Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 382

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Prev.png
The Most Confidential Knowledge
Chapter 9: Verse-2

räja-vidyä räja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam
pratyaksävagamam dharmyam su-sukham kartum avyayam[1]

TRANSLATION

This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.


PURPORT

This chapter of Bhagavad-gita is called the king of education because it is the essence of all doctrines and philosophies explained before. Among the principal philosophers in India are Gautama, Kanäda, Kapila, Yäjnavalkya, Sändilya and Vaisvänara. And finally there is Vyäsadeva, the author of thecVedänta-sütra. So there is no dearth of knowledge in the field of philosophy or transcendental knowledge. Now the Lord says that this Ninth Chapter is the king of all such knowledge, the essence of all knowledge that can be derived from the study of the Vedas and different kinds of philosophy. It is the most confidential because confidential or transcendental knowledge involves understanding the difference between the soul and the body. And the king of all confidential knowledge culminates in devotional service. Generally, people are not educated in this confidential knowledge; they are educated in external knowledge. As far as ordinary education is concerned, people are involved with so many departments: politics, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, etc. There are so many departments of knowledge all over the world and many huge universities, but there is, unfortunately, no university or educational institution where the science of the spirit soul is instructed. Yet the soul is the most important part of the body; without the presence of the soul, the body has no value. Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life, not caring for the vital soul.

The Bhagavad-gita, especially from the Second Chapter on, stresses the importance of the soul. In the very beginning, the Lord says that this body is perishable and that the soul is not perishable (antavanta ime dehä nityasyoktäh saririnah). That is a confidential part of knowledge: simply knowing that the spirit soul is different from this body and that its nature is immutable, indestructible and eternal. But that gives no positive information about the soul.

Next.png

References

  1. räja-vidyä=the king of education; räja-guhyam=the king of confidential
    knowledge; pavitram=the purest; idam=this; uttamam=transcendental; pratyaksa=by direct experience; avagamam=understood; dharmyam=the principle of religion; su-sukham=very happy; kartum=to execute; avyayam=everlasting.

Related Articles