Gītā 3-5

03/31/2026 · Tue/Thu 12:00-1:15 PM · Brad Bannon · Boston College

📄 Synopsis

In this session, Brad Bannon explores the final unit of the course, focusing on the Bhakti Mārga (Path of Devotion) within the Hindu tradition. The lecture distinguishes between the three paths to liberation—Karma, Jñāna, and Bhakti—highlighting Bhakti as the most accessible path centered on divine grace and unconditional love. Bannon discusses the nature of sacred sound, noting that while the 'Word' (Śabda) is a reliable source of knowledge (Pramāṇa), it only becomes 'Heard' (Śruti) when the sacred word is spoken directly and personally by a caring teacher to an eager student. The class examines the concept of the Murti as a 'pointing finger' or a 'seat' (Pīta) for the divine, emphasizing that these forms are tools for worship rather than the ultimate reality. The lecture also introduces the concept of Avatara (divine descent) and the 'play' (Līlā) of Krishna, alongside the story of Ganesha's creation from the dirt and grime of Parvati's body. The session concludes by touching upon the 'Ishta Deva' doctrine and the 'Vishwa-rupa' (universal form) revealed in the Bhagavad Gita.

⚡ Key Takeaways

Bhakti Mārga is characterized by its accessibility and emphasis on grace, suggesting that God loves individuals exactly as they are.
In the Hindu tradition, Śabda (the word) is a valid source of knowledge (Pramāṇa), but it must be 'heard' (Śruti) through direct, personal transmission from a teacher to be fully realized.
The concepts of Saguna (God with form) and Nirguna (God without form) are not mutually exclusive; they represent different ways of perceiving the infinite.
A Murti serves as a 'tirtha' (crossing point) or 'pīta' (seat) where God graciously descends to make divine perception (darshana) easier for humans.
The story of Ganesha's creation involves Parvati forming him from the dirt and grime of her own body to guard her path while she bathed.
Avataras are divine descents where God, as an act of grace, enters the finite world to make it easier for humans to relate to the divine.
Krishna’s Līlā, or divine play, is the central characteristic of his manifestation, emphasizing the spontaneous nature of the divine.
The Ishta Deva doctrine suggests that God graciously reveals Godself in the specific form that is most conducive to an individual's way of relating.
The theophany of the Vishwa-rupa (universal form) in the Bhagavad Gita is described as an overwhelming vision of all things past, present, and future situated in one place.
Truth is described in the Rigveda as one (Ekam Sat), though wise people speak of it in many different ways.

🎤 Transcript Tap any timestamp to jump the audio player

Opening Transition and Breathing Exercise

Brad

Cool and the gang, let's, uh, take a moment and transition. ⚠

Brad

Please put the devices away and just take a moment to exist.

Brad

Let's take a breath together.

Brad

Good breathing.

Brad

Word.

Brad

Alrighty.

Brad

All right, let's see.

1:31

Attendance and Introduction to the Bhagavad-Gita Unit

Brad

We're on our last attendance sheet, last unit. Almost done with me, eh? Do we have Hannah?

Brad

No.

Student

Francis?

Brad

No.

Brad

Brian? Miggy?

Brad

There we go.

Brad

So today we have 3 of my favorite chapters from the Gita, aside from chapter 2, which is obviously the best because it contains everything. But I really love these chapters that we're not going to talk about today because I've got so many other things planned. ⚠

Brad

These jeans fit me at the beginning of the semester. It's crazy that they shrunk. It's got to be what happened.

Brad

Yeah, so good news is I've got 3 lectures for today.

Brad

Bad news is I've only written one of them. So, but we got so much to do here. Let's see.

Brad

What's up? Yes. What you call it? Play-Doh, there's Play-Doh there for anyone who wants Play-Doh. I guess the other class put the Play-Doh away, but by all means, feel free. You know what, actually I'm going to turn the lights on because people kept falling asleep last class and I had to keep calling them out on it. ⚠

Brad

And it's like super awkward for everybody.

3:23

Lecture: Sabda, Pramana, and the Art of Listening to Sruti

Brad

All right, so this— the first paragraph of this— this lecture is apropos of nothing.

Brad

It's really just, I mean, it's true.

Brad

A mentor of mine gave me the best advice that I've ever received. She said, don't stop experimenting. She said most professors, you know, right out of doctoral studies or whatever, they just give it their best shot.

Brad

She was my, like, pedagogy professor.

Brad

They give it their first shot and then they experiment a little bit, but after a few years, they kind of figure out what works or whatever, right? So like you were saying, you just gotta give it your best shot, right? And you're like, okay, that worked, let me keep doing that. ⚠

Brad

And then you stop experimenting. But she said, don't do that. Don't ever stop experimenting. And that's the best advice I've ever taken, I would say. Probably not the best advice I've ever received, but best advice I've ever taken.

Brad

And so this semester, My goal has been to empower you to read these ancient and highly treasured masterpieces of theology. And by reading, I don't mean what you think I mean.

Brad

Some of you have already zoned out or on your phone like Yangus.

Brad

What I mean is this: to truly read Vedanta, one must learn to listen to them.

Brad

I wasn't sure which pronoun to use there.

Brad

Listening is different than reading. Listening is a Pramāṇa. It's the first one, in fact, right?

Brad

Pratyakṣa, as I taught you in Unit 1, is direct perception, perception without mediation, right?

Brad

Immediate. That means listening to the word without socially constructed categories, without biases, without preconceptions. Listening doesn't sound difficult, and it's not really. But listening without mediation is definitely easier said than done. Now, reading is not a Pramāṇa at all. Listening is, as I just said, but reading is not, right? Śabda, a Sanskrit word that means word, is a Pramāṇa. It's the third Pramāṇa right after logic and reason, Anumāna. But remember that the pramanas are not placed in order of reliability because all of the pramanas are reliable. It's the whole— that's their whole thing, right? Being reliable. It's the third Pramāṇa. ⚠

Brad

Wait, I just said that.

Brad

Śabda is not any less reliable than direct perception, but it's third because of the difficulty of hearing the word and grasping its meaning, right? It's a high bar. The word is trustworthy, but our interpretation of the word or the words or the word ain't trustworthy, sister.

Brad

I have no idea why I went with sister there at all. It's not something I usually say. In fact, it could be that we even misinterpret the words that communicate the word.

Student

Why?

Brad

Well, in most cases, it's due to poor skills of the reader, maybe due to insufficient grammatical skills, inattentive or careless reading. Eisegesis, which means reading into the text, right? You have an idea of what you want the text to mean, then you read into it. Or in some cases, excessive exposure to Kanye.

Brad

He's a guy who used to be famous.

Brad

Word?

Brad

Thank you. Therefore, śābda is absolutely a reliable Pramāṇa that reveals truth that cannot be known by any other Pramāṇa. In fact, that's what the word Pramāṇa means: a valid source of knowledge that reveals knowledge that cannot be known by another source and cannot be in contradiction to them. But wait for it. Don't read ahead. ⚠

Brad

It's way funnier than y'all seem to think it is. Here it comes.

Brad

The word is a Pramāṇa, but reading the text is not a Pramāṇa. According to Mīmāṃsā. And this view is also held by Śaṅkara's Vedanta.

Brad

I'm not sure about Rāmānuja's Vedanta, but instead of looking it up, I just went with probably.

Brad

That's a problem, right? If you are one of the many students in the class that not only understood what I'm talking about, but also already know the answer, because it was in Chapter 13, I say, word.

Student

Right?

Brad

The answer, of course, from Chapter 13 is that if you train your ears properly, then the śabda becomes śruti. Or, to say the same thing in English, word becomes heard only when the sacred word is spoken directly to me, directly and personally, without any mediation, right? Immediate and direct, by a caring teacher to a student who is eager to hear. Often the problem, and who receives it humbly, right? ⚠

Brad

Tat tvam asi, O Śvetaketu, my dear son.

Brad

Or another example, I am Brahman.

Brad

Welcome back, Boris.

Brad

Right? Or as I wrote in Chapter 13, the truth can't be transmitted through a textbook.

Brad

Or whatever this thing that you're reading is, which is now I guess a lecture.

Brad

The truth has to be spoken by someone who sees you, right, really sees you, to someone who trusts them enough to hear it, right?

Brad

In other words, the Śruti literally must be heard, and for that it must be spoken, right? And so you have to have that immediate and direct relationship.

Brad

Word.

Student

Heard.

Student

That's better.

Brad

And of course, one must have learned how to hear the harmony, Samanvaya, between and amongst the words of the word that is to be heard. I bet you see the problem that we've arrived at now, right? What makes the word trustworthy or even worthy of reading, right?

Brad

Why should I even listen to it when I could be playing 2K or rotting. That's always an option, right?

Brad

Is the word spoken by God?

Brad

Seems like an option.

Brad

Should keep that on the table, right? Definitely taught you that Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika perspectives teach that the word comes from God, right?

Brad

Spoken by God, is authored by God. So that's definitely an option.

Brad

But let's keep experimenting and consider a second option, right? Maybe, maybe the Śabda is the very vibration of beings.

Brad

Awesome word, Spanda, which we haven't gotten to talk about this semester.

Brad

The vibration of being that is the primordial source of being that is only discernible in the form of mutually arising partners that we know, or we name, knower and known. There's other names too, right, that likewise signify this non-dual form, such as I and not I, or I and thou, or ich and du, right? Seer and seen.

Brad

Or in Sanskrit, Dṛg-dṛśya-viveka, as some of you might recall from that Rāmānuja reading that I encourage you to reread.

Brad

Now, those are two very different options, right? Way different options.

Brad

Some of you are like, wait, what were the two options again?

Brad

So we've arrived at another conundrum, right? Which one is right? Are the two even discordant? And is it just a matter of choice? So let's consider both options, right? One is really, really, really easy to understand.

Brad

The word is from God, therefore it's trustworthy, right?

Brad

So we'll save that to the last unit of the course, which we're in.

Student

Here we are.

Brad

Welcome to the last unit of the course.

Brad

That's right now.

Brad

I used to say snap a lot. I need to bring snap back into my vocabulary.

Brad

Fresh too. I mean, fresh.

Brad

I mean, fresh is always fresh. Snap.

Brad

Oh well, I guess we're done talking about the really hard one, the Jñāna Mārga.

11:53

The Path of Devotion: Bhakti Marga and the Vibe of Love

Brad

So let's focus on Bhakti Mārga then.

Brad

But wasn't there a third one?

Brad

Right?

Brad

It's on the midterm exam.

Brad

Karma Mārga. The midterm question, 3 paths that lead to liberation. So we'll try and cover both together, and actually I low-key think that we have to cover both together. To be honest, there might be a lot more to understand than some of you will assume. ⚠

Brad

Enough banter, Brad, let's get to it. That's just me getting bored with myself while I'm writing my own lectures, what that is.

Brad

Bhakti Mārga is the path to devotion. Like the other two paths, it leads to liberation or Mokṣa. Unlike the other two paths, which only very few people can understand— that's not decrying people, right? ⚠

Brad

It's just that, like I said, Karma Mārga is only available to a small group of people, right?

Student

Those scriptures have to tell you this is for you, right?

Brad

You have to have Adhikāra for this ritual or that ritual, like the ritual I showed, right? With the—

Brad

you had to be a 60-year-old man in order to—

Brad

right? So it's very few people can perform those. And obviously for Jñāna Mārga, the bar is really high because you got to know Sanskrit, you got to memorize all the scriptures, and that's just before you can start trying to understand them.

Brad

So they're super hard, right?

Brad

Bhakti also leads to liberation, but it's way easy, right?

Brad

It's so easy that the real challenge of Bhakti Mārga is actually to embrace how simple it is, right? How easy it is. Because everything in bhakti is connected to grace. Grace is free. God loves you exactly and precisely as you are in the present tense. Right? God wants you to be you. And because being you— God wants you to be you because being you is the whole reason that God created you. Right?

Brad

If God didn't want you to be you, God wouldn't have created you, right?

Brad

But God made Cooper Cooper to be Cooper. That's Cooper's whole point of being is to be Cooper. So that doesn't mean that God approves of everything that you do or that I do.

Brad

Not at all, right? It's not even about action. It's about bhakti.

Brad

But God is gracious and forgiving and loves you unconditionally.

Brad

So bhakti is not about action.

Brad

It's karma. Bhakti is about love and devotion. Because God loves me, little old Brad, I feel loved and that enables me to love.

Brad

Right?

Brad

It's like a sunbeam warming my face as I gaze at a rainbow, thereby putting a smile on my face that spreads to the barista at Hillside.

Brad

Had to mention Yaroslava in there. Are you at Hillside?

Student

Yeah.

Brad

It's kind of like what I wrote way back in chapter 1, right? To feel seen by God is to feel loved by God, which empowers me to see my neighbor as a unique creature of the Creator. And if God created my neighbor and if God loves my neighbor, then maybe I should try to find out what makes my neighbor so dope.

Student

Word?

Brad

So bhakti is not something you know. That's Jñāna Mārga.

Brad

Bhakti is not about your actions.

Brad

That's Karma Mārga.

Student

Bhakti is like a vibe, right?

Brad

Super much a vibe.

Brad

So what's the vibe?

Brad

This is super funny. What's the frequency, Kenneth? Right, it's like a Swapna Pada joke because it's an REM song, and REM is like Rapid eye movement, it's a form of sleep, and sleep is swapna, right? So swapnapada, it's a whole— I'm literally the only person in the world who would find that funny, I think. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, but it's still a joke.

Brad

So here's the vibe, man.

Brad

Imagine that you're out in nature, right? At your favorite nature spot, and you're holding hands with the person that you love, and you're both laying on the grass listening to the birds and the bees and the wind whispering with the leaves. And you feel warm and safe and natural and fully at peace, right? Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Peace in your body, peace in your mind, peace in your heart. That kind of vibe that I tried to set in the first 15 minutes of the semester, right? So that's the vibe. ⚠

Brad

That's bhakti. But what does bhakti say about the ontological relationship between the individual self and God? That's definitely a Brad kind of question, right? Those first principles.

Brad

Says bhakti.

Brad

Well, it's a fire question, not gonna lie. Let's pull out the Lord's song, the Bhagavad Gita, and find out. We can do a deep dive, a deep, deep dive into that very question.

Brad

But before we do exactly that, let's not forget that bhakti is about the vibe. It begins with feeling loved by God, feeling seen by God, feeling accepted by God.

Brad

And when the vibe is flowing, then it flows through you and spreads, right?

Brad

Like a smile or like laughter or even kindness.

Brad

Okay, fine.

Student

I hear you.

Brad

But Brad, every time I talk to you, you're all like ethics this and ethics that and being good means doing good things, yada yada, justice in action, whatever.

Brad

I'm down for feeling a vibe on the weekends, but look around, brah, there's injustice and inequity and corruption and bad actors right, left, and in my doom scroll. Natural harmonic vibes out in nature with the sun on my face sounds amazing, but you can't just escape the realities that our many neighbors are experiencing right now in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

Brad

By just saying God loves me and forgives me, therefore I can just do my thing and not even look in the direction where my neighbors are being victimized. That is not the vibe we're talking about, gang. Y'all say gang? My son says gang.

Brad

So, um, actually, the vibe is as much feeling the vibe as manifesting the vibe, right?

Student

I told you that bhakti is easy, so let me lay it out, right?

Brad

If you're feeling some vibe and the vibe you're feeling is like, you know, off, like not harmonious, most stuff contrary to the whole mountain hand-holding scene that I described a moment ago, then bhakti would say, "You got to feel the vibe. You got to read the vibe. You got to figure out who you are in the situation and then act accordingly." You definitely have to close your quotation marks.

Brad

Who does that?

Brad

For example, suppose you're walking down the streets of some random state like Minneapolis. That's a song, isn't it?

Brad

The Streets of Minneapolis, isn't it? It is.

Brad

And you see an older woman that gets pepper sprayed in the face.

Brad

Something like that, right? That's a vibe.

Brad

It's not the bhakti vibe, but suppose you were feeling the bhakti vibe and you were feeling loved by God and feeling seen by God. You just felt in your bones that this woman is also seen by God and also loved by God. And in other words, if you view the woman as a beloved creature of the Creator, then maybe you don't do nothing, right? ⚠

Brad

Maybe you do what Alex Pretty did.

Brad

The vibe you feel from God is the vibe you begin to feel for God's creatures. And that vibe will lead you towards the right action.

Brad

Karma. We got there.

Brad

Now, there are many different forms of bhakti, right? How many?

Brad

Well, most bhakti theologians would say that there are at least as many forms of bhakti as there are people, right?

Brad

Probably way more, because the, you know, the vibe that you feel when you're, you know, teenagers is not the same vibe that you feel when you're, you know, however old I am. I was not a teenager though. ⚠

Brad

For this unit of the course, we're going to focus very narrowly on one particular bhakti tradition, which also happens to be the largest in terms of practitioners in the world today, at least in terms of bhakti. Devotion to God in the name and form of Krishna.

Brad

That's actually the end of lecture number 1.

Brad

Lecture number 2 is only a sentence. Now, if you had to describe Krishna in exactly one and only one word, it would have to be play or Līlā.

Brad

And Isha shall also teach you about Iṣṭa-devatā, except for Jaden, because that was in chapter— that was in the intro last course. Let's turn to Iṣṭa-devatā first. ⚠

Brad

Any questions about lecture number 1?

Brad

Question is like, is lecture number 2 gonna be as boring?

Brad

No, because it's not even written, right?

21:13

Hindu Iconography: Vishnu, Murti, and the Logic of Darshana

Brad

I just have, I don't know, like 85 slides. I don't think we're gonna go through all 85 though. This is also not Fitchburg State University.

Brad

So this is Vishnu, right? So we met Vishnu in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad. He was on It's only in there for one verse, but in Vallī 3 of the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, Yama tells— Yama uses this word, the highest step of Vishnu, the highest attainment, the highest thing is reaching Vishnu. Anyway, so let's talk about Vishnu for just a moment. ⚠

Student

Vishnu is like super chill, right?

Brad

And he's— He's actually creating the universe here. This is Vishnu, and he's laying on his sasha, this snake. It's one really, really long snake with lots of different— a multi-headed snake, and it's just kind of like protecting him while he's sleeping. ⚠

Brad

Not that he needs protection, but it's just kind of doing his thing.

Brad

And while he's laying there for, you know, a few million years or something, A lotus flower begins to grow out of his navel. This is broken. This is like a— this is many thousand years old, this particular bas-relief, this carving. And so it's broken, but he's supposed to have this— so this is the lotus vine that's growing out of him, and it kind of wraps all around him, and it's supposed to be going to his navel. And then it goes up. You can see— ⚠

Brad

I'll turn off the lights, just help out those who are already asleep.

Brad

As he's laying there, the lotus grows out of his navel and it blooms, and then out of the lotus bloom emerges brahma, the creator. So we see brahma up here, and this— it's hard to tell whether he has He's got one head, but he's got either 3 faces or 4 faces, right? Sometimes he's depicted with 3, sometimes with 4. And they would obviously mean slightly different things. 4 faces would mean like the cardinal directions, right? ⚠

Brad

So everywhere.

Brad

And the 3 faces usually is thought of as the past, present, and future.

Brad

So all of time, right? So definitely not, mutually exclusive there. And yeah, so that's it.

Brad

We're not talking about shaivism this semester, but I'll give you, just since I've got it up here, quick— so shiva is a different, a different form of the supreme god, and he's super into meditating, and basically he's like sitting there meditating, and he's the only thing that exists, and then he opens his eyes, and when he opens his eyes, the universe comes into existence as an object of his perception, right? So definitely like the seeing and being seen that we've kind of had running through all semester here, super literal, right? ⚠

Brad

The entire universe comes into being when shiva opens his eyes, and eventually he'll close his eyes and then the cycle will restart. 3 paths of liberation, you already know all of this, that was on the midterm.

Brad

So, yeah, about a third, it's really, it's definitely less than a third of like contemporary Hindu practitioners worship God in the form of shiva. ⚠

Brad

Definitely more than a third, maybe quite a bit more than a third worship God in the form of vishnu, and then right around a third actually worship God in the form of a devi.

Brad

So, yeah, darshana, I mentioned this briefly in Unit 1, but worth going over again.

Brad

Now in a little bit more detail.

Student

So philosophically, right, the idea is that God either has—

Brad

God is either beyond all form or has all forms, right? So if God has any form, God has every form, right?

Brad

There's nothing, because God is infinite, right?

Student

But the idea is that God is not just infinite.

Brad

God is beyond the entire physical universe. So you could think about it in terms of like, you know, A-U-M, and then the silence after Om, right? So the immanent and the transcendent, that which surpasses everything, right? ⚠

Brad

So these two in Sanskrit, these are referred to as saguna and nirguna, and they're not mutually exclusive, right?

Brad

As I just said, you could have the Aum, the A-U-M, and then the silence after, right? So that which transcends it, or even defines the other two.

Student

But this is the important logic, especially as we move forward, right?

Brad

So I keep calling Advaita Vedanta atheistic, right? We can understand that now as that being sort of beyond the duality of creator and created, beyond, right? So beyond all qualities, God is beyond all forms, transcends every form, all that kind of stuff. Saguna is every form, right? So then if God has any form or any quality, then God has all forms and all qualities, sarvaguna and vishvarupa. This is actually a scene from the Bhagavad Gita. This is a Madhubani painting, so, like, watercolors painted by women, and this is a scene scene of Krishna. ⚠

Brad

Krishna means the black one.

Brad

But here's a scene from the Bhagavad Gita. You can see the chariot here. There's Arjuna, and then Krishna is taking the form, his universal form.

Brad

So he starts out as just a bro, but then he like manifests himself.

Brad

Skip over this.

Brad

Yeah, okay, so we could— I did cover this in Unit 1, but when I first started talking about mortis, right? So this is a morti. We have lots of different mortis. ⚠

Student

Morti is just an idol, right?

Brad

And an idol just means a three-dimensional depiction that's used in some sort of worship form, you know, not unlike this, exactly like that.

Brad

And, but the point is you don't worship the idol, right?

Student

That would be idolatry.

Brad

That's frowned upon in every tradition, actually, but certainly in the Hindu traditions and certainly in the Christian traditions that we've been studying.

Student

The idol isn't—

Brad

you don't worship the idol.

Student

The idol is used as a pointer, right?

Brad

As a— like a pointing finger.

Student

This is This is actually the Buddha pointing at the moon.

Brad

Famous example that he gave, like, if I want to point at the moon, if I want to show you the moon, right, Wilkes has to first look at my finger to know where I'm pointing. But if you just stare at my finger, you're never going to see that at which I'm pointing, right?

Student

So the signifier points to that which is signified.

Brad

And you don't worship the signifier, you worship the signified.

Student

Right?

Brad

So the pointing finger points at the moon. You got the analogy, right? So likewise, the murti is like a pointing finger, and so you don't worship the idol, but you worship that at which the idol points, right?

Brad

So the— yeah, let's— so many Oh yeah, let's roll into this.

Brad

I'm going to turn lights on because y'all are dropping like flies. And before you know it, I'm going to be asleep. So 2 things, I did say this in Unit 1, but let's repeat them now. So the murti is thought of in a few different ways. One is a tirtha, crossing point or bridge. I think we can pretty much take that as like the point finger, right? ⚠

Brad

Not significantly different than that.

Brad

But the other is a pīta, or seat.

Brad

Pīta means seat or throne, right?

Student

And as I've already said in my first lecture, that bhakti is all about the vibe, and bhakti is all about grace.

Brad

The whole point of bhakti is it's easy, right?

Brad

You don't even have to understand any of the stuff that I'm saying in order to do bhakti, right?

Brad

You don't have to know anything.

Student

Bhakti is easy, right?

Brad

And so part of the reason that bhakti is so easy is because God makes it easy, right? So God, as an act of grace, descends. In Sanskrit, the word for descend is avatara. So avatara means the one who descends. So, as an act of grace, God descends and takes a seat in the murti. ⚠

Brad

Why?

Student

Not for God's sake, but for yours.

Brad

To make it easier for you to have darshana. So, in Unit 1, I told the story of riding my motorcycle around Bangalore, came to that stoplight where the temple was, and you could see the murti from the street, and people would like get off their bikes and take their shoes off right at the stoplight and have darshana, right? The only thing you need for darshana is to see and be seen by the murti, right? ⚠

Brad

That's the whole thing.

Brad

So it's that feeling or experience of being seen. This is a, you know, a guy carving a murti. It's hard to tell, it looks like maybe Durga, but there's some There's the Ganesha there, but the murti is just a human-made thing, right? ⚠

Brad

Idols are made by people.

Brad

This wasn't, you know, God didn't make this. This is made by humans, right?

Brad

And so it's important actually to remember that the murti is just made by humans, right?

Brad

So this is a scene or a form photo, super pixelated, sorry, but it's from Ganesha Chaturthi, which is the 14 days celebrating the birth of— celebrating Ganesha. Quick story, so Ganesha is not an elephant. Ganesha is a person, a human, but with an elephant head, right? ⚠

Student

And so in the puranas, there are many different stories about how Ganesha got his elephant head. And if you ask people on this, average Hindu, how Ganesha got his head, you probably get a variety of stories. There's so many stories, right? I'm just going to tell you one story. ⚠

Brad

It's not the definitive story.

Student

It's just one among many, right?

Brad

It's a very Brad way of telling the story too, because I'm Brad.

Brad

That's how I tell stories. So the story goes something like this. There's a Shiva, just showed you him, right? ⚠

Student

He's all about meditating, right?

Brad

And so he's like sitting there meditating. Oh wait, quick story before the story. So Krishna— Shiva likes to meditate, and he was like on his way, like left home, he was on his way to go meditate, I guess like by a river or something like that. And on his way, he passes this woman who's sitting there meditating.

Brad

Meditating in the field. And he's like, whoa.

Student

He's super into meditation. And so he's attracted to her just because she's meditating. He's impressed by her meditating.

Brad

But then he goes on and he meditates, meditates for a really long time.

Student

It's what he does.

Brad

And then at the end of a long time meditating, he goes back home. And on his way back home, he passes her again.

Brad

And she's still meditating. He's like, bro.

Student

I'm like, in love, right?

Brad

She's like, she meditated longer than me. So they end up, fast forward, they swipe right, and they have dinner and that kind of stuff.

Student

They never, ever, ever, ever have sex.

Brad

If they were to have sex, the entire universe would stop existing.

Brad

It would be a bad thing, right?

Student

But they like to meditate together.

Brad

That's their whole thing. It's like sitting in not eating, sitting, and not doing anything. ⚠

Brad

Sitting and meditating.

Brad

That's what they do. Anyway, one day, back to the original story now. One day, shiva goes out to meditate. Parvati, his wife, she stays home to meditate. But she was feeling a little bit grimy and dirty and whatever. ⚠

Brad

She needed a bath.

Brad

So she's like, I'm going to take a bath. But she takes a bath in the river.

Student

But since shiva wasn't home, she needed somebody to guard the path.

Brad

That's an important detail.

Student

So somebody to guard the path, to guard the road to where she was going to go take a bath.

Brad

And nobody was around. So she was feeling grimy, messed up. So she takes her arm, and she does this. ⚠

Student

And she takes all the—

Brad

dirt and grime and sweat and gunk off of her, sort of like clay, right? And she takes that off and she forms a person out of that and then puts the person there, breathes life into him, and says, "Hi, you're Ganesha. Your job is to guard the path. ⚠

Brad

I'm going to go down to the river and take a bath. Just make sure nobody goes down the path while I'm taking a bath." taking a bath.

Brad

He's like, word. Then he's sitting there doing his thing.

Brad

She's down there taking a bath, and then Shiva comes home.

Brad

Shiva starts walking down the path, and Ganesha's like, I don't know who you are, bro, but you can't.

Brad

Mom's down there taking a bath.

Student

Shiva's like, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm the supreme lord of the universe, and this is my house. And that's my wife, and I'm going to go wherever I want.

Brad

And Ganesha's like, I still don't know you, bro. I'm going to guard.

Brad

This is my job.

Brad

And Shiva, who has anger management issues, like Moses kind of thing, cuts his head off, just chops his head off.

Student

Head rolls off the path or whatever.

Brad

Shiva goes on his way, goes down to the river, and sees Parvati. He's like, hey, what's up, babe?

Student

And she's like, how'd you get down here? He's like, what do you mean?

Brad

I live here.

Student

And she's like, what happened to Ganesha?

Brad

Like, I put the guardian there.

Student

And she's like, oh, I killed that mofo. And she's also got anger management issues.

Brad

And she gets super pissed.

Student

And she's like, you got to fix this. And happy wife, happy life, all that kind of stuff.

Brad

And he's like, fine.

Student

I'll go fix it.

Brad

I said this is a Brad way of telling the story.

Brad

Story, right? This isn't word for word how it's in the puranas.

Student

And so he goes back to Ganesha's dead body there, inert, laying on the ground.

Brad

And he brings it back to life, because he can do that, right?

Student

But who has time to look for the head, right?

Brad

He's not going to be bothered with it.

Brad

It's not there.

Student

Rolled away.

Brad

Cat, dog took it or something.

Brad

Who knows?

Brad

Nobody knows.

Brad

And Shiva's like, I did my part.

Student

He's back alive again. So he tells Ganesha, I guess, can't really hear him, but he tells Ganesha, go find a head. And so he walks along without any head.

Brad

And he comes across an elephant, cuts its head off, puts it on his head. That's how Ganesha got his elephant head.

Brad

Anyway, we're not really talking about Ganesha except for that. Oh, but point here that I do want to make is that in Ganesha Chaturthi, right, the beginning of Ganesha Chaturthi, what a lot of devotees will do, will go and buy a new murti, or you get together with all your homies and you pitch in together and you buy a really big murti, right? So, usually it's like a family murti or something like that, or maybe for the whole temple, or maybe for the whole community, different places, different practices, right? But one key aspect of the murti for Ganesha Chaturthi is it should be— so it's made out of clay, right? Shaped out of clay. But the key thing is it should not be fired. ⚠

Student

Anybody do ceramics or something like that? So what happens if you— why do you fire clay?

Brad

What happens?

Student

What is the whole point of firing clay?

Student

Yeah? It dries and you cannot change the shape anymore?

Student

Yeah, so you can mold it until you fire it, and then once it's fired, it's rigid.

Brad

Yeah, yeah, good.

Brad

So it kind of turns into—

Student

I mean, that's what ceramics is, right?

Brad

So then if you were to— so let's say I've got a morty made of unfired clay and a morty made of fired clay, right? And I throw both of them into like a lake. What's gonna happen to them? Gina?

Student

One's going to be like mush and the other one's going to stay in shape.

Brad

Yeah. So this is an unfired clay.

Student

So the whole point of it is that it's supposed to just go back to mud.

Brad

So the whole point of it is that it is a pointing finger. And you don't worship the pointing finger.

Student

You worship that at which it's pointing.

Brad

And in case you forget that it's just a means to an end, in case you forget that it's just a pointing finger, that's why we make it out of unfired clay, so that it can dissipate and you can remember, oh, this is just an aid.

Student

This is not God.

Brad

This is just a tool that we use to worship or to think about God.

Brad

Yeah, go ahead.

Brad

Is it pointing to shiva, or is it pointing to a different thing?

Brad

Yeah, good question. It's just not really even— So, answer to that, I think, is that there's an infinite number of forms, right? ⚠

Brad

So, God has—

Student

saguna has infinite forms, right? So, then this particular murti is pointing to this aspect, this quality, this side of God, right?

Brad

So, when you say pointing to shiva, For somebody who worships God in the form of Shiva, the answer is yes. In fact, if you talk to somebody who worships God in the form of Shiva, then you would say, actually, this is pointing towards Shiva, just in a different name.

Student

It's like a different side, because there's only one God. And then so the way that Elliot approaches God, and the way that Brad approaches God, and the way that Jaden approaches God, God is all going to be different. ⚠

Brad

And that's not because so much of the differences between us.

Student

I mean, it is a little bit. But it's more because God's grace, God graciously reveals God's self in the way that is most conducive to Eliot-like relating. Is that—

Brad

yeah?

Student

Good?

Brad

Any other questions?

Brad

Good question.

Brad

Cool.

Brad

So Ista Deva, that's actually a perfect segue to Ista Deva. Oh yeah, let's say a little bit of this.

Brad

So this is a scene, super important scene, maybe kind of even the climax of the entire semester, which we haven't gotten to yet.

Student

We'll get there in about 2 weeks.

Brad

This is from Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita, made famous here by Oppenheimer.

Brad

Whatever.

Brad

Let me just read this. So this is a little bit from the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, where— so obviously we'll come back to this later, but we can see Krishna here, Arjuna here. You can see the chariots, like the horses back there. And then this is, again, super pixelated, sorry about that. ⚠

Brad

But Krishna revealing his universal form, the vishwa-rupa, the form that is all forms, right? Saguna, full, right?

Brad

If God has any form, God has every form.

Brad

So Arjuna says, right, he knows Krishna is just his cousin, But he also knows that he's God.

Brad

Yeah, well, sorry, if God has every form, are you saying that like God would also have like the form of Arjuna? Yes, the short answer is yes, but excellent question. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, yes.

Brad

So rare to ask a question where Brad just says yes, right?

Brad

Yes, yep.

Brad

Arjuna says, if you think that I am able to behold your cosmic form, oh my O Lord, O Master of all mystic power, then kindly show me that universal self.

Brad

Right, vishwa-rupa.

Brad

So as an act of grace, Krishna says, okay, right?

Brad

But he says, but you cannot see me with your present eyes.

Brad

Therefore, I give you divine eye.

Student

Right?

Brad

So that, because, yeah, because you need this divine eye to see this.

Brad

By which you can behold my mystic opulence.

Brad

Arjuna says, at that time—

Brad

what's Arjuna saying?

Brad

But at that time, Arjuna could see the universal form of the Lord, the unlimited expansions of the universe situated in one place, although divided into many, many thousands, right?

Brad

So the one has become many, and the many is— yeah.

Brad

So continuing, Arjuna says, O Lord of the universe, I see in your universal body many, many forms expanded without limit.

Brad

There is no end, there is no beginning, there is no middle to all of this.

Brad

Although you are one, you are spread throughout the sky and the planets and all the space in between.

Brad

Oh, all-pervading vishnu, I can no longer maintain my equilibrium.

Brad

I'm afraid, oh Lord of Lords, oh refuge of the worlds, please be gracious to me.

Student

I cannot keep my balance.

Brad

Seeing this, I am bewildered.

Brad

We will do a deep dive into this when we get there, but the basic idea is grace. There's two moments of grace here, right? One is God, out of God's grace, opts to reveal Godself to Krishna, and then, I mean, sorry, to Arjuna, right? But it's like, if you were, I don't know, if you're Nicholas, right, all of a sudden you see everything, and not just everything in the universe, but everything in the universe past, present, and future. ⚠

Student

How long do you think you could handle that?

Brad

It'd get overwhelming pretty quick, right? So Arjuna at first says, "Please Krishna, show me your universal form." Krishna says, "All right, I'll show you." And then very soon, Krishna—

Brad

Arjuna is like, "Bro, please stop." Right?

Brad

It's too much. And then, as another act of grace, super important, we'll come back to this, but as another act of grace, God conceals Godself in a finite form.

Brad

Right? The infinite is too big for our finite minds.

Brad

Right?

Brad

Especially because he does see himself inside of Krishna.

Brad

Right?

Brad

And it's just, he's like, "I can't take this." Arjuna looked up.

Brad

The light dazzled him. He saw it in all beings, and it seemed to him as if he were looking at creation, the whole of creation, everything in creation, looking at the whole of the past, present, and future all at once. And it was a sight no one had seen before. It staggered and stupefied him.

Brad

He was, he was as if the observer of the whole drama of life.

Brad

And then he's like, Yeah, it's just too overwhelming.

Brad

This I find is a verse that's almost— I mean, in my experience, virtually every Hindu knows this verse regardless of what background they're from.

Student

This is a—

Brad

you hear people quoting this all the time.

Brad

Ekam sat viprahabhavati vedanti.

Brad

This line from the Rigveda.

Brad

Truth is one.

Brad

Ekam sat.

Brad

Truth is one, or being is one. Sat means being and truth.

Brad

So truth is one, but wise people speak of it in many different ways, right?

Brad

So again, the universal form is the one that is many, which brings us finally to ishvara deva.

47:09

The Ishta Deva Doctrine and the Ten Avatars of Vishnu

Brad

Max Mueller.

Brad

We don't need to know him or Catenothéism, but it's a pretty good definition.

Student

Worshiping one God by devoting oneself entirely to one particular form of God at a time, right? So the idea is that God is infinite and you can't see infinity.

Brad

You can only see the finite, right?

Brad

But by looking at the finite, and you can say, all right, I know that there's more to it than just what I see, right?

Student

There are other directions, there are other perspectives, there's other manifestations, but I have to look fully and completely at this side before I can move on.

Brad

You know, you get the point, right? Um, so this guy, um, my favorite, obviously, uh, Anantanand Rambachan.

Brad

We've heard from him so many times, uh, this guy from Minnesota.

Brad

Actually, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but he's actually from Trinidad.

Brad

So he's from Trinidad, but he's been living in Minnesota for 40 years or something.

Brad

And he's also Indian. So he has an accent. If you watch that video, you already know this, but he has an accent like literally nobody, right?

Brad

So he's like Trinidadian, Minnesota, and India. Anyway, I want him to be my dad. Nothing against my dad, my dad's awesome, but I do kind of want to curl up on the couch with Anant and just talk about the Gita. His daughter's name is Gita.

Brad

Wow. Okay, let me just read this.

Brad

The Ishta Deva doctrine. Ishta Deva. ⚠

Brad

Deva means God. Ishta means like one's own or one's, right? So last Tuesday we talked about svadharma, one's own dharma, right? ⚠

Brad

So very similar, but it's ishta, one's own form of God, one's own manifestation of God.

Brad

So the Ishta Deva doctrine suggests that a rejection, suggests a rejection of the real existence of many gods, right, not polytheism, and the position that the absolute, meaning God, the absolute is one. At the same time, the doctrine presupposes that this one God is imagined, right, named and worshiped in different ways, and that the human beings are choosing from among the many names and images of the one. While affirming that God is not literally many, in the same way that the die is not literally many, Iṣṭa-devatā calls our attention to the plurality of names and forms and conceptions of God, right? ⚠

Brad

Sort of like the different sides of the playing die.

Brad

It points to a diversity of human conceptions and responses to God while at the same time denying, right, pan— polytheism or multiple divinities. The absence of exclusivity, however, does not imply a weak and lukewarm commitment to one's Ishta Deva. The doctrine of Ishta Deva implies deep commitment emotionally and intellectually to one's choice, knowing that others have chosen the same God under different names and conceptions. ⚠

Brad

This is actually, I took this quote from the World Council of Churches website.

Brad

Anyway. I just had something else I was gonna say and then I forgot it. Do you remember what it is, Tana? No? Sorry. Questions? All right, let's see. So we've got all these different deities. This is all Shiva stuff. Skip over Shiva, Shivanataraja. All right, let's come to my third lecture. ⚠

Brad

Super fun, right?

Brad

So as I mentioned, about a third worship Actually, it's definitely way smaller, the smallest in terms of population who worship shiva. And then vaishnavism is by far the biggest. ⚠

Brad

And then devi, those who worship God in the form of devi, is right around a third.

Brad

So you can figure by a third, I mean roughly the entire size of the United States, right?

Brad

So around 350 million people worship God in the form of devi, and then quite a bit more in the form of vishnu.

Brad

This, we even had an exam question, right, midterm exam question about the avatars, so we're finally coming to them. So, yeah, so avatar, the word avatar means? ⚠

Brad

Descend.

Brad

Descend, yeah. And so, the idea is that Vishnu periodically descends.

Student

This is directly relevant to the chapters you read for today. Krishna periodically, or Vishnu periodically descends into the world in order, basically, to fix things. So, God created the world, everything was groovy, And then over time, you know, like you got to clean your house. ⚠

Brad

My house is so messy, I guess I gotta go home and do that.

Student

But you gotta clean, right? You get calcification, you get buildup, you get plaque, you gotta brush your teeth, all that kind of stuff, right? So over time, you know, things might have been just absolutely groovy, but over time things get a little muddled or messed up.

Brad

And so when things get super bad, then vishnu descends in order to clean things up, basically, fix things. And so, so far, that has happened 9 times. ⚠

Brad

So there's 10—

Student

excuse me—

Brad

10 avatars of Vishnu, but Kalki, the last one, is like a future role. ⚠

Brad

So it hasn't happened yet.

Brad

The first 3 all have to do with the great floods.

Brad

So there was a flood, and then Krishna comes in the form of of a fish because everything was water.

Brad

Likewise, Kurma, the tortoise, because everything was flood. The boar also because in that story basically the great flood, all the land was submerged by the great flood, so then vishnu comes in the form of a boar in order to bring the dry land back up to the surface, right, which is what he's doing here. Then most of the puranas, most of the stories, these legendary stories about vishnu, actually from all of the different traditions, there's a really, really, really common trope of these stories. ⚠

Brad

So I want to tell you that trope, tell you another story here.

Student

So I'll tell you the story of Narasimha, again in a very broad kind of way.

Brad

So basically, The trope that you see over and over again is you get somebody who does something really good.

Brad

Aiden.

Student

Aiden does something really good.

Brad

And then the gods want to reward Aiden and give Aiden more power.

Student

Why?

Brad

Because he did something really good.

Brad

Yes.

Student

But even more than that, why do you give power to somebody who does something good?

Brad

What do you want them to do?

Brad

You want them to do more good, right? So Aiden does something good. ⚠

Student

God's giving Aiden power.

Brad

So Aiden can do more good, right? And then Aiden does some more good, gets another reward, gets more power, right?

Student

Then Aiden can do even more good.

Brad

And then Aiden does some more good, gets another reward, gets more power, right? Then all of a sudden, Aiden starts thinking, I'm I got a lot of power, right?

Student

Like, I can do a lot of stuff.

Brad

And who can stop me now, right? So in other words, the trope is if you do something good, you get rewarded. But those who get more power—

Brad

power corrupts, right?

Student

And so as somebody gets more and more powerful, they eventually reach a point where they become corrupt. Or I mean, it doesn't always happen, but it's pretty common.

Brad

Then once they're powerful and corrupt, who can fix this?

Brad

Oftentimes, God needs to descend in the form of an avatar in order to bring things back into balance, kind of fix what's broken.

Brad

So, Narasimha, Bali, most of these are exactly that. Basically, the story, it's the story of this guy named Hiranukashipu, which is just a fun name to say. You want to say it? Hiranukashipu? Let's say it. ⚠

Student

Hiranukashipu.

Student

That was actually really good.

Brad

It's fun to say, isn't it?

Brad

I just go around all the time just saying Hiranukashipu.

Brad

Anyway, Hiranukashipu, like I just said, right?

Student

Haranyakashipu did some good stuff, and the gods come to him and was like, right on, man. You did some good stuff. ⚠

Brad

We'll give you a boon.

Student

Like Naciketas got 3 boons.

Brad

They're like, you can have any boon you want.

Student

Naciketas, of course, asked for his daddy to be happy because he's that guy. But Haranyakashipu is like, I want to be immortal.

Brad

And the gods are like, well, I'm just Sorry, you can't ask for that. You can't ask for infinite wishes, and you can't ask for immortality.

Brad

You're still immortal.

Student

Try again. And he's like, OK, I don't want to be killed during the day or during the night. And they're like, OK, we can do that. So can't be killed during the day or during the night. And then he goes and he does some more good stuff. And they're like, hey, let's reward Hiranyakashipu again.

Brad

So then, you're like, what do you want?

Student

And he's like, I don't want to be killed by a human or a non-human.

Brad

And they're like, all right, cool.

Student

We can do that. So he gets this shield on him or whatever.

Brad

So he can't be killed by those.

Brad

Then he gets another— you get the thing, right? He gets another boon.

Student

He's like, I don't want to be killed inside or outside.

Brad

And they're like, OK, we can do this. And then eventually, he becomes corrupt.

Student

Starts causing all sorts of bad things. Corrupt people do bad things. And then they're like, everybody's praying to God, like, hey, Vishnu, can you come and save us? ⚠

Brad

And so Vishnu descends as an avatar in the form of Nara-Simha.

Student

Nara means man, and Simha means lion, like Simba, like The Lion King.

Brad

Ara-samha, half man, half lion.

Student

So he's neither human nor non-human. It's half and half.

Brad

He comes during the dusk, which is neither day nor during night. He comes into like the— he appears in the area, like the door.

Brad

What do you call it?

Student

Like the door. He's like in the door, right?

Brad

Like in the door.

Brad

In the door.

Student

So he's like not inside and not outside. You get the gist, right?

Brad

And he kills Hiranyakashipu. You can't tell it from this picture, which is cropped. But Narasimha is almost always seen— he's sitting on a throne like this. And he's got Hiranyakashipu laying on his lap.

Brad

And he's ripping his bowels open or whatever.

Brad

With claws that are neither weapons nor, you know, this whole thing.

Brad

You get the gist, right?

Brad

So the idea is that God periodically has to come into, right, descend into the world in order to fix things, right?

Brad

Because things get broken.

Brad

And most of the forms of, I mean, these are kind of natural disasters that God is coming to save us from. But these other ones are mostly from bad guys.

Student

So bad guys who have become empowered by the gods. So they're supernatural.

Brad

So the idea is that a supernatural problem requires a supernatural solution.

Brad

So only God can fix it.

Brad

But then you also have stories like— Rama and Krishna. And in these avatars, there isn't a problem like that.

Student

There is no supernatural problem.

Brad

So in the Bhagavad Gita, as you know, I enjoyed your context to the stories that you gave in your pocket. I haven't listened to all of them, but the ones I listened to this morning on the drive in were very nice. ⚠

Student

And so it's relatable to real life. We don't need supernatural problems.

Brad

We've got enough human problems.

Student

So, the Bhagavad Gita is describing human problems. So, you've got these humans that are being jerks.

Brad

They're abusing people, abusing women, abusing children.

Student

They're corrupt. They're bad guys. They're doing bad things.

Brad

But they're also in positions of power.

Student

And Arjuna and his family, they're going to combat this.

Brad

But then they go to Krishna and they're like, hey, you're God, can you help us out here?

Student

And Krishna's like, yes, but this is a human problem, needs a human solution. It's a natural problem, calls for a natural solution.

Brad

But I can become a teacher.

Brad

I can teach you.

Student

I can guide you. I can coax you in the right way.

Brad

This is your problem, you gotta fix it.

Student

Feel me? Okay?

Brad

So, anyway, that brings us to basically who Krishna is.

Brad

Now Krishna's a definite playa.

Brad

If we had more time, and in previous versions of this class, we read some of the Gita Govinda. So Gita, as you know, means song.

Brad

Govinda means cowherder.

Brad

Bhagavad Gita Govinda is this super sexually erotic poem about the relationship between Krishna and Radha. And they spend most of the story separated. So there's Krishna over there and Radha over there. But they do hook up right at the beginning of the story, and they hook up right at the end of the story. Happy ending. ⚠

Brad

But, so it's about erotic love and these two forms of God.

Brad

But what we are gonna talk about for the remainder of time today is Krishna's Līlā.

1:02:38

Krishna's Lila: Divine Play and the Forms of Love

Brad

So Līlā means play, right?

Brad

And play takes many, many forms. And so here's Balakrishna, baby Krishna.

Brad

And let's—

Brad

enough me talking, right? Let's watch a video. Y'all stay awake if I turn the lights off?

Student

It's a little long, but it's good. River to play. All of them jumped in the river turn by turn. Raga was sitting and watching them. They were swimming, splashing water on each other, and having a great time. Raga too was very happy to see them playing. Krishna splashed water at Radha. Radha got wet and angry. Krishna came out of the water to talk to Radha. Radha, don't get angry.

Student

Why did you splash water on me?

Student

Oh, come on, I was just having fun. I am sorry. Tell me, what should I do to make you happy? Play some nice music for me. Krishna took his flute and started playing. Balaram and the other friends also came out of the water and gathered around Krishna. All of them were enjoying the music. After some time, "Come on, Krishna, now let's play something." "But what should we play?" "I can tell you a nice game. See that mango tree? Whoever gets me a mango from that tree first wins the game." Everyone ran towards the tree. Krishna's friends started throwing stones to get the mangoes. Even Bhishma tried the same thing, but Krishna took his sling, aimed at the mango, and shot. Krishna's aim was perfect. The stone hit a mango and the mango fell down on the ground. Krishna ran towards the mango and picked it up. He then came to Radha and gave her the mango. Radha was very very happy. ⚠

Student

This is not fair, Krishna. You always win. Oh, don't worry.

Student

We all are friends. Next time I will let you win, okay? Krishna used his sling and got a few more mangoes for his friends as well. Everyone ate the mangoes. After some time, they decided to go back home. On the way home, when everyone was walking, Krishna suddenly bent down, took a handful of mud in his hands, and ate it. Everyone was shocked to see this.

Brad

Don't do that, bro!

Student

Krishna, what are you doing?

Student

Krishna, remove that mud from your mouth immediately!

Student

Krishna, throw away that mud!

Student

But Krishna stood there smiling with the mud still in his mouth. Balaram ran towards Krishna's house to call Yashoda. He narrated the whole incident to Yashoda. Both Yashoda and Balaram came running towards Krishna.

Student

Krishna, what are you eating?

Student

But Krishna did not reply.

Student

He kept smiling. Open your mouth now!

Student

But Krishna did not open his mouth.

Student

Krishna, I said open your mouth now!

Student

Finally, Krishna opened his mouth. Everyone was shocked. They did not see any mud, but the entire universe, including the sun, moon, stars, skies, galaxy, oceans, hills, rivers, and mountains. Yashoda and the others realized that Krishna is not an ordinary child. But the God himself. Everyone joined hands and prayed to Krishna. Vyashoda took Krishna close to her and hugged him. Balaram, Radha, and the others started clapping. Krishna continued to do various miracles throughout his lifetime. ⚠

Student

I'm sure you enjoyed watching this video. Please click on the subscribe button to subscribe to our channel and watch more.

Brad

And so, uh, which brings us finally to Leela, right? Um, and, uh, love. I started out this whole thing by saying that, um, Great. Here, I'm just going to— ⚠

Brad

spoiler alert—

Brad

previous section I already did this exercise. Let's think about love, right? So love takes many different forms, right?

Student

What are some of the forms that love takes? How long before it starts?

Brad

There's the love that you have for— the love that a child has for a parent, right?

Student

Which, take it from me, I don't know if any of you are parents, but it's way different, right? The first time I held my daughter, I mean, I never experienced anything remotely like that before, right? ⚠

Brad

So the love that a parent has for a child is, I mean, both are love, right? But they're very different kinds of love, right? So still love. So if we're saying, you know, I mean, Krishna wants to experience love, basically. And so for love, you can't just love yourself. It's fun sometimes, but it's a different kind of love. But the love that you have for another person. So there's the love that a child has for a parent. ⚠

Brad

So he's experiencing that as he's a child.

Brad

He's also kind of experiencing what it's like to, you know, the parent's love for a child. And as Wilkes already points out, I mean, he kind of is everybody, right? So he's all these many different forms. There's the love between friends, right?

Student

Which is still love, but a different kind of love, right?

Brad

Or the love that you have for your sibling or twins. There's quite a few twins in the class, right? And so the, Love that siblings have is different than these other forms of love. The love that you have for a pet is different than those other forms of love. The love between partners is different than those other kinds of love. ⚠

Student

So, the idea is that Krishna wants to experience all of these different forms of love and therefore has to play these different roles roles, right?

Brad

And so one of the things that we see in this story, I mean, he's playing the role of Yeshua's child, right?

Student

And so he experiences that love, that vahle, the love of a child, the love that a parent has for a child.

Brad

And then when he, but then what happens, right? He eats the mud, she looks in and she sees, oh, my kid's not like other kids.

Student

My kid is actually God, right, and has the universe inside of his mouth, what do they— ⚠

Brad

what does she and everybody else do? Yeah, starts worshiping him, right, which is reasonable, I think, right?

Student

It's like, what do you do in that situation?

Brad

Oh, my son is God, right, so let me worship him. And this part isn't in the cartoon, but in the purana, The next thing he does is wipe her memory, right? Because he doesn't want her to worship him. That's not the point.

Brad

The point is to experience the love that a parent has for a child, and a child has for a parent, right?

Brad

The point is to experience the love that siblings have. The point is to grow up and experience the love that lovers share, right?

Brad

Like in the Gītā-govinda.

Brad

So, the point is that he, again, If God has any form, then God has every form. And the only way you can experience these kind of things is to play that role. So Krishna's Līlā is playing the form, right? Maybe even playing the form of Delaney and playing the form of Samyala and playing the form of Alice and Brad, right? So, um, cool. Look at that. I did it with 3 minutes to spare. ⚠

Student

Um, that, uh, so these 3 chapters for today They're, like I already said, like I started out, they're super important. We're not like skipping them, but we don't have time in the calendar to not keep going. ⚠

1:12:27

Closing Remarks and Easter Break Announcement

Brad

So, you know, it was either this or, yeah. So please continue on and have a fantastic Easter, and I'll see you next Tuesday. So if, for discussion leaders, we'll just have double the number discussion leaders on— ⚠

Student

I don't know, we'll figure it out.

Student

Thanks, Brad Bannon.

Brad

Good Easter.

Brad

Thanks, Wilkesy, too.

Brad

Thank you.

Brad

Sure.

Brad

All right, bye-bye.

Brad

Thank you, sir.

Student

Take it easy.

Brad

Thank you, sir. Hi.

Student

I don't need to eat anything.

Brad

Oh, do you want to eat? Here's a—

Student

I just don't have glasses. How about whatever works for you? ⚠

Brad

I have more food too. I have to go to my dorm and then—

Student

no, that's not my— and then I have Lyft. Oh, it's fine if you need I'll text you, or you give me a line. ⚠

Brad

But it comes with their IP address in like 20 minutes then. Never mind. Well, I would, but, you know. ⚠

Student

Brad, Brad, Brad.

Brad

Sure. All right, bye all.

Student

Have a good holiday.