Site menuChapter 25: The Three Modes of Nature and Beyond
(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 [*].
(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]. (6) The notion that people have of 'I' and 'mine' o
Uddhava, is in fact based upon a combination of the modes. The normal
activities of their mind, senses and vital airs in relation to their
sense objects are ruled by the modes [see also 11.23: 49, 11.24: 7, 11.24: 13]. (7) When a person is fixed in his religiosity,
economic development and sense gratification, the resultant faith,
wealth and enjoyment is also a display of the interaction of the
different modes. (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. (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. (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) 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]. (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]. (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]. (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]. (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]. (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. (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. (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. (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. (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]. (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]. (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]. (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]. (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]. (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]. (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. (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. (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]. (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].
(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. (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]. (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. (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. (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. (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. (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.'
(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. (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]. (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. (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. (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. (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. (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.'
