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 continued: Thereafter, the King of the elephants, Gajendra, fixed his mind in his heart with perfect intelligence and chanted a mantra which he had learned in his previous birth as Indradyumna and which he remembered by the grace of Kṛṣṇa.
Essence. Gajendra remembers a mantra from a past life by Kṛṣṇa's grace and fixes it in his heart. Devotional practice never vanishes; it travels with the soul across births. Whatever sincere chanting and study we plant now is permanent capital, waiting for the moment we need it most.
BG 3.2
The King of the elephants, Gajendra, said: I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Person, Vāsudeva [oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya]. Because of Him this material body acts due to the presence of spirit, and He is therefore the root cause of everyone. He is worshipable for such exalted persons as Brahmā and Śiva, and He has entered the heart of every living being. Let me meditate upon Him.
Essence. Gajendra begins 'oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya' — surrendering to the Person who animates every body and dwells in every heart. When the senses fail, the inner Vāsudeva does not. Begin your own crises with this same address, however imperfect your circumstances.
BG 3.3
The Supreme Godhead is the supreme platform on which everything rests, the ingredient by which everything has been produced, and the person who has created and is the only cause of this cosmic manifestation. Nonetheless, He is different from the cause and the result. I surrender unto Him, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is self-sufficient in everything.
Essence. The Lord is the platform, ingredient, and cause of all, yet distinct from cause and result. He is self-sufficient; we are not. Surrender is the simple admission that we depend on Someone who depends on no one. The relief in that admission is itself the beginning of bhakti.
BG 3.4
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, by expanding His own energy, keeps this cosmic manifestation visible and again sometimes renders it invisible. He is both the supreme cause and the supreme result, the observer and the witness, in all circumstances. Thus He is transcendental to everything. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead give me protection.
Essence. The Lord makes the universe visible and invisible by His own energy and remains the witness through all changes. He is transcendental to the play He stages. Pray for protection from the One who is not implicated in the drama He runs.
BG 3.5
In due course of time, when all the causative and effective manifestations of the universe, including the planets and their directors and maintainers, are annihilated, there is a situation of dense darkness. Above this darkness, however, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I take shelter of His lotus feet.
Essence. When all directors and planets dissolve into thick darkness, the Lord stands beyond as the sole shelter. Behind every annihilation in our small life — a relationship, a career, a self-image — His feet remain. Take refuge of what remains when everything else is gone.
BG 3.6
An artist onstage, being covered by attractive dresses and dancing with different movements, is not understood by his audience; similarly, the activities and features of the supreme artist cannot be understood even by the demigods or great sages, and certainly not by those who are unintelligent like animals. Neither the demigods and sages nor the unintelligent can understand the features of the Lord, nor can they express in words His actual position. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead give me protection.
Essence. The Lord is like an artist so covered in costume and dance that even demigods and sages cannot fully read Him. We cannot expect to figure Him out by intellect. Pray for protection while accepting that being puzzled by Him is normal, not failure.
BG 3.7
Renunciants and great sages who see all living beings equally, who are friendly to everyone and who flawlessly practice in the forest the vows of brahmacarya, vānaprastha and sannyāsa desire to see the all-auspicious lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. May that same Supreme Personality of Godhead be my destination.
Essence. Renunciants who see all beings equally, who are friendly to everyone, and who practice the vows of student, retiree, and renunciant life desire His lotus feet. Equal vision and friendliness are the qualifications; vows are the discipline. Cultivate both and the destination naturally appears.
BG 3.8-9
The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no material birth, activities, name, form, qualities or faults. To fulfill the purpose for which this material world is created and destroyed, He comes in the form of a human being like Lord Rāma or Lord Kṛṣṇa by His original internal potency. He has immense potency, and in various forms, all free from material contamination, He acts wonderfully. He is therefore the Supreme Brahman. I offer my respects to Him.
Essence. The Lord has no material birth, name, form, or faults, yet appears as Rāma and Kṛṣṇa to fulfill cosmic purpose. He is the wonderful worker beyond the world who works freely within it. Honoring this paradox keeps both His transcendence and His intimacy in view.
BG 3.10
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the self-effulgent Supersoul, who is the witness in everyone’s heart, who enlightens the individual soul and who cannot be reached by exercises of the mind, words or consciousness.
Essence. The Lord is the self-effulgent Supersoul who alone enlightens the individual soul; He cannot be reached by mental or verbal exercise. Spiritual knowledge dawns from His side, not ours. Practice with humility and wait for the light He alone can give.
BG 3.11
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is realized by pure devotees who act in the transcendental existence of bhakti-yoga. He is the bestower of uncontaminated happiness and is the master of the transcendental world. Therefore I offer my respect unto Him.
Essence. Pure devotees realize the Lord through bhakti-yoga; He alone gives untainted happiness. Material pleasures are mixed with anxiety, but devotional joy is unmixed. Choose practices whose happiness does not later cost you more than it gave.
BG 3.12
I offer my respectful obeisances to Lord Vāsudeva, who is all-pervading, to the Lord’s fierce form as Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, to the Lord’s form as an animal [Lord Varāhadeva], to Lord Dattātreya, who preached impersonalism, to Lord Buddha, and to all the other incarnations. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who has no material qualities but who accepts the three qualities goodness, passion and ignorance within this material world. I also offer my respectful obeisances unto the impersonal Brahman effulgence.
Essence. Gajendra bows to Vāsudeva, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha, Dattātreya, Buddha, and even to the impersonal Brahman effulgence. A real devotee honors every authentic form the Lord takes. Sectarian narrowness shrinks the heart that should be becoming as broad as the Lord's many faces.
BG 3.13
I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto You, who are the Supersoul, the superintendent of everything, and the witness of all that occurs. You are the Supreme Person, the origin of material nature and of the total material energy. You are also the owner of the material body. Therefore, You are the supreme complete. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
Essence. The Lord is the witness, origin of matter, and owner of every body. We use these bodies as if we owned them; in truth they were lent. Treat your body as the property of its true proprietor and many anxieties quietly fall away.
BG 3.14
My Lord, You are the observer of all the objectives of the senses. Without Your mercy, there is no possibility of solving the problem of doubts. The material world is just like a shadow resembling You. Indeed, one accepts this material world as real because it gives a glimpse of Your existence.
Essence. The Lord is the observer behind every sense activity; without His mercy doubts cannot be solved. The material world feels real because it borrows reality from Him, as a shadow borrows from light. Address Him directly when bewildered.
BG 3.15
My Lord, You are the cause of all causes, but You Yourself have no cause. Therefore You are the wonderful cause of everything. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You, who are the shelter of the Vedic knowledge contained in the śāstras like the Pañcarātras and Vedānta-sūtra, which are Your representations, and who are the source of the paramparā system. Because it is You who can give liberation, You are the only shelter for all transcendentalists. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
Essence. The Lord is cause of all causes, Himself uncaused, and shelter of all transcendentalists. He is the source of the paramparā and the giver of liberation. Trust the chain of teachers He has established to bring you back to Him, rather than improvising alone.
BG 3.16
My Lord, as the fire in araṇi wood is covered, You and Your unlimited knowledge are covered by the material modes of nature. Your mind, however, is not attentive to the activities of the modes of nature. Those who are advanced in spiritual knowledge are not subject to the regulative principles directed in the Vedic literatures. Because such advanced souls are transcendental, You personally appear in their pure minds. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
Essence. Like fire hidden in araṇi wood, the Lord's knowledge is covered by the modes of nature, yet He appears in purified minds. Advanced souls pass beyond mere rule-following into direct contact. Friction (sādhana) is what coaxes the hidden fire to ignite.
BG 3.17
Since an animal such as me has surrendered unto You, who are supremely liberated, certainly You will release me from this dangerous position. Indeed, being extremely merciful, You incessantly try to deliver me. By your partial feature as Paramātmā, You are situated in the hearts of all embodied beings. You are celebrated as direct transcendental knowledge, and You are unlimited. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Essence. 'I am only an animal, but I have surrendered to You who are supremely liberated.' Gajendra leans on the Lord's mercy precisely because his own qualifications are nothing. Low self-estimate, when offered with surrender, becomes the very condition that draws Him near.
BG 3.18
My Lord, those who are completely freed from material contamination always meditate upon You within the cores of their hearts. You are extremely difficult to attain for those like me who are too attached to mental concoction, home, relatives, friends, money, servants and assistants. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, uncontaminated by the modes of nature. You are the reservoir of all enlightenment, the supreme controller. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
Essence. Those freed from contamination meditate on Him within; He is hard to reach for those attached to mental schemes, home, relatives, money, and helpers. The list is a near-exact portrait of modern life. Notice which item of attachment is currently obscuring Him most.
BG 3.19
After worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, those who are interested in the four principles of religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation obtain from Him what they desire. What then is to be said of other benedictions? Indeed, sometimes the Lord gives a spiritual body to such ambitious worshipers. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is unlimitedly merciful, bestow upon me the benediction of liberation from this present danger and from the materialistic way of life.
Essence. The Lord grants dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa — and sometimes a spiritual body — to those who worship Him. He is unlimitedly merciful. Gajendra however asks not for material gifts but for liberation from this danger and from materialistic life itself.
BG 3.20-21
Unalloyed devotees, who have no desire other than to serve the Lord, worship Him in full surrender and always hear and chant about His activities, which are most wonderful and auspicious. Thus they always merge in an ocean of transcendental bliss. Such devotees never ask the Lord for any benediction. I, however, am in danger. Thus I pray to that Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is eternally existing, who is invisible, who is the Lord of all great personalities, such as Brahmā, and who is available only by transcendental bhakti-yoga. Being extremely subtle, He is beyond the reach of my senses and transcendental to all external realization. He is unlimited, He is the original cause, and He is completely full in everything. I offer my obeisances unto Him.
Essence. Unalloyed devotees never ask the Lord for anything; they swim in the ocean of His pastimes. Gajendra, in danger, prays anyway as an honest second-best. Better to pray imperfectly in crisis than to wait silently for a purer motive that never arrives.
BG 3.22-24
The Supreme Personality of Godhead creates His minor parts and parcels, the jīva-tattva, beginning with Lord Brahmā, the demigods and the expansions of Vedic knowledge [Sāma, Ṛg, Yajur and Atharva] and including all other living entities, moving and nonmoving, with their different names and characteristics. As the sparks of a fire or the shining rays of the sun emanate from their source and merge into it again and again, the mind, the intelligence, the senses, the gross and subtle material bodies, and the continuous transformations of the different modes of nature all emanate from the Lord and again merge into Him. He is neither demigod nor demon, neither human nor bird or beast. He is not woman, man, or neuter, nor is He an animal. He is not a material quality, a fruitive activity, a manifestation or nonmanifestation. He is the last word in the discrimination of “not this, not this,” and He is unlimited. All glories to the Supreme Personality of Godhead!
Essence. Jīvas, Vedic mantras, mind, intelligence, and the modes all emanate from the Lord like sparks from fire and merge back into Him. He is none of these and is described by 'not this, not this.' Hold both: He is the source of everything and beyond every label we hand Him.
BG 3.25
I do not wish to live anymore after I am released from the attack of the crocodile. What is the use of an elephant’s body covered externally and internally by ignorance? I simply desire eternal liberation from the covering of ignorance. That covering is not destroyed by the influence of time.
Essence. Gajendra declares: I do not want to live as an elephant covered by ignorance. Mere rescue from this crocodile is not enough. He asks for liberation from the recurring covering itself. Aim higher than escape from this problem — aim for freedom from the kind of life that keeps producing problems.
BG 3.26
Now, fully desiring release from material life, I offer my respectful obeisances unto that Supreme Person who is the creator of the universe, who is Himself the form of the universe and who is nonetheless transcendental to this cosmic manifestation. He is the supreme knower of everything in this world, the Supersoul of the universe. He is the unborn, supremely situated Lord. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.
Essence. Gajendra offers obeisance to the one who has both become the universe and remains transcendental to it. Even an atheist must concede that someone created and supplies the cosmos. Argue less; bow more — that is the elephant's example.
BG 3.27
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme, the Supersoul, the master of all mystic yoga, who is seen in the core of the heart by perfect mystics when they are completely purified and freed from the reactions of fruitive activity by practicing bhakti-yoga.
Essence. Perfect mystics see the Lord in the heart only after they are freed from karmic reactions through bhakti-yoga. Vision of God is a byproduct of purification, not a prize for clever seekers. Stay long enough at sincere practice and the obstruction itself starts thinning.
BG 3.28
My Lord, You are the controller of formidable strength in three kinds of energy. You appear as the reservoir of all sense pleasure and the protector of the surrendered souls. You possess unlimited energy, but You are unapproachable by those who are unable to control their senses. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You again and again.
Essence. Attachment, greed, and lust form a formidable energy preventing meditation on the Lord, but they are withdrawn for those who surrender. The senses cannot be conquered by frontal assault; they are loosened only when the heart genuinely takes shelter.
BG 3.29
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whose illusory energy the jīva, who is part and parcel of God, forgets his real identity because of the bodily concept of life. I take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose glories are difficult to understand.
Essence. The jīva is part and parcel of God but forgets this because of the bodily concept of life. Identification with the body is the original case of mistaken identity. Reawakening to your real relationship with the Lord is therefore not a new acquisition but a remembering.
BG 3.30
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: When the King of the elephants was describing the supreme authority, without mentioning any particular person, he did not invoke the demigods, headed by Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Indra and Candra. Thus none of them approached him. However, because Lord Hari is the Supersoul, Puruṣottama, the Personality of Godhead, He appeared before Gajendra.
Essence. Gajendra prayed to the supreme authority in general, so Brahmā, Śiva, Indra and Candra all stood back; only Hari, the Supersoul, came. Pray to the highest, and the lesser powers cannot answer because the call is not theirs to take. Address the right Lord and the right response arrives.
BG 3.31
After understanding the awkward condition of Gajendra, who had offered his prayers, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, who lives everywhere, appeared with the demigods, who were offering prayers to Him. Carrying His disc and other weapons, He appeared there on the back of His carrier, Garuḍa, with great speed, according to His desire. Thus He appeared before Gajendra.
Essence. Hari appears on Garuḍa with His disc, accompanied by the demigods, the moment Gajendra has finished praying. The Lord's response can be remarkably swift when no other shelter is sought. The 'delay' we usually experience is often the time it takes for us to truly stop seeking elsewhere.
BG 3.32
Gajendra had been forcefully captured by the crocodile in the water and was feeling acute pain, but when he saw that Nārāyaṇa, wielding His disc, was coming in the sky on the back of Garuḍa, he immediately took a lotus flower in his trunk, and with great difficulty due to his painful condition, he uttered the following words: “O my Lord, Nārāyaṇa, master of the universe, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.”
Essence. In acute pain, Gajendra still lifts a lotus in his trunk and greets Nārāyaṇa with respectful words. The devotee preserves etiquette even under torture. Manners offered to the Lord in extreme circumstances are themselves a form of advanced bhakti.
BG 3.33
Thereafter, seeing Gajendra in such an aggrieved position, the unborn Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, immediately got down from the back of Garuḍa by His causeless mercy and pulled the King of the elephants, along with the crocodile, out of the water. Then, in the presence of all the demigods, who were looking on, the Lord severed the crocodile’s mouth from its body with His disc. In this way He saved Gajendra, the King of the elephants.
Essence. By causeless mercy the Lord steps down from Garuḍa, pulls the elephant out with the crocodile still attached, and severs the jaws with His disc. Rescue is total: He does not leave the crocodile half-attached. When He decides to save you, expect nothing less than complete deliverance.