O son of Bharata, ignorance causes the delusion of all living entities. The result of this mode is madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul.
Goodness conditions one to happiness, passion conditions him to the fruits of action and ignorance to madness.
Sometimes passion becomes prominent, defeating the mode of goodness, O son of Bharata. And sometimes the mode of goodness defeats passion, and at other times the mode of ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is always competition for supremacy.
The manifestations of the mode of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge.
O chief of the Bharatas, when there is an increase in passion, the symptoms of great attachment, uncontrollable desire, hankering, and intense endeavor develop.
O son of Kuru, when there is an increase in ignorance, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness are manifested.
When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets.
When one dies in passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when he dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom.
By acting for goodness, one becomes purified. Works done in the mode of passion result in distress, and actions performed in the mode of ignorance result in foolishness.
From the goodness, develops; real knowledge from passion, develops; greed and from the ignorance, develop foolishness, madness and illusion.
Those living in goodness gradually ascend to the higher planets; those in passion live on the earthly planets; and those in ignorance go down to the hellish worlds. | |