VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
Canto 11
The Three Modes of Nature and Beyond
To establish the transcendental nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this chapter describes the various functional manifestations of the three modes (goodness, passion and ignorance), which arise in the mind.
Control of the mind, control of the senses, tolerance and so forth are manifestations of the unmixed mode of goodness. Desire, endeavor, false pride and so on are manifestations of the unmixed mode of passion. And anger, greed and bewilderment are among the functions of the unmixed mode of ignorance. In the admixture of the three modes we find the concept of "I" and "my," behavior in accordance with this mentality by body, mind and words, adherence to the principles of religiosity, economic development and sense gratification, and the fixed pursuit of one's occupational duty for material interest.
A person whose character is in the mode of goodness worships Lord Hari in a spirit of devotion, without regard to profit. On the other hand, one who hankers after the fruits of his worship of the Lord is passionate by nature. And one who desires violence is in the mode of ignorance. These modes of goodness, passion and ignorance are present in the infinitesimal living entity, whereas the Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental to the three modes of material nature.
The substance, place and result of activity, along with the time, the knowledge underlying action, the activity itself, the performer, his faith, his level of awareness, his spiritual progress and his destination after death, all partake of the three modes and manifest variously in terms of distinctions and hierarchies. But objects related to the Supreme Personality, places connected with Him, happiness based on Him, the time occupied in His worship, knowledge related to Him, work offered to Him, the performer of work who acts under His shelter, faith in His devotional service, progress toward the spiritual realm, and the destination of the Supreme Lord's personal abode all transcend the material modes.
There are many different destinations and conditions of life for the spirit soul within the cycle of material existence. These are all based on the modes of nature and on fruitive activities, which are governed by the modes. It is only by practicing the yoga of pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord that one can conquer the three modes, which arise originally from the mind. After obtaining a human body, which has the potential for developing knowledge and realization, a person who is intelligent should renounce association with the three modes of nature and then worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. First, by increasing the mode of goodness, one can defeat passion and ignorance. Then one can conquer material goodness by evolving his consciousness to the platform of transcendence. At that time he becomes entirely liberated from the material modes, gives up his subtle body (the material mind, intelligence and false ego) and attains the association of the Personality of Godhead. By the shattering of his subtle covering, the living entity is able to come face to face with the Supreme Lord and thus achieve absolute fulfillment by His grace.
11.25.1
(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'O best of persons, try to understand what I'm about to say about the way someone is influenced by a certain mode of My material nature [*].
The word asammiśra indicates that which is not mixed with anything else. Lord Kṛṣṇa now explains how each of the three material modes (goodness, passion and ignorance), acting separately, causes a conditioned soul to manifest a particular type of existence. The living entity is ultimately transcendental to the modes of nature, being part and parcel of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but in conditioned life he manifests material qualities. This is described in the following verses.
11.25.2-5
śamo damas titikṣekṣā
hrīr dayādiḥ sva-nirvṛtiḥ
madotsāho yaśaḥ-prītir
nidrāśā bhīr anudyamaḥ
sattvasya rajasaś caitās
tamasaś cānupūrvaśaḥ
(2-5) With the mode of goodness one finds equanimity, sense control, tolerance, discrimination, penance, truthfulness, compassion, remembrance, contentment, renunciation, freedom from desire, faithfulness, modesty and pleasure within. With the mode of passion there is lust, endeavor, conceit, dissatisfaction, false pride, the quest for blessings, separatism, sense-gratification, rashness, love of praise, ridicule, display of valor and hard sanctioning. With the mode of ignorance one runs into intolerance, greed, deceitfulness, violence, attention seeking [in particular with women], hypocrisy, listlessness, quarrel, lamentation, delusion, the suffering of depression, sloth, false expectations, fear and indolence. These I one after the other described, constitute the majority of effects of the modes. Now learn about their combinations [see also B.G. 14].
11.25.6
vyavahāraḥ sannipāto
mano-mātrendriyāsubhiḥ
(6) O Uddhava, the ordinary activities in the mentality of 'I' and 'mine' are there so from their combination, just as the activities of the mind, the senses, their objects and the vital airs are there as a combination of them [see also 11.23: 49, 11.24: 7, 11.24: 13].
The illusory concept of "I" and "mine" occurs by the mixture of the three modes of nature. A person in goodness may feel, "I am peaceful." One in passion may think, "I am lusty." And one in ignorance may think, "I am angry." Similarly, one may think "my peace," "my lust" or "my anger." One completely absorbed in the mentality of being peaceful could not work in the material world; he would lack any impulse to perform activity. Similarly, one absorbed in lust would be blinded without at least a tinge of peacefulness or restraint. One overwhelmed with anger could not function properly in the material world without the mixture of other qualities. Thus we find that a material mode does not occur in a pure, isolated form but rather is mixed with other modes, thereby making possible normal functioning within this world. Ultimately one should think, "I am an eternal servant of Lord Kṛṣṇa" and "My only possession is loving service to the Lord." This is the pure state of consciousness, beyond the material modes of nature.
11.25.7
yadāsau pariniṣṭhitaḥ
(7) When the person is fixed in religiosity, economic development and sense gratification brings each of the modes intermingling to this the faith, wealth and enjoyment.
Religiosity, economic development and sense gratification are situated within the modes of nature, and the faith, wealth and enjoyment obtained by them clearly reveal the particular situation of a person within the modes of nature.
11.25.8
(8) In case someone as a householder [rajas] is of a devotion that is characterized by a materially motivated practice [tamas] and he as a consequence thereof sticks to his [religious] duties [sattva] is one clearly dealing with a combination of modes.
11.25.9
anumīyāc chamādibhiḥ
kāmādibhī rajo-yuktaḿ
(9) From a person his calm one can tell that he is endowed with goodness, his lust is indicative of the mode of passion and from his anger one may conclude that he is caught in ignorance.
11.25.10
(10) When someone, with the fulfillment of his duties, worships Me irrespective the results, such a man, or woman also, should be understood as being established in the nature of goodness.
11.25.11
(11) When one with one's duties worships Me hoping for benedictions such devotion should be understood as being of the nature of passion, and when one does it with the intention to be violent is one of ignorance [see also B.G. 17: 20-22].
11.25.12
sajjamāno nibadhyate
(12) One may conclude that the modes of sattva, tamas and rajas relate to the individual soul and not to Me; one is bound to them because they, the way they manifest in the mind, lead to one's attachment to material results [see also B.G. 4: 14].
The living entity is the marginal potency of the Supreme Lord, having the tendency to be overwhelmed by the Lord's illusory material energy. The Personality of Godhead, however, is the absolute controller of illusion. Illusion can never control the Lord. Thus the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the eternal object of service for all living beings, who are eternally servants of the Lord.
The three modes of nature manifest within the material energy. When a conditioned soul adopts a material mentality, the modes exert their influence within the jurisdiction of that mentality. But if one purifies one's mind in the devotional service of the Lord, the modes of nature can no longer act upon him, since they have no influence on the spiritual platform.
11.25.13
(13) When the mode of goodness - which is pure, luminous and auspicious - predominates over the other two, a man will be graced with happiness, religiosity, knowledge and other good qualities [see also B.G. 14: 11, 18: 37].
11.25.14
(14) When passion defeats both goodness and ignorance one is caught in fruitive labor, in defending one's reputation and in being opulent, because one then out of one's attachment is of separatism and impermanence and thus unhappy [see also B.G. 14: 12, 18: 38].
11.25.15
nidrayā hiḿsayāśayā
(15) When ignorance outdoes passion and goodness one has lost one's discrimination, one's consciousness is covered, one loses one's initiative and one lands in bewilderment and complaining, with sleeping too much, violence and false hopes [see also B.G. 14: 13, 18: 39].
11.25.16
(16) When one's consciousness clears up and the senses are no longer distracted, one is physically self-confident and of a detached mind; in that case one may speak of the goodness of My refuge.
11.25.17
(17) Passion you can recognize by the following symptoms: the intelligence is disturbed by too much activity, one fails to disengage from one's senses, one is not at ease with one's body and the mind is unsteady.
11.25.18
tamas tad upadhāraya
(18) Failing in the higher functions of consciousness, growing dull, being unable to focus, losing one's mind, groping in the dark and being gloomy you should understand to be of the mode of ignorance.
11.25.19
(19) With an increase of the mode of goodness the strength of the God-conscious increases, with an increase of passion the unenlightened get stronger and when the mode of ignorance increases, o Uddhava, the wild man steps forward.
11.25.20
sattvāj jāgaraṇaḿ vidyād
prasvāpaḿ tamasā jantos
(20) Know that the wakeful state of consciousness is there by the mode of goodness, that sleep is indicative of passion, that the deep of sleep is there by the ignorance of the living entity, while the fourth state [turîya, the transcendental] pervades the three [see also 7.7: 25 and B.G. 6: 16].
11.25.21
tamasādho 'dha ā-mukhyād
rajasāntara-cāriṇaḥ
(21) In the mode of goodness spiritual persons reach higher and higher, in the mode of ignorance one goes, head first, lower and lower and in the mode of passion one is stuck in between [see also B.G. 6: 45, 16: 19].
Śūdras, persons in the mode of ignorance, are generally in deep illusion about the purpose of life, accepting the gross material body as the self. Those in passion and ignorance are called vaiśyas and hanker intensely for wealth, whereas kṣatriyas, who are in the mode of passion, are eager for prestige and power. Those in the mode of goodness, however, hanker after perfect knowledge; they are therefore called brāhmaṇas. Such a person is promoted up to the supreme material position of Brahmaloka, the planet of Lord Brahmā. One who is in the mode of ignorance gradually falls to the level of unmoving species, such as trees and stones, while one in the mode of passion, filled with material desire but satisfying it within Vedic culture, is allowed to remain in human society.
11.25.22
(22) Those who die in goodness go to heaven, those who die in passion go to the human world and those who die in ignorance go to hell. They however who are free from the modes come to Me [see also B.G. 9: 25, 14: 18].
11.25.23
(23) Work dutifully done as a sacrifice for Me without desiring the results is in the mode of goodness, work done with an expectation of some result is in the mode of passion and when one engages with violence or jealousy and such, one is of the mode of ignorance [B.G. 17: 20-22].
Ordinary work performed as an offering to God, without desire for the result, is understood to be in the mode of goodness, whereas activities of devotion — such as chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord — are transcendental forms of work beyond the modes of nature.
11.25.24
(24) Knowledge in the mode of goodness is emancipatory [of enlightenment], of passion one is opinionated and in ignorance one is of a materialistic conviction. Spiritual knowledge on the other hand that is focussed upon Me is considered to be free from the modes [see also 6.14: 2].
11.25.25
(25) To have one's residence in the forest [to be a recluse] is of the mode of goodness, to reside among man [family] is of passion one says, and to reside in a gambling house is of the mode of ignorance, but My residence is above the modes [see also 7.12: 22, 11.18: 25].
Many creatures in the forest, such as the trees, wild boars and insects, are actually in the modes of passion and ignorance. But residence in the forest is designated as being in the mode of goodness because there one may live a solitary life free from sinful activities, material opulence and passionate ambition. Throughout the history of India, many millions of persons from all walks of life have adopted the orders of vānaprastha and sannyāsa and have gone to sacred forests to practice austerity and perfect their self-realization. Even in America and other Western countries, persons such as Thoreau achieved fame by retiring to the forest to reduce the scope and opulence of material involvement.
The word grāma here indicates residence in the village of one's family. Family life is certainly full of false pride, false hopes, false affection, lamentation and illusion, since the family connection is squarely resting on the bodily concept of life, the very opposite of self-realization. The word dyūta-sadanam, "gambling house," refers to pool halls, racetracks, poker clubs, bars and other sinful places that maintain an abysmal level of consciousness in the mode of ignorance. Man-niketam refers to the Lord's own abode in the spiritual world as well as the Lord's temples within this world, wherein the Deity form of the Lord is appropriately worshiped. One who lives in the temple of Lord Kṛṣṇa, following the rules and regulations of temple life, is understood to be residing on the transcendental platform. In these verses the Lord clearly explains that all material phenomena may be divided into three divisions according to the modes of nature, and that ultimately there is the fourth, or transcendental, division — Kṛṣṇa consciousness — which elevates all aspects of human culture to the liberated platform.
11.25.26
sāttvikaḥ kārako 'sańgī
nirguṇo mad-apāśrayaḥ
(26) A worker free from attachment is of the mode of goodness, blinded by personal desire one is a man of passion, and a performer who lost his vision one considers a man of ignorance [see 11.22: 38-39]. He [though] who has taken shelter of Me is free from the modes.
A transcendental worker performs his activities in strict accordance with the directions of Lord Kṛṣṇa and the Lord's bona fide representatives. Taking shelter of the Lord's guidance, such a worker remains transcendental to the material modes of nature.
11.25.27
sāttviky ādhyātmikī śraddhā
(27) Being of the soul one's faith is of goodness, but being of passion one has put faith in fruitive activities, in karma. To be irreligious is of the mode of ignorance, but that faith which is of service to Me is transcendental to the modes.
11.25.28
rājasaḿ cendriya-preṣṭhaḿ
tāmasaḿ cārti-dāśuci
(28) Beneficial, pure and attained effortlessly is food considered to be of the mode of goodness, [strongly] catering to the senses it is of the mode of passion and impure foodstuff which makes one suffer is of ignorance [see also B.G. 17: 7-10].
11.25.29
sāttvikaḿ sukham ātmotthaḿ
nirguṇaḿ mad-apāśrayam
(29) Happiness derived from the soul is of the mode of goodness but generated from sense objects it is of passion. Happiness derived from delusion and depravity is of ignorance, but the happiness that is free from the modes one finds in Me [see 11.15: 17 & B.G. 5: 21, but also 6: 7].
11.25.30
śraddhāvasthākṛtir niṣṭhā
(30) And thus the material substance, the place, the fruit of action, the time, the knowledge, the activity, the performer, the faith, the state of consciousness and the species and destinations of life all belong to the three gunas.
11.25.31
puruṣāvyakta-dhiṣṭhitāḥ
(31) All states of existence, whether seen, heard or pictured in one's mind, are, being composed of the gunas, regulated and guarded by the enjoyer who is of a subtle nature, o best among men [see also linga].
11.25.32
etāḥ saḿsṛtayaḥ puḿso
mad-bhāvāya prapadyate
(32) These forms of existence [and stages of life] of the enjoyer result from the karma one has with the modes of nature. O gentle one, the modes that manifest themselves in the mind are conquered by the individual soul who is dedicated to Me in bhakti-yoga. Such a soul qualifies for My transcendental love.
The words mad-bhāvāya prapadyate indicate the attainment of love for God or of the same state of existence as that of the Supreme Lord. Actual liberation is residence within the eternal kingdom of God, where life is full of bliss and knowledge. The conditioned soul falsely imagines himself to be the enjoyer of the modes of nature, and thus a particular type of material work is generated, the reaction of which binds the conditioned soul to repeated birth and death. This fruitless process can be counteracted by loving service to the Lord, as described here.
11.25.33
(33) For that reason they who obtained this human body should be as smart to discard the modes and worship Me, the source of knowledge and wisdom.
11.25.34
apramatto jitendriyaḥ
rajas tamaś cābhijayet
(34) A learned and unbewildered man of wisdom should worship Me free from attachment and, with his senses under control taking to the mode of goodness, conquer the modes of passion and ignorance.
11.25.35
sattvaḿ cābhijayed yukto
sampadyate guṇair mukto
(35) And also the mode of goodness he must conquer thus being connected [in devotion]. The individual whose intelligence found peace in being indifferent about the modes, is liberated from them by giving up on that what constituted the cause of the covering of his soul and reaches Me.
The word nairapekṣyeṇa refers to complete detachment from the modes of material nature. By attachment to the loving service of the Lord, which is completely transcendental, one gives up one's interest in the modes of nature.
11.25.36
jīvo jīva-vinirmukto
guṇaiś cāśaya-sambhavaiḥ
mayaiva brahmaṇā pūrṇo
(36) The living entity who as an individual soul by Me thus was liberated from the modes of nature that nestled in his mind, thus finds, by dint of the Absolute Truth, the completeness and must no longer wander, nor to the internal nor to the external of his existence.'
The human form of life is a rare opportunity for achieving spiritual liberation in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Lord Kṛṣṇa has elaborately described in this chapter the characteristics of the three modes of nature and the transcendental situation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has ordered us to take shelter of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, by which process we can easily transcend the modes of nature and begin our real life of loving devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Thus end of the Eleventh Canto, Twenty-fifth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "The Three Modes of Nature and Beyond."
(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of Swamyjis, Philosophers, Scholars and Knowledge Seekers for the collection)
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