Bhakti Shastri (136) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 17 Text 05 to 13

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Hare Krishna Welcome back to our Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course We are in the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita we discussed in our previous class about in the section 17.4 about how different people in different modes worship different Gods and different conceptions so we discussed about Panchopasana, we discussed about ghosts also within that. Now let us look to the next section. Here is a quick overview of the various sections so now we will look at demoniac austerity first and then we will go on to understanding the three modes based on their external characteristics so now when Krishna talks about the three modes the focus is on understanding how these can help us to understand the level of faith of a person so here let us look at this Ashastravahitam Ghoram Tapyanteyata Poojanah Dambhankar Samyuktah Kamaragbalanvitah Karshayantah Sharirastam Bhutagramam Achetasah Mamchaivantah Sharirastam Tanvidhyasuranishchayam Ashastravahitam Ghoram Ashastravahitam that means that which is not talked about in the scriptures Ghoram is that which is dreadful harmful to others Tapyanteyata Poojanah those people who do austerity of this kind Dambhankar Samyuktah and what is the nature of their austerity it is filled with arrogance and pride Dambhankar Samyuktah and they are motivated by Kamaragbalanvitah by desire and attachment Karshayantah Sharirastam Karshayantah they torture themselves Bhutagramam Achetasah Bhutagramam the body that is made up of material elements Achetasah Achetasah means the consciousness is not is misdirected towards spiritual reality and then Karshayantah Mamchaivantah Sharirastam so they torment not only themselves but they torment me also Krishna says Mamchaivantah Sharirastam they torment me too and Tanvidhyasuranishchayam they are definitely Asuras they are definitely Asuras Tanvidhyasuranishchayam so when they talk in this way Tanvidhyasuranishchayam what is the important point they are definitely Asuras now why is Krishna talking about demons in this chapter which is not about the demoniac nature Krishna has already talked about demoniac nature in the previous chapter so he is giving a context for the discussion so Arjuna’s question was those who have faith but not in scripture what happens to them Krishna described that they can be we have to understand it their faith level based on the three modes they are in one of the three modes now Krishna is starting this discussion by going to the bottom of the frame bottom of the scale of reference so within the scale of reference what is at the bottom is the people who are completely misdirected in their thought process, in their lifestyle in their even conceptions of religion rather than understanding religion as an approach to god they think of a religion as an approach to their own ego and of course everyone has an ego in this world and most people are not trying even to purify their ego but these people are extreme even in their obsession with the ego they are for the sake of ego ready to even torment themselves, torture themselves so now what does self-torture here refer to sometimes some people think that any form of self-control itself is self-torture, for example if somebody is abstaining from food for the sake of fasting some people think that itself is self-torture no, it may be self-torture if there is no purpose to it, if there is no positive purpose to it, definitely if it is meant for say spiritual realisation, that’s not self-torture that is the way to self-transcendence we go beyond ourselves by this we don’t get into self-torture, we go beyond to self-transcendence and then further than that, the important point is that we need to move forward in our spiritual life and moving along any path requires making choices so for example, if I am at a particular place and two roads go in two different directions then when I choose one road, naturally I am giving up the other road so making a choice involves making a sacrifice and that is what is required all the time, in fact not making a choice also involves a sacrifice although I may not think of it that way how is that? that means when I think about how I will do a particular thing or I decide not to do a particular thing then what is happening? I am staying undecided and indecision is also a decision, then usually it is not the best decision, that means if somebody is undecided whether I should practise spiritual life or not and because of being undecided the person doesn’t practise spiritual life then that itself involves a sacrifice that sacrifice is that person is losing the opportunity to practise spiritual life so indecision is also a decision and it is rarely the best decision so every choice involves making a sacrifice and when we make a choice based on scriptural understanding for a higher spiritual purpose, that choice and that sacrifice are auspicious for us, but when a person when a person when a person acts in ways that are harmful to others, then such sacrifice is definitely not glorious such sacrifice is unfortunate, such sacrifice backfires on the person, why it backfires? because such sacrifice doesn’t lead to that person’s steady progressive spiritual advancement so such sacrifice leads to the entanglement of the person in further bodily consciousness and not only in bodily consciousness but further in self-centredness which is even self-defeating and self-destructive so for example some people do self-flagellation self-flagellation means beating oneself beating oneself with whips now that is extreme for most some people when they want to shave they pluck out their hair from the body so now if they are doing it for a spiritual purpose then that is actually a misconception about how to make spiritual advancement and some people are not doing it for a spiritual purpose at all so then that can even be demoniac so now what do we mean exactly by demoniac? generally we don’t think of austerity as demoniac we would think of austerity as positive we say austerity requires some amount of self-control it requires self-discipline and a person who can do austerity is considered to be positive, glorious so now Krishna is saying these are definitely demoniac those who torture themselves and those who don’t do anything positive for their own spiritual advancement but rather they are motivated simply by pride and ego and they care nothing for their own shastra, they care only for their own ego so this is the mentality that is in the 16th chapter Krishna is called demoniac now in the Ramayana there is a incident which is often framed in casteist terms and talked about as caste discrimination but actually if you look at the whole context the essential message is quite different so after Lord Ram won the war and he came back to the kingdom of Ayodhya and took over as the king and they were ruling happily, at that time suddenly a brahmin came to the outside the palace and started calling out for help and speaking speaking in great grief so Lakshman went out and the brahmins pointed to the body that was with him, the body of his son and he said this son has died and he said if I look at my life, I have done my brahminical duties properly, so there is no reason for this son to have died so the only reason this son has died that I can think of is because in this kingdom something inauspicious is happening, that is why the normal course of nature has been reversed, the normal course of nature is that the father dies before the son but the son has died before the father so Lakshmana went in and reported to Lord Ram and at that time itself Narada Muni and many other great sages had come to the palace of Lord Ramchandra and they were seated on exalted seats, so Lord Ram folded his hands and asked them can you please tell me what is the cause of this so Narada Muni went into deep meditation and contemplated and then he said there is some serious adharmic activity happening in some part of your kingdom and because of that as a reaction to that adharmic activity this inauspicious thing has happened so Lord Ram became very grave, he told Lakshmana and court assistants to preserve the body of that prince of that brahmin son in oil so that the body would not decompose and then he went around searching in his kingdom he went in all directions but he couldn’t find anything, finally he came to the bank of a river and there he saw an effulgent, he saw a dark complexioned person looking quite really quite having a blaze around him and he was upside down hanging on a tree with his legs so his legs were curved around a branch and he was hanging upside down and he asked, so Lord Ram asked him who are you and what are you doing so he said that I am a shudra named Shambhuka and I am doing austerity so that I can attain swarga, now when Lord Ram heard this that I am a shudra and I am doing austerity to attain swarga Lord Ram took out his sword and chopped off his head so the moment he chopped off his head that very moment the son of that brahmin came back to life and the brahmin was relieved and the disorder that was there was restored now we may wonder if some brahmin is performing austerity is that a crime worth capital punishment isn’t it so cruel and what was his crime, he was doing austerity just because he is a shudra, does it mean that he deserves to be killed, if you are going to apply moral standards today’s moral standards on the Ramayana then we have to look at the complete context you know, either we accept the full story as true or we accept the full story as false so if it just false then neglect the story, why bother about the, what is taught in that story, if we consider it true true not necessary, even if we don’t consider it to be as a historical incident that happened but if we consider it to be a true in the sense that it is meant to teach us some values then we have to look at the story in its full context so the context is that first of all from our moral values from our sense of moral values imagine that some say scientist’s son died today will that scientist go to the prime minister’s office or prime minister’s home and say because you are not managing the country properly so my son has died first of all the scientist would never do such a thing and even if he did it, the prime minister would not even take notice of such a thing secondly if somebody gets killed and then the dead son of the scientist comes back to life you would not even believe that so the fact that the Ramayana connects the death of someone with mismanagement in the system in the government and then connects the death of Shambhuka with the revival of the Brahmin son indicates that there are forces involved over here which are unfamiliar to us, which are even incomprehensible to us so what are these forces? these forces actually there are certain laws of Dharma and Karma that apply and which we don’t know about so actually speaking within the Vedic context every every Varna has to do its own activity as Krishna also said it’s better to do one’s own Dharma and to be destroyed better to die while doing one’s own Dharma than to do somebody else’s Dharma perfectly also so Krishna talks about this and the idea is this world is like a hospital and different people are infected by different diseases and everybody needs to take a treatment by which they will be cured so what is that treatment? that treatment varies from person to person but that treatment has to be taken by whoever the person may be different treatment for different people whatever is my treatment I have to take that so the programme of different duties for different Varanas is meant as a treatment for different, so it is at a spiritual level it is a treatment that gradually elevates everyone and at a material level it’s a system of engagement for everyone according to their propensities so that they are able to satisfy themselves and are also able to contribute to society so both ways it is auspicious but if someone neglects this reality and focusses instead only on the fact that the fact that this person was doing an austerity and he was killed for that then they are completely misrepresenting if in a hospital a patient suddenly gate crashes into some other one ward goes into some other ward and starts taking medicines of that ward or starts disrupting the functions of that ward and say that ward has things which are high security high sensitivity high volatility then that can be a culpable offence, so here if Lord Ram had been simply casteist and then we see there are other past times which refute this notion, how do we understand that Lord Ram had such loving dealings with Guha, when Lord Ram went out of the forest at that time went out to the forest after the exile then he went to the place of Guha and there Guha was actually a tribal who used to who used to fish and he was considered to be an outcast but Lord Ram embraced him Lord Ram stayed at his place and Lord Ram had very loving reciprocations with him so not only that we see Lord Ram went to Shabari and Shabari was also outcast from the Vanashram perspective and Lord Ram accepted not just her food but he accepted the food which had been half eaten by her and then Lord Ram even befriended Vibhishan although Vibhishan was born in the Rakshasa family so the point is that if you look at the broad context of the Ramayana then Lord Ram is accepting anyone and everyone who has a devotional disposition and somebody who has a power hungry disposition Lord Ram punishes them so the Acharyas described that Shambhuk he wanted to perform austerity so that he could displace Indra and then he could take over Sachi and enjoy her so that was a demoniac mentality and Lord Ram recognises demoniac mentality and for a Shudra to perform austerities with a Kama Raga Balaan Vithaha Damba Hankaara Samyukta as it is described in this verse that is definitely severely disruptive of the Vedic order and that’s why that should never be done and that’s why Lord Ram had to take the strong action against it so therefore we can’t judge actions by their externals austerity may seem to be very noble or activity involving self control and self discipline but it does not necessarily have to be like that so then let’s go on now to the next section hmm now we start with the discussion on on the different kinds of yajna, dana, tapa so let’s look at these so here when, now why is Krishna discussing about this, Krishna as I said is giving the bottom reference for everyone else, the bottom reference means that these are, when we want to talk about the faithful and the faithless what he has to look for is those who are, he starts by talking about those who are right right at the bottom and then he will elaborate on this point by telling further how people who are so just excuse me yes so so so that actually the food that different kinds of people eat that the food that different people consider dear that can be divided into two categories that can also be divided into three categories among them Arjuna please hear about the three categories of food and then three categories of yajna, dana, tapa so now Krishna will start with firstly with food so let’s look at what he says about food so Prabhupada gives a common purport for all the three verses, so we will discuss one by one and then we will go to the purport ayu sattva bala arogya sukha priti vivardhana rasya snigdha sthira rudhya ahara sattvika priyaha so now why is Krishna talking about these four specific characteristics these four that means that he is talking about ahara and then he is talking about yajna, dana, tapa, now yajna, dana, tapa are considered to be very central activities in vedic culture, very important activities and we will see in the 18th chapter also that Krishna quotes thinkers who say that yajna, dana, tapa, karma yajna, dana, tapa, karma should not be given up yajna, dana, tapa, karma that these purify even the manishinas the great souls so essentially the point that Krishna makes is yajna, dana, tapa are glorious activities so now when he talks about yajna, dana, tapa what essentially is he talking about he is talking about the ways in which the faith within the heart is expressed so generally if you look at yajna, dana, tapa we are not gaining anything tangibly when we do these activities when we are giving dana we are giving charity, so what are we gaining at that time actually we are not gaining anything at that time in a tangible immediate sense similarly if you look at tapa we are doing austerity, what are we gaining at that time not much again we are sacrificing something, we are giving something which we could enjoy so yajna, dana, tapa actually we don’t gain anything by those activities at a tangible visible level and that’s why those involve a certain kind of faith all activities involve some kind of faith but these are the activities that are associated with religion and these involve doing sacrifice at three different levels you know the soul is caught in three circles as we have discussed earlier also the soul is caught in the adhyatmic, that is the body mind circle the soul is caught in the adhibhautic, that is the social circle and the soul is caught in the adhidaivic that is in the cosmic so psychophysical, social and environmental circles the soul is and wherever we are placed we have obligations to those situations in which we are placed whoever gives us anything, we become obligated to that person and we are expected to return something to that person so how do we do that we do that by doing something for them so as far as our body is concerned we are using this body for dharma so then we are expected to do something for the body, so we sacrifice by doing tapa, so austerity is the adhibhautic circle sorry, adhyatmic circle then dana is for other living beings soul is in these three concentric more and more expanding circles, for the first circle there is tapa, for the second circle there is dana, so we take so many things from different people at different times and we are expected to give something in return, so that is charity and beyond that the last circle is yajna, dana, tapa, yajna so yajna is where we are sacrificing to the gods so what we take from the gods, we have to we are taking, what are we taking we may think that the gods, I don’t even believe that they exist, how are they giving me anything but the point is they are giving a lot to us how are they giving, they are giving through through the medium of universal utilities we cannot provide for our own air or water or heat or light these are arranged by the arrangement of nature, so these are the activities through which we are returning what we take from the universe at different levels so now different people’s understanding will be different and they will act in different ways so depending on their situation within the modes at different levels they will do different kinds of activities and ahara, even our food indicates the kind of faith we have that we will see later on so basically these four activities they demonstrate our faith what about the food in the mode of goodness that Krishna says ayu, sattva, bala, arogya so what does the food in goodness do sukha, priti, vivardhana vivardhana is to increase so what does the food in mode of goodness do, it increases increases ayu, sattva, bala, arogya it increases the ayu, it increases the sattva it increases the bala it increases the arogya so the food that we take improves, increases our ayu now we may wonder that actually some people say that our ayu is fixed that we are destined to live a particular amount of time the number of breaths that we take are fixed according to our according to our past karma so if that is so then how can we say that actually a person ayu can be vivardhana ayu can be increased so actually this happens at various levels in fact we have the full Vedic science called ayurveda if the attitude had been fatalistic oh everything is restrained and what is the use of ayurveda the whole principle of ayurveda is that that actually that which counters that which ensures our ayu, that which prolongs the ayu, that which maintains the ayu that which helps people to live a life of quality and quantity so the idea is how ayurveda interacts with karma is complex but the basic principle is that we all have our duty to take care of the body also we discussed this earlier in the past time of Bali Maharaj as well as the past time of Vasudev Dev Ki Kamsa that the body is the tool for dharma and therefore maintaining the body is also our duty so that if one way to understand it is that the number of breaths that we take are fixed and when we live in the mode of passion then naturally we breathe faster and when we breathe faster our life span expands faster gets expanded not expands, expended faster and that’s how in terms of time, in terms of ages in terms of age we may live lesser so that’s why the yogis they try to regulate their breath and learn to breathe slowly so that they can live longer so the important point here is that we can see even from our own perspective that people who people who have healthy dietary habits those who have good dietary habits they live healthier and most of us can observe that if we eat some improper food that has its health consequences so ayu sattu bala rogya so there is an old Egyptian saying which says that one fourth of what you eat maintains you and the remaining three fourth maintains your doctor so the indication is that generally people tend to over eat and over eat a lot so of course Prabhupada would often quote Ayurveda saying that we should eat up to 50% of our stomach remaining 25% we keep for water and 25% for air so that the prana and the jala can help in the digestion of what we are eating ayu sattu bala rogya so ayu is the ayu is the ayu is the quality the duration of life is improved then sattva is existence so Prabhupada translated the food that increase the duration of life purify one’s existence now we have discussed earlier about how what goes inside us affects us inside so that inside is not just physical it’s also emotional and spiritual and now how does it happen? because whenever whatever way we interact with matter that interaction with matter has its effects whenever we interact with matter our interaction with matter affects and shapes our perception now we can see it in a gross way sometimes if somebody looks at an obscene picture then that immediately that is also an interaction with matter only that is a matter which is shaped and coloured in a particular way but when our senses eyes interact with that that affects our consciousness that creates certain kind of mentality within us so now with respect to food probably we may think that the effect is only that when I see certain kind of food I feel a desire to eat it yes that is one effect of the food sometimes I feel attraction towards certain food and certain food if I have eaten too much or if I had bad experiences if I don’t like the taste of it then I may feel revulsion now we may think that Raga and Dvesha are only two reactions that we have to food when the interaction of matter in form of food how it affects our consciousness but there is much more to it actually food shapes our consciousness even at a subtle level modern science generally talks about things in gross terms Ayurveda says that food also has a subtle component which also shapes our consciousness that’s why we become what we eat so food that is cooked with love and served with love that food enables us to become attracted to Krishna food that is cooked with love for Krishna and served with a devotional disposition towards Krishna that increases our attraction Chaitanya Mahaprabhu talks about this in Chaitanya Charita Amrit if we eat the food that is cooked by Karmis mind becomes wicked wicked means that it starts thinking of self-centred desires in an excessive or even exclusive way with such a mind we cannot think about Krishna so the food that we eat can purify us if it is properly made and Krishna talks about food in the mode of goodness that itself is purifying in general one of the characteristics of the mode of goodness it is purifying that was what we discussed in the 14th chapter beyond that purifying effect of the food is further something higher which comes in the mode of goodness the mode of goodness itself is we are not getting any further contaminations but we are getting more and more situated in the mode of goodness by taking that food but higher than goodness is transcendence when we offer prasad to Krishna and take that prasad at that time that prasad is transcendental and that enables us to also transcend the modes, become free from karma and become more and more attracted to Krishna and the food gives us energy when we eat if we overeat then after eating we feel like so loaded that we feel we can’t do anything but otherwise we can do a lot arogya arogya is health we get health by doing our activities our health improves sukha priti vivardhana so these are at the level of so sukha priti vivardhana sukha priti vivardhana also talks about emotional effects we feel happy yes this is nice sukha priti vivardhana so happiness and satisfaction yes this is good I like it, thank you sukha priti vivardhana generally if we take food in the mode of passion then rather than feeling satisfied we actually feel agitated more, more, more we just feel like craving for more and more we never feel satisfied by the food in the mode of passion and what kind of food is rasya, snigdha, sthira, hridya rasya is juicy snigdha is fatty enduring, hridya, sthira and hridya is pleasing to the heart aahara sattvika priya so aahara sattvika priya which is the food in the mode of goodness so let’s look at what Prabhupada says further Prabhupada writes classically the purpose of food is to increase the duration of life, purify the mind and aid bodily strength so that is ayu sattva bala rogya and then then Prabhupada gives analysis of different kinds of food and he talks about he talks about snigdha fatty, what is fatty when it is not meat meat Prabhupada says animal fat is available in the form of milk which is the most wonderful of all foods so fatty food doesn’t necessarily have to refer to animal fat animal fat is tamasic food and Prabhupada writes slaughter is the way of sub humans now some people may say that actually slaughter was happening in past also, yes it was happening but that was not the norm and yes there were hunters at times and there were bachchos also but the point was they were not organised and brutalised, they would not brutalise animals lifelong as it happens today so it’s ghastly today if you go to slaughter houses it’s like a it’s an industry of monstrous insensitivity where millions of animals are forced to lead a life of insufferable torture and then they are killed it’s extremely brutal sometimes when the hens are people might eat hens but then people might eat chickens but in the slaughter houses say hundreds of hens are kept in one small constricted area and because these hens are so frustrated and they are crowded they don’t have any fresh air they don’t have any space to move around so in their agony and their misery they often peck at each other and that damages the wares that damages what the industry considers to be the wares, when the flesh is pecked then it doesn’t cook so nicely it doesn’t taste so good so what is done is before these hens are put into the hen sheds while they are alive and while they are conscious they are caught and their beaks are ripped apart can you imagine somebody ripping apart our nose while we are alive and conscious so like that the beaks are ripped apart it’s brutal to an extreme degree and they are not even given any painkillers and they just have to live like that and this is just one of the terrible things like that there are hundreds of ghastly things that are done so such sort of brutal slaughter is inhuman entirely it’s subhuman so that is food in the mode of ignorance now let’s look at food in the mode of let’s look one by one so that’s why this kind of food which is produced using brutality, that is definitely not in the mode of goodness now some people, there is a class of people who are called as vegans there are vegetarians and there are vegans so the vegans they don’t take milk also and they say even milk is a product of violence and now is it really true that milk is a product of violence? actually it can be the vedic culture was such that cows were treated like mothers and the cows were loved for cared for, valued served and then the cows when they were loved and cared and valued then the cows give milk in abundance abundance the cows give milk but today the cows are just treated as manufacturing units and instead of lovingly taking milk from their udders the machines are attached to their udders and the milk is squeezed out from their udders till the cows cry in pain and blood starts dripping out and when the blood starts dripping out then the blood and the milk is separated and then the squeezing is stopped so this is brutal and similarly when the cows are there the cows are also not taken proper care of the cows are kept in congested locations and this is not the way cow protection should be done so we will discuss later how in the 18th chapter Krishna says the duty of the Vaishyas is Goraksha and Prabhupada translated Goraksha as cow protection some of the devotees were editing Prabhupada’s translations in English and they said that it is cattle rearing people will not be able to understand what cow protection means can we put cattle rearing? no, cattle rearing is generally the idea that you rear cattle so that they can be slaughtered that’s not the Vedic understanding it’s cow protection so when people do farming in traditional ways and then they care for the cows and then the cows out of love give milk then that milk is actually an expression of the cow’s affection and that milk has many good properties many health enhancing, life enhancing properties within it so there are many research papers which do talk about the health benefits of milk but the milk that is manufactured today that is often a product of brutality so as far as possible the vegans in practise what they say is right in today’s society yes milk is often a product of violence in principle milk in itself is not a product of violence milk is meant to be given out of love and traditionally when the cows will be taken care of adequately at that time the cows would give more milk than what the cows can eat and cows should eat, the cows may want to take all the milk which the mothers are giving but that is not good for their health also so the cows are given a little bit of the milk and after that the cows are weaned and gradually they are trained to take other kinds of food also so the cow’s anatomy is designed in such a way that actually it gives more milk than what humans can take than what its own offspring need to take and that remaining milk can be used by humans so that is the Vedic understanding and where cows are taken care of they do give a lot of milk much more than what the cows can take so as much as possible devotees should avoid industrialised milk because that is often a product of torture and as much as possible devotees can try to take milk which is produced in traditional settings and it is produced with love and care, now it may not be possible everywhere and if it is not possible everywhere then it is up to individual to decide whether I will take milk or I will not take milk we don’t have to take an extreme position the vegans they have the idea that all milk is bad and one should not take milk that is not a position that our Acharya support at all, Prabhupada would call milk as a miracle food, but at the same time Prabhupada also did not appreciate taking too much milk, Prabhupada said excess of anything often becomes passionate some devotees said, Prabhupada you said that the milk increases the brain substance, so if you take more milk then more brain substance will develop, Prabhupada said no, you have to have basic brain substance to understand how much milk you should take and if you take too much milk it can also become passionate, apart from having digestive ill effects, it can also be passionate so milk is actually very auspicious food in the mode of goodness, but we have to see whether it is produced in the mode of goodness or it is produced and manufactured and marketed using practises that are very tamasic, unfortunately and that is what discrimination is required according to time, place and circumstance for each devotee now let’s look at the food in the mode of passion so Anamottapoya is a figure of speech in which words also sound the way their meanings are, so here if we look at the sound of the words itself Katva, Amla, Lavna, Atiyushna Tikshna, Ruksha, Vidahina the words themselves are sharp and jarring Katva, Amla, Lavna, Atiyushna Tikshna, Ruksha, Vidahina so they indicate that the food also has that kind of characteristics, Katva is bitter, Amla is you know sour, Lavna, Atiyushna Lavna is salty Atiyushna is extremely hot Tikshna, pungent, Ruksha it’s too dry Vidahina, burning this is the food that is dear to the people in the mode of passion this cause distress misery and disease sometimes some people like to take extremely hot food, extremely pungent, extremely spicy food and they are taking that food and tears are coming from the eyes because of the excessive spice of the food, and they feel, Mazaa Aagaya yeah, this is wonderful now what is wonderful, the body is itself reacting instinctively and tears are coming from the eyes, but they think this is very stimulating, so just like some people like to watch horror movies and get stimulated in a perverse way through the horror movies, so like that some people like to give negative sensations to their body and get stimulated by that such food is Dukha Shoka Dukha Maya Pradaha now much of the food nowadays contains excess of everything, there is salt, excess of salt, excess of sugar and excess of spice so these are all important things but if any of them become excess they can harm people a lot so in the past, food was never so much of a a processing industry food was never yes, there were hotels where food and things would be served in the Vedic culture, Prabhupada would say that food was always given in charity but even if we don’t go back so much to the past food was served and it was never made into an industry once things become industrialised then often the industrialisation takes out the human element, it dehumanises things so in order to sell food more and make more profits what people do is that they put in too much salt or too much sugar anything that will make people taste it better and the kind of effects that this may have, people don’t think about it too much that’s why many times the fast food that we take nowadays, it may taste good but many of the fast food items are not at all nutritious for the body and not at all good for the health in the long run and one of the biggest problems that is coming up nowadays is obesity and obesity comes not just because of eating too much but also eating wrong kinds of food when we eat food that is excessively fatty, then even a little of that food can cause far greater fat than excess of other kinds of food so in passion, a person eats in such a way that dukkha shokha maya pradha obesity is nowadays becoming one of the world’s leading causes of avoidable death so it’s tragic there are millions of people who are starving and who don’t get enough food to eat but there are millions of people who are dying because of eating too much this is the sad this is the sad tragic result of the mode of passion so dukkha shokha maya pradha then yatayamam gatarasam bhuti parishitam chayad uchishtam apichamedhyam bhojanam tamasapriyam so bhojanam tamasapriyam what is the kind of food that is pure pleasing to the tamasic people yatayamam that food has been cooked and stored for a long time gatarasam and the juice within it has gone away bhuti parishitam chayad that which is foul smelling that which is decomposed uchishtam apichamedhyam uchishtam means if somebody else has eaten it at that time to eat that food the uchishtam of the spiritual master is considered auspicious but uchishtam of other people somebody else’s remnants is not considered auspicious it is considered tamasic actually chamedhyam, food that is untouchable so these are the kind of food which are in the mode of ignorance and one should avoid these kind of foods now the technical specific correlations of how which food applies to what category that will vary according to time, place, circumstance so some people may say that baked food which is preserved often for a long time that also will be in the tamoguna generally when we are talking about prasad in the prasad we focus more on whether it has been cooked properly offered to Krishna and we take it so even when the baked food if it is preserved kept for a long time, it may also have its harmful effects so generally devotees we primarily focus on whether the food is offered, cooked properly and offered to Krishna when food is offered to Krishna we don’t have to go too much into the analysis of this food is in passion this food is in ignorance prasad is prasad, so primarily we see prasad as prasad as transcendental because it is focused on, it is offered to Krishna at the same time material things have their material effects if I have diabetes and doctor has told me don’t take sugar and if I take a lot of sweets saying that oh this is prasad yes it is prasad but then that is not the only way that we can get Krishna’s prasad Krishna’s prasad comes as his holy name Krishna comes, prasad comes also as the bhagavata which tells us yuktahar aviharasya tells us regulate how much you eat so we have to use our intelligence and our common sense to understand what we should eat, so in today’s society some people may be living in such a way that say devotees have to travel and if they have to travel long distances and they don’t want to take food from outside in unavoidable situations devotees can take food from outside, vegetarian food, offer it to Krishna and take it but some devotees may want to avoid that then they have to carry food with them so you know if we have this idea yatha yamam, Prabhu Patran gives the example, that food that is cooked three hours before being eaten yatha yamam, now if we go into extreme points then we may say, oh this food is tamasic no, but if it is prasad it is better than food that is taken from outside and if we have made the items in such a way that they can be preserved for a long time then we understand the vedic standards, at the same time we also understand that we live in a society where not all the standards can be followed so we have to ensure that the spiritual principle gets a higher priority than the material principle, the spiritual principle is that food should be offered to Krishna and if we can get food items that stay for a long time and they don’t get spoiled from the material point of view and if they are offered to Krishna then taking those food items is desirable as compared to taking food from outside and offering to Krishna, and of course if it is prasad, that is fine then we can take food also, but in general devotees focus more on food, whether food is prasad or not prasad and not so much on whether it is sattvic, rajasic, tamasic we can think about that also and we should, but that is a subordinate consideration the primary consideration is whether the food is prasad or not, and Prabhupada also concludes, he gives analysis of the purports of the three modes but then he concludes to make food antiseptic, eatable and palatable for all persons one should offer food to the supreme personality why antiseptic? antiseptic because the karmic contamination will no longer be there, eatable means actually it is worthy of human beings for eating, palatable means actually Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would say that Lord Krishna’s saliva is there on the prasadam and that’s why it tastes special many people wonder how prasad tastes so good there is this mystical explanation for that also now Krishna will start talking about sacrifices so he is talking about aahara, yajna tanadapah now he will talk about the next elements in it afalakankshibhir yajno vidhishto yaijyate yashtavya meveti manah samadhaya sasatvikah so afalakankshibhir yajno when without hankering for the result, afalakankshibhir without being constantly bothered about the result, one does yajna and vidhishto yaijyate vidhishto means this is what is expected of me, this is what is given in vidhi, vidhi is scripture, so this is what the scripture has told me to, yaijyate one who does the worship and yashtavya meveti manah, yashtavya means this is what I am expected to do so samadhaya sasatvikah samadhaya means one who fixes the mind in this way so the whole idea is that three modes are three modes affect us much more internally than externally, externally definitely the effects are there, but now Krishna is taking things really deep generally you would think of say somebody drinking alcohol that’s in tamoguna somebody going for sensuality in terms of say promiscuous relationships or excessive sexuality that is all in the mode of say passion of course passion degenerates in ignorance also so these are definitely true but now Krishna is talking about Arjuna’s question was not about that kind of passion or ignorance, Arjuna’s question started with yaha shastra vitim utsrajya jante shraddhayan vitah people who do shraddhayan vitah, who have faith and who worship with faith but the faith is non-scriptural so that means they are doing some kind of religious activities so now Krishna is talking that means even if people do yajna we would think yajna to be a good activity, but Krishna is saying yajna also has to be seen whether it is good or not depending on the modes in which it is done so if somebody is doing it selflessly understanding this is what scripture tells me to do and if I do it, I will become purified and elevated, so there is no motivation of immediate material gain in it then ishtavya meveti manah, one does not motivate material gain, that is sacrifice in the mode of goodness and Prabhupada explains in the purport how people think that dharma is for artha everything they know used to going to temple just to worship God, but worship is not recommended in the scriptural injunctions, so dharma is not just for artha, artha is one of the aspects, but dharma leads to artha, kama and moksha, and moksha is the most important aspect, and moksha also is not selfish we want to go beyond moksha to prema so that selflessness is considered good, it is in goodness, but on the other hand, if somebody is doing it for the results only abhisandhaya tu phalam dambhartham apichayivayat ijyate bharata srishtam tam yajnam viddhi rajasam so abhisandhaya tu phalam, where one is attached to the fruits abhisandhaya that is attached, dambhartham apichayivayat, dambha artham, out of dambha out of attachment, apichayivayat so out of dambha one does it ijyate bharata srishtam so obharata srishtam if one does worship with that, one is that means, see there are two aspects to this, tam yajnam viddhi rajasam, so there is attachment to the result and there is attachment to doership so one wants abhisandhaya tu phalam, yes I should get the result and along with that dambhartham, just see how much yajna I am doing how pious I am how punyawan I am, and everybody should know how punyawan I am so this kind of attachment to both the material result and material doership this is in the mode of passion dambhartham apichayivayat so we have discussed earlier also this kind of charity which is you know more, when people are doing this, not just charity we discussed about charity in the 16th chapter in the 15th verse one gives charity modishya, one thinks oh I am so great ityajnana vimohitah, Krishna says these people are deluded by ignorance so the idea is if I think that I am the doer and if I think I am getting the result then actually I am simply material consciousness so I am motivated by the same idea of getting the material results of eating, sleeping, mating defending, getting them in a better way through religion, and that is not really anything glorious tam yajnam viddhirajasam and then Krishna talks about sacrifice in the mode of ignorance yajnam tamasamparichakshate so viddhihinam asrishtanam viddhihinam, without following any scriptures asrishtanam asrishta, that means without distribution of food so one doesn’t follow scripture, generally whenever sacrifice is to be performed at that time, there should be distribution of food we see that even in the Govardhan Leela, the food was offered to Govardhan and Govardhan consumed it and then Govardhan gave it back and when that food was given, after that the food was distributed to everyone not just to the Brahmins, not just to the Vrajvasis but to everyone actually so asrishtanam but when there is no charity distribution of food like this, when Srila Prabhupada was in America, at that time he was in dire straits financially and when people would come for the programme he wouldn’t have any guarantee of his own food in the early days, his own food or his own stay, but even then Prabhupada would just get an apple, slice an apple and give, cut in small small slices and give at least one slice to others, so that sort of, some kind of food distribution should be there.
Mantrahinam adakshinam so there are no mantras chanted and there is no dakshina given to the priests who are doing the sacrifice then overall shraddha virahitam yajnam and there is no shraddha also, there is no faith in what one is doing tamasam parichakshate such is food, such is sacrifice in the mode of darkness and that sacrifice is demoniac and it leads to inauspiciousness for everyone, it doesn’t bring any auspiciousness, so sacrifice is actually there is no sacrifice really involved in it, it’s just a sacrifice in name and it doesn’t lead to any good for anyone, it leads to harm ultimately. So in the next class we will discuss about speech in the mode of goodness and then that is a part of further discussion on the three modes. Thank you very much.