Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Bhagvad Gita - Chapter 14 - Material Nature


Lord SriKrishna says this further to Arjuna: I shall now explain the supreme wisdom through which all sages attained perfection. The Brahman is the source of birth.  All species arise from material nature of whom I’m, the seed giving father. The three modes of material nature viz. sativa, rajas and tamas, condition the living entity when he/she comes in contact with nature.

Of these, sattva, the mode of goodness is pure and enlightening and without sorrow. Rajas, the mode of passion leads to unlimited yearnings and attachments, hence one gets attached to material actions.  Tamas is the mode of ignorance that deludes all people. It results in madness and laziness. In short, the mode of goodness binds one to happiness, the mode of passion to fruitive action and the mode of ignorance to madness.

There is always a fight among the modes for supremacy. Sometimes sattva predominates and sometimes it’s rajas or tamas. When one dies under the mode of Sattva, he achieves the world of great sages. When one dies in rajas, he is born among those engaged in fruitive activity. When somebody dies in the mode of tamas, he is born into a mode of delusion.

From sattva understanding is born, from rajas, materialism and from tamas, foolishness. Those established in sattva, ascend to higher planets. Those in rajas, remain on earth and those in tamas descend to hellish planets. When an embodied being transcends these three modes of material existence, he/she is freed from birth, death, old age and illness and is able to enjoy life.

Arjuna asks the Lord as to how we can identify somebody who has transcended the modes of nature, and 
Lord SriKrishna replies that the person who does not hate illumination, attachment and one who is undisturbed by the modes of nature, who remains unwavering and the one to whom a lump of earth, stone and gold are the same, who regards the desirable and the undesirable equally, who is steadfast and not bothered by blame or praise, to whom honor and dishonor mean the same, treats friends and enemies alike, and one who has renounced all material undertakings, such a person has transcended the three modes of nature and achieves me.

Have no doubt about this.

To your transcendence …

Guru30

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