Arjuna Sees No Way to Remove Grief

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Bhagavad-gītā 2.8 — August 8, 1973, London 730808BG-LONDON [30:48 Minutes] Bg-02.08_730808BG-LONDON Pradyumna: ...bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [leads chanting of verse] [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād yac chokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām avāpya bhūmāv asapatnam ṛddhaṁ rājyaṁ surāṇām api cādhipatyam [Bg. 2.8] [break] [leads chanting of synonyms] na—do not; hi—certainly; prapaśyāmi—I see; mama—my; apanudyāt—they can drive away; yat—that; śokam—lamentation; ucchoṣaṇam—drying up; indriyāṇām—of the senses; avāpya—achieving; bhūmau—on the earth; asapatnam—without rival; ṛddham—prosperous; rājyam—kingdom; surāṇām—of the demigods; api—even; ca—also; ādhipatyam—supremacy.

[03:22] Translation: "I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to destroy it if even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth with sovereignty like the demigods in heaven." Prabhupāda: Na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād. This is the position of material existence. We are sometimes in difficulty.

Not sometimes; always we are in difficulty, but we call it sometimes, because to get over the difficulty, we make some attempt, and that attempt-making is taken as happiness. Actually there is no happiness. But sometimes, with the hope that "By this attempt, I shall become happy in future..." As the so-called scientists are dreaming: "In future, we shall become without death." So many, they are dreaming. But those who are sane person, they say, "Trust no future, however pleasant." So that is the actual position.

Na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād. Therefore he has approached Kṛṣṇa, śiṣyas te 'ham [Bg. 2.7]: "I..., now I become Your śiṣya." "Why you have come to Me?" "Because I know nobody else can save me from this dangerous position." This is real sense. Yac chokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām [Bg. 2.8]. Ucchoṣaṇam.

When we are put into great difficulties, it dries up the existence of the senses. No sense enjoyment also can make us happy. Ucchoṣaṇam indriyānām. Here happiness means sense gratification. Here...

Actually this is not happiness. Real happiness is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: atīndriyam, sukham atyantīkaṁ yat tat atīndriyam [Bg. 6.21]. Real happiness, atyantikam, supreme happiness, is not enjoyed by the senses. Atīndriya: surpassing, transcendental to the senses.

That is real happiness. But we have taken happiness as sense enjoyment. So by sense enjoyment, nobody can become happy, because we are in the material existence, and our senses are false senses. Real senses—spiritual senses. So we have to awaken our spiritual consciousness.

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