Mode of Goodness (Lectures, other books)

Expressions researched:
"mode of goodness" |"modes of goodness"

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

If you are in goodness, then, in the modes of goodness, then you are promoted to higher standard of life.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 19, 1972:

Māyā creates a car for you, a carrying conveyance, this body. So that conveyance is according to karma. So if you act piously in this life, then next life you get good body. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (BG 14.18). Sattva-sthā. If you are in goodness, then, in the modes of goodness, then you are promoted to higher standard of life. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. And if you are in passion, then you remain here. And adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And if you are ignorant, then you go to animal life or lower grade of life. This is the law of karma. But instead of improving your karma, karma-kāṇḍīya-vicāra, fruitive activities, if you take to devotional service and simply try to understand what is Kṛṣṇa, then you are no longer within the influence of this good work or bad work.

If he's very sober, intelligent, can understand things as they are, they are to be understood in the modes of goodness.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Calcutta, January 25, 1973:

Anyone who is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is to be taken as crazy, or mad.

piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya

māyā-grasta jīvera se dāsa upajaya

Just like when a man becomes ghostly haunted, he does something abnormal. He cannot recognize his own men. He calls his father by ill names. So many disturbances. So nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). They are so mad that they are engaged only in sinful activities. There are three karmas: karma, akarma, vikarma. Karma does not mean whatever you like you can do. No. Karma means prescribed duties. Janma karma, uh, guṇa karma. As you are under the spell of certain material modes of nature... Someone is under the modes of goodness, his karma will be different from the person who is under the spell of the modes of ignorance. That will be decided by the teacher, or by the ācāryas. They are described in the Bhagavad-gītā that one who is under the spell of goodness, his qualities, his symptoms are like this: satya śama dama titikṣa (BG 18.42). Similarly, one who is under the spell of passion, his symptoms are like this. Just like a diseased man... If you go to a physician, by your symptoms he can understand that you have got a certain type of disease and he gives you the right medicine. Similarly Bhagavad-gītā you'll find who is under the spell of the modes of ma..., uh, yes, goodness. If he's very sober, intelligent, can understand things as they are, they are to be understood in the modes of goodness. Those who are very much passionate, simply wants to enjoy sense enjoyment, they are in the modes of passion. And those who are lazy, very fond of sleeping, nidrālasya, he's to be understood in the modes of ignorance. These are the symptoms. And according to the modes, they act. Therefore bhakti is not prohibited to either of them. Either in goodness or passion or ignorance—it doesn't matter. Anyone can take to devotional service, sādhana-bhakti, provided he agrees to be guided by the direction of the spiritual master. Bhakti is transcendental. It doesn't matter whether one is in goodness, passion or ignorance. Anyone can take.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

What is this goodness here in this material world? This is also matter. So there is no value, even goodness. One has to transcend the modes of goodness. That is transcendental, or aprakṛta.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.113-17 -- San Francisco, February 22, 1967:

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ: "Anyone who understands the absolute nature of My birth, of My appearance, disappearance and activities," tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), "he becomes immediately liberated." Sa aikṣata. Sa imāḻ lokān asṛjata. This is Aitareya Upaniṣad. What is that? Sa aikṣata. The same thing: "He saw. He put His glance." Sa aikṣata. Sa imāḻ lokān asṛjata: "He has created all this material manifestation, cosmic manifestation." So tad vā īśan vijato tebhya ha prabhur babhūva. In this way, there are so many instances, so many quotations. Apāṇi-pādaḥ. In the Śvetāśvatara, apāṇi-pādaḥ. He has no, I mean to say, hands and legs. If He has no hands and legs, then how can He see? Is there any instance in your experience that something which has no hands and legs, he can see? No. He has no... Whenever... This is impersonal... The impersonalists quotes these authorities, that "He has no hands and... Therefore He's impersonal." No, it is not... If He sees, sa aikṣata, if He sees, if He hears, if He creates, then there is hand, there is eyes. But another place, if it is said, apāṇi-pādaḥ: "He has no hands and legs." That means He has no hands and legs like us. Because we have got material hands and legs, but the... "He saw; therefore there was creation." Therefore His seeing power existed before this material creation. So it is natural that He has no material hands and legs. So when it is denied that "He has no hands and legs," it is to be understood that He has no material limited hands and legs, but He has spiritual.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu concludes, therefore, that cid-ānanda-teṅho, tāṅra sthāna, parivāra. Therefore anything of Kṛṣṇa, or anything of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is spiritual. Spiritual. Deha. Deha means body. His body is spiritual, His abode is spiritual, and His paraphernalia, parivāra, His friends, His mother, His father, His beloved—everything spiritual. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). He's expansion of all spiritual. Tāṅre kahe-prākṛta-sattvera vikāra. And Śaṅkarācārya says that "The Absolute is imperson, but when He comes, appears, He assumes a form which is in the modes of goodness." He does not say, of course, in the modes of ignorance. Modes of goodness. No. When Kṛṣṇa comes, He has nothing to do with modes of goodness even. What is this goodness here in this material world? This is also matter. So there is no value, even goodness. One has to transcend the modes of goodness. That is transcendental, or aprakṛta.