If bhakti is beyond the modes why do we need to come to the mode of goodness?

Transcript

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So, Krishna Consciousness is said to be above the modes. But then we also have to come to the mode of goodness to become Krishna Conscious.
So, what is the relationship between Krishna Consciousness? Ultimately, pure love for Krishna is not of the world. So, that is transcendent. At the same time, while we are practicing bhakti in this world, we have a particular body and a particular mind, which will function more or less according to their nature.
If we see among the five Pandavas, all of them are pure devotees. But still their dispositions are different. Relatively speaking, Yudhishthira is more pacific.
Try to find a non-confrontational way. Bhima is more confrontational. Both of them are pure devotees.
Where is the difference? Their intent for both of them is Krishna. But their particular nature comes out. Now, of course, we can say that their bodies are, they are pure devotees and their bodies are transcendent.
But overall we see them functioning like Kshatriyas. But we could say that Yudhishthira is more of a Brahmana kind of Kshatriya. Whereas Bhima is more like a Kshatriya-Kshatriya.
Very confrontational. Both of them are serving Krishna. So, the transcendence of devotion is in that our intention becomes transcendent.
But the execution of that intention will have to be done according to the body-mind that we have. And so, my intention may be to bring people to Krishna. And for that I am distributing books.
But if my body-mind are in the mode of passion, then while distributing books, my main concern is, who is distributing more books than me? And how can I distribute more books than them? And sometimes in the mode of ignorance, I may even try to sabotage other people’s attempts at book distribution, so that I can distribute books more. So, the intention at one level is transcendent. It is to bring people to Krishna.
But its execution can be affected by our modes. So, our pure intention which we get by pure association, from Srila Prabhupada, then that intention often gets affected by the mode that we presently have. So, that is why as an austerity, we have to try to cultivate the mode of goodness and conduct ourselves in that mode.
So, gradually as we become purified, our actions will also become affected less and less by the modes of passion and ignorance. And in that sense, our execution of the actions will also become transcendent. But even then, it will be rooted through the body itself, through the body-mind.
Srila Prabhupada in India, one traditional Hindu scholar told Prabhupada that, Swami, you pronounce Sanskrit verses in a very Bengali way. So, he was from South India, they have a particular way of pronouncing Sanskrit verses. So, Prabhupada said, I am from Bengal.
So, what do you expect? So, now, Prabhupada’s body, Prabhupada is from spiritual world, but his body is from Bengal. So, naturally when he is going to speak Sanskrit verses, he is going to speak in the way that body is trained to speak it. So, his pronunciation may be Bengali, but his intention is not Bengali.
His intention is transcendent. His compassion is transcendent. So, we cannot just, we cannot, the two extremes, one is we simplistically deny the effect of the body-mind on the execution of our Krishna bhakti.
And the other extreme is we just reduce everything, we just look at the way a person is conducting at the level of the body-mind and we say there is nothing transcendental over here. So, the transcendental intent is there, but our body-mind will affect how that intent is expressed. And that’s why if we consciously strive to come to the mode of goodness, then we will be able to develop or exhibit more sadāchā.
Suppose somebody has done some service wrong. Our concern, you know, this is service for Krishna, we have to do it well, how can you do like this? That concern is transcendental. But if I am in the mode of passion, I may just go and become verbally or physically violent, how did you do like this? That’s not what a devotee is meant to do.
Or I may just become so disheartened, you know, nobody does, nobody cares for the right thing, everybody is just, everybody is reckless, careless and we start feeling sorry for ourselves. I want to preserve the standard, but nobody cares. And then that could very well be feeling sorry for ourselves, could very well be a reaction in the mode of ignorance.
So, our concern itself that Krishna’s service will be done well is in the mode of goodness. But if we do not have proper, maybe transcendental, but if we do not exhibit in the mode of goodness, even that concern can alienate people. And then people can, not even alienate people, it can alienate devotees also.
Because devotees feel that they feel misunderstood, they feel criticized, they feel harshly dealt with. So, at one level, bhakti itself will lead to sadāchārā. But at another level, we can see sadāchārā as the austerity that we need to do so that we can practice bhakti properly.
In this world, I have a tendency to be angry and I am angry for Krishna’s sake only. But then I have to see whether the anger is producing the desired result or not. Hanuman got angry and burnt Lanka.
But then the Ramayana describes when he was going back, he started lamenting, he started beating, what a fool I was. He said, I just burnt all of Lanka. What if the place where Sita is staying, that is also a forest? What if that has caught fire and Sita has gone burnt? Why was I so passionate? Why did I get so reckless? Why did I become so indiscriminate? And then he heard Akash say, Sita is safe, do not fear.
And then he became pacified. So, even when we are using anger in Krishna’s service, we have to see whether that service, that anger is helping us in the service properly or it is having a counterproductive effect. That’s why both bhakti will lead to sattva guna and transcendence.
But at the same time, to do bhakti properly in this world, if we can conduct ourselves in sattva guna as austerity, that will have more harmonious and effective results.