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.

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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.