Does one have to come to goodness in terms of one’s activities before one can become transcendental?

Question from Devesh Purno. Does a devotee practicing spiritual life need to come to goodness while doing various services and then eventually transcend? Or if the devotee has been habituated to living in the mode of passion, can the devotee from the mode of passion directly transcend? So answer.

According to Vanashram, each of us has our nature. So for example, Kshatriyas will be in the mode of passion, like that. So does everybody come to goodness and then transcend? Or do people transcend from whichever mode they are in directly? Answer.

There is a difference between a person's mode as a part of the nature and a person's mode in terms of the actions that the person is doing. That means the activities of the Kshatriya, which is fighting, managing, controlling, delegating, they are by their very nature passionate activities. The activities of a Brahmana are activities in goodness, studying, teaching.

So they generally are the important part. So now we have Krishna, if you will see, in the 18th chapter, talks about karma in the three modes and then he talks about karta in the three modes and he differentiates them. There can be an activity in the three modes and there can be an actor in the three modes.

So by their very nature, certain activities will be in the mode of passion. And if I have an attraction to a particular set of activities, then that does indicate that I have a predominant influence of passion within me. So if I have an attraction to collecting a lot of money, I may do it for my own financial aggrandizement or I may do it for Krishna.

But accumulating money in and of itself involves passion. So the form of the activity will stay in passion and we can't change that per se. But my consciousness doesn't have to be in passion.

That means… That is what I am talking about nature. No, nature is different. I'll come to that.

Consciousness means my motivation. Nature means what I like to do. Nature means what I like to do naturally.

I'm comfortable doing that. So a Brahmana is comfortable studying. A Vamana may also raise funds, but it will be a burden for a Brahmana.

A Vaishya may also study scripture, but that will be a burden. Dealing with money will be natural for a Vaishya. So Varanashram doesn't mean that we have to change our nature.

It means we act according to our nature. Now within Vedic Varanashram, we regulate our nature according to scripture. That means I like to earn money, but if I'm attached to money, I may not want to do charity to anyone because I just want to earn more and more money.

But I follow scripture and do charity. That act of giving charity connects me with the mode of goodness. The Kshatriyas, because they respect the sages, because they perform yajnas, because they support the Brahmanas, all those activities keep them in the mode of goodness.

So for them, the mode of goodness, it doesn't mean that they have to start doing Brahmanical activities. For them, the mode of goodness essentially means that they subordinate themselves to scripture. To the extent they act according to scripture, the very willingness to act according to scripture is indicative of goodness.

If a person is totally in passion or totally in ignorance, the person will not be willing to act according to goodness at all. So even Shudras, they can be at least partially, in an adequate way, be in goodness by acting according to scripture. The actions that they will do will be compatible with the Shudra nature.

That means they will be, you could say, in ignorance. But the purpose for which they do it, the regulation with which they do it, the motivation in doing it, all that, if that is governed by scripture, then that will bring them to goodness. So for us as practicing devotees, we don't have to change our nature in terms of necessarily doing things which we don't feel comfortable doing.

We can find out within devotional life, whatever it is that we are, we feel comfortable doing, and normally whatever we are comfortable doing, we also do it well. And we are productive for Krishna's mission also that way. We assist in Krishna's mission by our talents.

So we don't have to give up that. But we do have to regulate those. For example, somebody may say that I like to study books or scriptures.

But then that same person who likes to study scriptures may say that, I don't want to chant, I don't want to do any other services. I just want to study. Now it is in the mode of goodness, but then studying, if it is the activity of studying in the mode of goodness, but if I am doing studying so that I can exhibit my knowledge to the world, I can get praise from others for how learned I am, then although the activity is in goodness, my motivation is in passion.

Because I am motivated by the ego. If I am in goodness, my motivation for study will be that I want to understand the philosophy of it. And if I am in transcendental, my motivation for study will be I want to serve Krishna.

I want to serve Krishna and learn through scriptures how to become a better servant. So that's why in general, in our devotional lifestyle, there are certain activities which are in goodness. That is the modern sadhana.

Actually they are transcendental. But from the material perspective, they require goodness for us to do them. So we can say they are in goodness and they bring us to goodness.

So those are things which we should not compromise just because we like certain to do certain things. And while doing our prescribed sadhana and seva, we can naturally, we will naturally gravitate towards those services which we feel most comfortable doing. And that is good.

There is no need to resist that. So now regarding the specific question, if a person is in the mode of passion, does that person go to transcendence directly or through goodness? Well, the very fact that the person is following scripture indicates that there is goodness. Without that, the person would not follow scripture.

So in that sense, for everyone, even for a shudra, there has to be some level of goodness. And the specific form of the activities don't have to change. So if we are thinking of going from passion or ignorance towards transcendence in terms of the activities that the person is doing, then that is not necessary.

It's not that a shudra has to start doing Brahminical activities to become transcendent. No, that's not necessary. But in terms of internal transformation, internal, for example, Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita 18th chapter that faith in scripture is a characteristic of Brahman.

So astikyam, 18th chapter. So then, as a shudra or as a vaisya, they live according to scripture and they experience its benefits, their faith will also increase. So in terms of internal development, a person will become more and more attached to Krishna and a person will become that way transcendent.

So in terms of activities, the person doesn't necessarily have to change the activities to goodness. We can just continue doing the activities that we are naturally inclined and endowed to do and through those activities, we can purify ourselves. In the 18th chapter, Krishna says, sva-karmana tam abhyarcha siddhim vimriti manavah sva-karmana, by your own prescribed work.

So everybody will do their own work, but Krishna says, tam abhyarcha, by your own work. vanshitham, and then siddhim vimriti,.