Sunday Lecture 01-08-2010
Dr Satish Gosain (Sri Krishna Hari Das)
Hare Krishna!
Please accept my good wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Please come and hear lecture on Bhagavad-gita on every Sunday at 11.00 am in ISKCON’s GURGAON Center, Sector 31, House no 74 Gurgaon Haryana.
You can also refer your friends and relatives in Gurgaon to attend these lectures by different devotees.
Next Lecture:
Date: 01-08-2010 SUNDAY
Time: 10:30 AM
Venue: ISKCON’s center, Sector 31, House no 74, Gurgaon, Haryana
Speaker: Sri Krishna Hari Das (Dr Satish Gosain)
Topic: Bhagavad-gita Chapter 17 Verse 01 (Bg. 17.01)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ‑ THE DIVISIONS OF FAITH
[There are three types of faith, corresponding to and evolving from the three modes of material nature. Acts performed by those whose faith is in passion and ignorance yield only impermanent, material results, whereas acts performed in goodness, in accord with scriptural injunctions, purify the heart and lead to pure faith in Lord Krsna and devotion to Him.]
The two extremes in the tree of the material world were dealt with in Chapter Sixteen. In one extreme of the tree there are those influenced by the mode of goodness (the top part of the perverted tree which means the roots) and in the other extreme are those under passion and ignorance (the bottom of the tree, the top branches and leaves). But what is the situation in between? What types of people are in between?
Arjuna asks a very interesting question at the beginning of Chapter Seventeen.
arjuna uvaca
ye sastra‑vidhim utsrjya / yajante sraddhayanvitah
tesam nistha tu ka krsna / sattvam aho rajas tamah
Arjuna inquired: O Krsna, what is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in passion or in ignorance?
The question is very interesting because often the hindu philosophy says that is not exactly what one does that is important, it is the faith that one has in what he is doing. This may seem like a very strange philosophy but faith in what one is doing it is considered very important in contemporary society ‑ faith in oneself.
It is quite understood that by having faith in oneself one is going to achieve good results, but not exactly good by the standards of the Bhagavad‑gita. But to a certain extent one can get exactly what he wants.
Arjuna is asking what happens if someone actually places his firm conviction, his firm faith in something but it is not as the scriptures dictate, which is the important thing mentioned by Krsna in the end of Chapter Sixteen?
Krsna extorts Arjuna to follow the scriptures in order to elevate oneself to the mode of goodness and ultimately to surrender to the Supreme Person in the spiritual world and to avoid those qualities that will lead one into hell. The three gates to hell, lust, greed and anger, Krsna tells Arjuna to avoid.
If one doesn't have faith in the scriptures or doesn't follow them exactly, what is his fate? Is he progressing or going down as a demon because of rejecting the scriptures? This is Arjuna's question.
Krsna answers this question immediately in Section A and then in Sections B, C, D and E, Krsna relates four basic qualities of a civilized man. In these sections, except for the last one, food, sacrifices, austerities and charity will be describe according to the different modes. If one has a predominant situation in the mode of goodness, he tends to perform his sacrifices, austerities, etc according to that mode and therefore he will tend to go up. And if one is situated in the lower mode of nature he is going to perform his activities in those modes and he will tend to go down.
This Chapter fills up the tree of the material world in relationship to the soul's entanglement within the material world, his entanglement within different material bodies and his transmigration. It fills up the picture and this Chapter completes the basic message of the Bhagavad‑gita by rounding up the different mixtures of the modes of material nature in the world.
Srila Prabhupada has described at different times the three modes of nature as corresponding to different colors. Goodness is compared to yellow, passion to red and ignorance compared to blue. When we take these colors and mix them in different proportions we can make different color combinations. Three multiplied by three makes nine and nine multiplied by nine makes eighty‑one. It can go further and further in subtle combinations of the material modes that affect any particular soul trapped in this material world. Therefore at times we find someone whose modes basically agree with us but there will be always some differences due to different subtle combinations of shades of the material modes, which cause different bodies, characters, situations etc, within the material world.
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Yours Servant
Sri Krishna Hari Das
(Dr Satish Gosain MBBS DNB i Med)
Congregational Preacher, ISKCON, Delhi, NCR & Gurgaon.
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