Bhagavatam-daily 269 – 11.13.2 – Dont reject the material – connect with the material that takes us to the transcendental

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Of bhakti thank you and connection with that is over here sattva dharmo bhave whereby by the mode of goodness dharma grows and what kind of dharma? that dharma which is characterized by bhakti lakshana which is characterized by devotion to me and the growth of dharma sattvi topasya sattva when we do activities when we connect with things that are conducive to goodness goodness grows and tato dharma pravartate and then dharma becomes prominent so essentially krishna is talking about the conducive relationship here between sattva guna and dharma at one level it is philosophically important to know that goodness is not transcendental and krishna makes it clear in the 14th chapter of the bhagavad gita which deals with the 3 modes of material nature where he says sattva also binds in 14.9 he states that sattva sukhe sanjayate rajah karmani bharata jana maavruta dhuta maha pramade sanjayate jana maavruta dhuta maha pramade so sattva binds with the sense of happiness oh things are fine i am happy what else do i need in my life i am fine here sattva causes goodness rajah karmani bharata rajah causes binders to karma one wants to do more and more sukhe sanjayate rajah karmani bharata and jana maavruta dhuta maha pramade sanjayate and pramad madness is the result of mode of ignorance certainly the means by which the ways in which the lower modes bind they are far more dangerous and far more detrimental to our overall well being but still the mode of goodness also binds however among the three modes the mode of goodness is the most conducive if we consider the example of wood wood that is wet it is very difficult for it to catch fire wood that is semi dry it is little more likely to catch fire but wood that is dry it is much more likely to catch fire but still the dry wood in of itself is not enough ultimately you need fire so similarly goodness has its advantage and that advantage over here is explained to be in terms of its capacity to take us to be conducive for kaldera dharma which will take us towards transcendence especially through the practice of bhakti now krishna in the bhagavad gita also says that raga dvesha mukta isthu vishayan indriyasya atmasya vidayatma prasadamadhi gacchati that raga dvesha attachment and aversion one has to control them so goodness is important why is it important because it enables us to understand what is undesirable and what is desirable it enables us to choose the desirable passion and ignorance they don’t we are dominated by the lower mode and we are dragged here and there so here krishna explained that dharma can be practiced dharma the word at one level means our innate nature at another level it also means the activities that enable us to harmonize with our innate nature dharma doesn’t only mean some law codes do this, don’t do this yes there is that aspect dharmic conduct means acting in a proper way but more importantly these are not just dogmatic impositions because of certain situations these are actually directives for bringing about an awakening of our inner nature so dharma refers to the activities that unleash our spiritual potential and these activities can be practiced much more easily if we are cultivating the mode of goodness and here krishna also says that by how do we cultivate goodness by doing the things that are in goodness say for example waking up early in the morning trying to have a routine where schedule is there and we do things according to certain schedule planning things eating food that is not too passionate in these ways we can all cultivate goodness, there are many other ways but essentially that is a different subject but the material and the spiritual are different at the same time there are certain things that are conducive for spiritual awareness for spiritual awakening and certain things that are not conducive for spiritual awakening and recognizing this difference and orienting our life in a way by which we choose those things which awaken us spiritually and turn away from those things which don’t awaken us spiritually in this way we can move onwards in our own life so krishna here is telling arjuna that the practice of bhakti is not something that is to be done neglecting everything material rather it is to be done by selecting that among the material which is conducive and connecting that with the transcendent so bhakti has a cultural dimension and we see in that cultural dimension there is goodness and there is that goodness which helps us to rise towards transcendence so krishna says dharma is characterized by bhakti that is also very important different people have different conceptions of dharma and scripture also gives various levels of dharma but dharma refers to our innate nature refers to the activities that revive our potential revive our awareness and our harmonization with our innate nature and our innate nature as soul is to love and serve krishna so to the extent we learn to love and serve krishna to that extent we can move onwards progressively in our spiritual life and we can attain krishna so we all can strive in this way to move closer to krishna and to gradually attain krishna by choosing to live in goodness our mind will be more peaceful relatively speaking and a peaceful mind will be able to connect with krishna more easily and thus dharma pravartate the dharmic principles will prevail in our own life and in our heart and thus our heart will become a more receptive place for the practice of bhakti and the manifestation of krishna