Gita 14.06 Anything that keeps us away from realizing our spirituality is binding, even if it is illuminating

Transcript

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thank you Bhagavad Gita 14.5 tatra sattvam nirmala tvad prakashakam anamayam sukha sanghena badhnati jnana sanghena canagham tatra sattvam nirmala tvad Krishna is now going to describe the three modes of material nature which he introduced in the previous verse and here he states tatra among the three modes sattva, rajas, tamas which he mentioned in the fourth verse tatra among them in the sixth verse he says sattva nirmala tvad the mode of goodness, sattva is nirmala tvad it is relatively free from contamination it is the purest mode of living while in the material world sattva prakashakam anamayam prakashakam means that it illuminates and then anamayam it keeps one free from sin it is actually sukha sanghena badhnati and it binds one with happiness and jnana sanghena canagham with knowledge so basically Krishna is speaking here saying that jnana sanghena canagham that the soul can get bound in various ways in this particular context in the context of living in the material world in the mode of goodness soul is bound by knowledge and happiness so let’s look back at these characteristics once again patra sattvam nirmala tvad so we see that the mode of goodness involves living say like a scientist or a philosopher or a poet living the life of the mind the life of the head we can say where people are not so hooked to gross sensuality they they may not be free from it but that’s not the driving force of their lives the driving force of the life is something higher in their life prakasha prakasha refers to light it also refers to understanding to vision to comprehension whenever there is illumination if this room is dark then we can’t see much whenever there is illumination then there is vision there is perception and we can see things and then there is comprehension ok if we suddenly find ourselves in a particular room then we wonder what this room actually is and gradually we understand ok this room is this this room is this that vision and the comprehension come when there is the perception and comprehension come only when there is illumination so that illumination is provided by Krishna through the mode of material nature the mode of goodness of course there is a higher illumination that Krishna personally provided which he has talked about in 10.10 in the Bhagavad Gita dhami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te jnana deepena bhasvata in 10.10 and 11 he talks about how he gives the intelligence by which the souls can come to me how he removes the darkness within the heart with the torchlight of knowledge there is specifically the knowledge that helps us to come closer to Krishna here what he is talking about is not that kind of knowledge he is talking more about the knowledge that enables us to actually move closer to him to just get better understanding of the world so how do things operate so for example goodness one may be able to see that excessive materialism that just craving and slaving for material things it doesn’t lead so much to happiness as to the complexities that come from the obsession which actually is miserable so this kind of understanding comes in the mode of goodness it does not come in the lower modes further it is also that so one can see more or less in the mode of goodness that when one is that one doesn’t feel inclined to sin firstly because one can see to a large extent the consequences of sinful living as distressful but along with that one can also see that actually this kind of living is just too agitating it is distressing in terms of consequences sinful living is both distressing in terms of consequences and agitating in the process of seeking the pleasures also so therefore anamayam a person in goodness lives relatively free from sins so basically goodness is like a place a level of existence which is suitable for connecting with Krishna for transiting the material world where one is not very strongly rooted in the material world to the gross pleasures at the same time one is not very necessarily strongly connected with Krishna so so Krishna as in the previous verse said that all the three modes bind tan nivadnati kaunteya as he will refer to usually in next verse also tan nivadnati bondage so sukha sangena badhnati jnana sangena janagam so sukha sangena one becomes bound by sukha a sense of happiness and jnana by knowledge so bondage is that which keeps anything that keeps us from experiencing the freedom to love Krishna the freedom of life eternal and love eternal relationship with Krishna anything that keeps us from experiencing the eternality of our essential spiritual nature that is a cause of that is bondage so bondage is not just something which binds us to gross sinful activities leave alone bondage at a physical level is that which say we are bound by ropes tied to something that is bondage at a physical level bondage at a emotional level would be psychological level would be when say people are hooked addicted bondage at such a emotional level is that people may not be addicted to gross material activities still their consciousness is bound to the material world because they think oh things are happy over here things are fine over here why do I need Krishna so with this level of understanding one can’t move towards Krishna so anything that keeps us from experiencing our eternal life is bondage so Krishna is saying over here that the sense that I am happy oh that I have knowledge so knowledge can create also a very strong sense of intoxication and superiority all these people are ignorant I know I can see things in the advancement of science for example when scientists come up with some discoveries they get some understandings of things it can be profoundly exciting thrilling intoxicating also I understood this now so actually we could say that science is a tool for acquiring knowledge but from science comes the ideology of scientism which holds that science has a monopoly on knowledge that science alone can answer all questions of all kinds and that we will talk about later in the 18th chapter it is knowledge in the mode of ignorance to think that matter alone is everything but even if some specific scientist may not be in the mode of ignorance but if they feel that they have understood and they will keep understanding at the material level of reality and therefore they don’t need to explore anything spiritual then that becomes the cause of their illusion that sense that oh we have knowledge we can understand what in nature why do we need god at all that sense itself is the cause of illusion and bondage and it needs to be dealt with firmly so here Krishna is saying interestingly concludes the word anamayam Arjuna you are the sinless one he uses the word anagha anamayam he is used for the nature of the mode of goodness and anagha is used for describing Arjuna so what does this mean it means that Arjuna is actually very pious he is virtuous he is a kshatriya so naturally the mode of passion is there but he is a dharmic kshatriya and that adherence to dharma requires the mode of goodness in a significant proportion and Arjuna does have that so that is the indication that Arjuna is the Arjuna is also is not just a passionate kshatriya the very functionality the very mode of living may have some passion but the fact that they follow dharma follow shastra that indicates their goodness so Arjuna you are sinless and this mode which Krishna is describing is also relatively free from sin there is a resonance between the message and the messagee we could say not messenger but the receiver of the message