Question One.

With reference to Bhagvad-Gita Chapter 14, verses and purports discuss in

your own words:
(A) Ways you are personally influenced by modes of passion and
ignorance.
(B) Practical ways you can develop mode of goodness.

Answer One.
(A) “If the world is devoted to the modes of passion and ignorance,
there can be no peace or prosperity. In the mode of passion, people
become greedy, and their hankering for sense enjoyment has no limit.”
(Bhagvad-Gita 14.17)
Passion is exactly like it sounds, you are passionate about life and you
are driven. People in the mode of passion, they are just driven, they
always have unlimited desires to achieve this, achieve that, success,
success. They are the people who are always trying to get ahead, of
what I do not know. Get ahead of themselves, make money, and make
money, business, and more business.
Also wars are in the mode of passion. All these kinds of things are the
influence of the mode of passion. Anger, you see is the mode of
passion. People are driven by lust, everybody is in lust in the material
world but it’s at the highest level in the mode of passion. So
everything is about that whether it’s sex, business, competition,
whatever it is.
“Penance performed ot of pride and for the sake of gaining respect,
honor and worship is said to be in the mode of passion. It is neither
stable nor permanent. Sometimes penance and austerity are executed
to attract people and receive honor, respect and worship from others.
Persons in the mode of passion arrange to be worshipped by
subordinates and let tjem wash their feet and offer riches.” (Bhagavad-
gita 17.18)
The power, the control, these are the mad men; completely mad, driven
mad. And anger is the next phase. The more you are in the mode of
passion the more you are angry and so you’re destroyed by that anger,
it is completely miserable.
 While on the other hand, The mode of ignorance is dark, very dark. Some
of the symptoms are intoxication, meat eating, lots of sleep, no ambition,
just enough to survive. They are not trying to go anywhere; they are
just on the bottom looking up. It is a very dark hellish mode, so that is
not a good place to be. It is as if you are in a cloud; you’re just covered.
Then foods, and again, in the mode of ignorance, the number one is
meat, completely in the mode of ignorance. It covers you up and it
covers your consciousness. You can only go but so far spiritually if you
eat meat.
Even if you are interested which most of the time they are not but
even if they are they can only go so far. It is like, this is the ceiling,
and you cannot go past that point. It’s just the way it is; it covers the
consciousness. Meat eating makes people more aggressive. This is a big
subject and I cannot spend too much time. The Vedas teach, “Do not
do it”.
No intoxication, “do not do it”. It will cover you and make you a
completely insane person; it will cover you completely.
And dark colors are mode of ignorance colors, like black. Also mode of
ignorance sound, all this modern music – passion and ignorance, they are
all passion and ignorance.

(B) It will vary from person to person what specific measures to take
but in general we have to find out what are the factors that take our
consciousness upwards, towards goodness and Krishna transcendence and
what are the things that take our consciousness downwards towards
passion and ignorance and accordingly maximize the first and minimize the
second.
For example, if exposure to certain sites or having to many too many
things to do that drags our consciousness towards passion then we cannot
avoid in having lot of things to do but we can try to schedule some
things. Broadly speaking if for example, we know that sleeping in the day
time puts us in the mode of ignorance then we can try to find out how
we can avoid that, may be by taking more rest at night or may be
ensuring that we only take short naps, or whatever.
Now more important than avoiding the negative is affirming the
positive. That means the mind is always going to be like a sine wave
 for a conceivable future because the mind has the tendency to oscillate.
The important thing is we have to find out what keeps us sustained.
That means when mind starts going down to the lower modes then
what can we do to bring ourselves back. For example, short breaks
where in we hear some favorite kitrans, sing some bhajans, or repeat
some prayers, or even read some favorite passages from scripture.
Those are things which can help pull our consciousness upwards.

Basically we can compare this to gravity. We know that gravity pulls us

down but if there are something which holding us up, there certain
support, certain props by which we can hold us up than by holding on
to that we will move up. So we have to find out what are the things
that hold us up or what are things by holding which we can pull
ourselves upwards.

If we observe our own spiritual life we will find that these are the
things which bring my consciousness back up. Off course this is not
mechanical, it is not that every time we do our activity immediately
our consciousness will move upwards but this is broad principle,
sometimes it’s like a war. Sometimes in a war one particular weapon
doesn’t work than we try our second weapon or third weapon. We try
till something works and then we start winning.

So because the mind is like a child and it is sometimes unpredictable in

the sense that sometimes the same activity may be relishable or
sometimes it may not be relishable. But overall the mind follows
patterns. When we observe the mind carefully than from that we learn
what is the best way to deal with it.

_____________________________________________________________________

Question Two
With reference to appropriate verses, pupports and prabhupada’s lectures
from Bhagvad-Gita Chapters 14 and 17, explain in your own words.
(A) The importance of developing the mode of goodness in the
practice of Krsna consciousness.
(B) How Krsna consciousness is independent of the mode of goodness.
Answer Two
(A) The mode of goodness is not necessary to initiate bhakti but it
is necessary to sustain bhakti. What does that mean? That means that
a person can even be a drunkard and that person can chant and dance
and sing and in that way practice bhakti. So a person can be in low
mode and even in the lowest of modes and eat prasadam. So a person
can practice bhakti in terms of starting bhakti from any mode but over
a period of time one needs to not just do bhakti occasionally, but if
it’s to be transformational then it has to be done regularly. And regularity
and discipline are characteristics of mode of goodness. Now in modes of
passion and ignorance one is basically driven by one’s attachments and
one may be very regular and discipline, one may say in terms of
drinking alcohol considering one is alcoholic. But that is not exercise of
will power that is an exercise of abandoning one’s will power and
succumbing to one’s attachments. In goodness, one discriminates, this is
good, this is bad and this is what I should do. Even if it doesn’t feel
good right now, I will continue doing it. So goodness is what will enable
us to sustain the practice of bhakti. Because in goodness we can
subordinate our emotion to our reason. In passion and ignorance we
can’t do that much, so in bhakti we may get taste occasionally. So
even a person who is alcoholic may find taste in dancing but that’s not
what the person will find always. And when the person is in ignorance,
if dancing in kirtan feels boring, then he will give it up. But a person in
goodness will understand by purification I will get higher taste even if
there doesn’t seem any taste right now. And in that way a person in
goodness can sustain the practice of bhakti using reason. So material
emotions can be subordinated to reason and one can sustain one’s
actions.
sarva-dvaresu dehe ‘smin
prakasa upajayate (BG 14.11)
Krishna says in 14.11 in Bhagavad Gita the characteristic of mode of
goodness is illumination. Illumination means one has knowledge by which
one can understand what is desirable and what is undesirable. Not just
in terms of what our desires tell us but in terms of what are the
consequences in the long run. So anybody can start bhakti in any mode
but to sustain bhakti requires discipline which in turn requires
subordinating our feelings to our intelligence which is a characteristic of
mode of goodness. So that’s why the mode of goodness is important in
practice of bhakti. Now when we say mode of goodness, we shouldn’t
think necessarily that it means changing our entire nature, its not that
if a person has a vaisya propensity that person has to become a
brahmana to practice bhakti. No, even the vaisya activities can be done
in a passionate way, can be done in an ignorant way or can be done in
a goodness way. So when a person is vaisya and is motivated primarily
by greed and is even ready to hurt others for the sake of getting
money that sort of activity is characterised by lower modes, passion
and ignorance. But when a person may be a vaisya and its not that the
person can by the practice of bhakti become a brahmana, not necessary.
That person may continue business and that’s what the person’s liking
will be, talent will be but that person will conduct business in a
goodness way that means with regulation by scripture, with
moderation, with concern for others also. So, basically the way the
mode of goodness will be expressed in different people will vary. So a
vaisya when we say is in mode of passion that is talking about nature
of vaisya but that person if agrees too follow scripture, then there is
level of goodness even in that. And if he starts practicing bhakti then
that goodness can take one towards transcendence. So we shouldn’t
think of that coming to goodness necessarily means that we have to all
abandon our innate nature and we have to just artificially act in a
goodness sort of way. No, we can act according to our nature in fact
that’s what the Bhagavad Gita tells us
sva-karmana tam abhyarcya siddhim vindati manavah (BG 18.46)
So here we see that Bhagavad Gita tells that sva-karmana, do your
work but worship that Supreme Lord by the work that we are doing.
So what Krishna tells here is that we don’t have to change our
occupational duty from ignorance to goodness or from sudra to
brahmana to practice bhakti. But then Krishna also says that
raga-dvesa-vimuktais tu
visayan indriyais caran
atma-vasyair vidheyatma
prasadam adhigacchati ( BG 2.64)
 In 2.64 he says that we put aside our attachments and aversions and
follow scripture, vidheyatma, so coming to mode of goodness essentially
means doing our duties but in accordance with scripture. So acting
according to our nature but not letting that nature completely
dominate all our actions. We harmonize the actions in that nature
according to scripture and in accordance with devotion. And that way
we can be in mode of goodness while being faithful to our material
nature and also being faithful to the path that will awaken our
spiritual nature and help us to find eternal happiness and love for
Krishna.

(B) A devotee keen on advancing in Krishna consciousness has to

transcend the three modes. Lord Krishna says that a person who dies
in the mode of goodness goes to the higher planets of the great sages,
a person who dies in the mode of passion is born among those engaged
in fruitive activities, and a person who dies in the mode of ignorance is
born in the animal kingdom. A devotee has no desire to go to these
destinations but wants to go back home, back to Godhead.
A sadhaka, or practicing devotee, desires to transcend the three modes
by the constant practice of devotional service under the guidance of a
bona fide spiritual master in the guru-disciple system (parampara).
After hearing all about the three modes, in text 14.21 Arjuna asks
three questions important for devotees who want to transcend the
modes:“Arjuna inquired: O my dear Lord, by which symptoms is one
known who is transcendental to these three modes? What is his
behavior? And how does he transcend the modes of nature?”
Lord Krishna's answers to these three questions, in texts 22–25, form
the complete philosophy of how one can transcend the modes of
material nature and return to the spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada
expertly summarizes this philosophy in his commentary.
Transcendentally situated persons have no envy and do not hanker for
anything. They perform their duty in Krishna consciousness, indifferent
to honor and dishonor. They have nothing to do with material
existence. Social and political issues do not affect them. They do
nothing for their own sake and everything for Krishna. Lord Krishna
answers Arjuna’s third question (how one transcends the modes of
nature) in text 14.26: “One who engages in full devotional service,
unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material
nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.” To rise above the
three modesof material nature, we have to transfer our consciousness
from the influence of the material modes to Krishna consciousness by
practicing bhakti-yoga. A devotee in Krishna consciousness is not in
association with the modes, is without false ego, and serves with great
determination and enthusiasm, unwavering in success or failure. The
influence of the modes vanishes when a devotee completely surrenders
to Lord Krishna. Commenting on text 14.26, Srila Prabhupada
recommends, “One should not be disturbed by the activities of the
modes of nature; instead of putting his consciousness into such
activities, he may transfer his consciousness to Krishna activities.
Krishna activities are known as bhakti-yoga—always acting for Krishna.”
Commenting on text 14.27, the final text of the chapter, Srila
Prabhupada summarizes Krishna conscious activities: One should always
engage in the service of the Lord, should eat the remnants of
foodstuffs offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, see the places where
the Lord had His transcendental pastimes, read the different activities
of the Lord, His reciprocation of love with His devotees, chant always
the transcendental vibration Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare,
and observe the fasting days commemorating the appearances and
disappearances of the Lord and His devotees. By following such a
process one becomes completely detached from all material activities.