What is Ultimate Pleasure?

From verse 1.32-1.35 Srila Prabhupada tells us a very important message. In this verse
Krishna is addressed as Govinda by Arjuna as Lord is the ultimate source of pleasure for cows
and senses. This does not mean that Govinda is meant for satisfying our senses. He is also
addressed as Hrishikesa which means master of senses. All living entity are part and parcel
of Lord, so senses of living entities are also part and parcel of Lord’s senses. In this way Lord
is the master of all senses. It means that if we satisfy the senses of Lord our senses will be
automatically satisfied. However, materially we always ask God for objects of sense
gratification and Lord does provide us with them but only as much as we deserve. After
gaining those objects we want to show it off to our friends or relatives. The correct way to
approach Lord is opposite. We are meant to serve Lord by engaging in Sankirtan, association
of devotees and spreading message of Lord. The Lord then gives us opulence which is meant
to be used for his service and not for sense gratification, which is the trait of true devotee.

Verse 1.21 ; 1.22 This verse is direct proof about Supreme Lords mercy. It tells us
that if we become Lords pure devotee, he takes over whatever role we want him to take. He
is ready to take our orders and become our charioteer. Here it may seem that charioteer is a
lower position but it’s the most important position. We need to have faith in Lord and
handover the control of our senses to him and work for his pleasure and he will carry us to
the correct destination. Important point from this verse to remember is that despite Lord
taking pure devotee’s order and assuming Charioteer’s position his supremacy can never be
challenged. That shows us his mercy upon us.

Verse 1.25 This verse gives us a proof that Lord Krishna is Hrsikesa. The knower of
senses of all living beings. Lord knew what was there in Arujna’s mind and he playfully
mentioned about the same to Arjuna. This means nothing is hidden from Lord. Whatever we
are thinking or what is going on within us is also known to him.

Verse 1.30 This verse truly depicts our bad times in life. We tend to forget right
and wrong and loose our mind when attachment to material things complete take over. If
we are overly happy, we indulge in sense gratification. If we are overly sad, we see
misfortune and hopelessness everywhere. If we are overly angry, we get bad and destructive
thoughts or indulge in unacceptable actions.


 Duryodhana was seeing at the war as means to defeat his enemies, Pandavas, and to
gain the throne without any compassion for anyone.
 Arjuna on other hand was compassionate not only for Bhishma and Guru Drona but also
for Kauravas who had wronged Pandavas and their wife Draupadi but Arjuna still
considered them as his brothers. He was ready to forget everything and give up on the
war
 Duryodhana had false ego and pride based on power and strength of his supporters,
while his own power was limited. He was comparing the strength of the army by
comparing the great warriors participating in the war
 Arjuna despite having Lord Shri Krishna on his side and himself being the most efficient
archer of his time did not have ego or pride. He requested Lord to draw the chariot to
the middle of battlefield with desire to check with whom he would have to fight, not to
compare his strength but out of compassion to see who all would be killed in this war.

In this purport Srila Praphupada wants to covey that Lord Sri Krishna is so merciful
and compassionate that Lord gets pleasure in taking orders and assuming a lower position
for his pure Devotee. To prevent us from misunderstanding the situation here Arjuna
addresses Lord Sri Krishna as “Acyuta”. Srila Prabhupada elaborates on this stating that
acyuta means infallible. Lord is so great that even after taking the position of charioteer for
his loving friend Arjuna his greatness doesn’t reduce even a bit. The mood of the lord is here
of serving his devotee. He is so compassionate that he accepts the position the pure devotee
gives him because Lord Krishna knows its out of love for him from devotee and devotee
knows and has no doubt about the greatness of Lord or challenges the greatness of the Lord
when Lord takes orders from Devotee. Another example that comes to my mind is when
Pure devotees of Lord refer other devotees on path of Krishna Consciousness to Lord. Lord
knows we might not be fit yet but because his pure devotee has recommended us to him,
Krishna accepts us, but this nowhere challenges the greatness of Lord.

1- On Seeing his friends and relatives before him in fighting spirit, Arjuna felt week and his
mouth dried up. Due to this weakness he was forgetting himself and he saw only pain
 and misery after the war. He felt even if he won, he would not have any relatives left to
share his victory with
2- For Arjun, his grandfather Bhishma and Guru Drona were ideals and worship able and
Arjun was their favorite grandson and student respectively. He felt great sin would be
done if he killed such saintly people. He would not achieve any joy in killing them as the
victory would be tainted with the blood of relatives
3- Arjuna could also foresee destruction of dynasty and eternal family tradition causing
irreligion to become prevalent among the living members which would pollute the
family, make men irresponsible and degrade the womanhood leading to more irreligious
decedents. This would also lead to unhappy ancestors and transfer to hellish planets. He
saw complete destruction of his family and community not only for members in present
but also for future generations and ancestors.
4- His Kshatriya Dharma told him to fight but his compassion for his friends and relatives
stopped him. He was confused about his duty. The grief had completely taken over him
and he felt that no amount of wealth and kingdom in return of killing his relatives and
friends would make him happy

Both Dhrtarastra and Arjuna were clouded by materialistic attachment.

From verse 28-46 we can see that Arjuna was lamenting thinking about loss of his relatives
and friends. He was compassionate not only for relatives and soldiers fighting from his side
but also for other side. He was not only ready to give up the Kingdom but also die unarmed.
He saw no good in enjoying any amount of victory at cost of his close relatives and just saw
destruction of his family and dynasty irrespective of who won.

He was in mode of surrender to Lord Sri Krishna. This can be understood from the names
Arjuna uses for Lord Krishna in various verses.

Dhrtarastra on other hand was only focused on gaining the throne for his sons. He never
accepted Pandavas as his family members. In purport for verse 1 Srila Prabhupada mentions
that Dhrtarastra claimed only his sons as Kurus. He was so blinded by love for his sons and
throne that despite knowing about Lord Krishna and importance of battlefield ground
-Kuruksetra, he wasn’t ready to surrender. Despite being aware of all the wrong doings of his
sons in love for his sons he never stopped them.
 When we are clouded by material attachments our vision gets clouded and we can’t
recognize Lord. For example in case of Duryodhana, he was so attached to throne and
had so much blind faith in the strength of is relatives despite Supreme Lord being in
front of him he could not accept him and rather considered him weak as Lord promised
not to use any weapons. In case of Arjuna as well, he was so attached to his grandfather
and Guru that he forgot about Krishna’s will and thought about his personal dharma and
happiness.
 One teaching that is evident from chapter 1 is that the victory and fortune is on the side
of persons on whose side Lord Shri Krishna takes.
 Our attachments to material relations and objects are biggest bottle neck to the spiritual
growth and Krishna Prem.
 Lords mercy is so endless despite he being the originator and infallible supreme
personality, he takes pleasure in taking lower position and accepts orders from pure
devotee.
 Lord is so great that he understands what’s going on with devotee or non-devotee as he
exists in everyone in form of Paramatma. He could understand what Arjuna is going
through and there he said behold the Kuru’s.
 Despite knowing what’s going on in Arjuna’s mind he still let Arjuna speak his heart
which tells us that Lord lets us have freedom in our choice and expression.