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Now we continue our detailed study of the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita:

karpanya-dosopahata-svabhavah
prcchami tvam dharma-sammudha-cetah
yac chreyah syan niscitam bruhi tan me
sisyas te ’ham sadhi mam tvam prapannam

“Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition, I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.7]

This is very important verse in Bhagavad-gita. It is the greatest turning point of life, when we surrender to Kṛṣṇa and accept Him as our spiritual instructor. Here Arjuna admits that he has been karpanya-dosa. Karpanya means miserly, dosa means fault. When one does not act according to his duty, that is the fault of miserliness.

In Vedic society, everyone’s duty is determined by his natural tendency to act in a certain way. Yasya hi svabhavasya tasyaso duratikramah: everyone has got their natural propensities, svabhava, and you cannot change this artificially. One who is habituated to act in a certain way, or whose natural characteristics are developed in a particular way, is very difficult to change.

The example is given: sva yadi kriyate raja sah kim na so uparhanam. If you make a dog a king, does it mean that he’ll not chase a bone? The dog’s nature is to chew on bones. So even if you dress him like a king and let him sit on a nice throne, as soon as you throw a bone in front of him, he’ll jump off the throne and chew it. This is called svabhava.

In the animal species, it is not possible to change one’s nature, which is given by the material energy, prakrti.

purusah prakrti-stho hi
bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan
karanam guna-sango ’sya
sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

“The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.” [Bhagavad-gita 13.22]

Why? All living entities are part and parcel of God. Therefore the original spiritual quality of the living entity is as good as God. The quality is the same, but the quantity is different; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unlimited, and the jiva soul is atomic. Therefore he tends to fall down into the material energy.

mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthani karsati

“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” [Bhagavad-gita 15.7]

If you take a drop of sea water, the quality, the chemical composition is the same. But the quantity is different. It is a drop, and the sea is vast ocean. Similarly, we are exactly of the same quality as Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we can understand the spiritual qualities of Kṛṣṇa by studying ourselves.

Why do people think that God is impersonal? If I am of the same quality as God, I am a person, so God is also person, how He can be impersonal? If, qualitatively, we are one, then as we feel our individuality, so why should we refuse God individuality?

Therefore the impersonal argument is nonsense. The impersonalists’ intelligence is covered by causeless envy of God, they cannot understand what is the nature of God. In the Bible also it is said: “Man is made in the image of God.” In other words, you can study God’s qualities by studying your own qualities, at least to a certain extent. Simply the difference is in the quantity: God is infinite and we are infinitesimal.

For example, we humans have got some productive capacity. Every individual soul is producing something by their work. But the quantity of our production cannot be compared with production of God. That is the difference.

We are producing a few little satellites. We take much pride that: “Now we have launched the Space Shuttle.” But that is not perfect. It sometimes crashes. But God has produced so many planets and satellites, millions and trillions of planets, very big, very heavy planets and stars. Just like this planet is carrying so many big mountains and seas, but still it is floating in space just like a cotton swab. This is God’s power.

gam avisya ca bhutani
dharayamy aham ojasa

“I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit.” [Bhagavad-gita 15.13]

Who is sustaining all these big, big planets? In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we find that they are being carried by Sankarsana, an expansion of an expansion of an expansion of Kṛṣṇa.

So the spiritual qualities of the jiva and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are similar, but the quantity is vastly different. Because the qualities are similar, we have got all the same propensities as God, as Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has got the loving propensity with His pleasure potency, Srimati Radharani. Similarly, because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we have also got this loving propensity.

This is svabhava, the original quality of the living entity. But when we come in contact with this material nature, our original spiritual qualities become covered by the material modes of nature. Kṛṣṇa does not come into the contact of the material nature. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa’s name is Acyuta, because He never falls down. But we are prone to fall down, to be overwhelmed by the influence of prakrti.

prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani sarvasah
ahankara-vimudhatma
kartaham iti manyate

“The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.” [Bhagavad-gita 3.27]

As soon as we fall down under the clutches of this prakrti, material nature, we come under the influence of the three material modes. Prakrti is composed of three qualities, goodness, passion and ignorance. So we capture one of the qualities. That is the cause, karanam guna-sanga.

purusah prakrti-stho hi
bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan
karanam guna-sango ’sya
sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

“The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.” [Bhagavad-gita 13.22]

Guna-sanga means the soul is associating with the qualities of material energy. That is the cause of our entrapment in material nature. One can ask: “If the living entity is as good as God, why has one living entity become a dog, another living entity has become human being, and another has become a demigod like Brahma?” The reason is karanam guna-sanga asya, because he’s associating with a particular guna, or quality of material nature: sattva-guna (goodness), rajo-guna (passion), or tamo-guna (ignorance).

How guna-sanga acts is described very vividly in Upanisads. Just like when a fire creates sparks, sometimes the sparks fly away from the fire. When sparks fall to the ground, there are three possibilities. If the spark falls down on dry grass, then it can immediately ignite the grass. If the spark falls down on ordinary grass, then it may burn for some time, but soon it is extinguished. And if the spark falls on the water, it is immediately extinguished.

In this analogy the fire represents God, the Supreme Spirit, and the sparks that blow away from the fire represent the individual spiritual living entities who want to live separate from God. When they fall into the mode of goodness, they retain enough of their fiery qualities to ignite these spiritual qualities in others by their association. When they fall into the mode of passion, their spiritual qualities are gradually extinguished by too much contact with matter. And when they fall into ignorance, their spiritual qualities are immediately extinguished.

So those who are captured by the sattva-guna, the mode of goodness, are intelligent. They have got knowledge of spiritual life, and they can become a qualified brahmana. Those who are captured by the rajo-guna, the mode of passion, are very active, always busy in material activities. And those who have been captured by tamo-guna, the mode of ignorance, are lazy and sleepy. These are the symptoms of the three modes.

All the material activities under the mode of passion and ignorance are foolish activities. But when one is in goodness, he’s sober. He can understand the value of human life, how one should live, what is the aim of life, that the goal of life is to understand Brahman. Brahma janatiti brahmanah: a brahmana is one who understands what is Brahman. Therefore the brahmanas are conducted by the quality of goodness, sattva-guna.

catur varnyam maya srstam
guna-karma-vibhagasah

“The four divisions of human society are created by Me according to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.13]

We have all been captured by some one of these gunas. Therefore one’s guna has to be taken into account. It is very difficult to change one’s adopted mode or material quality. But we can immediately transcend all these material gunas by the process of bhakti yoga.

mam ca yo ’vyabhicarena
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate

“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.” [Bhagavad-gita 14.26]

If you take fully to the bhakti-yoga process, engaging all your time, energy and work in transcendental acts of service to Kṛṣṇa, then you are no longer influenced by any of these three material qualities—goodness, passion, and ignorance.

Anyone who is engaged in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa avyabhicarini, without any deviation, staunch, devout attention, such a person immediately becomes transcendental to all the material qualities, because he is situated in his original spiritual consciousness.

Devotional service is not within these material qualities; it is transcendental. Bhakti-yoga is transcendental. You cannot understand Kṛṣṇa or God without bhakti.

bhaktya mam abhijanati
yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva
visate tad-anantaram

“One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.” [Bhagavad-gita 18.55]

Only bhaktya mam abhijanati. Otherwise, it is not possible. If you want to understand what God is in reality, then you have to adopt this bhakti process, devotional service. If you take up this spiritual process and devote all your time and energy to it, then you transcend the three modes of material nature and all other religious and spiritual processes. Therefore, Narada says:

tyaktva sva-dharmam caranambujam harer
bhajann apakvo ’tha patet tato yadi
yatra kva vabhadram abhud amusya kim
ko vartha apto ’bhajatam sva-dharmatah

“One who has forsaken his material occupations to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a nondevotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.17]

If anyone, even by sentiment, gives up his material occupational duty according to guna, called svadharma, and engages exclusively in devotional service, then by this surrender to Kṛṣṇa he immediately transcends the modes of material nature and comes to the transcendental platform of life. That is the verdict of all the Vedic scriptures.