīpa. When the sons of Mahārāja Sagara were searching all over the world for their lost horse, they dug up the earth, and in this way eight adjoining islands came into existence. The names of these islands are Svarṇaprastha, Candraśukla, Āvartana, Ramaṇaka, Mandara-hariṇa, Pāñcajanya, Siṁhala and Laṅkā.
Essence. The story of sons digging up the earth in search of a lost horse shows how a search can leave permanent marks on the landscape. Be careful what you go searching for — your pursuits will reshape the world you leave behind. Search wisely.
BG 19.31
My dear King Parīkṣit, O best of the descendants of Bharata Mahārāja, I have thus described to you, as I myself have been instructed, the island of Bhārata-varṣa and its adjoining islands. These are the islands that constitute Jambūdvīpa.
Essence. Śukadeva offers a complete description not of his own opinion but of what he himself has been instructed. The transmission of truth is what matters; sources older than the teacher carry the weight. Pass on what you have received.