Gita 14.13 The mode of ignorance block us in both contemplation and action

Transcript

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thank you when the mode of ignorance becomes predominant within our consciousness so he talks about it first in terms of negation Prakasha, he said in 14.11 is the characteristic of the mode of goodness what to do, what not to do what to take in with our senses what to do with our senses the doors of the senses are illumined with knowledge that is the characteristic of the mode of goodness there is no such illumination of the doorways of the senses in the mode of ignorance and then he has described in the previous verse 14.12 as the characteristic of the mode of passion so there is greed and that leads to strong work according to hard work according to one’s inclination so apravrutti means in the mode of ignorance there is neither action also so pramadomoha evacha so after describing the first line the characteristics of the mode of ignorance by negation, what it is not then he describes the characteristics by affirmation, what those characteristics are pramadam is intoxication, madness moha is illusion evacha, so these are tamasetani jayante when tamoguna becomes prominent then jayante these appear guruthe kurunandana original descendant of guru this is what happens in the mode of ignorance becomes prominent if we consider the modes to be like broad patterns of functioning of our inner world especially our mind then one pattern is of thoughtful action that is good goodness then there is impulsive action which is often thoughtless that is often the characteristic of the mode of passion and in the mode of ignorance there is both thoughtlessness and actionlessness say for example people just become paralyzed some people are like couch potatoes they are not thinking much about anything and they are not doing anything they just sit and pramadam, they just watch movies the soul by nature is active, the soul by nature is also contemplative contemplation and action these are both harmonized together ultimately in devotion when the soul becomes purely motivated by attraction for Krishna and by the desire to both remember Krishna internally so in this situation actually in the mode of ignorance the soul’s covering is the thickest and then the soul either is not active at all or is destructively active not active means the soul cannot be inactive but the soul imagines oneself to be active or even say somebody may just not even get out of their bed most of the day and they might just lie down there and play video games in which they shoot down images of enemies and think themselves as great heroes for shooting down those images now video games may serve as entertainment but entertainment can also be of different kinds if entertainment is meant for a break to refresh oneself from the boredom or exhaustion of life that’s one thing, but if entertainment becomes the main thing in life then one is colossally ignoring the potential and the purpose of life and that is tragic so in the mode of ignorance there is pramadamohaja so madness intoxication pramada the people who drink, they want to escape from their problems they want relief from whatever problems they are facing in their lives and how does one get that relief there are of course different ways but often the most important thing for those seeking relief is that they just don’t want to face reality they don’t want to deal with reality those in the mode of passion do not want to deal with spiritual reality just want to stay blind to spiritual reality but those in ignorance often don’t want to face even material reality even material reality comes with its challenges and the burden of say earning a living or facing a irritable relative or someone whom we have irritated because of our own mistakes facing such a person is not easy and to face them if we did not have the preparation intellectually or emotionally then we may just procrastinate it by seeking some relief in some illusory ways just drinking so herein pramada mohaiva chiva moha means illusion in a sense illusion is a characteristic of all the three modes all the three modes bind and as nobody likes to be bound nobody gets voluntarily bound so we can say that in all the modes there is some illusion because of which the soul gets bound but even among different kinds of illusion the mode of ignorance is characterized by illusion that not only disuse one about the nature of ultimate reality it also disuse us about the nature of immediate reality or not only spiritual reality but also material reality so if we think that even after drinking nothing wrong I can drive a vehicle then one will get a ticket one may be arrested one may even injure injure oneself because of an accident or one may hurt others if there is an accident and this accident may even be fatal so do not take this into consideration to be blinded because of one’s intoxication therein there is not even proper perception of material reality so such illusion is actually extremely dangerous and to be able to come out of the mode of ignorance at least to some extent is essential if we are to function properly even at the material level what to speak of at the spiritual level