Bhakti Shastri (125) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14 Text 14 to 18

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Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastra recalls, we are now in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.
We discussed in the previous section about how the modes can be understood from their characteristics which manifest when one mode sub-occurs, when one mode predominates over other modes. So, we have discussed till verse 13, now we are discussing from verses 14 to 18. Effect of conditioning by the modes.
So, 14, 15 talks about the long-term effect in terms of what happens after death, the post-death destination. Then 16th verse talks about the medium-term effect. Then 17th verse talks about the immediate effect.
Then 18th verse talks about the overall direction of the post-mortem journey. Let’s look at this discussion now. When sattva is stronger, at that time, pralaya means death.
Pralaya can mean destruction. It can refer to the final destruction of the universe that happens. The final universal destruction that happens at the end of the lifetime of Brahma.
So, the word pralaya can refer to that. The word pralaya can also refer to various other things. So, in the Bhagavad Gita, the word pralaya is used to refer to death.
It is used to refer, again in the 16th chapter also, chintam parimeyam cha pralayantam upashritah. So, in 16.11 and 12, Krishna talks about those ungodly, demoniac people who make sense gratification as the only goal of their lives. For those people, pralayantam upashritah, till the moment of death there will be chintam, there will be anxiety.
So, there also the word used, pralaya, for death. So, here also, pralayam yati deha bhrit. So, those who are deha bhrit, the embodied souls, if they die when the mode of goodness is prominent, then what happens? Uttam vidam lokaan samalaan prathipadyate.
So, prathipadyate, they will attain. What will they attain? The amala planets, the spotless planets of the uttam vidam. Uttam vidam is those who are the knowers.
Vida is to know. Uttama is that which is above tama. So, that which is a higher state of knowledge.
So, those auspicious planets, those pure planets, where the knowers live, uttam vidam, those knowers of the higher knowledge live, those lokas will be attained. So, earlier Krishna has described that prakasham. He has used the word prakash to characterise the mode of goodness twice.
First in his initial description 16.6 and again in another description 16.11. So, those who live in knowledge in this life, they gain further knowledge after this life. That’s how it is. We live in knowledge, we will gain further knowledge by that.
So, uttam vidam lokaan. Uttam vidam lokaan amalaan prathipadyate. So, this can refer to the swarga.
Actually, it refers to even higher lokas also, above the swarga lokas. This doesn’t refer to liberation clearly because Krishna will talk about liberation later on, after describing the analysis of the three modes. But, if we live in goodness, then we attain the destination, as a destination, those places which are in goodness.
Now, are swarga lokas in goodness? Relatively speaking, we could say yes, as compared to the earthly planetary system, where often people live without any reference to scripture, the people in swarga loka are definitely more in goodness. They definitely accept the authority of Vishnu, they accept the authority of the Vedas. But, even if they do not necessarily accept the process of pure devotional service, the process of devotional service and the goal of pure love, they will not be aspiring for that immediately.
They are devotees. They may not be pure devotees, but they are definitely devotionally minded and they are more theistic. So, the acceptance of scripture authority, the acceptance of devotion to Vishnu, that itself is indicative of their goodness.
So, the devatas are definitely in goodness as compared to the earthly planetary system. But, are the devatas in goodness as compared to transcendence? No. Devatas are not so much in goodness as compared to transcendence.
Sorry, not even as compared to the life, say, brahma loka, satya loka, jana loka, tapa loka, the upper planetary systems, where people perform austerities and where there are no tapa loka, jana loka, it is not that people are drinking somarasa and enjoying with apsaras. So, there the life is much more focused on austerity, much more focused on liberation, much more focused on transcendence. So, that will be much more goodness.
So, we should not think of goodness as just one homogenous attitude. Now, even within goodness also, there are levels. So, there are goodness which is much more towards passion, then there is goodness which is much more closer to transcendence and then there is intermediate goodness also.
So, if you consider goodness not as a homogeneity, but as a spectrum within an overall shade of purity as its amalam, prakasham, of knowledge and purity, within that, with that common setting, there is a spectrum over there. So, uttam vidam. So, if people live in goodness, then they attain this uttam vidam lokan.
So, even those in swarga are not necessarily always considered uttam vidam, because they are also caught in the pursuit of sense gratification. So, living in goodness can take one to swarga. It can take one higher to than swarga also.
It depends on the level of goodness that one has cultivated. After describing this, amalam pratipadyate, then after that describes that what happens when one lives in the mode of passion and ignorance. That is talked about in the next verse.
In attachment to fruitive action. And if one dies in the mode of ignorance, then, So, refers to the earthly planetary system primarily. Here people are attached to doing fruitive work.
And mudha yonishu. So, mudha yonishu, we see a parallel structure over here. Jayate jayate is there in B and E. And yonishu sangishu is similar sounding.
And karma and mudha are almost words that have the same number of syllables. So, we see there are many places where the gita, the gita characteristic of Bhagavad Gita, the poetic characteristics do come out. So, the karma is sangishu and mudha yonishu.
So, mudha yonishu refers to mudha is, as we know, it can refer to a fool or it can refer to a donkey. So, a donkey, mudha yonishu. So, those who live in animal like species, those are the animal, basically lower species, those are the foolish species, that is the animals.
That means if one lives in ignorance, then one attains the lower species. So, here what Krishna is essentially telling is that if we live in passion, then we come back, take birth here again. So, sometimes people ask this question that today it is said that if the number of souls is fixed, then why is the population, how do we understand the increase of population? So, actually it is not very difficult to understand because firstly the increase in population is a very relative conception.
We really don’t have clear population estimates for thousands of years ago, several thousands of years ago. The whole idea of discovery of new lands, which was a mediaeval concept, when they say America was discovered or India was discovered. So, this whole concept of discovery of new lands, that is based on the idea that those lands were unknown to the European one and that’s why they were said to be discovered.
But there people were always living and very few reliable estimates can be had about, say, how many Native Americans were staying in America before the whites came over or what was the population of India before, say, Alexander came or before. So, even 3,000-4,000 years ago it is very difficult to tell. So, first of all, the whole idea of population measuring is very difficult to go beyond, to reliably talk about in a reliable sense for several thousand years ago.
So, even if somebody doesn’t accept the Vedic understanding that there is one world rule, the Vedic culture all over the world, even if one doesn’t accept that, still the point remains that our conception of history is very limited. So, to say that the world population has increased far more than ever before, that is a substantial leap of faith, an inference that is based on leap of faith, which is not necessary for everyone to take. There can be intelligent scepticism about it.
Now, regarding the increase in population in recent times, we understand the whole concept of increase in population is because of the idea that population is limited to the earth, earth, life is limited to the earth and population is limited to the earth. But no. If we decide to measure the population of Mumbai by looking at the crowds at the CST railway station, then what will happen is, if we observe the CST station between 8 to 11 in the morning, rush hours, traffic hours, and people are going to work, or maybe 5 to 10, 5 to 8, 9 something, and the evening, then again, we’ll say, oh, there is a population explosion over here.
And maybe when you go at 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, you find out that there is, it seems there is a population decrease over there. But what is happening? What we are talking about is population increase or population decreases, very relative to, it’s limited to a particular area and it’s limited to a particular time. But if you look from the broader perspective, all that has happened is, the population that was here, a population that is at various place, at a particular time it comes here and then it moves away from here.
So, we understand that life exists, that the souls exist in different species and the souls exist in various planets. And because they exist in different species and in various planets, therefore the souls do have, the souls do have the capacity to live at various places and in certain conditions, for certain durations. The number of souls at one particular place may be more and the number of souls at other places may be less.
So, this can easily happen. And it doesn’t signify, it is not contrary to the Vedic understanding of how population dynamics works. So, now today people are living prominently in the mode of passion and passion combined with ignorance.
So, people who are living in the human form, because they are not getting elevated, they may continue, they don’t go to the high, they are not living so much in goodness, so they don’t go to higher. And if they live in passion, they may continue to live over here. Now, of course, if they live in passion combined with ignorance or they live largely in ignorance, then they will definitely go down.
So, passion is also a spectrum. When the Kshatriyas live, the righteous Kshatriyas, are they in passion? Yes, they are in passion, but they are in the upper, if you consider passion to be a spectrum, then they are in the upper side of passion. And people who, in the name of passion, are to fulfil their passionate desires, start acting in violation of scripture and acts unfully, then they are moving towards ignorance.
And that is extremely undesirable. So, that will be on the lower side of the spectrum and that will go towards ignorance also. So, if people live in passion with some level of dharma, that may enable them to take birth again in the human form.
So, and there are these animals from lower species who are coming up to the human form. So, you know, it’s very difficult for us with our limited perspective of the universe to know why the population is increasing at a particular place or why it is decreasing at a particular place. And whether it is actually increasing or decreasing also can be a matter of debate, if we really take substantially long time durations.
So, either way, the important point is to recognise that life is there everywhere and there are principles according to which we get our future destinations. So, if we live in ignorance, we go down to the lower species. And if we live in passion, then we take birth again.
So, then Prabhupada talks about here reverse transmigration. Reverse transmigration means, so some people have the impression that when the soul reaches the platform of human life, it never goes down again. So, what has happened is, how has this conception come about? There are people who try to, by their own intellect, integrate different religious systems.
So, in Christianity also, in the Bible also, there are references to reincarnation, in the Bible as it is now. And there is a whole history of why there are no explicit references to reincarnation right now. I talked about it in my book on reincarnation.
And basically, there was a European emperor. Initially, during the Roman Empire, Christianity was persecuted. And then around the 4th century, with the Roman Empire, which had already been persecuting Christians, when the Roman Empire came to a political collapse due to the moral collapse among its people, then in order to regain political stability and in order to have some moral structure for that purpose, the Roman Emperor adopted Christianity as its official religion.
And when that happened, they adopted Christian principles. But his purpose was not so much spiritual, it was political purpose. Emperor Justinian and others were involved in this, in acceptance of Christianity as a mainstream religion.
So, at that time and from that time onwards, the doctrines were changed so that people could be more submissive and obedient to the king. So, the idea was that if people are told there are many lifetimes, then they will not follow the rules of God, which in turn meant the rules of the king strictly. So, give them one lifetime or give them hell.
That was what was the slogan that came about over time. And that’s how, eventually, things collapsed and references to incarnation, whatever, they were pushed out. Now, like any scholarly issue based on Parthak Shanuman, there are multiple versions of what actually happened.
But the important point is that even with the Bible as it is, reincarnation is not intrinsically incompatible with the biblical worldview. And there are some references which do support it. But what we are discussing right now is that the mainstream Christianity as it exists today, does not accept reincarnation.
So, when the Christians came to India, the Britishers came to India and established their rule, and along with them Christian missionaries also came, and their thinkers also came. So, some western thinkers and some Indian thinkers, they tried to integrate whatever they saw good in Christianity and whatever they saw good in the traditional Indian religion. And based on this integration, they tried to come up with their own ideas of thought.
So, one of the ideas which they brought together is the concept of reincarnation is very good. That is, God is kind because God gives us many chances. He doesn’t decide based on only one chance.
Yes, if you can’t do it in this lifetime, the next lifetime also is there. It actually harmonises with the idea of a merciful God. Otherwise, if God just gives us one chance and if we don’t accept that chance, then he sends us to hell forever.
That is a difficult concept to digest for most people. It is a very harsh and judgemental God, not at all a merciful God. So, they tried to integrate this idea of multiple lifetimes.
But they felt that the idea of animals having souls was repulsive to their sensibilities. Why was it so repulsive? Because they felt that, you see dogs, you see hogs, you see, they don’t have any sense at all. How can a soul go that way? How can a human being become like that? Their consciousness is so different, their thinking is so different, their whole mentality is different.
They can’t have that. So, prior to that also, although in the Bible, in the Old Testament, there are references to souls present even in birds and animals. And especially in animals, that’s why it is said that one should eat fruits and roots but not one.
There are references which say that animals also have souls and that’s why fruits and herbs are recommended as food. The result was that people continued to have their own ideas of how to integrate. So, prior to this, in Christianity, there was a Christian thinker, Thomas Aquinas, a very respected scholar in biblical history, second probably only to St. Augustine.
But anyway, whatever he was, so he came up with the idea that there are three kinds of souls. He said there are human souls, there are animal souls and there are plant souls. So, he said human souls are rational, animal souls are sentient and plant souls are basically called vegetable souls.
So, he said that there are these differences of souls itself. So, it’s not that there is one kind of soul in all living beings. The souls themselves are different and his idea was that only human souls are eternal.
All the other souls, they are created and they are destroyed. They don’t exist forever. Of course, some of them have the idea that souls are created.
So, the Christian thinkers have redefined eternal. Eternal means existing forever. But they say existing forever from the point of creation, not before this.
So, actually, there is, when we talk about reincarnation, you have to understand two different concepts. There is pre-existence and then there is afterlife. So, if on our x-axis, we consider, say, there is this patch from L to, from say, from B to D. So, B is birth and D is death.
So, that patch is our current life. So, in this patch from B to D, the area before this will be our pre-existence and then what comes after D is afterlife. So, after death is afterlife.
What comes before birth is pre-existence. So, now, the materialistic world view is that there is only this life and there is nothing else. That’s all.
Now, the Christian understanding is that there is this life and for those who accept the redeeming grace of Jesus, then for them, there is afterlife also. For others, there is hell. So, that means from now onwards, the soul is eternal and some souls can attain eternal destination in their conception of the kingdom of God.
Others will go to hell. So, they accept afterlife, but not pre-existence. So, now, that’s why they say that when a man and woman come together, a new soul is created at that time.
Souls are created, but they are not destroyed, something like that, their idea. So, anyway, the point is that the concept of the afterlife is there in so many Christian denominations. For only human souls.
So, if there are human souls, they have afterlife and they can attain eternal life in the kingdom of God. But the animal souls, that is the sentient souls and the vegetative souls, they can’t attain. So, faculty for rational enquiry is what distinguishes human beings and that’s what enables them to connect with God.
So, here we see what has unfortunately happened is that there is a conflation of the body and the soul. Conflation means mixing up. The body and the soul, they have been both tied together in an unfortunate way, in a messy way.
So, what has caused this tying up of the body and the soul? It is the misconception that is driven by the idea that the soul cannot exist without the body and the soul and the body are inextricably connected with each other. Inextricably connected with each other. What does it mean inextricably connected? In the Vedic understanding, soul and body actually, it’s just a chance combination.
There is no essential intrinsic connection between the soul and the body. But there is an intrinsic connection between the soul and the Lord that is eternal. But as far as the body is concerned, we have got a body according to our past karma.
There is this difference between the body and the soul which is very prominent in the Vedic culture, whereas it is very negligent, it is not so much there in the Vedic, in the non-Vedic, especially the Christian worldview. So, because of this, when some thinkers tried to integrate the ideas of Christianity and Hinduism, so they came up with the idea that reincarnation is always progressive, it is not regressive. So, progressive means, okay, there are souls in the animal species, plant species, there are souls in the animal species, souls in the human species.
Souls can move upwards from the animal species, from the plant species, animal species to the human species. They call that as progressive reincarnation. And regressive reincarnation is when the soul moves down from the animal species, from the human species to the lower species.
So, their idea was that reincarnation is progressive but not regressive. Now, what is the reasoning for this idea? Actually, if you see in the scripture, there are many references. There is a story of Jadbharat, where from a human species, the person goes down to a lower species.
So, that’s regressive reincarnation. Now, in most past life memories, people have remembered their previous lives as human beings. Nobody has remembered previous life as animals.
So, this is also used sometimes as rationalisation, as a defence for this. But the point is that the scales of reference, the frames of reference for human and lower species are so great, the differences in the frames of reference are so great, that in the transition, practically, memories are most likely to be ended. So, even in a normal journey from this life to the next life, the memory doesn’t remain for long.
So, in most cases, the memory gets wiped out. In some cases, the memory remains. So, what to speak of in the cases where people are going from one species to another.
So, the wipe out of the memory is natural, because there is a complete difference in the way of thinking. When a hog is attracted to food, when a hog is attracted to stool, at that time, it is not that the hog is attracted only to that. The hog will remember something from the human life and think, oh, in the human life, I thought this was a worm, but now I’m attracted.
I’m attracted to it. How is this? The hog cannot have a cognitive dissonance like that. Hog cannot have a cognitive dissonance.
Dissonance refers to a deep disagreement within. What should I do? What is right? No, it just acts according to its instinct. So, because the whole attitude, frame of reference, paradigm is completely shifted for the soul from one species to another, that’s why there is no remembrance swiped out from one species to another.
So, absence of proof is not proof of absence. So, absence of proof is not proof of absence. What does that mean? That just because there is no empirical proof of past life memories from other non-human species, that doesn’t mean that that is not a possibility at all.
So, beyond that, we also recognise that there is the further recognition that this is ultimately, what is the transmigration based on? It is based on the premise of free will and the facilitation of the desires of the soul. So, because it is based on the understanding the soul has free will and the soul can choose, what do I want to do? If the soul in a human’s body chooses to enjoy in animalistic ways, then facilitating that desire is the way nature will work. So, we can say that there is a logical coherence to the understanding that reincarnation can be progressive as well as regressive.
Progressive means it can go from lower species to human species, but from the human species also it can go down. So, the whole idea is that there is, the whole process of reincarnation is meant to facilitate the soul to act according to its desires. The soul who has lived passionately will get a next body which is more suited for living in passion.
A soul who has lived in ignorance will get a body that is more suited to living in ignorance. So, it’s not anything barbaric or something. That idea is often laughed at.
Oh, you’ll become a dog, you’ll become a cow, you’ll become a lizard. Well, how ridiculous this idea is. No, it’s not ridiculous.
Once we understand why there are all these species. Now again, the whole reductionistic concepts of the Abrahamic religions where they accept only human souls as capable of liberation, then are capable of attaining God. Then the purpose of diversity in nature, there is no clear purpose.
The whole of the natural world in terms of the flora and the fauna, the animals and the plants, it just becomes an incidental backdrop. It just becomes an incidental backdrop for the central drama of Christian redemption. That central drama, the purpose of existence is what? That Jesus will come and redeem everyone.
And that’s all that is the purpose of existence. And beyond that, there is no other purpose. So, why are all the other animals and plants existing? Oh, they just exist within nature and that’s all that there is to it.
They all exist in nature. And their existence itself doesn’t have much purpose. Now, they may say that, okay, through their existence also God’s glory is proclaimed, through the singing of the birds, the sweet sweet chirping of the birds, through the majesty of the animals in nature, so that also we can understand the glory of God.
Yes, that is true. At one level, that is definitely true. But at another level, we also have to recognise that life in and of itself is not eternal, that here everything is temporary and there is a struggle for existence.
And actually, in many ways, because the Christian worldview was so dismissive of the animal world, of the non-human world, so when Darwin came up with his theory of evolution, so he sort of brought humans, he brought the human species down from a high pedestal. He knocked humanity of its specialness. But how did he do that? See, actually, the Vedic worldview spiritualises all life.
The Vedic worldview spiritualises all life means that it recognises that all living beings are spiritual. It recognises that all living beings are, whatever form of life is there, there is soul over there. So, it spiritualises all.
Whereas the Abrahamic worldview, the Christian worldview, but along with that the other, the Judaic worldview and the Islamic worldview is similar. So, there what happens is, here there is, the Vedic worldview spiritualises all living beings. In the Christian worldview, only human beings are spiritualised and all the other species are de-spiritualised.
That’s why there is a radical difference between humans and lower species. Only humans have eternal souls, others don’t have eternal souls. So, it’s almost like, it’s basically soul is also considered a material concept only.
When it is there, they have souls, but the souls are temporary. Then what kind of soul is that? What is that actually? It’s a some real conception. So, that means, there is a, if you consider that Vedic worldview, there are souls and they can go through various species.
Then in the Christian worldview, there is just this huge chasm, huge break between the human world and a non-human world. Humans have souls, non-human world doesn’t have souls. So, this break, there are many similarities between animals and humans also.
Prabhupada would say that, we feel pain, they feel pain. We grow old, they grow old. We get deceased, they get deceased.
We love our children, they love their children. There are so many similarities in terms of behaviour and in terms of consciousness, in terms of a special response to natural things. So, based on this idea of similarity, how does Darwin’s theory of evolution remove this difference, this big chasm between the human and the non-human world? It is removed by saying that even humans don’t have souls.
So, all living beings, it de-spiritualises all living beings. So, the Christian worldview and the Western worldview and the current materialistic worldview, they are very close to each other in that sense. So, the Christian worldview created an artificial break between, an illogical, artificial, unsustainable break between humans and non-humans.
And that break was bridged, it should be bridged in truth by recognising the spirituality of all living beings. But instead, when that bridge is bridged by de-spiritualising all living beings, that is unfortunate. So, what is required is not de-spiritualization, but re-spiritualization.
De-spiritualization means, the current idea is that there is no concept of soul at all. So, neither humans nor non-humans and nobody has any soul in it. So, that is a complete misunderstanding.
So, the reincarnation can be progressive, it can be regressive. It all depends on what desires we cultivate, what modes we allow to influence upon us. So, Prabhupada uses this verse to establish this point that we can go through various species.
Otherwise, there is no guarantee that the human being will again attain to the human status. In fact, the scriptures often talk about how we need to be careful. Otherwise, if we are not careful, then we can lose the human form of life.
And when we lose the human form of life, that is a great misfortune. So, that misfortune, we quote it when we live in the mode of ignorance. And to the extent we live in the higher modes, then we avoid that misfortune.
So, now Krishna starts giving the intermediate results of living in the various modes. कर्मणः सुकृतस्याहू सत्विकम् निर्मलं फलं अचिसस्तु फलं दुख्षम् अज्ञानं तमसः फलं. So, कर्मणः सुकृतस्याहू.
So, कर्मणः, karma is of सुकृतिस्याहू. So, one does good karma, sattvikam. When one is in the mode of goodness, the work that one does is sukruti, it’s pious.
And its result is phalam. What is the phalam? Nirmalam phalam. Nirmalam means purification.
So, one attains purification because of action in the mode of goodness. The karma is sukruti and the phala is nirmala. अचिसस्तु फलं दुख्षम्.
Whereas, when one is in rajoguna, then the phala is दुख्षम्. And then one lives in tamoguna, अज्ञानं तमसः फलं. The phala of tamoguna is अज्ञानं.
So, now this is talking in terms of even in this lifetime also. In the next lifetime, what will happen is that one will go either to upward planetary system or stay in the same planetary system or go down to lower planetary system or lower species. So, that’s what will happen after death.
But even in this lifetime, if one lives in goodness, then what will happen is अमलम्. Nirmalam, it is used. So, the word अमलम् was used earlier for अमलान् प्रतिपद्यते.
In 14.14, the word was used that one who lives in the mode of goodness attains an अमलान् प्रतिपद्यते, attains an auspicious destination. But here it is said that what to speak of one who lives in goodness, even one who lives in passion or ignorance, whichever way one lives, there is an effect which can be seen in this lifetime also. So, if one lives in ignorance, that means one regularly drinks and what happens is, a drink not only ruins one’s liver, that drink actually pickles one’s brain also.
The person loses capacity for clear thinking and people ruin themselves by that. So, अज्यानं तमसहः फलम्. The फलम् of the mode of ignorance is that one goes into deeper ignorance.
When we live in ignorance, then by that we go into deeper ignorance and that deeper ignorance makes us further act in ignorance and then makes us go further into greater ignorance like that. रजिसस्तु फलम् दुख्खम्. Now, this is significant that if one lives in the mode of passion, the result of that is दुख्खम्.
The result of that is also दुख्खम्. रजिसस्तु फलम् दुख्खम्. That by रज्यो गुण, one lives in, actually, फलम् दुख्खम्.
रजिसस्तु फलम् दुख्खम्. One lives in ignorance by that. And when one lives in ignorance in this way, one doesn’t make much spiritual advancement.
Sorry, if one lives in ignorance, then definitely there is no question of spiritual advancement. Even if one lives in passion, there is not much question of spiritual advancement. Generally, we saw earlier how रज्यो गुण refers to the male-female attraction.
Now, this male-female attraction, what is the result of this attraction? It ultimately leads to दुख्ख. Because it increases the bodily consciousness in both males and females. And when this bodily consciousness increases, that leads to bondage, that leads to suffering.
So, रजिसस्तु फलम् दुख्खम्. And similarly, it’s not just with respect to the male-female attraction. In the mode of passion, no matter what one has, one is never satisfied.
One wants more and more and more. Because the idea is, the pleasure is out there in something material. The pleasure is out there in that car.
The pleasure is out there in that new cell phone. The pleasure is out there in the new iPad. The pleasure is out there in that thing.
And when I get that, then I’ll become happy. But even when I get that, nothing happens. I don’t get anything by that.
That’s why it is said to be in the mode of passion. So, Prabhupada writes that, when a person has to do anything in the material world, that requires tremendous endeavour. And that endeavour itself leads to misery.
And then, Prabhupada gives a simple reasoning that, why animal killing is in the mode of ignorance. So, in human society, if one kills a man, he has to be hanged. That is the law of the state.
Because of ignorance, people do not perceive that there is a complete state controlled by the Supreme Lord. And every living creature is a son of the Supreme Lord and does not tolerate even ants being killed. And then, he says, especially killing the animals, among the animals, killing the cows and eating their flesh is the most sinful.
So, he quotes from the Rig Veda, 9.4.64. Prabhupada is saying that, if somebody kills a cow, then that is the most sinful of all people. Most sinful form of killing. So, a civilisation which guides its citizens to become animals in their next lives is certainly not a human civilisation.
Nobody is guiding people to become animals. People do not even believe in the next life. So, what to speak of believing that they will become animals in the next life.
It is not a question of what one believes. It is a question of how one lives. A question is not just what one believes.
The question is how one lives. So, people may or may not believe in the next life and what they will become in the next life. But if they are cultivating certain kind of desires, if they are living with a particular kind of mentality, then that will lead to a particular destination naturally.
So, our conception will determine our destination and that is how life goes on. So, actually there has to be the recognition that one has to purify oneself, one has to protect oneself, one has to elevate oneself. So, otherwise, the civilisation is misleading civilisation.
So, we have discussed how the Isopanishad calls Atmanojana, the killer of the soul and Prabhupada calls modern civilisation as a soul-killing civilisation. See, Prabhupada is talking about these three modes in a very broad generic term and he is saying that it is a very dangerous age. Why? Because people are just being misled and all nations should take care to provide the easiest process, Krishna Consciousness, to save humanity from the greatest danger.
So, we need this process and it is not just for one individual or two individuals, it is for all nations. That is, Prabhupada is talking from broad global perspective that it is the responsibility of all nations to guide their citizens towards spiritual elevation and not to let them become spiritually degraded. Now, Krishna talks about, in one sense you could say immediate result.
sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṁ rajaso lobha eva ca pramādhamo haṁ tamaso bhavato ajñānam eva ca sattvāt sañjāyate So, from the mode of goodness comes knowledge. sattvāt sañjāyate jñānam So, the mode of goodness leads to knowledge. Now, it is significant here.
Krishna also doesn’t say that. abhyāsāt sañjāyate jñānam It is not just merely by study that knowledge comes about. People think that, oh, if I have to become knowledgeable, I have to study a lot, read a lot of books, memorise a lot of things, then I become learned.
That is one aspect. That is not the only thing that is involved in learning. Actually, learning involves, especially learning in terms of learning spiritual knowledge, is a matter of not just some ingestion of certain facts and figures, but it is a realignment of our view.
It is a harmonisation of our look, thinking and living with reality. And that is never easy. tatvāt sañjāyate jñānam That from sattva-guṇa, jñāna comes.
bhajaso lobhaye bhaja That from the mode of impassion comes greed. So, if we want knowledge, then we have to live in the mode of goodness. So, Krishna is saying, actually, we will also see that when we are very agitated, disturbed about something.
Somehow, if we can, if we go to a temple, we try to sincerely pray to Krishna, we try to maybe read some passage which calms us down. Then by that, what happens is calmness, calmness, calmness comes up. So, I think some clarity comes up.
Now, then this might be a transcendental experience or even if somebody is not involved in devotional processes directly, one can have a calming experience. People call this epiphany. Epiphany means it’s like a realisation.
Oh, suddenly I understand. Oh, it’s like this. I never thought about it.
It’s like that. sattvāt sañjāyate jñānam That in the mode of goodness, people get illuminated. And we will also see that, you know, if we are in passion, if we try to put ourselves in goodness, suddenly things become clear.
Oh, it was like this. I never thought it was like this. Now I understand why it is like this.
Ok, ok, ok. Now it’s clear. sattvāt sañjāyate jñānam And in bhajaso lobhaye bhaja In the mode of passion, there is greed.
There is lobha, greed. So, in the mode of passion, one is never satisfied with what one has. So, then beyond that, there is pramāda mohaṁ tamaso.
So tamaso guṇa is characterised by pramāda and moha and its result is ajñāna. Now we are talking even of short-term consequences, you know. As soon as we come in the mode of passion, the result is agitation, dissatisfaction, hankering, greed.
Oh, more, more, more, more, more, more, more. So Prabhupāda writes in the Parpur that One can see that even if one has enough money and adequate arrangements for saṅgṛhata vacation, there is neither happiness nor peace of mind. That is not possible because one is situated in the mode of passion.
If one wants happiness at all, his money will not help him. He has to elevate himself to the mode of goodness by practising Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It’s very significant what ÅšrÄ«la Prabhupāda is telling.
That if one is living in the mode of passion, then increasing money, one’s monetary possessions, one’s bank account, that will not make one happy. Although that’s what one most strongly believes will make one happy. Why not? If one believes it will make one happy, why will it not make one happy? Because one is in the mode of passion.
These modes, they shape our thinking. And when we are in the mode of passion, we will always be seeing what we don’t have. So, if I have a car, but somebody else has got a much better car, then naturally I will not, I have a car, I can’t see that.
What I see, oh, that person has such a better car, such a more expensive car than me. Then I want that. Now my mode of passion tells me, get it, get it, get it, get it.
And when I get it, do I become happy by that? Yes, I become temporarily happy, but because I am in the mode of passion, my vision immediately goes to what I don’t have. And then it will be, oh, that person has got an even more fashionable car, a more modern car, a more contemporary version, a more cooler, cool car. And I’ll want that, and I’ll want that, and there is no end to this.
So, because of this, in the mode of passion, one cannot be satisfied. Because the mode of passion forces us to see that which we don’t, to look at things that we don’t have. And there will always be some things which we don’t have, and the mode of passion will revert our vision to those things, and it will keep us dissatisfied.
Therefore, now this doesn’t mean that a devotee cannot have any material ambitions. No, that’s not the point. There should not be disproportionate material ambitions by which a devotee has no time left for spiritual life.
But the important point is, one has to balance. One has to balance one’s material and one’s spiritual life, and thereby move forward. So when we move forward in our spiritual life, by keeping our spiritual life focused, then along with that, we do our material duties as competently as possible.
And if by Krishna’s grace wealth comes, we accept that wealth, and we use it in a proper way. So it’s not that a devotee has to give up wealth, but a devotee has to give up the illusion that wealth can make one happy. So, Prabhupada says that when one is engaged in the mode of passion, not only is he mentally unhappy, but his profession and occupation are also very troublesome.
So why is mental happiness? Because more, more, more. That is there, and profession and occupation are also very troublesome. Why? Because one is engaged in ugra karma.
You know, one cannot work in a balanced way. One has to, as I said, work 16 hours, 18 hours. One becomes a workaholic.
When one becomes a workaholic like that, that is extremely undesirable. So, the profession and occupation are also very troublesome. So, and all this is miserable.
So, yasas tu phalam dukkham. Then Krishna will give some generic descriptions of what happens when. urdhvam gacchanti sattvastha madhye tishthanti rajasah jaganya-guna-vrttistha adho gacchanti tamasah So, urdhvam gacchanti sattvastha Urdhva, if one stays in goodness, one will go upwards.
When one is in passion, one will stay where it is. Madhye tishthanti, one will stay in the middle planet of existence. And jaganya-guna-vrttistha, if one has got the… So, Krishna calls actually, he doesn’t even refer to the mode of ignorance as mode of ignorance.
Because jaganya-guna-vrtti, jaganya means abominable. Jaganya-guna-vrttistha, if one is situated in the mode of ignorance, then Adho gacchanti, one will go down. Those who are living in the mode of ignorance, they will go down.
So, this is a verse which describes Again, this is very categorically refuting the idea of reincarnation only being progressive. Reincarnation can be regressive also. One can go down also to the lower species.
Now, what does up refer to? The up can refer to multiple things. And the up can refer to a more elevated consciousness. The up can refer to a higher lokas.
So, it can refer to… There are higher lokas and within the human species also, there can be those who are situated in the more divine consciousness than what we are. But what down can refer to is that it can refer to the lower planets and it can refer to the lower species. Adho gacchanti.
So, it can refer to the lower lokas where people go when they are living tamasikli. And it can also refer to the lower species. Which has been talked about earlier when murdhyoni shujayate was mentioned.
So, there are different destinations that are possible for the soul when a person lives accordingly. And that’s why Prabhupada writes the result of developing ignorance is very, very risky. Very, very risky.
Why? Because actually it’s very dangerous to lose the human form. We don’t know when we will get the human form again. And when we will have the opportunity to liberate ourselves from the cycle of birth and death.
Jaganya Guna, this time Prabhupada again makes this clear. The future is very dark. So, now after this Krishna will talk about transcendence.
So, till now he has talked about destination within the modes. Now he will talk about how can one transcend the modes. So, when one understands When one understands that actually there is no karta apart from the gunas.
Drashta is the seer. Anupashyati is to see systematically. See truly.
See with scriptural guidance. So, one has to understand that actually whatever actions are happening, they are actions happening because of the modes. And then one understands also further.
One understands that beyond the gunas, there is a transcendental being. This refers to the Supreme Lord. One will attain my spiritual nature.
So, here after describing the three modes, Krishna is now introducing madbhavam, me or my nature. He has used madbhavam earlier in the beginning, in 14.1 and 14.1.2, when he was talking about the spiritual destination, that is used the word madbhava. So, who will attain the transcendental nature? If you consider the modes to be like ropes that are binding a person, then how does one become free from the ropes? So, if somebody is dancing like a puppet, the ropes are not just made a person immobilised, but the ropes are like the strings of a puppet, which are making a person pull around and dance, and dance according to its tunes.
So, at that time, the modes, it is important to understand, they are not like a prisoner’s shackles. The modes are like a puppeteer’s strings. Prisoner’s shackles, they make the person immobilised, they make the person incapable of doing anything at all.
But the modes are not like prisoner’s shackles. The modes are like a puppeteer’s strings. The puppeteer’s strings, they make the puppet dance, move here, raise the right hand up, lift the left hand up, move this way, move that way, so one dances around.
So, the modes, similarly, we don’t feel that we are imprisoned, because we are moving around. And we are moving around quite actively also, especially in the mode of passion, one is so active. So, if we look at a person in the jail, we may feel pity for the person, how that person has been imprisoned.
But if a person is an addict, we may not feel pity like that. Why? Because we don’t see the shackles. We don’t see the prison bars.
And because we don’t see the prison bars, so we stay trapped. But when we could understand the way the person is living, one can understand these are the addictions, the addictive desires, they are not like prisoner’s shackles, they are like the puppeteer’s strings. So, as puppeteer’s strings, they make us go here, go there, go there.
And they bind us. So, we have to protect ourselves. How do we protect ourselves? By first of all recognising that, okay, these are not my desires.
These are not my desires. These are the dictations of the modes. When suddenly, you know, a male sees an attractive female, or a female sees an attractive male, immediately there is captivation.
This is not actually me. I am a soul. This male-female interaction is biological.
It is actually coming, biological and psychological. It is simply coming from the modes. I will not get carried away by this.
I will not get captivated by this. So, once one understands this, then one gets the impetus to free oneself. So, after one gets the impetus to free oneself, then one will know, okay, if I am imprisoned, how can I free myself? First is I understand that I am imprisoned, that I am shackled.
But these are puppeteer’s strings, not prisoner’s shackles. So, it is difficult to understand also. But after one understands, like if I have been tied up, then I will ask somebody who is free, please free me.
So, like that, gune peshcha param vetti, when one understands that, okay, there is a transcendental, there is somebody who is beyond the modes, and that person can free me from the modes, then we take shelter of that person. So, when we know that I am imprisoned, and we know that there is somebody who is not imprisoned, who is free, then we can break free from the influence of the modes and attain the spiritual nature. So, that is the process to liberation.
And this process will be discussed further in the future verses. So, we will continue in our next class. Thank you very much.