Bhagavad-gita As It Is Chapter 3 Verse 10

Chapter 3: Karma-yoga

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 3.10

saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā

purovāca prajāpatiḥ

anena prasaviṣyadhvam

eṣa vo 'stv iṣṭa-kāma-dhuk

SYNONYMS

saha — along with; yajñāḥ — sacrifices; prajāḥ — generations; sṛṣṭvā — creating; purā — anciently; uvāca — said; prajā-patiḥ — the Lord of creatures; anena — by this; prasaviṣyadhvam — be more and more prosperous; eṣaḥ — this; vaḥ — your; astu — let it be; iṣṭa — of all desirable things; kāma-dhuk — bestower.

TRANSLATION

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajña [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation."

PURPORT

The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Viṣṇu) is a chance offered to the conditioned souls to come back home — back to Godhead. All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic principles are to help us understand this eternal relation, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. The Lord says that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the Vedic hymns it is said: patiḿ viśvasyātmeśvaram. Therefore, the Lord of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also (2.4.20) Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes the Lord as pati in so many ways:

śriyaḥ patir yajña-patiḥ prajā-patir

dhiyāḿ patir loka-patir dharā-patiḥ

patir gatiś cāndhaka-vṛṣṇi-sātvatāḿ

prasīdatāḿ me bhagavān satāḿ patiḥ

The prajā-pati is Lord Viṣṇu, and He is the Lord of all living creatures, all worlds, and all beauties, and the protector of everyone. The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajñas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajña, the conditioned souls gradually become Kṛṣṇa conscious and become godly in all respects. In the Age of Kali, the sańkīrtana-yajña (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Sańkīrtana-yajña and Kṛṣṇa consciousness go well together. Lord Kṛṣṇa in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.5.32) as follows, with special reference to the sańkīrtana-yajña:

kṛṣṇa-varṇaḿ tviṣākṛṣṇaḿ

sāńgopāńgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ sańkīrtana-prāyair

yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

"In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of sańkīrtana-yajña." Other yajñas prescribed in the Vedic literatures are not easy to perform in this Age of Kali, but the sańkīrtana-yajña is easy and sublime for all purposes, as recommended in Bhagavad-gītā also (9.14).

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness