Fwd: The Nature of the Three Modes of Nature

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Hare Krsna

 

 

 

"Sattvam sukhe sanjayti rajah karmani Bhaarata

 

Jnaanamaavrtya tu tamah pramaade sanjayatyuta."

 

The mode of

goodness conditions one to happiness, passion conditions him to the

fruits of action, and ignorance to madness. GITA 14:9

 

In the mode of goodness (Sattva guna), happiness does not

bind a spiritual aspirant, but it binds him when there is attachment to

happiness. "Sukhasangena badhnaati" (Gita 14:6). Similarly, the mode of

passion (Rajo guna), binds man through attachment to action -

"tannibadhnaati kauntey karmasangena dehinaam" (Gita 14:7). But the

mode of ignorance (Tamo guna) by it's very nature, binds a man. In it,

there is no need for attachment. It is for this reason that in the mode

of ignorance, the term "sanga"

(attachment) has not been used.

 

 

 

Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being

fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the

past became purified by knowledge of Me--and thus they all attained

transcendental love for Me. GITA 4:10

 

 

 

As

described above, it is very difficult for a person who is too

materially affected to understand the personal nature of the Supreme

Absolute Truth. Generally, people who are attached to the bodily

conception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost

impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body

which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful. In the

materialistic concept, the body is perishable, full of ignorance and

completely miserable. Therefore, people in general keep this same

bodily idea in mind when they are informed of the personal form of the

Lord. For such materialistic men, the form of the gigantic material

manifestation is supreme. Consequently they consider the Supreme to be

impersonal. And because they are too materially absorbed, the

conception of retaining the personality after liberation from matter

frightens them. When they are informed that spiritual life is also

individual and personal, they become afraid of becoming persons again,

and so they naturally prefer a kind of merging into the impersonal

void. Generally, they compare the living entities to the bubbles of the

ocean, which merge into the ocean. That is the highest perfection of

spiritual existence attainable without individual personality. This is

a kind of fearful stage of life, devoid of perfect knowledge of

spiritual existence. Furthermore there are many persons who cannot

understand spiritual existence at all. Being embarrassed by so many

theories and by contradictions of various types of philosophical

speculation, they become disgusted or angry and foolishly conclude that

there is no supreme cause and that everything is ultimately void. Such

people are in a diseased condition of life. Some people are too

materially attached and therefore do not give attention to spiritual

life, some of them want to merge into the supreme spiritual cause, and

some of them disbelieve in everything, being angry at all sorts of

spiritual speculation out of hopelessness. This last class of men take

to the shelter of some kind of intoxication, and their affective

hallucinations are sometimes accepted as spiritual vision. One has to

get rid of all three stages of attachment to the material world,

negligence of spiritual life, fear of a spiritual personal identity,

and the conception of void that underlies the frustration of life. To

get free from these three stages of the material concept of life, one

has to take complete shelter of the Lord, guided by the bona fide

spiritual master, and follow the disciplines and regulative principles

of devotional life. The last stage of the devotional life is called bhava, or transcendental love of Godhead.

According to Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, the science of devotional service:

 

 

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya

tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha rucis tatah

athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudancati

sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

 

 

"In

the beginning one must have a preliminary desire for self-realization.

This will bring one to the stage of trying to associate with persons

who are spiritually elevated. In the next stage one becomes initiated

by an elevated spiritual master, and under his instruction the neophyte

devotee begins the process of devotional service. By execution of

devotional service under the guidance of the spiritual master, one

becomes free from all material attachment, attains steadiness in

self-realization, and acquires a taste for hearing about the Absolute

Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. This taste leads one further forward

to attachment for Krsna consciousness, which is matured in bhava, or the preliminary stage of transcendental love of God. Real love for God is called prema, the highest perfectional stage of life." In the prema

stage there is constant engagement in the transcendental loving service

of the Lord. So, by the slow process of devotional service, under the

guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, one can attain the highest

stage, being freed from all material attachment, from the fearfulness

of one's individual spiritual personality, and from the frustrations

resulting from void philosophy. Then one can ultimately attain to the

abode of the Supreme Lord.

 

 

 

By subduing two modes (gunas), one increases and becomes

predominant. The mode that increases, begins to overpower the

individual and by gaining victory over him, binds him. The mode of

nature that increases, that mode becomes predominant and the others two

modes, become subdued. This is the nature of the modes (gunas).