Gita Study Pune 2013 – 14.10-15 Examining the modes in today’s society

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
day krishna kurvan gita amritam dadha lokatra yo pakaraya tasmay krishna atmane namaha so now we will discuss the how the modes are competing and how you can recognise which mode is predominant so the first analysis was a little bit of more of active or objective analysis it’s like if you compare the modes to be like seasons where they are more like not cosmic seasons but psychological seasons so we can have objective description ok summer is hot winter there is rains and winter there is cold and rainy season there is monsoon there are rains so objective descriptions now if we want to look at the weather on a particular day and we want to understand what is the weather today is it rainy season or monsoon or rain or winter or summer then we will have to look whatever knowledge we have we have to apply it because even in monsoon it will not be always raining but then we may look at the ground we may look at the sky it is overcast there is water on the ground so it’s one thing to know about seasons in principle and it’s another to identify the seasons in practise to recognise the weather as it is existing in day to day situations so similarly here from this verse onwards Krishna will talk about how these modes are not static they keep constantly changing and there is a conflict and how do I identify which mode is predominant at a particular time so rajas tamascha bhibhuya sattvam bhavati bharata rajah sattvam tamaschaiva tamah sattvam rajas tatha so rajas tamascha bhibhuya that means that transcending rajas and tamas sattvam bhavati sometimes sattva becomes predominant sometimes rajah becomes predominant sometimes tamah becomes predominant so it’s interesting here Krishna when he is focussing on the modes he talks about the modes almost as if they are conscious forces which are battling actually speaking they are the modes are subconscious the modes are not conscious just like the modes are basically like in a computer when the computer is running the computer may give us multiple options should we run this programme suppose the computer not shut down properly should we have done safe mode safe mode with some facilities or normal mode so here we have another example of the use of the word mode safe mode safe mode with additional features and normal mode so mode is basically referring to a manner of functioning so these are options now once we tick an option then the computer will start functioning accordingly but it is we who tick the option but while it is ultimately we who tick the option but also we will find that the machine also in certain situations may prompt us to select a particular option for example safe mode recommended normal mode not recommended isn’t it so what happens is through that that tag of the recommended to not recommended it is giving us a pointer of what we should select so although the machine is unconscious but still it can also prompt us to choose certain modes of functioning similarly the modes although they are unconscious they can prompt us to act in certain ways and when they prompt us to act in certain ways the other modes don’t immediately remain silent become silent the other modes are also existing and sometimes they may also prompt us so at that time it is up to us which mode we choose so a few examples to understand this suppose say afternoon we have had lunch and after that we have different options you know we can go to a room where everybody else is sleeping I want to study scripture but I think I am tired also so I lie down and study scripture so then what is going to happen everybody is sleeping I am lying down so naturally I will succumb to the mode of ignorance on the other hand I go to some area where a lot of activity is happening some management is going on some discussion is going on there I may find it once I go into that situation where everybody is awake and active I also feel like becoming active another situation I may go to library where everybody is studying and I see other devotees they are studying so much let me also study and then when I go in that mode I may feel like studying so here I am giving the example of how external environments may shape our behaviour under similar situations on three days all three days we might have we might have taken lunch and afterwards one day we may sleep one day we may study one may do some other services so what determines that ultimately it’s our choice various factors will be there but to a large extent if we consider these situations say the sleeping room the work room and the library the study room then these are like environments which facilitate certain modes so depending on the environment that we choose we will come under the influence of a particular mode so when Krishna is saying that sometimes the mode of goodness conquers over passion and ignorance what does that mean that means that we choose the mode of goodness instead of the other modes so why do we choose it could be that the mode of goodness markets itself more aggressively or it could be that somebody else forces us pushes us to be in the mode of goodness but the idea is goodness triumphs it could be and similarly it could be ignorance triumphing some other time so this conflict is there all the time within all of us sometimes it is higher sometimes it is lower but it is always there so for example now all of us are in this camp so you know if you are in the mode of ignorance you may think how can everyday sit for five six hours there is a limit to human capacity my legs are paining my knees are aching my back is stretched and now this may be true but if we dwell on it too much then that will dominate our mind so it’s like the modes are always existing but whatever we dwell on then we will feel this is so hot also better I need some rest and then we may just go to sleep on the other hand somebody else may think that ok this is going on I have so many services to do just sitting so many hours and hours we have to do something we have to do action you know and all this philosophy is not so practical also you know our mind can come up with all sorts of ideas and sometimes we feel yes this is important it’s only when I know what the scriptures are saying then I will be able to teach the scriptures then I will be able to live according to the scriptures then I will be able to transform my life so it’s important so whichever way this sort of thoughts can come in our mind and they can cause a conflict so what we will choose will depend on our free will coupled with various circumstances but here Krishna is not talking about the factors that determine the victory of a particular mode he is just talking about the principle that sometimes this mode wins sometimes that mode wins this conflict goes on and this conflict if you see it’s not just for devotees or transcendentalists it is even for materialistic people sometimes materialistic people have to make choices for example a person may feel that if I become an engineer or a doctor then I can earn so much more money and I can have a promising career and I can have a big house big car and I will have so much respect in society but sometimes a person may feel actually what my interest is in art I want to become an artist maybe a photographer I want to do wildlife photography and even if you don’t earn so much money is not everything ultimately if I want to be happy I should do what I like to do and somebody else may feel actually the world has always gone on before it is going on now it will go on in future why do I have to work so hard just cool down relax even material life this sort of different mindsets will come up and materialists may also oscillate between goodness passion and ignorance so this is a universal feature of material nature and different modes triumph at different times now the modes are material and because they are material their influences on us are material that means they can shape our material destiny in a quite a dramatic way it can be dramatic in a positive sense or negative sense person who consistently chooses the mode of ignorance they say a student say 3 students come to a college and they come to the coastal campus and then they have a choice now one of them may choose the mode of ignorance that person may get into bad habits the person may start smoking or may get into drugs and start using obscene language and just not only lose himself materially in terms of not having good career but the person may even lose his health and get into addiction lose money and ruin himself another student comes along and that person is born in the mode of passion just thinking of work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work I want to do something for my country I want to do some research I want to develop some new technology so that I can actually do some good for others so in Kaliyuga the number of people who are in goodness may be less but still they are there there are three categories of people and often the people who are in goodness they feel threatened and cornered because society pushes people to act in particular ways so the choices the student makes whether the student will choose a sattvic life or rajasic or tamasic life that will determine the whole destiny of the student at the end of the four years the student may have no career and he might just be addicted completely and ruined or he may have a bright career but he will just be running like a race horse for the rest of his life trying to just reach the goals that society is going to set up for him one after another after another or that person may have just found his calling ok this is the field I want to study this is what I want to do my research in so now here when I am talking about sattva guna see even in every profession we could say kshatriyas are in the mode of passion or vaishyas are in the mode of passion and kshatriyas are in the goodness passion and vaishyas are in the passion ignorance but even for a kshatriya to act as a proper kshatriya some amount of goodness is required even for a shudra to act as a proper shudra some level of goodness is required so the basic level of goodness is that one has to follow at least some basic level of morality and some basic amount of scripture even if it is not scripture some level of morality has to be there so we will see that sometimes there are workers who are just like shudras they are labourers but they may also be honest they may be few but they are there so that means when we say that certain people or certain professions are in particular modes, shudras are in ignorance that doesn’t mean that everything about them has to be in ignorance if they have dharmic their capacity with dharmic itself indicates that there is some level of goodness in them their moral that indicates that there is certain level of morality so that means for a person whatever be the profession if the person wants to be true to his or her calling then that person has to have some level of goodness so these are the ways our life and our career and our destiny is shaped and this is largely determined by the modes so that’s why the kind of modes that we cultivate will shape our destiny and this applies even within a devotional society he talks about Kapiladev talks about bhakti in goodness, passion in ignorance so you know we can come in the association of devotees but even within the community of devotees there may be there are some people who are like just perpetual fault finders their only service in the movement is to find fault with others and then sometimes those people are like that they are so cynical about everything sceptical is to not have faith but cynical is to have the worst possible faith that means when a person is cynical whenever a cynical person sees somebody doing something that cynical person ascribes the worst possible motive for doing something so somebody studies scripture very nicely and speaks you know he likes to he has a big ego and simply parading his ego it may be true in some cases but that doesn’t have to be always the truth so every single situation a cynical person tries to ascribe the worst possible motive for that action so scepticism may not scepticism to some extent is ok but cynicism is very bad now cynicism poisons our mind and poisons others minds so now if in the community of devotees we associate with cynical people then we will also tend to become cynical and not only will we not do much but we will not be able to do much for others in fact we will do some harm to others also so within the association of devotees within the practise of Krishna consciousness also we can make tamasic choices tamasic sometimes the best way we can serve Krishna is by keeping out of Krishna’s business now what do we mean by Krishna’s business now running the Krishna consciousness movement is not our business it is ultimately Krishna’s business so we find some projects some things are not going right some temples something is not something is not proper here that is not proper some department things are going wrong if we are in a position of authority by which we can guide others and help them to come on the right track that is fine but if we are not then there is no point in speaking about that to everyone else in the 16th chapter Krishna talks about apaishunam apaishunam is aversion to fault finding that is a godly quality, sattvic quality so if you make this tamasic choices then we will be practising bhakti but it will be it will be very a pessimistic kind of bhakti so I was talking earlier about conspiracy theories so what has happened is that in ISKCON after Sri Prabhupada departed there were disasters huge disasters and they are not they are not certainly they are sad heartbreaking in many ways but they are not unexpected because any institution after the charismatic founder departs runs into crisis so it is something which has happened for every institution and it happened in ISKCON also and in ISKCON it was actually more likely because the distance between the founder and his successors was so huge it was like they were light years away so no matter how advanced the followers might have become but still they were nowhere near where Sri Prabhupada was so what happened is that after something those devotees some of the devotees there were lot of problems in ISKCON many devotees were terribly hurt by the way things were dealt with but then some of them just started claiming that everything about ISKCON is bad so one example I would say of the cynical attitude is to the idea that some people say Prabhupada was poisoned now there is actually speaking not a shred of evidence for it if somebody wants to make a case they can make any case out of anything but it is a typical example of a conspiracy theory attitude conspiracy theory attitude means that there is some evil group that is controlling the movement and they are out to control us and do this and harm us and destroy us and everything so actually speaking if you look at the final pastimes of Sri Prabhupada they are heart rending heart wrenching in fact how Sri Prabhupada and his disciples they reciprocated with each other Prabhupada was drawing out devotional emotions from his disciples in the last moment so something as monstrous as poisoning it would not even cross the minds of the devotees they were ready to give up their life for Prabhupada so but how this idea has come up and actually the important point is nobody thought about this for almost 15-20 years after Prabhupada departed and after 15-20 years when they found that there are problems in the movement they thought probably the problems are because this thing happened there is no medical evidence or anything substantially for that but again here I am illustrating the point of those who came up with this theory they are also scorned devotees only they are Prabhupada disciples only some of them Prabhupada grand disciples but unfortunately their mission in life seems to have become finding faults with others and sometimes ascribing serious faults to others so even in the devotional circles we can make tamasic choices or we can make rajasic choices rajasic choices means you know we define success in terms of achievements now I built such a big temple or in my programme so many people will come I distribute so many books and that becomes the definition of success so if that becomes the definition of success then this happened in respect to book distribution many times unethical means were used especially in the west for distributing books somehow we have to make people take books so some devotees they will distribute books and then in America what the people would give 10 dollars ok they will show one book and then ok that one book ok I will give you 2 dollars for this ok and they take out 10 dollar coin and then some devotees will start saying actually you know I don’t have any change with me right now and then they will spin some story also actually you know something they will tell my father is sick or this is anything they will tell and can you take 2 more books also that person wanted to give 2 dollars and take one book but then they will give that person 5 books and they will take 10 dollars from that person and now this may not seem to be very unethical but when it happens not once or twice but if it happens 100 times 500 times 1000 times then and it becomes a standard practise among Google distributors then it creates a tremendous negative image so many times in the especially when people are flying in the west where flying is very common when people are flying also at that time they are often drunk so they are not in a very good condition also so there was one person who eventually made a complaint that became a very bad case this person was something like a retired army officer or something and he had last savings and he had drunk a lot and some devotee gave him something like 55 books and took something like 1000 or 2000 dollars from him and after that when he went he did not even have money to catch the bus to go home and then later on people asked him what happened and then that came in the news and it became a terrible issue and on the other hand the devotee said I distributed so many books in one go but what is the distribution it is actually not distribution it is alienation so why did this happen it is not that the devotees were mean minded they were thinking that we are distributing mercy but the whole attitude was so much of passion that they did not realise that what they were doing was so insensitive and it could be so counterproductive so the Malkrishna Maharaj for several years in Dallas he stopped book distribution he said no book distribution to do at all now he was the person who ran Radha Damodar bus party but sometimes the public opinion against this con became so much that he said if people see our book distributors on the streets then they just become alienated so then he focused on developing a restaurant Govinda restaurant and then doing other kinds of outdoor activities which are more respectable in terms of mainstream society so it is not that book distribution is bad it is glorious but then if it is not done properly if it is done with just this whole idea of numbers then that is bhakti within the mode of passion and that can have counterproductive effects and then we can practise bhakti in the mode of goodness that means there is a proper balance there is sadhana there is proper studies and there is service so to a large extent Prabhupada was in such a situation that he had to do things in an emergency mode but that emergency passion deadline orientated functioning that gets things done but it doesn’t it is not something that we can sustain for a long time see what happens is when there are deadlines we get a kick out of that yes I am doing something and we feel excited we feel passionate and that is good because by that we get things done but if that is the only stimulation that drives us in Krishna consciousness having deadlines and getting things done then it can largely although we are doing it for Krishna consciousness service it can become largely material so having targets deadlines they are all very good to bring out to channelise the passion that is there in us but we want to channelise the passion we don’t want to become drowned by that passion so we also have to have devotional motivations and that balance is required so of course over a period of time it has gone as changed substantially and we are having a brahmanical community coming up everywhere but the point is the modes are something which influence everyone I gave example of ordinary people in society students and even devotees and it is our choices so our choices will largely be determined by the by the kind of association we keep by the kind of values we have and by the basic conceptions of life and devotion that we have so let’s look at the characteristics of three modes any questions about this yeah how is karma involved in the modes of nature basically like you said choice is there but the choice itself gets shrinked because of the different karmas person may have so one may be two things like I wanted to ask in this that one is in the beginning how did the soul come in contact with these modes of nature because in the beginning there is no karma so we cannot say that initially goodness, passion, ignorance something should be working and then second in general now we are in material world for so long so now these modes definitely remain a choice but don’t they dominate our choices also through like as you said the modes act on mind so mind itself is polluted with those modes yeah so don’t the modes dominate us through the mind see the mind and the modes through the mind they impel us but they don’t compel us impel means they push us in particular directions and if we don’t offer any counter push we will move in that direction only but we do have the capacity to offer a counter push so now whether I will offer a counter push or not that will depend on various factors my values for example somebody right from the childhood or the infancy itself is habituated to eating meat then that person when meat is offered there is no impetus to offer a counter push that is a natural diet that is there but over a period of time if somehow the person comes in contact with some people who are vegetarian or read something about vegetarianism and he sees how violence is done to kill animals for the sake of food then that knowledge can give the person impetus to offer a counter push to counter that force so we do have the free will to make choices but our choices we will use our free will based or we will make choices based on our free will based on our conceptions so if I don’t have a conception of something else apart from non-veg food then I don’t have that choice also so the first step in making the right choice is to expand our conceptions or change our conceptions to get the right conception that is education now after I have the education then it’s not that just by education alone I will make the right choices but education at least opens to me the possibility for making the right choice if there is no education then the possibility itself may not be there because I may just be habituated to live in a particular way but after the education is there then there is the whole concept of using the free will in the right way so what determines that in a practical sense we see that different people have different levels of determination some people resolve to do something and they do it immediately others when they resolve to do it they often just resolve and give up so what is it that determines our determination you know so actually speaking it is ultimately we only determination is nothing but a sustained strong desire the desire is strong and it is sustained then it is determination so if we keep desiring a particular thing continuously and intensely then eventually that will translate into determination we will do it but if somebody feels that I have a weak determination that simply means that actually that person’s determination is directed somewhere else and the determination is directed towards some other thing like the whole word is graha-vrataanam it is used that means the capacity for vrata is there but it is used for graha it is used for being at the material level of consciousness bhakta there is a durdha-vrata or brihat-vrata so the vrata is used differently so often by association by education and by contemplation we can change this but it is something which ultimately will depend on our free will so even within our mind even in the subtle body even mundane analysis they say that all of us they use mundane all of us have two selves within us you know one is a self that needs a kick in the back and the other is a self that can give the kick somebody needs to be corrected and there is somebody who will do the correction but these two selves are always in a state of conflict and who will win in that that is something which will depend on which self we choose which self we listen to the most so we always have free will because within also it is not only the voice of the mind inside also there is a higher voice and there is a lower voice so which voice we listen to that will determine whether we act properly or not so the whole concept of modes is not deterministic it is not that the modes completely programme us see till now Krishna has not introduced the concept of bhakti as a means for for say changing the modes so bhakti is required for transcending the modes to come to the transcendental level but within the modes people can change themselves by conscious choices somebody can in ignorance it is not easy but people who have bad habits say like people addicted they sometimes become free from the addiction so by determination it can happen so the it is like there is a grid of nails attached to a wall so there is a big wall and there is a grid with small nails coming out at very close distance and then I send a marble from above the grid the marble can just barely pass through in between the two nails two nails are here so now if a marble falls here the marble can go this way down or it can go this way down and then again there are nails over here the marble can go this way down or it can go this way down so now we could say roughly speaking the chances that marble going down this way or this way is 50% but if the marble repeatedly goes right at each fall then its downward trajectory will be entirely different from what it would be based on arbitrary choices or if it consistently falls left then its trajectory will also be entirely different so overall the marble just cannot jump from here to here but at each intersection point where the marble goes will determine its long term destination so same way for us the small small choices if they are done with discrimination they can bring a big positive result so for example most of us before we were introduced to Krishna consciousness we may not have had the habit of waking up early in the morning but we just started that everyday we kept choosing that and now normally its a habit we sleep early and we wake early this is an example of something which is due to devotion but if you want to look at material life some people may have a habit of sleeping in the afternoon but say when they take up a job in a company there is no scope to sleep in the afternoon so what happens that influence of tamoguna that just goes away so it may be because of force of compulsion but whatever it is people are able to do it force of circumstance but they are able to do it so even materially through circumstances or through change of conceptions or through whatever way we can so go we can change the mode that are influencing us but it is much more difficult with the power of devotion it becomes much more easy but its definitely possible any other questions yes so can map reality in accurate way because the classification is based on selecting certain criteria and highlighting them so one of the criteria may be when were you introduced in Krishna consciousness but if somebody from somebody introduced very late might be very dedicated and somebody who has been there for a long time may not be so dedicated so in general philosophers always recognise not talking about vedic philosophers but in general they recognise that any system of classification is a system of simplification so in simplification always leaves out certain characteristics so its like when we have initiation by a particular guru so then he is this guru’s disciple he is this guru’s disciple it becomes a very neat system it becomes a clear system of classification but the reality often is that some devotees may be inspired by many gurus and sometimes I may be initiated by one guru but afterwards I may find myself that I am getting inspired by another spiritual master its not wrong so it is a useful system of classification but it never reflects the reality accurately because it focusses on so when we are dividing disciples we are just taking one characteristic of ok who is the spiritual master of the person but some people may be doing surveys which connects them with some other spiritual master more that is also possible and the reason I am talking about all this is the because we do not know how these species are classified within the subcategories for example when we say Jalja Navalakshani so on what basis is Navalakshani classified so that taxonomy could also have grey areas within it so that is why when scientists give some classification they have certain criteria based on which they make the classification so that criteria is different from the criteria that is used in Vedic literature so it is not necessary that the two have to be in conflict and one has to be right and the other has to be wrong so we can take the figure in a literal sense but because we do not know the criteria on which that classification is based in a technically detailed sense we do not know the basis of the classification so we can say that there could also be porous areas where you could further expand the classification or there could be areas where the classification could be condensed also so in a broad sense we take the numbers as significant because they are mentioned in the scriptures and generally all the references which Prabhupada has made are in a numerically significant or literal sense but by the general understanding of the normal problems associated with taxonomy and by the knowledge that we do not know the basis for the classification so we can say that this number may not be an absolute number which has to be accepted by everyone there can be other ways of classifying by which the numbers may come out more or less also yes yeah Prabhupada says how does 3 into 3 3 into 3 leads to 8.4 Prabhupada doesn’t give it in a very like a mathematically precise sense basically what he says is that this is how the three modes multiply just like if you study this chromatics chromatics is basically study of colours and they say that you know there are basically or if you look at computer screens there are basically three colours in the computers the CRD but then from those three so many different other colours come about and depending on the composition you can have even within green you can have 500 shades of green so like that what Prabhupada says is that three modes are like the three colouring agents for the mind for the living entity for the consciousness and then based on that different species have the different consciousness so that Prabhupada is using that 3 into 3 into 3 basically to indicate how the huge variety huge number of variety may emerge but there is no numerically precise correlation between that 3 into 3 into 3 and 8.4 million yes Prabhupada the choice maker is above the modes only then we can make the choice but we are functioning on the platform of chitta which is contaminated by the modes so how is the modes not compelling us to make the choice yes so the choice maker has to be above the modes to make the choice but we are functioning at the level of contaminated consciousness or chitta so how are we above the modes we are not exactly above the modes in the sense of being transcendental but we are presented with the modes in front of us and we have to choose between them just like I was giving the example of virtual reality even in the video game if a person wants to chase a thief and the person may decide ok I want to chase him I will shoot him from right now here only or I will go over there and I will knock his vehicle off with my vehicle or I will tip off the police and let them come and arrest him I am just giving random examples but even within the world so all these options are within virtual reality only but within the virtual reality also there are options so the soul will need to be above the modes to make a choice that is beyond the modes that is to make a transcendental choice but when the soul is within the modes then all the three modes are prompting and a soul can make one of those choices so you can look at the example of the computer computer itself gives multiple options and we have to choose one option among them so like that the material nature itself provides us with multiple options and to select those options we don’t need a higher than material consciousness because everything is happening within material nature itself so in a sense giving us choices is also a way by which material nature entangles us because choices also especially choices which are not really choices you know it’s said that if a person wants to market something you want to take a watch so sir would you like to have this watch no I don’t want it so then experience marketing agent will come sir I have a black watch a white watch yellow watch which one do you want so you know so actually it’s a pseudo freedom you have to take a watch which one do you want to take so like that the soul has a pseudo freedom in the sense that the soul doesn’t have the freedom to get out of material existence but material nature offers the freedom to that so has so many ideas should I do this should I do that should I do that so now it’s a matter of observation in our own lives that we can choose between sattvic rajasic tamasic choices people may not know that these are sattvic rajasic tamasic these are different choices I have they may not know the nomenclature and the basis of the classification but the fact is that they are presented to us at the level of the mind through the various voices that come to us and they are a part of the package of material existence itself the package of material existence offers us illusory choices and then by choosing within them we exercise our free will we live out our fantasies about how we can enjoy in this world so because the choices themselves are material the soul doesn’t have to be above material and the choices are acting as sort of multiple options the soul chooses from is that your question yeah Prajit the choice also will depend on like if I am in goodness I will have a choice of a goodness option but if I am in passion then the choice of goodness itself is not there so choices does the mode also influence the chooser himself or ok does the mode influence the chooser himself if I am in passion then goodness is not an option for me only yes as I told earlier if I don’t have education of particular option that concept that won’t come into me only that is definitely true so there are certain options that may be ruled out by the kind of conditioning that we have by the kind of mode that we are situated in but even if I say goodness is ruled out for me but still I have a choice between passion and ignorance isn’t it so for example if I have exams tomorrow I have a huge amount of workload so I can either take so much tension of that and I just get buried under tension or I make a plan ok this is all that I have to do I can’t do this but let me do this this this this this I make a plan and I work on it that may not necessarily be goodness because I may be working more just for the sake of marks but not for the sake of knowledge or whatever but still it may be in passion but I can surely choose between passion and ignorance is it address your question or is it your question something else I am also asking in lines of free will that means when we speak of free will it’s not absolute free will it is condition it is free will also just has some it has some constraints yes so does our free will also have it’s not absolute yes it’s constraint definitely no doubt about it that is the whole concept of Kshetra you know different people according to their karma have different Kshetras so an ant as per it’s past karma has got a Kshetra that is a very tiny body and what the ant can do with that body is itself limited on the other hand a blue whale has by it’s past karma got a Kshetra which is much bigger and what it can influence by that is much much more as compared to the ant in terms of physical impact so that’s basically with respect to the starting body itself but along with that also the free will is limited in various ways you know all of us have certain ruttis so a brahmana has a brahmanical rutti now I could say the rutti is a positive thing or I could also see it as a restrictive thing this is what I am good at and in that sense it is positive but it also means I am not good at other things and I don’t like other things so yes the only person who has absolute freedom is Krishna so depending on how much good karma that we have done we will have that much more of an influential kshetra so if a person is done a lot of bad karma then that person is born but that person doesn’t have any abilities now can’t speak very well can’t manage well can’t plan well can’t communicate well this is choices of the free will clear yes yes as example cow tied to a pole or a kite tied to a string depending on how long the string is the kite will fly that much the kite is never entirely free but the kite is not entirely bound also so the kite can move within the diameter within the radius of the string circumference determined by the radius of the string so like that so the radius that we will have that will vary depending on our past karma this is somewhat related to last chapter and the concept which is going on right now like we say soul cannot act it can just desire what acts is material nature in the form of modes according to the sanction of the paramatma so my question is when we say soul can just desire what exactly it is like sometimes i have some desire but i don’t act on it so it’s like is it that the desire is not so strong or is it that only when i act we say that i desire like that and that also we also sometimes say that if you have some wrong desire you should not act on them so what it is exactly like whether i act or i have strong desire and then the modes act sometimes i have some other desire and i act differently so like yeah how to differentiate so it is like the soul only desires and material nature executes special sanctions of soul but sometimes we act based on our desire and sometimes we don’t seem to have a desire but certainly we act in a particular way also so how do things work out actually see the 2.63 described the stage so the stages can be called by various names so the first stage is basically attraction yeah find out where is it so basically a starting attraction then as i contemplate on it further then it becomes karma so karma is obsession so that same desire has become stronger because of is it finally yeah nice so so there is contemplation starts with it there is attraction there is obsession then there is irritation when krodha see often krodha when desire is not fulfilled it leads to krodha but also when before when i face some obstacles i want to enjoy no you should not enjoy who tells me i should after oblivion i forget what i have studied from scriptures smriti brahmashyad after oblivion there is buddhi nasha there is stupefaction i basically become like a fool over there and then there is destruction pranashyati so now if you see how is this happening this is happening through a continuous focus on a particular thing so is this is this irreversible no we can check it at any stage when the contemplation is happening if i don’t dwell on it too much i can just pull off so when we say that the soul can only desire that is definitely true but the only desire part sets of process of we could call it chain reactions a process of actions which eventually lead to consequences or which lead to physical actions which lead to consequences so what we need to do is we have to check our desires so the situations when we don’t act on our desires can be because of two things one is we don’t act because the external circumstances don’t allow us to act we want to maybe do something wrong enjoy or whatever in particular way but then there is no facility that’s how we stop it or in other cases we ourselves are going off on the wrong track but by our conscience by our intelligence by some way by some guidance we pull ourselves back so that means the desire is there but we don’t let ourselves go on that desire beyond a particular point so that desire is always with us Krishna uses that word in 2.70 Nathu Kama Kami it’s a very significant word Kama Kami Kami means the desire of desirer the desirer of desire Kama Kami so the idea over there is what Apurya Manamachala Prathishtam Samudra Mapa Pravishanti Yadvat Tadvat Kama Yam Pravishanti Sarve Sashanti Vapna Tena Kama Kami so normally we talk about desires going out you know I see a sense object and I desire the sense object but in this verse Krishna is comparing desires with rivers which are moving into the ocean and our consciousness compared to the ocean that means the desire is coming inside us that means ok some object is there it’s not that we are consciously going out to contemplate on that object but in our normal conduct of day to day events some sense object comes along our way and then seeing that sense object some impressions come in so now that means the kama is coming in but then Krishna is saying na kama kami that means the desire comes in but I don’t desire that desire the desire comes in but I don’t pay attention to it I turn my attention away I think of Krishna I focus on my service and then that desire goes away but when we become kama kami ok the kama is coming in and I become kami of that then I get dragged by it so when the desire comes in the desire can come in to external factors that have nothing to do with us but it is when we act on that desire in terms of at least desiring that desire then we start getting caught in the whole process but if you don’t desire that desire then you won’t get caught so we do have free will to choose so here that means like I had a long almost one hour discussion that’s on website you know is kama a feeling or a thing no is lust just a feeling that is in the heart or is lust something that is actually situated in the somewhere so when we say don’t become lusty so is lust like a action that we do or is lust like a thing that is situated also so actually it is both Krishna will talk about lust in both ways for example he says he talks about lust as a thing which is situated in so here he is telling that lust is situated in the mind intelligence and senses so this is 3.40 where he says this so here he is talking about lust as some objective thing something that is situated like say you could compare it to a virus which is situated in the computer somewhere so in that sense lust is a thing but along with that Krishna also says in the later verses that don’t surrender to lust don’t succumb to lust don’t become lusty so he says don’t become lusty now what does that mean that means okay the desire is present but don’t succumb to that desire so that means how it is see lust is like a impression that is there in the consciousness but when that impression tries to prompt us and when we get prompted then we get the lusty feeling otherwise that impression is there but it is not going to prompt us it is only when we allow it or we succumb to it then we get prompted so in that sense so this is also related to the earlier question about the modes you know the modes may create a certain stockpile of impressions and desires within us so in and now those may determine the gamut of options that I have those may determine so if I have certain inclinations then I feel ok this is what I can do this is what I can’t do so some people who are very lusty they think brahmacharya is impossible ok then that is something which is because the lust is so much there or whatever then they feel that is not an option at all for me or another example could be say some people they have lived in comfort throughout their lives and they find that the austerities of devotional life are too difficult the austerities of brahmacharya life are too difficult so what has happened is because of certain past experiences certain impressions are set up and then they need a particular level of comfort a particular level of privacy or whatever so now that is something which is set up in their mind now when they to some extent have the freedom but if just like a virus is situated in the computer it is going to push the computer I mean the computer act in particular ways so if that virus was not there only that problem would not be there but if the virus is there it is going to influence in some way now that virus may be removable that impression of last anger might be removable but it is there right now if it is there I have to deal with it so that way when we say the soul can only desire what it means is that the soul can choose whether to act based on whatever default impressions are there or the soul can choose to act in different ways based on whatever new spiritual knowledge is acquired whatever spiritual experiences are there so that makes a huge amount of difference does it address your question again we say soul doesn’t act only so is it that the desire to enjoy that desire comes till that time material nature doesn’t act through his body or how it is ok now when I say the soul doesn’t act only I have to understand what it means it is like take the example yesterday of a virtual reality when somebody is a fighter pilot is doing a simulation so as to bomb some target in Ladakh now China has attacked India and taken away some of our territory so suppose some fighters want to go and attack so then you know when they want to do that the fighter is in the simulation the fighter is only sitting in one place so you can say the fighter is not doing anything but still it is by the fighters small activity you know we are just pressing some buttons doing something here doing something there that the flight is moving over there so within the virtual world a lot is happening and that is happening because of the initiative taken by the fighter pilot only so but because that is not in any direct way connected to the fighter pilot and the fighter pilot has his own life and existence apart from what is happening in the simulation so in that sense the fighter pilot is not doing anything so imagine the fighter pilot the fighter plane crashes is hit by anti-aircraft missile and it crashes and he says I have died now if he gets overwhelmed by that he doesn’t have to do that so when we say that Baldev Vidyabhushan analyses this in the Bhashya says is the soul the doer or not the doer so elaborate analysis he gives and he says that his point is that when the purpose of the scriptures is to highlight the point of the difference between the soul and the body and the radical difference between material and spiritual natures at that time scriptures will say that the soul is not the doer at all so don’t think that you are going to do big big things in life or whatever or you are going to enjoy in life but when the scriptures want the individual to take up the responsibility for doing sadhana and become liberated from the material world so at that time scriptures do say that it is you who have to do it you have to follow scriptures it is your free will and it is only when you desire and serve Krishna then you will return back to Krishna so and this also applies to dharma in a material sense which will not be directly devotional also the soul has to practise dharma to become elevated to swarga so he gives the example that when a wood cutter you remember I gave this example earlier so wood cutter when a wood cutter has to cut a tree so is the wood cutter the doer or not the wood cutter is the doer because if he doesn’t want to cut the tree the tree won’t fall but even if the wood cutter wants to cut the tree the wood cutter doesn’t have axe just by his blows nothing will happen to the tree so similarly so we could say that the wood cutter cut the tree or we could say the axe cut the tree so what is true actually both are there the wood cutter and the axe together they cut the tree or wood cutter cut the tree to the axe so similarly the axe he says is compared to the material body the wood cutter is the soul and cutting the tree is doing worldly activity so whenever worldly activity is done it is a combination it is by a combination of the soul and material nature together so these statements are not absolute in a in an absolute sense that that the soul is not the doer no the soul is the doer in the sense that soul is the desirer and after the desirer after the soul desires when material nature takes over an axe at that time soul is also continuing by desiring is it clear that is all right the two views that when we have to take responsibility stress we are the doers I am technically asking if we see technically the soul does not act so when does the material nature takes the charge of the body is that like when you are telling the desire to enjoy the desire comes then only the material nature acts through the body how technically it happens that is what I want to know can you elaborate what you mean by the word technically suppose I am lying down now sleeping and I want to switch off the fan I have that desire but I am not getting up to do that because of my mode of ignorance is too much at sometime I will get a strong desire and I will get up and switch on the fan so when exactly does the nature acts when exactly does nature act when our desire becomes strong enough so another way to put it is you know is it that whenever nature acts then only we can say that I had desire of course desire to enjoy desire not just desire but the really strong desire see generally it is said that when we change when the price of not changing is more than the price of changing so often that is what whether our assessment of the price is correct or not that is a different issue so but we generally change when I am lying down and I am feeling I am tired getting up and exercising to go and to the fan institute that is too much so I don’t want to do but then I feel so hot I am sweating and the sweat is too much I can’t tolerate this so when the price of not changing becomes more than the price of changing so the inconvenience caused by sweating is more than the inconvenience of getting up and exercising myself to walk to the fan institute then I will get up so basically what this means is that the prompts that are the options that are there for the soul they are already there of course they have come because of the soul’s pastures but the options are already there so when the soul is presented with the options that the soul is not doing anything right now that what the soul had done earlier only but when the options are presented the soul as I said desires the desires from that point the soul starts acting and it is not that it is only at that point from that point onwards because throughout the whole activity that is being done the soul is continuing the desire so in that sense the soul desires and then as long as the soul continues to have that strong desire material nature continues to act we will discuss more if you have further clarification on this so let’s move forward now we are discussing about how the modes influence different people and we discussed let’s look at now the three modes so you remember in fifteen point six in fourteen point six Krishna said prakasha is the characteristic of the mode of goodness so now Krishna elaborates on this prakasha what is the sarva dwareshu dehesu means prakasham so dwara if you look at the earlier references in the bhagavad gita this word has come in nava dware pure dehi naiva kurvanna karayan that came in the fifth chapter and then again it came in the eighth chapter where it is talking about the process of meditation swarva dharani sanyamya mano rudhi nirudhya so the dwara if you look at the previous references it is clearly referring to the senses both places it is referring to the senses so sarva dwareshu dehesu means prakasham so now what does it mean that the senses are illumined with knowledge when there is illumination then we can see clearly and when we can see clearly that means if I see there is a ditch over here if I go over there I will fall and there is a clear road over here if I go here I will be able to go smoothly so that means when there is knowledge or there is illumination at that time we can see clearly the consequences the pitfalls and then we can make the right choices so similarly in the mode of goodness we can see the consequences of our actions of our the way we act with our senses and accordingly we can choose so this prakash refers to viveka buddhi or discrimination discrimination which allows us to see ok my senses if I act this way there will be this consequence and if I act this way there will be that consequence so prakash upajayate jnanam so now here there are two words jnanam and vidyad so they are not tautological they are not unnecessary the word jnanam refers to prakash that when in the senses there is the prakash of jnanam at that time vidyad here refers to oh Arjuna you should know you should know at that time that vivruddham sattva mithyuta at that time the mode of goodness has become prominent that means when we feel we feel a sense of discrimination when doing our actions we think carefully and we analyse ok if I do this this will happen if I do that that will happen what should I do so when that kind of framework is there in us calm contemplation and then decision then at that time we are in the mode of goodness so here Krishna is now talking in terms of not actions when he is talking about the characteristic of the mode of goodness he is talking about the discrimination that comes before actions so again this is significant like I earlier said even a shudra may act according to discrimination then the shudra is also acting in goodness shudra can think ok I am a house I am a house maid or a servant in a particular house and I can steal over here and nobody will come to know also if I steal small small amounts or whatever no I will not do this so sarva-dvareshu dehesmin prakashyopajayate so when there is the so that means Krishna is talking about goodness not so much in terms of actions specifically but in terms of the discrimination that comes before actions because the modes don’t necessarily depend on what actions we do but it depends on the motivations the undisconceptions before those actions so we will see this strikingly in the 17th chapter because in the 17th chapter Krishna will talk about austerity in the mode of ignorance also normally we would think of austerity as positive as goodness activity but not necessarily it depends on the motivation so let’s look at yeah the general acts of the senses have come into regulation according to scriptures because all senses are element because only mind gets so his focus of course is not telling that all the senses do the right actions it can be inferred it can be inferred naturally that if I see the road clearly I will walk properly so in that sense that is inference which is logical Krishna in this verse is focussing on the point of the contemplation before the action but also implied is that the right contemplation the action will also be there and that we can infer from the point of anamayam Krishna told earlier that the person is free from sins so in that sense that is a valid inference from here now we will talk about passion lobha pravrttir arambhah karmana mashyama spruha rajas chetani jayante vivruddhe bharata arishabha vivruddhe bharata arishabha so lobha is great more more more then pravrttir so then pravrtti here refers to acting according to one’s nature that is tamil pravrtti but it also here refers specifically to acting according to the vrittis that come up in the mind ok i want this pravrtti arambhah karmanam one keeps doing new new new activities so one wants as soon as one scheme comes up one starts doing that and another scheme comes up one starts doing that one starts doing that so in general passion is characterised by a fascination for newness a fascination for newness i want something new new because then the new thing i hope will bring something new in my life some new pleasure and to get that new thing i have to do something new karmanam sorry arambhah karmanam so this fascination with newness is so much that people always want new gadgets they want new jobs new houses new spouses so they want all this because there is even when the greed is there there is no satisfaction with what is existing so whichever way the mind goes whichever praroti the mind goes along then there is karmanam asyamah there is the endeavour to get that asyamahas spruhah so sorry arambhah karmanam and then the new work is done and actually there is asyamahas spruhah there is desire which is just not satiable so actually everybody has desire and the dharmic person sattvic person is not necessarily free from desire but that person’s desire is regulated so asyamahas spruhah especially refers to the desire that wants to go beyond the limits of morality asyamahas spruhah you know Prabhupada would say if a person wants to have sex then the person should be satisfied with the wife but asyamahas spruhah means the person wants to go beyond there is a sexual promiscuity and one wants to enjoy more and more and more so desire itself is not bad even calm is not bad calm can also be if a person has that desire it can be fulfilled but it should be fulfilled within dharma but in passion especially a person doesn’t really care for regulating the desire that’s why the kshatriyas are not alone in passion if they are alone in passion then they will become driven by the mentality for pleasure and power they have to have some goodness which will bring about regulation so asyamahas spruhah now lobha is something which is pervading the society today because the whole advertising industry is such that it just creates new new new new imaginations in people and new new ideas of how they can enjoy so that’s why the lobha is enormously provoked rajasya etani jayante so krishna says these are the characteristics that rajaguna has become prominent then he will describe tamoguna asyamahas spruhah is desire asyamahas spruhah is the desire that is not satisfied within the limits of dharma so spruhah is there among the devatas also but the asuras their desire is asyamahas spruhah they want desire to be fulfilled the pandavas they are not sanyasis arjuna had several queens also but whenever he married it was all according to proper dharma but if you see ravana on the other hand he wanted so much his desire was asyamahas spruhah it was unregulated now after that he will describe the characters with the mode of ignorance so if you see krishna defines the mode of ignorance in negative terms so actually if you look at the previous two verses in 11 he was telling so here in the mode of ignorance there is no prakash what was there in goodness is not there and then so pravrutti was there the in the now after describing this briefly so in the mode of ignorance it is not that people are always intoxicated are always speaking foul words that may be but that is not the only thing that happens in ignorance people may be very active also but they are often active in a destructive way so prabhupada writes in his when he came to america that people are influenced here largely by the modes of passion ignorance and his hope was that by hearing the bhagavatam the influence of passion ignorance will get removed and they will rise to goodness so with this hope which is there if we look at society today there are a huge number of people who are passionate who are just wild at things and there are a greater number there are almost similarly large number of people who are depressed so there are some people who are out to get a lot of things in life and other people are depressed so I can’t get anything in my life I am not able to get anything so both are in that sense passion and ignorance are the two sides of the counterfeit coin of material enjoyment one is that I want material enjoyment and I will work hard hard hard to get it and the other is I want material enjoyment but I just can’t get it so both are centred on the materialistic consciousness itself there is that counterfeit coin if we have now the counterfeit coin is such that it has no value and it’s not that heads or tails is more valuable both sides are valueless only so from the material enjoyment point of view actually speaking in the mode of ignorance there is neither of these there is neither action neither the action to achieve things nor the discrimination to know what is to be achieved so the person just keeps illusory world so look at another way in goodness a person basically controls ideas and in passion a person controls things and in ignorance a person controls either ideas nor things so that’s how it is there is no external control and there is no internal controls so in the case of ok so here I will just go over some points which I have not mentioned over here modes and subtle forces that shape the interaction between gross matter and consciousness but how through the root of subtle matter so the modes primarily act on subtle matter that is the mind so it’s like you know if somebody is in a staircase and a force comes along the force may either push the person up on the staircase or the force may push the person down so the modes are like the forces that push the person up and down and that root that subtle body is like the staircase so things either move up or move down depending on how the forces come in a subtle body I’ll talk about this later yeah so okay let’s go back to this so now after he describes this then he will describe the post interaction death destinations of the different people first he described the very long term consequences so here till now he has completed the analysis of how the modes entangle us yeah so the intoxication and other things they all also come in in passion then if it is beyond morality one has to so if asanas provides beyond desires beyond morality so the intoxication come also beyond morality see the four regulatory principles are the recommended standard that is given in Vedic literature but if you look at the broad ambit of Vedic literature you know there are people who used to break it and they were not exalted but not that they were shunned or they were completely rejected they were part of the culture also so generally speaking sometimes we say that a person becomes a human being only when a person follows the four regulatory principles otherwise not a human being so that is true but that is not in a biological sense you know it is more in a sense of the development of consciousness by which the person is using the human faculty but there can be people who may be not following the four regulatory principles because of whatever reasons because of their prevailing culture or because of their conditionings or whatever but they may have spiritual inclinations see the four regulatory principles they make the pathway towards spiritual realisation easier and smoother but people can still become spiritually inclined even if they are not following the four regulatory principles directly so intoxication in and of itself was never recommended in the Vedic literature but there are people who would practise it and they would have to bear the consequences of it also so whether this will be a part of Karmana Mahaspruha in general yes because scriptures do not recommend intoxication at all but then in today’s mainstream society people differentiate between what they call as certain certain forms of intoxication they consider just as beverage beverage drinks you know we may include even tea and coffee in intoxication but by no means are tea and coffee as harmful as are alcohol so whether tea and coffee will put in Asa Mahaspruha it is not necessarily so it could be in a category of karmic reactions but that may not necessarily be sinful so generally speaking Asa Mahaspruha will refer to things which just some people have the desire for tea and coffee but even if that desire becomes maniac that desire can just they can’t the 10-15 cups of coffee they have to drink in a day and that can be quite harmful so it may not be sinful but it can be harmful so you know researchers have found out that now today the idea is that drinking water is old fashioned so when you if you are a fashionable young person then you should drink cool you know you should drink whistlery you should drink pepsi you should drink soda you should drink coffee you should drink tea why water water is old fashioned but but the problem is that actually especially some of these products you know the researchers did the survey it’s very fascinating they found that after people drink these especially caffeine coffee to some extent but coffee and some other things like soda the amount of urine that they pass is more in the water that they have drunk so these liquids water hydrates the body but the substitutes for water they dehydrate the body instead of hydrating the body so that’s why often people it causes more problems rather than serving as a substitute for water it actually worsens the problem so anyway the point which I’m making over here is something may not be sinful but it may be harmful so Ashyamaha Spruha if the desire becomes uncontrollable and the desire harms then it can be categorised as Ashyamaha Spruha also because Rajoguna doesn’t necessarily have to act in sometimes some people they become so obsessed with their careers that they neglect their family members they neglect their sons, daughters, wives and then they are hurting other people by that you may not say that is sinful but their family members feel neglected not only by family members they may be working in a company where they just sort of trampling on everyone’s feet exploiting everyone to the last limit so there may be nothing directly unethical about it but it is very insensitive and it is painful so there also what is happening is the desire has dominated them so much it has become so irrepressible that it is knocking over everything else in their life so that is Ashyamaha Spruha also so if something is hurting or harmful then even if it is not necessarily sinful still it is Ashyamaha Spruha yeah so let’s move forward now look at the post death destinations so suddenly this whole discussion of modes is going on and suddenly the whole it goes to death so why is it this leap because I can’t actually Krishna is going to talk in terms of consequences even in the 8th chapter there is no immediate prelude to the concept of death there is of course suddenly Krishna says at the end of the 7th chapter that if you can think of me like this so actually if you look at that there is no immediate reference to prayanakala before that anywhere in the 7th chapter the only reference to prayanakala that comes before that is in the last verse of the 2nd chapter 2.72 Krishna says so before 7.30 the only reference to antakala was in 2.72 so and even 2.72 the reference to antakala has no nothing previous before that at that time Krishna was talking about the senses are so dangerous control the senses there are 2 kinds of human beings what a night for people is some people is day for the other people why suddenly the topic of death comes in because in a spiritual culture death is always an abiding reality that people are conscious of because people know death is going to come and we have to prepare for it we have to face it so ultimately to the extent one is aware of death to the extent one will be thinking of the next life just like students are discussing things they are talking about cricket or sports or whatever but then the thought of the exam is not very far away from them because they know ultimately the exam is there and I have to prepare for it so like that the thoughts of death are there for those who are spiritually minded and that’s why Krishna is saying that actually the mode that we live in that will have an influence in terms of where we will go and Krishna also has mentioned this in sadasadyonijanmasu so he is talking about multiple births so what is that sadasadyonijanmasu that he talked about in 13.22 that will be discussed over here so he is saying yada sattvam pravrdhetu if one is situated in the mode of goodness and pralaya at that time now the pralaya here doesn’t mean cosmic destruction it means the death of the person so in general Krishna uses the word pralaya in the Bhagavad Gita repeatedly to refer to death only this 14.2 was pralaya was referring to death 14.14 pralaya refers to death and later on in 16th chapter also when he talks about chintamaparimeyamcha pralyantamapashrutaha in 16.11 he talks about it there also pralaya refers to death so pralayam yati dehabhrit so if a person is situated in sattva guna or if the sattva guna is prominent in a person when a person dies at that time tad uttam vidam lokaan such a person will attain the uttam vidam the abode of the people who are knowing vida is to know uttam vidam means those who know very well amalan pratipadyate so this can refer to the swarga loka but in general this refers to higher lokas because often people who go to swarga loka they are not just in goodness they also have lot of passion they want to enjoy but their passion is regulated through karma kanda and that is the element of goodness there but most of karma kanda rituals which take people to swarga are based on the abode of passion the passion and desires for enjoyment so here uttam vidam lokaan refers to loka like satya loka or upper lokas where a person can continue a life of goodness you know if somebody is in goodness later on the person should also have the facility to continue in goodness the person is in goodness and the person goes to heaven and their apsaras dancing and their soma rasa retreat that is not really a life in goodness so that’s why acharya explained uttam vidam lokaan it refers to higher planets not just swarga amalan pratipadyate so krishna officially earlier he used in 14.6 he used nirmala tvad now he is using amalan that this mode is pure then he will describe the destination of the other two modes rajasipralayam gattwa karma sangeshu jayate karma sangeshu jayate tatha pralinas tamasi mudhayoni shujayate so karma sangeshu rajasipralayam gattwa when a person dies in the rajoguna karma sangeshu is those who are attached to karma that means we human beings in this martiloka this is the place which is karma bhumi where we are attached to doing karma so that we can get the phala we can enjoy and that’s where we will be reborn again and the tatha pralinas tamasi mudhayoni shujayate if somebody dies in the mode of ignorance then the person refers to the lower species where the people are where the soul gets body which doesn’t have any developed consciousness its animal consciousness mudhayoni shujayate now when Krishna says that that passion will lead to rebirth in karma sangeshu in human body this passion also implies that passion is not accompanied by ignorance too much there may be ignorance but if a person is today the way the people are living they are in passion but along with passion there is a huge amount of ignorance in it so today’s people will they be born in human species not necessarily it depends on even if they are in passion it depends on overall how their life is what their values are so if people are too attached to animalistic activities then they won’t be born in a human species but generally speaking passion if it is regulated by dharma its like kshatriya duty so its passion combined with goodness but if passion is not combined with goodness through restriction by dharma then it is often passion that is dragged down by ignorance and the passion is dragged down by ignorance that can often lead to not just human life but lower lives so animal slaughter which Shri Prabhupada will talk about in the later verse that is actually not in passion meat eating is not just in passion it is also in ignorance because there is ignorance of the immense pain that the animals go through so one who is attached to eating animal flesh that person will be given a body which will enable that person to eat animal flesh more conveniently that is an example of yes if somebody dies in coma if somebody dies in coma is that in ignorance see that particular stage may be in ignorance that particular level of consciousness but it is not necessary that that person has to have led an ignorant life so whatever we think of at the time of death that is what we get but what we think of at the time of death is also determined by what we do throughout our life so even if a person dies in a coma that means that the person is not conscious in a way that is visible to us but that does not necessarily mean that the person is entirely unconscious often in times of coma of course not in all types of coma and not in most types of coma but in some types of comas people have some extraordinary visions many near death experiences out of body experiences happen not when a person has been in coma for a long time but sometimes they do happen so that means the person is still conscious but we are not conscious that the person is conscious so if a person dies in coma then it will depend on what kind of life the person has lived and what kind of understanding of life the person has cultivated and that will depend on what kind understanding of life