Bhagavatam-daily 279 – 11.13.12 – We may be contaminated by the modes, but we dont have to be controlled by them

Behavior thank you that even if one’s intelligence vidvan vikshita deepuna even our persons learned persons intelligence has been bewildered by the modes of passion and ignorance atantrita manoyunjan atantrita means by conscientiously carefully meticulously engaging the mind dosha drishti na sajjate by seeing the faults of by seeing the faults the contamination of the material nature one can avoid becoming attached so here Krishna is offering a intriguing solution to the problem of delusion caused by the modes even if we understand that we are infected by the lower modes the question begs itself ok what can i do that means ok i am feeling greedy i am feeling lusty and i understand ok these are not the feelings that are natural to me that are innate to me as a soul they are alien to me but still i do feel them right now and what do i do then so i feel the pull of the cravings induced by the modes of passion and ignorance so i may not want to sleep in japa but i feel extremely sleepy as soon as i start studying shastra i start yawning i start getting bored now what do i do so here Krishna tells that yes even when we are contaminated by the modes this still by carefully observing by carefully engaging the mind we can avoid being contaminated by the contamination of the modes that means that we can cautiously avoid slipping down to the lower modes even when we have the tendency to do so for example if we are walking on a slippery floor then there is a greater likelihood that we will slip and fall but still it is not necessary that just because we are walking on a slippery floor we have to slip and fall if we are extra cautious put our foot carefully watch for that part of the floor which is the least slippery and put our foot there or hold on to someone else or something else maybe walk along the wall then we can avoid slipping so just because the floor is slippery doesn’t mean we have to slip similarly this world is like a treacherous soil treacherous soil refers to some places there are marshes and sometimes there is quicksand so it appears as if there is normal ground or maybe a little damp but still it is ground I can put my foot inside it and I can walk ahead but then when we put our foot inside if we put our foot at the wrong place our foot will get sucked in once it is sucked in we may try to pull the foot out but no matter how much we try actually we become more entangled so now what do we do? this world itself is like a treacherous soil I will not go in the area where there is a marsh but if our house itself is surrounded by marsh then there is no way for us to go home itself if we say I will not go to the marsh then we have to still find a careful way through the marsh and yes there may be some rocks, some stones and we can ourselves arrange to put some stones in a row by which a path is created and thus we can avoid the we can minimize the danger while going through the marshy area so similarly yes there is a lot of influence of the modes of passion and ignorance externally and there is also a lot of there may be a lot of passion and ignorance within us too and yet we don’t have to succumb to passion and ignorance a certain level of self regulation between inclination and intention is expected even in basic human society, what to speak of spiritual society for example if we are passing by a shop and we say it’s a food shop and we see some food item that looks good now the inclination may be I want to eat it but it’s not that we just put our hand on the display and take the food, we know I have to pay for it and if I am not ready to spend the money then I will not take it, so although I may have the inclination to eat it we will not act on it and we will even in some cases not even let that inclination get to the level of intention, intention means we decide to do it so that sort of basic amount of regulation is required for normal conduct in human society when a man sees a good looking woman or a woman sees a good looking handsome man then there may be some attraction, there may be some arousal but there is a certain amount but culture means that people discipline those lower impulses and if they are meeting in a professional setting they will keep their relationship professional, so the point is that it is not that we human beings are in any way meant to be slaves to our feelings, so just as we can, just as we in the normal conduct of our daily lives do restrain ourselves based on certain external considerations, of course the main consideration here will be that legal consideration if we just take something from a shop without paying then we may be punished, penalized and of course the same can happen with sexual molestation in a much more serious degree, so the point is that while there may be external impetuses that because of which we sometimes don’t let our inclination translate into action, our sharp intelligence our awareness can become our own internal check also so that means when if we study scripture carefully and understand the characteristics of the modes of passion and ignorance and thereafter whenever we start feeling some kind of desires or our perceptions in a way that we understand oh this is passion, this is ignorance, so we need alertness for that so first we need awareness and then we need alertness awareness means that that is more like educational or intellectual awareness where we understand these are the characteristics of the mode of passion, these are the characteristics of the mode of ignorance so if we are studying scripture regularly then we will understand these characteristics and then when there is alertness, now the feelings I am getting alertness basically means we are able to connect our feelings with our scriptural studies this is not my feeling, this is a feeling which is coming because of the mode of passion or ignorance and then after that we can turn towards something which gives us shelter just like on slippery soil or in quicksand, we may find some stick or lean against some wall or whatever or put our foot carefully on some stones whatever will stabilize us, we take help of that similarly whenever we start feeling the effect of the lower modes on us, rather than letting that affect us we immediately turn our consciousness towards something that offers us the shelter of sattva or shuddha sattva so we can of course chant Hare Krishna, pray to Krishna, look at a picture of the deity of Krishna, recite some verses read some philosophy so whatever can stabilize us we can do that and so thus we can despite having the contamination, we can avoid contaminated action, we can avoid letting that contamination spread further and delude us by

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.13.13 That even if one's intelligence vidvan vikshita dheepuna even a person's, a learned person's intelligence has been bewildered by the modes of passion and ignorance, which is tamo bhyam atantrito mano yunjan atantrita means by conscientiously carefully, meticulously engaging the mind, dosa drishti na sajjate by seeing the faults of by seeing the faults the contamination of material nature one can avoid becoming attached so here Krishna is offering a intriguing solution to the problem of delusion caused by the modes even if we understand that we are infected by the lower modes the question begs itself, ok, what can I do? that means ok, I'm feeling greedy I'm feeling lusty and I understand ok, these are not the feelings that are natural to me that are innate to me as a soul they are alien to me, but still I do feel them right now and what do I do then? so I feel the pull of the cravings induced by the modes of passion and ignorance so I may not want to sleep in japa but I feel extremely sleepy as soon as I start studying shastra, I start yawning I start getting bored what do I do? so here Krishna tells that yes even when we are contaminated by the modes it is still by carefully observing, by carefully engaging the mind we can avoid being contaminated by the contamination of the modes that means that we can cautiously avoid slipping down to the lower modes even when we have the tendency to do so for example if we are walking on a slippery floor then there is a greater likelihood that we will slip and fall but still it is not necessary that just because we are walking on a slippery floor, we have to slip and fall if we are extra cautious put our foot carefully watch for that part of the floor which is the least slippery and put our foot there or hold on to someone else or something else maybe walk along the wall then we can avoid slipping so just because the floor is slippery doesn't mean we have to slip similarly this world is like a treacherous soil slippery floor is a more familiar example for us treacherous soil refers to some places there are marshes and sometimes there is quicksand so it appears as if there is normal ground or maybe a little damp but still it is ground I can put my foot inside it and I can walk ahead but then when we put our foot inside if we put our foot at the wrong place our foot will get sucked in once it is sucked in we may try to pull the foot out but no matter how much we try actually we become more entangled so now what do we do? this world itself is like a treacherous soil that means now we may say I will not go in the area where there is a marsh but if the place where we live if our house itself is surrounded by marsh and there is no way for us to go home itself if we say I will not go into the marsh then we have to still find a careful way through the marsh and yes there may be some rocks some stones and we can ourselves arrange to put some stones in a row by which a path is created and thus we can avoid the we can minimize the danger while going through the marsh area so similarly yes there is a lot of influence of the modes of passion and ignorance externally and there is also a lot of there may be a lot of passion and ignorance within us too and yet we don't have to succumb to passion and ignorance a certain level of self regulation between inclination and intention is expected even in basic human society or to speak of spiritual society for example if we are passing by a shop and we say it's a food shop and we see some food item that looks good now the inclination may be I want to eat it but it's not that we just put our hand on the on the display or and take the food we know I have to pay for it and if I am not ready to spend the money then I will not take it so although I may have the inclination to eat it we will not act on it and we will even in some cases not even let that inclination get to the level of intention intention means we decide to do it so that sort of basic amount of regulation is required for normal conduct in human society you know when a man sees a good looking woman or a woman sees a good looking handsome man then there may be some attraction there may be some arousal but there is a certain amount of but culture means that people will discipline those lower impulses and if they are meeting in a professional setting they will keep their relationship professional so the point is that it is not that we human beings are in any way meant to be slaves to our feelings just as we can just as we in the normal conduct of our daily lives do restrain ourselves based on certain external considerations of course the main consideration here will be legal consideration if we just take something from a shop without paying then we may be justiced, punished, penalized and of course the same can happen with sexual molestation in a much more serious degree so the point is that while there may be external impetuses that because of which we sometimes don't let our inclination translated to action our sharp intelligence our awareness can become our own internal check also so that means when if we study scripture carefully and understand the characteristics of the modes of passion and ignorance and thereafter whenever we start feeling some kind of desires or our perceptions in a way that we understand this is passion, this is ignorance, so we need alertness for that so first we need awareness and then we need alertness awareness means that that is more like educational or intellectual awareness where we understand these are the characteristics of the mode of passion these are the characteristics of the mode of ignorance so if we are studying scripture regularly then we will understand these characteristics and then when there is alertness now the feelings I am getting, alertness basically means we are able to connect our feelings with our scriptural studies this is not my feeling, this is a feeling which is coming because of the mode of passion or ignorance and then after that we can turn towards something which gives us shelter just like on slippery soil or in quicksand we may find some stick or lean against some wall or whatever or put our foot carefully on some stones whatever will stabilize us we take help of that similarly whenever we start feeling the effect of the lower modes on us rather than letting that affect us we immediately turn our consciousness towards something that offers us the shelter of sattva or shuddha sattva so we can of course chant Hare Krishna pray to Krishna, look at a picture of the deity of Krishna, recite some verses read some philosophy so whatever can stabilize us we can do that and so thus despite having the contamination we can avoid contaminated action we can avoid letting that contamination spread further and delude us by being careful thank you.