Gita 14.15 The modes are not just psychological constructs, they are also post-mortem destination shapers

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 14.15 rajasipralayam ghatvakarmasangi shujayate katha pralinas tamasi mudhayoni shujayate Krishna is continuing here the description of the destination on departure from this body when the consciousness is in particular modes in the previous verse he described the destination when we are in the mode of goodness now he is describing departure when someone is in the mode of passion so rajasipralayam ghatva rajasi when the mode of passion is prominent pralayam ghatva when one dies karmasangi shujayate those who are attached to karma among them we are born katha pralinas tamasi and when we depart when the mode of passion is prominent then mudhayoni shujayate mudhayoni shujayate foolish species jayate we are born so karmasangi shujayate refers to the human species karma is not just action it is fruitive action it is action done for fulfilling the results krishna has earlier talked about how rajoguna binds one to karma so in 4.7 he said rajoragatmakam viddhi trishnasangasamudbhavam tannipadnatikam tegya karmasangena dehinam tannipadnatikam tegya that mode binds us karmasangena karmasangena it binds us to karma to actions to fulfill kama to fulfill our desires so is it a tautology here that when he says that rajoguna binds us to karma and now he says rajoguna takes us to those among those who are bound to karma karmasangi shujayate is it simply a repetition is there no additional information there no there is information karmasangi shujayate it refers to basically how within this body in the human body actually the soul can do karma and karma can refer to action that is karmically culpable animals the non-human species they also do activities but that’s more or less instinctively driven the free will is so much covered as simply act for satisfying their satisfying their desires their senses satisfying for fulfilling the bodily drives of of eating, sleeping, mating and defending so they because they don’t have much free will they are not karmically culpable when a lion attacks a deer and eats it it’s not karmically culpable but we human beings are when we eat flesh so karmasangi shujayate means we are born among human beings and not just in human society in human society among karmis among people who are attached to karma and thus basically Krishna he is saying that by living in rajoguna we come back to the material level of existence where we presently are now of course now in rajoguna one may be in the mode of passion where one may be acting with gross sinfulness or one may be acting with some amount of virtuousness also because there is karma and there is vikarma so karma is action done for fulfilling one’s desires but in the vedic context karma refers to pious action so action done say such as the putra kamishti yagya the yagya performed by sacrifice performed by parents who want to conceive a child but are unable to conceive one so they do some religious activity for getting a child sacrifice is it’s a religious activity but it is a religious activity not so much centered on god it is centered on one’s self and one’s own desire fulfillment so such activity is in the joguna and when one is doing karma not vikarma in a sense if one does sinful activities one will get that destination accordingly and quite often sinful activities will drag one down to a lower destination so rajasipralayam gatva karmasamysujayate Krishna is talking here about if somebody dies and is at the moment of death around the time of death one is in the mode of passion thinking of one’s unfulfilled desires then one will be born again in this arena where one can do karma and try to fulfill one’s desires and if we die when we are in the mode of ignorance then we will descend to the lower species among the animals this is one of the direct verses which talks about what some people call as regressive reincarnation some people claim that reincarnation is only progressive that we can only come from lower species to higher species and once a soul from the animal species comes to the human species the soul won’t regress to the animal species but such a restriction restriction on the flow of reincarnation actually checks and defeats the purpose of reincarnation the the purpose of reincarnation is to give the soul an opportunity to fulfill its desires and the soul is living ignorantly indiscriminately chasing bodily pleasures then an animal species is more suited for fulfilling those desires and the transmigration of the soul to animal species is not regressive reincarnation it is actually facilitating the soul’s desires and in that sense it is progressive for the soul, not that the soul is going to higher species the soul is progressing towards living the way it wants to live of course it is regression because the soul is going from the human species to a lower species but the purpose of reincarnation is to facilitate the soul’s desires to give the soul a body that is at a level of abilities and consciousness which is attuned to the soul’s present level of consciousness so thus those who live in ignorance are born in lower species and there they live trying to pursue animal pleasures so Krishna is talking about how the modes here are not just psychological constructs for analyzing the mind, analyzing our emotions they are also consequential shapers of our destiny depending on the mode we are in we are going to get particular destinations and thus choosing to live in higher modes, in the mode of goodness is important if we wish to elevate ourselves Thank you