In Part 9 of Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s explanation of the Gita, he continues exploring the beliefs of ancient Eastern traditions like Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism. He compares their teachings on virtue, moral conduct, and salvation with the deeper spiritual wisdom of the Gita, revealing how even these respected paths ultimately fall short unless they lead to single-minded devotion to Krishn.
According to Swami Prakashanand Saraswati.
The Divine souls: In the previous speech, I explained about two religions of China that came around 2,500 years ago – Taoism and Confucianism. Taoism is like our brahm gyan, Brahm gyani, and path of worship to absolute form of God. And their path is like karm yog of the Gita. They used a word “non-action action”. What is non-action action? Our karm yog. That’s it. Means absorb your mind in the Divine truth. Then do the actions. Detach from the world; do the actions. That is our karm yog. That’s non-action action. It’s not intellectually calculated action, just natural action. So it’s our true karm yog.
Read Part 1 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 1
About their definition of Tao, they say it can’t be described. At one place, Gita says, (Sanskrit) “The one who has experienced the absolute truth, he is so amazed.” Is that the thing (he) can’t describe? He experiences; he can’t describe. If he tries to describe to some other person or his friend, and that friend listens to it with amazement, “Oh, is it that great?” “Yes.” “How great?” Again, the listener cannot understand how great. How great? How amazing? What kind? What quality? Just, amazing experience. Extraordinary experience. Beyond nature experience. That’s all. It’s a verse of the Gita about Brahm. Same about Tao, he says… beyond explanation. So, in our Gita, the philosophy is there. One more thing it says, “Everything comes from that, stays in that, goes back in that”.
Read Part 2 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 2
So in the Gita also, everything comes from Krishn, stays in Krishn, goes back to Krishn. Means Krishn Brahm, Krishn God. But Gita further says, although it is a path of impersonal worship to God, it’s correct, not incorrect. There’s one thing (Sanskrit). This path of totally releasing all the attachments and entering into absolute Divine consciousness (like Taoism) is very difficult, very, very difficult for an ordinary person. It is a path, but very difficult. So Gita has a suggestion. Why not then come to Krishn? Because that absolute Brahm (Sanskrit) stays in Krishn. So (Sanskrit), “Oh souls of the world, any kind of Divine existence, whatever it is, is all within Me. I am the origin of all kinds of Divine existence. So come to Me.” Renouncing the world? No, no. Don’t renounce. Just have a desire to find, that’s it. A deep, sincere, exclusive desire to find God. That’s enough. If you have that desire, “Come to Me (Sanskrit). Give your mind to Me. (Sanskrit) Worship Me. Adore Me. Then you will stay in Me, and in the end, you will come to Me.”
Read Part 3 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 3
Other religion, that Confucius? Whatever I described in my last speech, there’s a verse about dharm (Sanskrit). Our Scripture says these are the qualities of dharm. What qualities? You should not be angry. You should be truthful. Don’t cheat on others. Have spiritual knowledge. Have patience; don’t lose patience. Have benevolence. Forgive others. Restrain your mind from outgoing nature. Bring yourself to your heart. Don’t be too much involved in worldly things. These are all our dharm, Seemit dharm, means ordinary dharm, described in all of our books. That’s what Confucius says. It says one more thing; it says that the one following this religion may also join another religion. They don’t mind. They don’t mind. So, it’s open. Nothing wrong. From a bad person, at least they make you a good person. But after becoming a good person, you have to rise up because that’s not enough. That is not enough. Gita says that just by remaining good, you won’t remain good forever because world is attractive. Your desires, you have subsided them, you have not killed your desires. They will rise again and entice you in worldly attractions and worldly atmosphere.
Read Part 4 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 4
So, Gita says that you have to rise up. Rise up means come to Krishn (Sanskrit). Do your duties, but (Sanskrit) means you are doing all those good deeds which are supposed to be good for a very good person, but with those good deeds, you will only receive celestial enjoyments. (Sanskrit) So you worship Me with those good deeds, further ahead. (Sanskrit) Supreme God – (Sanskrit) worship, adore. So, offer all of your good deeds to Supreme Personality of the Godhead. Then with His grace, you may eliminate your all kinds of physical, mental, and mayic bondage, and receive happiness, perfection forever. So (Sanskrit) Gita says, “Give your mind to Me, give your heart to Me. Give all of your good actions to Me. Offer to Me. Become real karm yogi, and then after becoming a real karm yogi, with My grace, your bondage will be eliminated and you will receive perfect happiness forever.” So the perfect being of Confucianism can rise to a devotional being and then come to Krishn. And Taoism philosophy is our absolute advait philosophy.
Read Part 5 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 5
There’s one more religion in Japan. It started around 3,000 years ago, very old religion. Shinto religion. Shinto, from Chinese word shintao. They believe in god spirits. That’s it. It’s called, “way of the spirits; path of the spirits.” Shintao – way of the spirits. They also have a scripture. So in their scripture is also mainly worship to those celestial beings, and being truthful to your family, friends, and the government. That’s their – in gyst – religion. But they have more than 100,000 of shrines of those kami. Kami means those spirit beings in Japan. But those shrines are just shrines. Nothing inside there. No deity, no altar, no picture, no statue. Just the shrine is there. They believe that the spirits live there. They call it kami. Kami means spirits, celestial beings. So those celestial beings or spirit beings, they live there, and they help the good souls. In their book, I think it’s called Hokaji, in that scripture book they have, they stress very much on protecting your king. They call just like your king, or the state is a divine institution. You have to protect it. You have to be faithful to your king, even by sacrificing your personal needs. They go to that extent. So we see in Japan actually, they all are very close, and their king and the family and people, they are like one, you can say. Protecting your family also.
Read Part 6 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 6
They have these two important duties: protecting your family and king, being faithful to both. That is their devotion. They also believe that every soul has a good nature, and he has to restrict to his good nature. Restrict to his good nature. So, performing all his duties towards his family and friends and king, and also trying to remain good by holding truthfulness in his mind, that he is supposed to be good, not bad. So by trying to remain good, they shake off all bad things. The same principle. You don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. Means just like whatever you feel happy when people do something to you, do same thing to others. What makes you grieved, don’t do that thing to others to make them grieved. A simple thing. And worship those Kami. But they have no definite figure of that spirit; just, they call it celestial beings. How many they are? They are innumerable, uncountable, thousands and thousands and thousands. You can’t count them. But they are all over. One thing they say, that there is no supreme god to obey. You are free. Not one single supreme god or supreme being. They are uncountable celestial beings. Just follow them and remain good. Worship those spirit beings just by offering food, water, incense. And then what will happen, after death you may enter into the spirit world and enjoy immortality with them. That’s their whole total philosophy.
Read Part 7 here: Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 7
Now we come to our Gita, what Gita says. Gita says Yes, there are thousands of gods and goddesses, not one or two. Thousands of gods and goddesses. But (Sanskrit) any soul who worships to any form of god, he worships that form of god with great reverence and faith and dedication. Suppose somebody is worshipping god Indra, god Brihaspati ,any kind of such god, or a number of gods and goddesses together, so (Sanskrit) he develops a faith in them. It’s OK. It’s a kind of worship, wholehearted devotion. But then what happens? What happens in the end? He leaves the earth and goes to those celestial abodes where his adored god lives. (Sanskrit) Those who worship devas, gods, (Sanskrit) so they reach there. They don’t come to Me (Krishn). (Sanskrit) There are quite a few words in Gita. So they don’t come to Me, so they go to their celestial abode, and after some time (Sanskrit)… “Oh Arjun, up to Brahm lok, all those abodes, anyone who goes there, they are revertible. Those who go there, they come back on the earth planet and appear here as a normal being. So it’s no use going there for a short while.”
Read Part 8 Here: Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 8
Suppose you collected some money, saved some money after hardship, and after saving some money, you went to enjoy some other country. You enjoyed the money and came back broke. Again, saved some money. In a year or two again went somewhere over there, enjoyed, and again came back penniless. So saving your money is painful. Enjoyment for a short period of time and coming broke. It’s same thing, going to celestial abodes and coming back broke. Again going; again coming back. So in this way, this cycle of life and death is not going to end. And even when you go there, you are not very happy because those who have done bigger dharm, they receive a bigger seat, and you are jealous. “Oh, he has a bigger Yan, that kind of celestial airplane. I have a small airplane. He has a big luxury at his house. I have a small house.” So you are jealous all the time. And you again come back, anyway. So, “You have to come to Me.” So Gita says although it’s not bad to worship gods and goddesses, but, “You must know that the gods and goddesses also belong to Me. You have to rise. Don’t use your faith unnecessarily in gods and goddesses, use the same faith in Me. So with the same amount of worship, same amount of dedication, same amount of sacrifice, you may receive Me.” (Sanskrit)
“So, when my devotee comes to Me, he never goes back in the world.” But their bhaktas, bhaktas of celestial gods and goddesses, they cannot kill the cycle of life and death. Just like just a pleasure visit and come back. So, “Oh souls of the world, when you have faith, dedication, when you are good, pious, kind-hearted, why can’t you use all those good virtues to worship the Supreme God?” And by worshipping Supreme God, you will remain in His abode forever and have permanent bliss. So Gita says, “Oh souls, use your all good virtues for God realization.”
In this way we see that all these religions, mainly these three religions of the West, China and Japan, they have some good qualities, but Gita says a step ahead. So our Gita incorporates the philosophy of their religions, but says it is not enough. You have to go ahead and surrender to Supreme Personality of the Godhead, Krishn.
In Conclusion:
Swamiji explained that although religions like Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism promote self-discipline and righteous behavior, their focus remains within the boundaries of worldly or celestial rewards. They lack the concept of absolute surrender to a personal God, which is the essence of true liberation. Therefore, even their highest goals cannot take the soul beyond maya. In Part 10, he will continue to elaborate on the limitations of worldly and celestial rewards, further deepening the understanding of why only loving surrender to Krishn can liberate the soul from the endless cycle of birth and death.