Gita 14.16 Piety purifies, craving torments and intoxication stupefies

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. What happens when we live and die in a particular mood, what destination do we get after death, that was what was mentioned in the previous two verses, in this verse it is mentioned about how the medium term effect manifests or what medium term effect manifests. So, karmana is the action that we do, that the pious actions are performed under the influence of the satvikam, nirmalam, phalam, the phala is that we become purified, nirmala, so purification is the result of the mode of goodness, rajasastu phalam, dukkham, the mode of passion leads to misery, ajnanam tamasa phalam, ajnana, ignorance is the result of tamasa, which is the mode of ignorance, this might seem tautological, but we will look at it more carefully, and we will discover that it isn’t.
So, firstly, the Bhagavad Gita says that when we act in the mode of goodness, then sukruta and nirmala, all actions that we do, they have external consequences and internal consequences. For example, if an alcoholic drinks, then the external consequence may be that that much money is spent, or if they have some problem, health problem caused by drinking, that problem may relapse, but along with that, internally, there is a stronger desire to drink that results, and that actually is much more damaging than any external result that might come. Of course, sometimes the external result might be very damaging for a particular action, but in terms of the enduring shaping of disposition and the struggle it requires to change the disposition, the internal consequence often can be much more damaging.
So, when we act in the mode of goodness, the long term effect is positive, sukruta. Every moment prompts us towards certain kinds of actions, and the mode of goodness prompts us towards acting in pure ways, acting in pious ways, and piety leads to purity. That is the basic principle that this verse stresses on.
Sukruta is piety, pious actions, and nirmala is purification. So, piety engenders purity. In the mode of goodness, because we can see through the nature of worldly pleasures, we don’t feel very attracted to the promises that are made by the world around us.
The promises of pleasure with which sense objects allure people in general, that allure doesn’t captivate those in mode of goodness, and it is usually because of the allurement by the modes that people chase after certain things, and in chasing them, they often indulge in impure activities, in immoral activities, in sinful activities. So, in goodness, one acts with piety, with morality, and the result is purity. That’s how the name goodness, sattva, is reflective of the effect it has on us.
And this piety and purity are very favorable for spirituality, for bhakti. If somehow we can face the reality that even goodness is not good enough, that we need an eternal, personal, reciprocal relationship with the transcendental reality, with God, with Krishna, and that requires us to go beyond goodness to pure goodness, beyond sattva to shuddha sattva. It requires us to direct our heart’s love towards Krishna, and that comes not just by doing pious activities, but by doing devotional activities, by practicing bhakti yoga.
Then, once a person starts practicing bhakti yoga, the piety and purity of goodness can be very conducive in the rapid growth of bhakti. The heart is like a dry wood which can immediately be lit with the flame of Krishna bhakti, of Krishna prema, when one brings it in contact with the torch of Krishna, of the practice of Krishna bhakti. So piety produces purity and prepares one for spirituality, for bhakti, for pure love, for Krishna.
Now, rajasastu phalam dukkham. When one is in rajoguna, at that time, the mode of passion impels one to do things for pleasure. And we do those things, we get some pleasure by doing those things, but the pleasure is short-lived.
In 5.22, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna has stated that ye ki samsparsija bhoga, dukkhyo naya evate, aadyantavantah kaunteyanate suramate budhah, dukkhyo naya evate. So samsparsija bhoga, the pleasure that arises from the mode of passion, that actually leads to misery. Dukkhyo naya evate.
It ends in misery and that’s why we all need to be careful not to be captivated by that pleasure. Once we are captivated, it’s very difficult to protect ourselves. Once we are captivated, we are soon overwhelmed.
We are dragged into actions that are immoral and that bring counterproductive reactions. So it is, Krishna is saying over here, that just living in the mode of passion leads to dukkha. So one dukkha we could say is Trishna.
Krishna has said in 14.7 that prajoragatmakam viddhi trishna sanganim samudbhavam annivednati kaunteya karma sangena dehinam So Krishna has said that the mode of passion leads to Trishna, craving. And Trishna can actually cause, cause klesha. Craving can cause distress, it can be a torment.
Craving can often act like a gourd that pierces our consciousness repeatedly. Do it, do it, do it, do it. And saying no becomes extremely distressing, extremely difficult.
And just to avoid the gourd piercing us, we may say yes. So the torment of craving is itself dukkha, the distress that comes from the mode of passion. Because the mode of passion leads to the intensification, the aggravation and the perpetuation of craving.
So intensified means we start desiring much much strongly. Aggravation means that one desire, one indulgence doesn’t satisfy us, we want more and more. And perpetuation means that we feel the craving repeatedly also.
So thus we end up captivated, consumed, unable to protect ourselves from the torment. So this is the phalam, dukkham and then ajnanam, tamasah phalam. Tamasah is the mode of ignorance.
Jnana is ignorance again. In the mode of ignorance, we are in ignorance, but acting in the mode of ignorance only increases our ignorance. So a person who is captivated by, let’s say, idly blazing around, that person blazes around, oversleeps, doesn’t do anything.
And then at the end of it, that person has gone into deeper ignorance. So the mode of ignorance, if somebody is intoxicated, initially they are thinking that Oh, if I just drink, I feel better. But after they drink, they may temporarily feel high.
But after that, they become incapable of doing anything. They actually end up in greater trouble because they just don’t know what to do in that particular situation to deal with the aggravated problems that they are having. They were having some problems, but now they’re drunk, they can’t even think clearly.
And so they become even less capable of dealing with their problems. So to be overwhelmed by problems is itself a problem. It is reflective of ignorance because we do not really understand that we are souls, we are parts of Krishna.
And in that sense we are internally secure, being situated ontologically at a level of reality above all material problems. Because we are situated in spiritual reality. So being overwhelmed by problems is itself one level of ignorance.
But another level is thinking that eroding our ability to deal with problems is actually a bigger level of ignorance. Because when we erode or disrupt our ability, then we make ourselves powerless or far less competent for dealing with the problem. So the thing that drinking will solve the problem is a problem, it’s ignorance.
But then after getting drunk and then thinking that I’m the king of the world, that is a bigger problem. So in this way Krishna in this verse describes the medium term consequences of living and acting within the modes.