Modes 1 – 3 Metaphors To Explain How The Modes Work Gita 14.5 Warangal Youth

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Can all of you hear me clearly? So, I am grateful to be here with all of you today, as you mentioned, after many years.
Of course, the youth centre is both a soul and a body. So, it keeps changes bodies according to time, place, circumstance. The soul remains the same.
Now, I am seeing it in a different body reincarnated in a different form according to the need of the situation. So, I would like to start by asking all of you, what do you understand by the word modes, all of you have heard it before. So, what do the modes mean to you? Yes, please.
The state at which we are. The state at which we are. By state you mean psychological state, emotional physical state, what kind of state I am talking about? Or overall state or what? A state is a very broad word, isn’t it? So, you could say state at which we are could be financial state, it could be.
It could be geographical state, which state are we in. So, what are we referring to? Emotional state. Okay, you could say spiritual state.
Emotional. Emotional, okay. Emotional or you could say psychological or emotional state.
Okay, that is one way of looking at it. Thank you, it is a fairly good point. Anything else? Yes, please.
I heard modes means also ropes, the ropes bind. So, ropes, what do they bind? What do they bind? They make the jiva of a condition in different ways. Okay, so the ropes bind the soul to what? To material world.
When you are bound, you are bound by something. Yashodamayi bound Krishna in the Agandha Leela, he bound to what? A grinding wall, isn’t it? So, when somebody is bound, they are bound to something, isn’t it? Of course, because if somebody is bound and with their hand bound, they are running away, that is also possible, but are we bound to something? To material world. To? To this world, material world.
It is just too broadly to matter. The verse it says is, the soul is bound to matter or to the body. Okay, thank you.
Anything else? Is behaviour imposed upon us, it is not a default? Behaviour imposed upon us. So, are you saying we have no free will? If it is imposed, okay, let us look at this word imposed. So, the words impel some behaviour, impose some behaviour on us or impel us.
So, I prefer the word impend. You have heard of impend? Impulse, you have heard? So, impulse, it is becoming. Impel, the behaviour that is impelled through us, that is true.
So, it is almost as if something other than us is pushing us to act in particular ways. So, that is the mode. Yes, that is a good point.
Anything else? Medium. Medium for what? Could I use as in modes of transports of like medium, the state we are in or a different medium or different type of environment. Okay, so you are using the word modes right now in a general dictionary sense? Yes, in general dictionary.
Okay. So, was that all of your thinking? Okay. Okay, that is an interesting connection.
So, the word modes refers in say, okay, what mode of transport are you going from the city to another city? So, mode sometimes refers to medium or means. So, let us see how that relates with the concept as it is phrasing that. That is a creative interpretation.
And that is not a criticism. Okay. So, it is a, thank you.
Anyone else has any points? Yes, please. So, you like condition and environment, like we tell silent mode, aeroplane mode, right, we tell, so there is environment or conditions in which we are put. So, the modes subject us to certain conditions or environments.
That is an interesting way of looking at also. It is definitely having some truth to it. That is also, we are going on a creative journey now.
So, yes, the modes that are very widely referred to concept and yet they are not so very easy to pin down precisely. So, we will be having four sessions and I will be discussing this chapter 14 of the Bhagavad Gita. And in that, while we will go over each of the verses in the chapter, we will discuss some of the verses.
But broadly, today, I have introduced the concept of the modes, what they are. Then tomorrow, I will talk about the effects of the modes, effects in terms of the characteristics of the modes. And then later, we will talk about transcending the modes.
And in this, depending on how much the discussion goes, we will be talking about two parts. One will be through analysis, the other will be through demotion. So, broadly, the concept of the modes is explained for 14.1 to 10.
The effects of the modes is described from 11 to 20. And transcending the modes is described from 21 to, broadly, this section goes from 21 to 27, the last verse of this chapter. So, we could say 26, 27 is through demotion and 21 to 25 is through analysis.
So, we will maybe spend one session on analysis and another session on demotion. We will see how that part goes. But this is what we will be covering over the next four days.
So, before we can understand the concept of the modes, let us try to understand in what context the Gita is talking about the term modes. In general, whenever we talk about one language to another language, there is, if you are going to speak in one language, the audience understand another language, what do we need in between? Translation. Now, in general, every translation is a transformation.
Why? Because every word that we speak is having a particular significance in the original language. And that may or may not be conveyed in another language. So, now, can there be precise translations? Well, it is possible, but it is difficult.
So, over a period of time, people start understanding it. That is why we will see now in today’s world, many terms from Sanskrit and the Vedic tradition have become mainstream in the English language. Can any of you give some examples? Dharma.
Dharma. Dharma. Karma.
Guru. Guru. Yoga.
Yoga. Kirtan. Kirtan.
Okay, yes, Kirtan is definitely. Moksha. Moksha.
Well, not that much, but it is there, definitely. Samsara is actually much more common, that Samsara, especially among yoga circles, people have this one. Now, there are, in each language, there are words that are considered non-translatables.
That, actually, the one word you missed is a big Bollywood movie series, Bollywood movie series by that name. Avatar. Yes.
So, the avatar, you don’t have to go to Hollywood also. Every social media has our own avatar. Isn’t it? So, now, each of these words has a certain meaning to it, which is very difficult to convey in another language.
And that’s why those same words are taken and then they are explained. So, the Sanskrit word guna, which is used in this particular, which is how modes are translated, which is translated as modes. Actually, as some of you mentioned, the word mode has certain meanings in English that really is not conveyed by the, which is different from the meaning of the word modes.
So, we will, while we are discussing talking of the modes, we will mostly use the word guna. And also, I will not use goodness, passion, ignorance. I will use the sattva, jas, tamas.
I’ll explain as we move forward how these words have certain connotations to them, which are different from what the Sanskrit conveys. So, basically, words have two features to them. One is the denotation and the other is the connotation.
Has anyone heard these two words before, denotation? If you have heard about denotation, denote your word, denote. Okay. Connotation, anyone has heard? No.
So, probably you did not know this class is going to exercise your vocabulary muscles also. So, basically, what is the idea of denotation and connotation? So, if there is a person, just putting the person’s head over here, and there is an object. So, a word is like a link between the person and the object.
So, when I use a word, I refer to a particular object. And then by that, I can, others can also know what I am talking about. So, maybe a year or two ago, there was this whole issue about, is India being renamed as Bharat? Should the renaming be done? India is still going to have its poverty, its corruption, its problems.
So, what is the use of changing the name? That whole debate came up. So, that time I had made an elaborate video about this point, that there is the object that is being referred to. So, the word in terms of the object is a reference, but the word with respect to the person brings remembrance.
So, the name God and the name Krishna, they both refer to the same ultimate reality. But God and Krishna, they evoke different remembrances within us, isn’t it? So, what is being referred to is the same, but what we are reminded of is different. And there are times when what we want to remember needs to be changed.
And if that is what we want to change, then changing the term can be helpful. It does not change the reality in itself immediately, but it changes which aspect of reality we are referring to. The same person, my very close friend, when we meet another friend in an informal get-together, might just refer to the friend by their first name or even by their nickname.
But that same friend, there is a business meeting and we are introducing that friend. We will say, okay, this is, we will refer to the full name, we will refer to the surname, we will refer to the designation. So, isn’t it? So, we say, and now informally, this is my friend Raju.
Now, in a business meeting, this is my friend Raju. We would say that, isn’t it? So, this is my friend, Mr. Rajendra Rasa Chattopadhyay. Whatever.
So, the idea is that the term that we use, it brings certain connotations with it. So, the words have connotations and denotations. What they denote is what they denote.
Connote is what they remind us of. And that’s why in our tradition we also have primary and secondary names of Krishna. So, what do the terms remind us of? That is important.
So, similarly, the word guna, what, first of all, we try to understand what does this concept mean? What is it, the reference, what is it referring to? And, so, if this is complicated, don’t worry, I’ll make it much more complicated. So, with respect to the modes, first, which is the chapter of the Gita that we are discussing, does anyone remember right now? 14th chapter. How many chapters of the Gita have? 18.
18 chapters. So, right now we are in the, we could say the 1 to 6, 7 to, sorry, 1 to 6, then we have 12 to 18. So, we are in the third half of the Gita.
What is this section called, anyone know? The Gita has three sections. Yeah, it has, it is the Jnana section of the Gita. So, now there are, what is the second section said to be about? Bhakti.
Bhakti section. The first section is about? Karma. Karma section.
Now, there are two broad metaphors which have been used by commentators to explain the Gita’s flow. So, one is the ladder metaphor. Sorry? Jewel box.
Jewel? Jewel box. Jewel box, okay. Jewel box is used to talk about how certain verses are the culmination.
That is what is used, that is said, that in 1865 and 1865, Chakravarthi Path says the culminating verses. So, jewel box is used. I am talking more about the flow of the Gita.
So, one is the ladder and the other is the spiral. So, ladder means what basically, the verse, the Gita is flowing in a particular way. There are rungs in a ladder by which we move upwards.
The other is that the Gita is flowing towards a particular point. Now, what this means is that it is here, if this is the point the Gita is coming towards. So, the Gita is coming towards this point from one way, from another way, from a third way.
So, one way is that Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga are like steps on a ladder. The other is Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are both, all three means to the same ultimate purpose. Now, both these metaphors have been used by commentators in our tradition and we will go right now into those metaphors.
But the point is Krishna is discussing Jnana. Jnana itself is, he is doing elaborate analysis. And what is the purpose of that analysis? The purpose is freedom from illusion.
Generally, whenever we have knowledge. So, knowledge, it can have different purposes. In the Vedic tradition, the purpose of knowledge is freedom.
Freedom from illusion so that we can go towards liberation, liberation from matter, basically. Now, in the modern context also, we could say the knowledge has similar purpose. But the mode or the approach is very different.
It is not, it is not liberation from matter as it is control over matter. The whole point of knowledge, for example, if you consider science, is that through science we understand technology. Through technology, we can gain better control over matter.
All from the technology is essentially this. So, we learn how motion occurs and we have cars and we have planes and we have spacecrafts. We understand how information is transmitted and then we have telecommunications.
So, now, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Controlling itself is not a bad thing. A guru controls the disciple.
Parents control their children. Here the important thing is why are we controlled? So, Arjuna is an archer and he is a very good archer. What does that mean? He has precise control over where the arrow will go when he shoots it.
So, sometimes controlling mentality itself is a very bad thing. Well, the word has a negative connotation, but controlling for what works, that is the important. Like if controlling mentality is bad, then why are we told to have sense control? Is it having sense control a matter of controlling mentality? Is it? No, we want to have sense control so that we can serve Krishna better.
So, it is not that science intrinsically is bad, but the purpose of knowledge in the Vedic context is somewhat different from in the modern context. In the modern context, the idea of a non-material reality has been largely rejected. So, their idea of freedom is we will get freedom by absolute control over matter.
So, yes, matter controls us and that is a problem. But here the idea is freedom will come by absolute control over matter. So, if we get knowledge of how the ageing process occurs, then we can find the genes which cause ageing.
Then we can manipulate those genes and then we can stop the ageing process. That is of course the fairy tale, but that is the whole idea. So, if we understand how conception occurs, then we can have the man take a pill, the woman take a pill or the man do some surgery by which there can be physical union with no conception.
Then we can get rid of the problem of birth. So, the idea over here is that control is being sought. So, jnana in the Vedic context is not for control.
It is for not controlling matter, but for freeing ourselves from matter, liberating ourselves from matter. Now, for that purpose, Krishna will explain how do we get entangled in matter in the first place. And the modes are a part of that explanation of the mechanism of entanglement, the mechanism of illusion.
They are part, parts of. So, I was in America. I had many many lectures in many different colleges.
So, as I was going for a programme, and I asked the devotees, okay, which college am I going to now? See, this is the American Institute of Illusion. It is an actual college by that day. And it is a college where people are trained to make movies.
So, the idea is that you have to create illusions. And in the many movies, when I read, thousands of movies may be made, but many of them flop. And why do they flop? Sir, because? They are not creating proper illusion among themselves.
Yes, the illusion is unsatisfactory. So, people want to escape from the world. And when they can’t escape, their characters are not relatable, the action is not realistic, the dialogues are artificial, the whatever it is, then the illusion is poor.
So, actually, creating illusion is no laughing matter. To create a illusion that actually puts people into illusion, it’s a remarkable feat. It’s a remarkable feat of intelligence, of creativity.
And most movies fail in that. That’s our fortune. Otherwise, people would just stay completely captivated all the time.
But the fact is that in some ways, when we understand the mechanism by which illusion is created, then we can guard ourselves from it. We can also understand the subtlety, the complexity of the mechanism. If we watch, if you’re watching, say, on a laptop, some movie, then it just grips us completely.
Now, even if with our engineering minds, we understand that actually, it’s just a series of pixels over there. That doesn’t really help much. Okay, it’s all pixels, but it’s all very attractive.
So, at the very least, we understand it. So, for us, understanding how illusion is created is helpful. Of course, that is not the only way to get out of illusion.
So, the modes are a part of a mechanism. The mechanism is quite complex, but So, Krishna says the maya is gunamayi. Gunamayi means it is full of modes.
Mayi means full of, like anandmaya, full of ananda, chinmaya, is full of consciousness. So, gunamayi means filled with gunas. It is made of the gunas.
So, the word guna can be understood. I’ll take three different metaphors to understand this. And each metaphor conveys one particular aspect of the illusion.
Say, to understand this metaphor, let’s say there’s a child. And the child is watching a TV. Maybe the parents have a home, they have a home theatre.
You’ve seen this? And in this home theatre, when I first saw it, I said, really? You want to convert your home also into a place of illusion? People have such, I was in America in one person’s home. He was a devotee, thought of becoming a devotee. He had such a huge home and such a huge theatre inside that home.
The TV screen was probably 100 inches or something like that. It was huge. And he said, before I came to bhakti, I’m just set.
He was born in a wealthy family. He didn’t really have to work very hard. He said, I will sit and just watch for hours and forget the entire world.
So, the whole home theatre was constructed in such a way that the rooms are constructed, the doors are constructed, that even if you have to go to the restroom, the restroom is located in such a way that you still keep watching the TV. So, suppose a child has a home theatre and I am watching. Now, if you see, when the child gets lost in watching, what all is happening? See, first of all, there has to be a movie.
Something has to be there to watch. Then the child has to have some interest in watching it. Now, if there’s no interest, if say, it’s a movie about character, the child doesn’t understand, the child doesn’t relate with it, then there is not going to be any connection with it.
Now, along with that, when the child is watching it, there has to be the ambience, the environment. You know, nowadays, with OTT platforms, almost all movies are available. You can watch in your home.
But still people pay a lot of money to go to the theatres to watch it. Why? Because the illusion is better. If you want to enjoy the illusion, we want to have the full experience of the illusion.
Suppose, you know, we are eating prasad and some food is very delicious. And I am eating the prasad. I was just talking with a senior devotee, and asking some questions.
And then one question after another after another, then we were talking throughout and finally the time of the desert came. And he told me, no questions, I want to relish this desert. So, the point is that if something is enjoyable, we want to immerse ourselves in it.
But the ambience can also add to it. So, basically, the three metaphors that I used to explain the modes, the first metaphor is of colours. So, Prabhupada uses the metaphor.
Everything that we see on a digital screen, it is RGB or RYB depending on technology, just three colours. But three colours combined together and they lead to a whole panorama of pictures and scenes and movies. And it can just go on endlessly.
If you think about it, three colours, how much variety can be created through that. So, this metaphor of colours basically talks about the gunas as, let us put it here this side, gunas as the building blocks of material nature. So, like what we watch on a movie screen, it is built with some blocks and the building blocks are the pixels over there, the different colour pixels.
So, the idea is the modes are the building blocks of material nature. That is one way of looking at it. Now, we will look at each of these metaphors a little bit.
The other is ropes, what you already mentioned. Now, the rope metaphor conveys something else, apart from, in one sense, the illusion on the screen is created by the technology. But when we are in a movie theatre, we can look at the movie, we can look at the person sitting next to us, we can look at the audience in general, we can look at various places.
But it is like we are pulled to look towards the movie, almost our attention is pulled towards that. So, the ropes convey the idea, so colours is the first part, the ropes, the modes and ropes convey the idea of the pull of consciousness towards matter. That not only is illusion created by the modes, not only are the illusory objects created by the modes, but also our consciousness is pulled towards it.
So, this pulling idea that the modes are not like a TV, if the modes were just like colours and the TV might be on, but it is not that anybody is pulling us towards the TV. Sometimes the TV is on, we are doing our own work at other places. But the modes are not just like passive creators of illusion, they are also active agents that pull us towards illusion.
So, the building blocks idea is a bit more passive and the idea of ropes is a much more active idea, it is pulling us. The third metaphor, something is pulling your attention there, someone is coming in, maybe some of you can move ahead, somebody else will come in later. The third metaphor, now many metaphors could be used to explain the modes, but I am right now trying to understand how we become bound.
And that context, how the illusion is formed and how the modes are integral part of the illusion, that is what we are discussing. The third is gears. Now by gears, I am not referring to the gears and the levers and the pulleys and all that, that make a machine.
I am referring to gears as a car is moving in first gear, a car is moving in second gear, a car is moving in third gear. So, the car, when say a car is moving in a particular gear, it will move in a particular way. When a vehicle, if you are using a cycle or a cycle also come with gears.
So, if you put a cycle in a particular gear, like suppose you are using a cycle in a gear which is meant to go on a high cliff, on a steep incline, then you push and the paddle moves in a different way. The flat surface, you use a different gear, the paddle moves in a different way. So, gears, the idea over here is like these are pre-existing flows.
It is, I will explain a little bit more. Say if a person is in a boat, it is becoming a little messy, it will go down. Say if a person is in a boat.
Now, in a river, there might be currents moving. One current is moving in this direction, another current is moving in this direction, another current is moving in this direction. Do you understand the word currents? Not electric currents, currents is the flow of water.
So, in a river, water is moving in different directions and especially nowadays we have machine operated, battery operated, fuel operated devices or vehicles in water. But in the past, when people had to physically use oars, then it is vital to catch the right current. We also use the metaphor that spiritual life is like swimming upstream.
So, going against the current is very difficult. It may be possible, but it is difficult. So, here, in this particular metaphor, it is not so much the mode is pulling us in a particular direction.
It is more that there are pre-existing flows and if we get into one flow, we will go in one direction. We can go in another direction, but it is much more difficult. If we get in another flow, we will go in another direction.
So, these are pre-existing flows and that is how, so for example, this is primarily associated with ambience. So, going back to this metaphor, so what is there on the TV, that is created by the modes. The modes are the building blocks of nature.
The interest that the child has, that is also created by the modes. That is how the consciousness goes in particular directions. But the place itself has a particular ambience.
Now, if a friend says, you know, I got an exam tomorrow, I want to study. I want to study, I want to concentrate fully. I want to go out.
Where are you going to go? He says, I am going to a disco to study. Well, all that it means is your maya has taken your mind on a disco already. So, you are not only going to be studying the disco.
Now, is it possible? Well, maybe for someone it might be possible. If somebody is holding a gun at your head and says, study, then he will say, it is called study. But most of the time, it is going to be difficult.
So, each place has ambience and in that ambience, certain activities are naturally stimulating. So, like there, the flow goes in particular directions. That is why it is important for each one of us is that we try to put ourselves in the kind of ambience where the kind of behaviour we want is to be sought.
So, the ambience can be created by the place and the situation in the place, ambience can be created also by the kind of people we have in that place. So, that is how, say, what is the common example of given of which place is in which mode? Forest is in goodness. Cities are in passion.
Well, I am not sure whether that is always true. It is possible. It is like forest can also be passion.
If a tiger is chasing you, you will not be in goodness, is it? So, the idea is, okay, when we, I think more precisely, we are using a forest which is like free from danger. It is just nature, peaceful. It is more like a park rather than a forest.
Nature, if we just go into the uncontrolled, the forest that has never been tattered by humanity at all, that is not a very peaceful place. A snake might come and bite from somewhere. There may be dangerous insects.
So, relatively speaking, it is possible. The Kshatriyas in the past, you know, they are responsible also to keep certain parts of the forest free from dangerous animals. That is how the sages could mediate over.
The forest is a place of brutality in many ways. One life in the form of another like us. Survival of the fittest, that is what Darwin talked about.
So, it can also be a very much a place of passion. But there are areas in a forest which could be places of goodness. Now, similarly, in a city, if there are parks, the parks could be a place of goodness.
Or if you go to library in a city, that could also be a place of goodness. Now, depending on the ambience that is created, actually the place can have, the place may be in a different mood. I was just about one week before in UK and whatever else the British did, in the cities, in all the major cities, right in the middle of the city, they have created big parks.
We have a temple in Soho. It is like amazing panorama of material nature is there. It is, temple is in, right opposite temple is not just a bar, it is a gay bar.
Right opposite is it. And then right next to the temple is all kinds of things that there are. So, it is the place for like a peak night life over there.
But then you just walk about 100 steps and it is one of the most beautiful parks I have seen. Very serene, very peaceful. So, almost you feel as if you come to a different park.
Of course, if you go inside the temple and behold the details, that is beyond goodness also. But the point is that in a city itself not everything is in one place, one mood. It depends on the ambience of the place.
So, one place could be in Tamas and another place just a few distance away could be in Sattva. Now of course, whether a person after going there will actually be sattvic, that depends. Some people may go to a park just to be close to nature, they will be in Sattva.
Somebody may go to a park to pursue a romantic relationship. Now, Sattva is the last thing on their mind at that time. So, this brings us to another important point that while a place may be in a particular mood, a place may have a particular guna associated with it, that does not necessarily mean that everybody in that place will be in that mood.
So, we will come to that part now. So, when we have to understand the moods, see that. So, the gunas, they do three things.
They are the building blocks, that they are the very foundation where illusions are created. They are like pulling ropes, they are pulling forces, all forces pull, but some forces push also, pulling forces. They pull us in particular directions and they are pre-existing flows.
So, by pre-existing flows, you could refer to the ambience like a child is watching TV, or is it in a movie theatre, is it a home theatre, is it in a place where a lot of noise is there, but you could take a pre-existing flow also like to refer to, like on a TV, there will be many different channels. Now, if somebody is watching Discovery channel and somebody is watching say MTV, is MTV even existing now as a channel? Not there. So, whichever say Rajasik channel might be there.
So, there are pre-existing flows going on there. If a person goes on Discovery channel, relatively speaking, they will be thinking, learning, some curiosity is there. It may be a little more sattvic.
If somebody is watching say WWF fighting, it is Rajasik going on to Tamasik, very fast. So, it depends. So, there are pre-existing flows.
So, the modes in that sense are complex. So, it is a whole mechanism of how illusion is triggered within us. And in the Bhagavad Gita, now if you consider among these three things, which among these is changeable for us? So, the Gita focusses on like Nibbadananti Mahabhagav, that is what the Gita says, Dehe Dehinamome.
So, the verse is decided, which of the aspects of the modes is being focused on among these three in that particular verse? Nibbadananti means? The robes, the pulling forces. So, now if you consider among these three, actually only this is changeable for us. The modes as the building blocks of material nature, they are always going to exist.
We may become purified. We may become liberated, but the material world is going to exist as it is. We may stop watching movies, but movies are still going to be produced.
People always need some kind of entertainment and different people will see different kinds of entertainment. So, now we can say the building block can be changed to some extent. Maybe majority of the movies could be Sattvic and some will be Rajasic and Tamasic.
Some will be Rajasic and majority will be Tamasic. That may change. We will talk about that later.
But in one sense, these two are unchangeable. Similarly, pre-existing flows, these are also going to exist all the time. Sattva, Rajas, Tamas is always going to exist in metal existence.
So, in that sense, we cannot change material nature. We can only change how much it pulls us. So, if a rope is there pulling us in a particular direction, we can cut off that rope.
We can weaken that rope. The concept of the modes is in that sense a multi-level concept. In fact, in the next chapter itself.
So, in this verse itself you could say, and Krishna uses the word nipad nanti, he binds, he is referring to this. But he is using the word avyayam. Avyayam is imperishable.
If it literally meant that the ropes can never be cut, then there will be no hope for repletion. But the modes, the gunas will always exist. But we can choose whether we will be bound or not.
In the next chapter, does anyone know what is the next chapter of the Bhagavad Gita? Sorry? Yes, I was asked the same question in a programme in Australia. And one year is a 15th chapter. So, in the next chapter is about Purushottam Yoga.
There the metaphor is of the urdhva-mula-madasha of the upside down tree. And there also in that metaphor, it is emphasised that we can never cut off the tree. We can only cut off our entanglement with the tree.
That’s why Krishna is there also in the same word which is used over here. Urdhva-mula-madashaakham asvattham praahur avyayam. So, the same word avyayam that is used over here is also used over there.
So, the tree, again the idea is that illusion is going to exist all the time. But we can disentangle ourselves from the illusion. So, the pull of the rope that is there, that can change.
Now, these pre-existing flows are going to be there. Sattva-ajastham is going to be there. There will always be Mars and Prophets and places like that.
But we can avoid going to those places. There will always be people in Tamoguna. But we can avoid associating with them so much.
So, this is broadly the concept of the modes. Now, after introducing the broad concept, when we talk about the gunas, the gunas are of three types. What are the three gunas? Sattva, rajas, tamas.
So, now, sattva, rajas, tamas, iti, guna, prakti, sambhava, that is what the word is used. Now, what do these words mean? There are different ways of understanding it. So, it is, see the soul, let us put it like that.
The soul is here. And this is the world of matter. Now, above this is the, this is the material world, this is the spiritual world.
And below this, you could see, here is the virtual world. Virtual means the imaginary world. So, broadly speaking, the modes are like ropes.
So, the rope of sattva pulls the person’s consciousness through matter, but upward, towards something beyond matter. Sattrajas pulls the rope towards matter only. Whereas, tamas pulls the person through material nature towards even imagination.
It is like tamas. So, a person in tamoguna, it is, let us say, people are watching movies and they just lose themselves watching movies. It is a hero and a heroine hug each other or do something, people start whistling.
What is happening? All living beings look for mating. But this is not even mating, it is second-hand mating. It is somebody else is doing it and people are imagining, if only I would be there, it would be so nice.
So, it is not even first-hand. It is not even rajoguna. Rajoguna is actually a person tries to control material nature to enjoy it.
And tamoguna is a person is so lazy and the person just does not even have the effort or the energy or even the intelligence. Controlling material nature is also not easy. It is, one does not even try.
All that they do is just go into an imaginary world. And an imaginary world, they imagine. So, it is just in the head.
It is not even physical matter. That is why alcoholism, it is considered tamasic. It is basically a person is escaping from the physical world to the mental world.
Now, we could escape in many different ways. Tamoguna is basically associated with escapism. Escapism can be through our own mind.
Escapism can be through substances that we take and that affect our mind. So, it could be drugs. It could be alcohol.
But the escapism can be also through others’ minds. By others’ minds means the product of the others’ mind. So, movies and novels, what are they? They are products of other people’s imagination.
And we, we are so lazy that we can’t even use our own imagination. To go into an imaginary world, we need somebody else’s imagination. So, broadly speaking, sattva, just tamas, later on Krishna will say that the result is also like urdhvam gacchanti sattvasthaha.
So, if somebody is sattva, they are still in the material world but they are thinking about higher things in life. Madhye tishtanti rajasah. So, the rajoguna, they just want to control material nature.
And they, because they have the desire to control, then they will stay where they are. And adho gacchanti tamasah, one will go down. Because one doesn’t even have the energy or the intelligence to control material nature, one just wants to escape into their own imagination.
They go downwards. So, now, if we understand the modes binding, and when the modes bind, they bind in different ways. And sattva also binds, but it is elevated.
So, broadly, these three modes if we consider, sattva is, it is associated with reflection followed by action. It is, a person thinks and then they act. That is the general characteristic of sattva.
And say, for example, now there is some, there are concerns about what are we doing to the environment. Maybe we should decrease the pollution, maybe we should use less plastics, we should use, decrease our consumption. So, people are thinking.
That is a good thing. Reflection before action. Nowadays, many people before they buy food, now we as devotees, we don’t eat certain foods.
That is why we are careful. But even ordinary people are careful. When they buy foods, what are the ingredients? Does it contain that I don’t want, I want gluten-free food, I want this food, I want this kind of food.
But the idea is, there is some kind of reflection before action. That is the characteristic of sattva guna. In rajas, there is first action and then reflection.
It is first I do something and if it doesn’t work, oh, what went wrong. So, in rajas, you see, if you see previously from the 1970s, the industrial revolution started almost a century ago. But for much of that time, the idea of the underlying economy was greed is good, big is good.
That the bigger the industries we have, the idea is the more we control nature, the more we will be able to enjoy. This is action. But now, and then slowly, when pollution started coming, and things started going wrong, then there is reflection.
No, have we done the right thing? So, there is action, reflection. Now, in tamas, what happens? There is only imagination. The imagination is neither really clear action, neither reflection.
It is all a person’s action, even if there is action, and even if there is reflection, whatever it is there, it is all directed towards going into imagination. It is just to get up, just escape from here. So, these are, you could say, broadly speaking, different ways, because as I said, in pre-existing flows like gears, there are different ways of functioning in the world.
Some people, they just, they think and then they act. Some people, let us do something, let us try it out. If it didn’t work, then we will try something else.
That is also not a wrong way to do it. And rajas and tamas should not be equated. You see, why sometimes we say in bhakti we have to go rajas, tamas, more we have to go beyond that.
That is true. But from a material perspective, rajas may be unfavourable. But from a material perspective, rajas is not unfavourable.
So, rajas is actually very, very important for functioning in the world. Like say, a rajasic parent and a tamasic parent. As I said, in the last 10 years, I have been going to America, and when I interact with American youth, I just realise how much scarred they are by the childhood upbringing.
Generally, when we go to school, we may ask, if you meet a boy, a friend, a potential friend as well, so where do you stay? What do your parents do? And the question in American schools is, which parent do you stay, your mother or your father? So, it is like almost assumed that the parents are not together. And it is tragic, actually, in many ways. And children get scarred.
They get terribly scarred. And sometimes, so a rajasic parent may have no interest in God, may have no interest in their children turning towards God. But if the child falls sick, the parents will move heaven and earth to take care of the child.
But a tamasic parent, the tamasic parents will be so stoned on drugs, they don’t even know they have a child and the child is existing. They are just lost with that. I know some young boys, even some young girls, they say that we actually had to be parents for our parents, that we had to take care of our parents.
And that is too much of a burden to put on the child. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that rajoguna can actually be a serious antidote for the poison that is tamoguna. Because tamoguna is so poisonous that it just people can’t function tamoguna.
Rajoguna is an antidote for it. Now, of course, because rajoguna is also poisonous from a spiritual perspective. That is true.
But from a material perspective, if say, for things to work in the material world, life is tough. There are hundreds of problems and problems need to be fixed practically. So, if people are in tamoguna in general, nothing in the material world will function at all.
I would say if the power goes off. Somebody needs to know how to fix the power. Everybody tamoguna, everybody is taking drugs.
Nobody knows how to fix things. It won’t work. So, rajoguna is important.
So, what I am going to talk about here is, the last point I will make before I conclude, that see the modes, where it is binding, they are important for functioning within the world. They are important. So, sattva guna is important, rajoguna is also.
For the functioning of the world, rajoguna is also important. So, in the West now, there is an increasing concern about pornography. And that has got nothing to do with spirituality or even morality.
It is all got to do with basic reproduction. Because when people’s minds are, especially male minds, are filled with imagination about sex, and pornography is all about distorted conceptions of sex. What happens in real life, even when there is a partner, they just don’t feel excited.
And then, there are cases where men are so addicted to porn that whoever they are with physical, they just don’t get aroused. And if they don’t get aroused, then there is no reproduction. There is no reproduction, humanity will get extinct.
So, of course, there was a lot of concern about population explosion in the past. Now, a big concern is population implosion. Especially in the West, if there had been no immigrants going from various countries, then the West’s population would have become steep downwards.
So, Japan is now actually paying parents to have children. So, every child you have will pay you for that. Because there are various reasons.
I am not saying porn is the only reason. But my point is that there are many people just for functional reasons, they are saying that this is just terrible. Because it’s just that, leave alone morality, just basic functionality becomes impaired by it.
Now, men are attracted more by images, women are attracted more by words. So, there is a whole genre of novels called pormance. Pormance means what? It seems like simple romantic novels.
But inside those novels, the descriptions, verbal descriptions are so terribly explicit. And women are addicted to that. And most of the times, the woman, wife might be with her husband, but she is imagining some other man.
So, it is even material functionality cannot be there. If Tamoguna is there. So, Rajoguna has its problems, but Tamoguna is like a policy.
Now, you may say that if Tamoguna is so bad, then why is Tamoguna present at all? So, however, it is not that Tamoguna is bad. It is being disproportionately Tamoguna that is bad. See, all these three modes, they serve their own purposes.
What are the purpose? That what are the three modes, the three functions of the material nature? What are the three functions? Creation. And which is, which mode is associated with what? Creation. Sattva vik? Maintenance.
Maintenance and destruction. So, now, actually, in material nature, all these three things need to keep going on. Tamoguna is not a bad thing.
Practically, Tamoguna is not a bad thing. If somebody is not able to sleep, it is a big problem. Insomnia is a serious issue.
There is one person with insomnia, he said that my bed is like a magical place, as soon as I get onto it, I remember all the things that I did not do throughout the day. I just cannot sleep. So, actually, sleep is a mystery in many ways.
That many things about it. There are bestseller books about how to sleep well. Now, many reasons for that.
Sleeping is actually vital for health. But the thing is, many people for anxiety, attachment, whatever reasons, they are not able to sleep. And if we cannot sleep, our body does not rest.
So, in one sense, when we sleep, it is Tamoguna. So, and that is a part of the biological rejuvenation of this body. That is one of the reasons when if somebody travels too much, there is a body in circadian rhythm.
And if somebody goes from one time zone to another repeatedly or very rapidly, then there is jet lag. People just can’t, their body cycles get disrupted. So, the thing is that Tamoguna itself is not that.
It is Tamoguna that enables us to sleep. So, I was talking with one disciple, he likes to have a lot of, he likes to have fun. So, we were having some discussions.
How long do you think we can, can we continue the discussion for some more time? Okay, I was asking him that. So, he said, it is time for me to surrender to Krishna in the form of Tamoguna. What does that mean? Yeah, it is time to sleep.
It is a very philosophically eloquent way of saying it. It is time for me to surrender to Tamoguna in the form of sleep. So, the idea is Tamoguna is also not a bad thing.
Tamoguna is required. But the problem is being too much in Tamoguna. Each of these modes is required.
See, we all in the course of our life need to create some things. So, creating things that requires Tamoguna. So, it is not so much the mode is the problem.
The mode, no mode, no mode is the problem. The problem is dominance by a mode. When that mode becomes too much within us, that is when it becomes a problem.
Nature has this cycle, creation, maintenance, destruction. And we live in the material world, things grow old and they need to be destroyed. So, destruction is a vital function also.
So, basically what happens is when we are sleeping, it is mysterious. At one moment we are awake and next moment just sleep. Now, we may be tired, we may be resting, we may be closing our eyes.
But that particular moment, it is almost like a switch goes off and that switch is not in our control. Sometimes we may lie down for hours and still sleep doesn’t come. And sometimes the switch just goes off and you don’t want it to go off also.
So, the idea is that there is something beyond just our choosing to sleep. This is Tamoguna. So, all the modes have their place, but in order to influence by any mode is a problem.
So, in tomorrow’s session, we will discuss the characteristics and the effects of the modes. I will summarise what we discussed today. We are talking about the concept of the gunas.
And first, I started with talking about the idea of non-translatables. That certain concepts are not translatables because when you talk about words, they have denotations and connotations. What they are referring to and what they are reminding us of.
So, it is better to understand the concept and then see what term to use. Otherwise, the term can block our understanding of the concept because the term might remind us of something else. So, the word guna is what we are using.
Then while understanding the guna, we talked about the guna in three different aspects. What are the three aspects? Building blocks of nature. So, what are the metaphors for that? Colours.
Colours in a TV screen. The second was? Ropes. They are like pulling forces.
So, the material nature is not. So, this is like more passive. It is created already over there.
But this is active. It is pulling us. So, if you want to take the movie theatre example, there are various movies going on in various places.
All those movies are going on. But say, if we have a friend who is pulling us, let us watch this movie. So, that is the pulling aspect of it.
And then there is? Pre-existing flows. There is the pre-existing flows. So, the metaphor for that is? Gears.
So, here it is. The example was ropes, pre-existing flows. The example is gears.
So, here it is almost like pre-existing flows itself convey the point. So, it is like there is a multiplex and there are different movies going on. One is action movies, another rom-com is there, another horror is there, another kids movie is there.
It is like you have channels. So, a channel is already. So, it is all going on.
So, this can refer to the ambience that is associated with some places or it could be other arrangements. Like if you have a channel or a TV. So, basically, the modes are multiple.
Among these, which are the ones we can change? Pulling force. So, the pulling force, this alone is changeable for us. And then in the last part of session, we discussed about how? When we are looking at the modes, the specific modes, so sattva is in one sense from matter towards something higher than matter.
Raja says it is primarily the matter only and Tamas says from matter to imagination, to escapism. So, each of these modes has their own typical functionality. And last we discussed that each mode has also its utility.
So, first I talked about generally sattva, we understand its utility already. I talked about Rajas and its utility is that it can be an antidote to Tamas. So, in that sense, Rajas is very valuable and Tamas is also required for us to rest and to rejuvenate ourselves.
The problem is not the mode, the problem is the dominance by the mode. Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? Could you just like to explain, could you just like to explain, Tamas helps us rest and rejuvenation and insomnia when it happens to a person, he is not able to fall asleep quickly or being sleep deprived.
Is it by any chance that there is some repetition in it? Because in fact, though Tamas is acting in the material world, but this person is having insomnia, this Tamas is not able to act upon this person or can we understand anything in that way? Or is insomnia dominating over material world? So, generally speaking, most mental health problems, insomnia, mental health problem, biological problem, psychological problem, psychiatric problem, I won’t go into that at this point. So, the physiological problems, it can be any of these things. But the point is that most mental health problems are associated with Tamas.
Like with anxiety, when we have anxiety, what is happening is the imagination is going wild. So, right now, there might not be much of a problem, there is some problem, but our mind is like what if this goes wrong, that goes wrong, that goes wrong, that goes wrong. So, it is Tamoguna, panic attack people get.
Now, it is Tamoguna. Now, of course, that does not mean just Tamoguna. Tamoguna can also have concrete effects in the sense that people’s neurochemical balance of the brain can change.
And I know devotees have panic attacks at times and as one devotee I was talking with a recent devotee, I am a preacher, I am a senior devotee, people see me as a leader and I am getting these panic attacks. I should be saying Bhajao Re Banna Krishna, Abhaya Charana Aravindare. How am I getting this? And I said, in our, do not get caught in this kind of thing, it is just that see it as a functional flaw of the mind.
Suppose you had some, suppose you are giving a class and suddenly you had migraine attack, then you would have to wait, maybe take a pill, get the migraine in the country, and then you will continue the class, isn’t it? Just as the body can have a functional flaw, the mind can also have a functional flaw. So, do not take it like a statement of one’s character or one’s spirituality. These things can happen.
Now, can it be also because of that? Yes, some people can be very fearful and timid and they need to overcome their fear. But my point is that yes, it is the effect of Tamoguna, but sometimes the effects of Tamoguna can be, effect of any particular guna can be quite complicated. And it is not just raw willpower that can be used to overpower it.
So, sometimes, nowadays many people find that Yoga Nidra helps them. They are just trying to do something, getting into a meditative state before they sleep, that helps them to sleep. For some people, they may find that taking pills helps, but taking pills, the problem is it creates cognitive, it is very easy to get dependent on that.
And then maybe for some people, they can’t sleep at all, then better they take pills as function, are able to sleep and wake up. Now, what kind of pills, that’s also important. If the pills are, some pills are really addictive, some people’s pills are not that addictive.
So, the dosage they require also keeps increasing, it’s a problem. So, it’s Tamoguna, but it can have physiological, pharmacological symptoms, manifestations, and that those have to be addressed. Yes, please.
Prabhuji, sleep is not in our control, sleeping. So, how to overcome dozing or chanting when sleeping comes? Well, I think it’s an overstatement to say that sleep is not in our control. It is more that probably the quantity of sleep is not in our control.
So, if we don’t sleep at the right time, then we sleep at the wrong time. So, I think it’s important for us as devotees to prioritise. If we are really serious about our Japa, it’s not just about fighting to stay awake.
There’s one American devotee, he came from a yoga background, and he heard about mantra chanting, and he introduced us first to Kirtan. Now, in the West, Kirtan is more like a performance than participation. It’s like a musical concert.
People go and play. There’s one devotee who does Kirtan, he does it in a musical hall, and people pay $100 for attending a one-hour Kirtan. This is a top Kirtan journey.
There’s a Kirtan like a performance. You just sit in here, sometimes people sing along, but people generally don’t dance. They feel it’s too disruptive dancing.
But anyway, this devotee, he heard about mantra meditation, he came to a temple. He came to a temple, and he attended a mantra meditation. He told me afterwards, he said, you know, I didn’t feel it was meditation.
I felt it was a war. He didn’t feel any meditation at all. Now, to some extent, to focus our mind is a war, and a metaphor of an inner war is quite common, not just in the Bhakti tradition, in the Yoga tradition also, it is there.
But the point is that we should be connecting with the higher reality. If all our energy is going and simply disconnecting from Tamoguna, not connecting with Krishna, then that’s not a very productive use of our time. So, we need to yukta-ahara-viharasya, we need to regulate.
So, generally, sleepiness in Japa comes from broadly three factors. One is tiredness, second is sickness, and the third is boredom. So, if we are sick, we will need rest.
If we are tired, we are not having enough rest, that’s the problem. Now, if we are, if we find Japa boring, we don’t have taste, then we start looking here, there. See, basically, when the mind doesn’t find something interesting, it does two things.
It moves very fast or it just stops moving. Moves very fast, it starts wandering. It stops moving means it puts us to sleep.
So, of course, in the dream also, the mind can move. But by the conscious level, it stops moving. So, then we have to create some, that’s why we have some Japa talks, we can have some attractive picture of Krishna, we can try to remember this is the Lord I am calling out.
So, we have to cultivate that interest. One last question. We have two questions.
You mentioned that this body forces are changeable. So, generally our mind is also acting in the modes only. In the way we are thinking, it depends on the mode which we are in.
So, how we can then change this thinking because it is already in the modes? Well, it’s like, that’s what Krishna says that the mind is not the enemy. Krishna says the mind can be the enemy, but the mind can also be the friend. So, it is like the point is not what the mind is not the enemy, what is inside the mind is the enemy.
The impurities that are there. And those impurities can be removed. You know, one of our friends was in the military and he was quite active in Kashmir.
And now Kashmir has become remarkably peaceful. So, there are some periodic upsurges are there intermittently. So, how did we do it? You know, it was in Kashmir, there were elements which were totally hostile to India.
And those had to be neutralised. Neutralised is a politically correct way of saying killed. So, those had to be neutralised.
But it is not, India doesn’t want that we drop a nuclear bomb in Kashmir and kill everyone. That’s not what is wanted. We want, there are people who are favourable to India, but they need to be supported.
They need to be facilitated. They need to see that India is actually a revolution. India wants development.
India wants our children to have employment. They want their children to have a place. So, then basically, what the forces that were against India neutralised, the forces that were for India were supported, were facilitated.
So, like that, it’s not that everything in our mind is against sattva or against bhakti. There are elements of the mind which are against bhakti, against sattva. Those have to be curbed.
Those have to be eliminated. And those which are connected with, which are actually connectable with Krishna, those which are pointing us towards Krishna, they are something which we have to support. So, it’s like if you consider, these are our ultimate interests or we can say higher interests.
And these are our present interests, immediate interests. So, we need to focus on this thing. And that’s how we grow.
The whole Varanasian system is not about dividing people into four varanas. It is about connecting people’s present interests with their long-term interests. So, if you are intellectual, you serve society as an intellectual.
You study scripture. You learn about ultimate reality through scripture. So, that’s why, see, Kshatriyas are considered to some extent rajoguna.
And they are not told you have to come to the tomb. Kshatriyas have to fight. And for fighting, you have to believe that something is worth fighting.
You think the material world is all temporary, whatever happened doesn’t matter. They are not worth fighting. That is, a brahmana can have some detachment, a kshatriya cannot have detachment.
Kshatriya has to be invested. The word attachment has negative connotation. But Kshatriyas have to be invested in that sufficiently.
Only then they will be ready to fight when it is required. Kshatriyas are not told suddenly come to sato guna and do sato guna. In your rajoguna, follow dharma.
Follow shastra. So, basically, we have to see where our present interests can connect with the ultimate interests. And that’s how we, you could say, we follow a divide and rule policy with our mind.
We divide the mind into what is unfavourable, anukulyasya sankalpa, pratikulyasya, varjana. So, those interests of ours which are unfavourable to bhakti, we put them aside. Those who are favourable, bhakti or even sattva, a long-term well-being, material or spiritual.
Those who are unfavourable, we discipline them. We try to eliminate them. Those who are favourable, we nourish them.
Yes, please. Are there any specific verses in Bhagavad Gita which refer to these metaphors or like a Sanskrit word? The word guna, one of its meanings is ropes. So, in general, the scripture, Prabhupada explains in a similar metaphor only, you can say, a similar visual image, that Prabhupada says this is the message of scripture and this is the interest of the audience, audience interest.
So, Prabhupada says realisation means to be able to present the message of scripture in a way that is interesting to the audience. So, that is the expertise of the speaker. So, Prabhupada uses the car body metaphor.
Now, there is no such thing as a car that is mentioned in scripture. Because chariot is there, yantra is there, but yantra can mean many different things. The car body metaphor is a fundamental metaphor.
So, metaphors will always have to be contained. And that is why scripture is not just like a frozen book. It is a living book.
And each generation has to understand and present scripture in a way that connects with the audience. The verse in Prahlada Maharaj s prayers, where it is said that our senses are being pulled in various directions like a man is pulled by multiple wives. That metaphor is there.
So, Prabhupada writes that in the translation of this, the ears are attracted by radio songs. Now, last time there were no radio songs, isn t it? So, what is happening is that Prabhupada is making that relatable to us. So, this is an elaborate subject, but I will quickly mention it.
Generally speaking, there is, in scripture, there are specifics and there are universals. What Prabhupada points to in the details, there are specifics and universals. Now, the specifics apply to that particular time and circumstances.
The universals are time independent. So, generally, any kind of communication requires, this is called the ladder, the ladder of abstraction. So, at the bottom of the ladder, things are very specific.
At the top of the ladder, things are very abstract. So, due to the law of motion, that is an abstract principle, that every particle of matter, or due to the law of motion, gravity, say, every particle of matter, I say that the particle of matter, by x, y, z, so and so, that is an abstract principle. But if I take an object and if I drop this pen, that is a concrete example.
So, generally speaking, understanding requires a combination of specific and abstract. So, what happens is, we need to go up the ladder and we need to come down the ladder. So, scripture gives us specifics, say, from 3000 BC, that is the time of Cheshire.
And now we are in 2024 AD. So, the specifics at that time won’t necessarily apply now. And the specifics that apply now won’t be there in scripture.
So, that is why, you know, the book cannot be understood by the book itself. The Bhagwat is both the book and the person. The book is understood from the living tradition.
And the living tradition needs to have the expertise to communicate the message of scripture in contemporary times. So, can we find verses for every single concept? Well, it depends on what concept, what metaphor. Generally speaking, the metaphors that we use, say, for example, we may say, Krishna’s lips are like a big buffalo.
You have heard that, Damodarashtra will say, no, we don’t know what is a big buffalo. So, the metaphor just becomes, it is not the relatable parts. So, we need relatable metaphors.
And it is to expect those metaphors to be found in scripture is itself unrealistic. It’s not understanding how scripture works. So, the principles have to come from scripture.
But the illustrations, they have to come from the contemporary world. And that combination of the abstract principles from scripture, from the specific details, see, many of us knew Ramayana and Mahabharata from our childhood. But most of us may have thought, okay, they tell us nice stories, pious stories.
But when devotees draw some life lessons from those books, and then they show how the life is applied to us. So, from the specific to the abstract, from the abstract to specific. So, this is a journey up and down we need to go on.
That only then comprehension occurs. So, we’ll continue tomorrow when we discuss the characteristics and the effects of the monks. Thank you very much.
So, we are discussing the topic of the three monks, material nature, three gunas.