Dear devotees,

I want to read to you from the chapter 17 of the bhagavad Gita, witch is called the divisions of faith. I offer my obeisances to Sri Arjuna who is the recipient of mercy of the speaker Sri Krishna who is enlightening him and enlivening him for the sake of us. Sri Arjuna entered into a dilemma, and in this dilemma he surrendered to Krishna. He said “There is no other hope for me; I have to surrender, because I don't know what to do, I don't know the way out of here, out of this material complicated existence”.

Goodness, passion or ignorance?

Now entering chapter 17, this means coming to the end of the Bhagavad Gita. In this division we will once again evaluate what we do, how we do, and why we do. What is really going on in and around us? Arjuna inquired: “What is the situation of those who do not follow the scriptures, but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in passion or in ignorance?

To understand this chapter, let us first delineate what the three modes of material nature are. According to the Vedic scriptures there is an underlying principal, which is best understood by considering the cardinal three colors. All the colors you see are coming from a mixture of these three; yellow, red and blue. When they mix, every other color evolves. So we are comparing here yellow with goodness, shining and lighting. Red with passion, entangling and capturing. And blue with ignorance, dragging us down.

This underlying principal is found everywhere, because we are permeated. Like sometimes we are partially in goodness, partially in passion and partially in ignorance, and sometimes we are predominantly in goodness, predominantly in passion or in ignorance. It is like a blend, and this blend brings about all of our characters; specific particular characters. That's why one person is very sad faced, another person is overjoyed, another person is very jealous, another person is very sensuous, another person is very philosophical. All the different trends and shades and colors, all that you can find in this world, is nothing but the mixture of these three modes. And as you see, they can produce a whole lot of different things, so is not only the human body. And this chapter in particular is called “divine goodness” or “shudda sattva”, “vishudda sattva”, or “consciousness of Vasudeva”. That type of conscious is not touched neither by goodness anymore.

The example of the shackles

Another type of example is given, that the three modes of material nature are like shackles. They are binding you. The difference when you are bound by golden shackles – Look, I've got the golden shackles! But you are still bound, you are still in prison. Because you are still bound by the principals of your own joy and happiness rather than something higher. Then in the mode of passion you may have copper shackles. And they very hot and energetic keep you in this material world. And there is even the iron shackles or even tied up by plastic. But in all these cases you are tied up by shackles. As long as you are in the material consciousness, you will be bound by the action and reaction. Therefore, the divisions of faith will help you and guide you very nicely to understand what the appropriate way of developing our consciousness is.

We will cover the whole chapter today in our class so we will not enter into every purport, otherwise it will be too lengthy. We will rather observe it from a different angle. Just to start, we will read Srila Prabhupada’s purport: “In the Fourth Chapter, thirty-ninth verse, it is said that a person faithful to a particular type of worship gradually becomes elevated to the stage of knowledge and attains the highest perfectional stage of peace and prosperity.”

Worship in the three modes

”In the Sixteenth Chapter, it is concluded that one who does not follow the principles laid down in the scriptures is called an asura, demon, and one who follows the scriptural injunctions faithfully is called a deva, or demigod. Now, if one, with faith, follows some rules which are not mentioned in the scriptural injunctions, what is his position? This doubt of Arjuna's is to be cleared by Krishna. Are those who create some sort of God by selecting a human being and placing their faith in him worshiping in goodness, passion or ignorance? Do such persons attain the perfectional stage of life? Is it possible for them to be situated in real knowledge and elevate themselves to the highest perfectional stage? Do those who do not follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures but who have faith in something and worship gods and demigods and men attain success in their effort? Arjuna is putting these questions to Krishna”. (end of purport)

So apotheotic philosophies attribute divinity to humans, and the same can also be said in some so morphic considerations where even animals are attributed to have divinity. And nowadays it is quite common that human beings select one amongst themselves, or they enter into some kind of fashion, and they say: Sonso is God, and Sonso is able to bless you, because he is on the God level. So this is a question asked even 5000 years ago. That's pretty interesting, because we see that the tendency is definatly there. Where it is coming from, is pretty strange to figure out, but it is basically coming from the desire of becoming the supreme.

Love means worshiping

In all of us there is a certain desire to love somebody, and then there is another desire to become the supreme. And since we have those two desires simultaneously, it does not work out. Because if you want to love somebody, you first have to situate yourself lower than him. Otherwise it is no question of love. Love means giving, love means worshiping. You cannot love somebody if you don't have some admiration or some enchantment for that person. So if you think. "I love him but he is under me!" that is a strange predisposition. Love is so great, that even the greatest becomes the smallest. How is this possible? That is the magic influence of love.

For example, once the state secretary wanted to see the Prime Minister and he had very urgent state business. State supreme. So he went to his office and he asked: "Can I please speak to the Prime Minister?" "No, I have strict order not to let anyone in to his office". "It is very urgent!" "No, I have strict orders, he has very important business and no one can disturb him" So he waited another half an our, going up and down, up and down. But the answers was NO NO NO. So finally he just busted into the prime minister’s room. And what did he find? He found the Prime Minister on the floor in his office walking like an animal on four, and on his back he had his grandsons sitting. And the grandsons said: Horse run! Horse run! So the high state Prime Minister was to become the horse of a little child.

This is an example of how love will make you somebody very insignificant, and those who want to assert their own superiority will not be able to love. For them the doors of love are closed. Therefore, this is a very crucial question that Arjunaji is asking here. He is really making a point; how far can we go? Were is this imaginable idea that we can concoct our own principals of spirituality?

Three kinds of faith

BG. 17.2: “The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: According to the modes of nature, acquired by the embodied soul, one's faith can be of three kinds – in goodness, in passion or in ignorance. Now hear about this.”

So our faith is not necessarily always in the perfect, most elevated, stage. Faith will be guided according to desire and according to the ingredient provided to you by education, like entertainment, like friends we have, and others.

BG 17.3: “O son of Bharata, according to one's existence under the various modes of nature, one evolves a particular kind of faith. The living being is said to be of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired.”

BG 17.4: “Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.”

Worship of demigods

Very interesting. Now we are getting down to business. Clear, it is very clear! Those who are in the mode of goodness worship the demigods. Why? Because demigods are good people; demigods like Indra Surya Varuna and Ganesha. And they all have something to offer; you can get knowledge, you can get piety, you can be admitted to heavenly planets after leaving this body. So there are many things you can get by worshiping demigods.

Now you have to think in terms of reincarnation. If you don't include reincarnation in your hinking, you cannot understand what this is all about. Then you will think it is fantasies. Who are the demigods, are they just imaginations? NO! There are 33 million demigods mentioned somewhere in the Vedas. The demigods means in one sense very good people. Good means that they are attached to goodness. They are in goodness, and they want to be in goodness. They may slip sometimes; there are descriptions of demigods who have fallen down by making some offense. There are descriptions of them not being happy, but basically devas means they are good people and they are trying to go higher; to raise themselves higher. And they know very well not to harm others to raise themselves. So if you worship demigods you also have to be good.

So in one sense demigods and goodness are good. And they have a kind of a good material future. But don't forget the golden shackles. They are going to get the golden shackles. Even some diamonds can be set in there, but they will be tied somewhere in this material world.

Worship of demons

Those in the mode of passion, they worship demons. Now, what is a demon? Are we going to run away now and say “God this is demonising something”? No. Demons are people how are corrupt, people who cheat others; PEOPLE WHO TORTURE OTHERS; people who are taking advantage of the weakness of others. Demons are those who are promoting intoxication in this world. Demons are those who degrade the relationships between human beings, for the purpose of sense gratification.

There is a lot of demons out there. it is unfortunate but it is true. The greater majority of the movie and television industry is totally in the hands of demons. They promote violence and sex. The only thing. One of the script writers was with me the other day, and she said "I can't do it any more! I write some scripts, but they always say "more sex, more violence, otherwise we don't get the rating”. So it is like serving to the lower instincts, but without responsibility. Sex is not condemned if it is according to the religious principals, to get the matter clear here. But sexual relationships without responsibility, with abusing the others and producing unwanted progeny, is not wanted.

So according to this, if we create a disturbance in society for our temporary gain, then we are entering into the category of demons. And what to speak of all those people how are making war. They are demons, for their money interests they are killing as many people that are coming to there nose. So who are these people? Are they gentlemen? And worse than all is, that they are the ones who are going to give the certificate of the human rights and things like that. That becomes a real mockery. DEMONS! So how do you worship a demon? By talking about him, listening to him, you put his picture on the wall, you are entertaining the importance of such a person. That is a kind of a worship. To want to become like them, to get a post like them, to get in business with them; that's also a type of worship.

Worship of ghosts

Those in the mode of ignorance, they worship ghosts and spirits. And who are those? Ghosts and spirits are those that have lost this material body. They are already out of their body, but they have not received a new material body, due to their previous sinfulness. When a person has lived a very sinful life, when he comes to the end of his life or commits suicide or die by intoxication or other similar circumstances, he becomes a ghost. And ghosts are extremely frustrated and they are also very powerful. They can keep contact with people in this world, and people worship them.

This is not so common, or let's say it is not so official, but underground the worship of ghosts is going on everywhere, much more than you think. In some countries, like Brazil or in Africa, its right in the open. They make ghost sacrifice there, at every street corner. Everywhere they kill chicken, they kill goats, they kill humans; of course not on the street, but they do that somewhere else. They do all kinds of dirty sacrifices for the ghosts. Even in Europe so many people disappear every year; they don't know where they go, MANY people disappear! A surprisingly big number. People just vanish from the surface, and many of them end up being sacrificed.

And when there are wars going on and people are bombarded, there is some black magic going on behind. There is actually some kind of sacrifice conception there. That's very dirty and demoniac; this is in the mode of ignorance. When these ghosts are worshiped, there is a trade. When you worship the demons and the demigods, you want something in return. If you worship a politician, you want to get on his party and get a job. There is always some trade involved; nobody is doing selfless service there. And when you worship the ghosts, the ghosts like that, because they are extremely frustrated. So if anyone pays attention to them, they ask "can you become medium for me? “

We become what we worship

Maybe you have heard of these mediums? Being a medium means taht he is allowing a ghost to actually go in to his physical body and to act through him. Speak messages through him, or simply to enjoy through him. People in medium activities say: “We want to smoke, we want to drink”. They can drink a whole bottle of alcohol, like blublublub and it's gone, and after the medial session is over they are not even drunk. Very strange things. You may call it mystical, but we call it ignorant. For those who know and believe in these things, they can understand that it is very scientific. These things are not just accidental. And what do the people get from that? Those who worship ghosts, they becomes ghosts. Those who worship demons, they becomes demons. And who worship the demigods they become very good people.

BG 17.11: “Of sacrifices, the sacrifice performed according to the directions of scripture, as a matter of duty, by those who desire no reward, is of the nature of goodness.”

How to go beyond the three modes of nature?

So we are hearing different examples of the three modes, just to get a picture of what the three modes are all about, and what the faith is all about and how it acts. Everything we are talking now about is within the area of the shackles. But how can we go beyond them? I feel taht without Krishna’s intervention and Him personally accepting me on the path of love and rescuing me from the deepest darkest illusion, I will never make it out of here.

Therefore I pray to You my Lord: Oh my Lord, please let me become an instrument of Your love. Please let my soul join to Yours in Yoga. I want my soul to have no more separate interest from You. I just want to be Your servant for ever.

Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami