Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 18, Verse 56

[Bhagavad Gita Slokas]

	Chapter 18: Conclusion -- The Perfection of Renunciation
	Verse: 56 sarva-karmany api sada kurvano mad-vyapasrayah mat-prasadad avapnoti sasvatam padam avyayam

Translation:
Though engaged in all kinds of activities, My pure devotee, under My protection, reaches the eternal and imperishable abode by My grace.

Explanation:
After the last statement of Krishna, one may wonder that the jnani, after many births, having undergone much suffering and austerities, having stopped the action of senses for sense objects, attains naiskarmya, and then sayujya. But how does this devotee, performing actions and having desires, attain your eternal dhamas just by taking shelter of Krishna?

Krishna answers that he attains it by only by His mercy which is inconceivable and most powerful.

Such a devotee is not necessarily a pure devotee. He could be "engaged in all kinds of activities," like protecting his family, being attached to his wife and children, working with fruitive desires etc. He could be engaged in all kinds of nitya, naimittika and kama karmas. But they are mixed in devotion. Unlike karma and jnana yoga explained in the first six chapters of the Bhagavad-gita, where bhakti is mixed in karma and jnana, here it is the opposite. It is karma and jnana that is mixed in bhakti. Such a person predominantly performs bhakti, but with the mixed desires. By the performance of this bhakti he attains that which is never destroyed - the spiritual world.

Srila Prabhupada explains, "To a devotee who is thus engaged in Krishna consciousness the Lord is very, very kind. In spite of all difficulties, he is eventually placed in the transcendental abode, or Krishnaloka. He is guaranteed entrance there; there is no doubt about it. In that supreme abode, there is no change; everything is eternal, imperishable and full of knowledge."

Please read the Sanskrit Verse and the Prabhupada's Purport.

---

You can view the previous verses at the following address:http://groups.google.com/group/bgdailyverses


Sent-by: ISKCON Hare Krishna Temple of Washington DC
10310 Oaklyn Dr., Potomac, MD 20854
(301) 990-2100
http://www.iskcondc.org