Gita 14.20 Those who transcend the modes transcend miseries

Transcript

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Thank you. mukto amritam aśnute Krishna is coming towards the conclusion of describing the three modes of material nature. Of course, the chapter doesn’t conclude here, because Arjuna asks a question, which Krishna answers in subsequent verses.
But here, the focus is on guṇān etān atityatri guṇān etān These three modes, atityatri, when one goes beyond them, dehi dehasamudbhavān dehasamudbhavān The modes are born from material nature. Dehi, when the soul, the embodied soul goes beyond the three modes, which are born with the material nature. janmaṁ yujarā duḥkhair The distresses of material existence, of death, old age.
mukto amritam aśnute One will become liberated and will attain nectar, attain immortality. So, Krishna uses several significant words over here. dehi dehasamudbhavān So, samudbhava means born with, produced along with, concomitant.
dehi dehasamudbhavān So, the dehasamudbhava is referring to the guṇān etān atityatri. It refers to that, not the immediate noun that is dehi. So, the modes are born with the body.
That means, based on the way we have acted in our previous lives, we all face certain situations. Not just in terms of the external situations that we get as a result of our past karma, but also in terms of our internal dispositions that we acquire because of our past karma. So, if we have lived angrily in a previous life, then that anger carries over into this life and it makes us short-tempered.
If we have lived regulated, disciplined lives, then that mental culture of regulation and discipline carries over into this life and then the person may be, relatively speaking, in a mode of goodness. So, the modes that we have acquired from our previous life are concomitant with the body and we can’t wish them away. At the same time, we can’t just perpetuate them and we certainly needn’t aggravate them.
We can gradually tolerate and transcend them. So, we tolerate them by knowledge that these are external to me and we transcend them by absorption in Krishna, by absorption in spiritual reality, understanding that not only are these external to me, but they are also lower than me. Just like if we are in a house and there is a lot of cold in the house, then we may tolerate it by heat-proofing our house by having central heating by which we don’t feel the heat.
But say, if it’s along with the same sort of heat there is cold and along with the cold there is cold water that is streaming into the house, rushing into the house because of a flood, then we may rise to a higher level. We may go to our balcony, we may go to our attic, where we can be above the water. So, tolerating can be with knowledge.
It’s like heating the room to protect it from cold, but transcending is like rising to a higher level. So, by understanding that the modes act on the body and the mind, which is external to other souls, we can tolerate the modes. Yes, this feeling will come and this feeling will go.
Let me just tolerate it. But then beyond that, we can rise to a higher level by understanding that I’m a soul, I’m a part of Krishna and my essential longing is for Krishna. Now, Rehasamudbhavan.
So, we can’t really wish away the modes. We have to work our way with the modes and through the modes towards transcendence. So, we can’t wish away the modes.
We work our way through them by tolerance towards transcendence. Just like if we suddenly find ourselves in a crowded place where we are being pushed, sometimes we just have to tolerate the push that is there around us and we move on towards the area where the crowd thins out. So, by tolerance, we go towards transcendence.
Now, what happens when we do this? janmrtyujaradukkhair There are the distresses of birth, death and old age. These vimukto. We become liberated from this.
Krishna has used the word vimukti earlier. In the 9th chapter, when he says 9.28, he says that when we combine detachment with devotion, we attain a special liberation, vimukto. Mukti is liberation, vimukti is vishish, a special liberation.
So, here Krishna is using the same word vimukto and there, the context was very devotional. The center was Krishna, so vimukto mam paishyasi it was. Here it is vimukto amritam ashnute.
We attain immortality. We relish immortality. Krishna has used this phrase also, amritam ashnute, earlier.
In 13.13, when he says So, jnaya, if you understand the object of knowing, vijnatva, by knowing it, amritam ashnute, we relish immortality. So, the distresses of old age, disease, death, these are inevitable. We can’t avoid them as long as we are in material existence.
In terms of the events that we experience, the body is going to deteriorate, the body is going to age, get diseased and ultimately be destroyed. But it is the modes that bind our consciousness to the body and to the extent our consciousness is bound to the body, to that extent we suffer. And to the extent our consciousness becomes detached from the body, then we do not suffer that much.
Just like if we are watching a TV, we are seeing some program and if that program turns out to be horrible, then we become miserable. But if we have a TV that we are not particularly attached to, the TV, and we only rarely watch it, then even if somehow the TV gets destroyed, we will be not that disturbed. Similarly, when we are not too attached to the body for enjoying the things provided by the body, then even if the body gets deteriorated or destroyed, we don’t suffer so much.
By realizing our spiritual eternality, by realizing our blissful nature as parts of the supreme blissful whole, Krishna, we relish higher happiness thereof. Amritam Ashunte. Thank you.