SLOKA OF THE DAY:

Bhagavad Gita As It Is -
Chapter 14 Text 17
sattvat sanjayate jnanam
rajaso lobha eva ca
pramada-mohau tamaso
bhavato 'jnanam eva ca

sattvat--from the mode of goodness; sanjayate--develops; jnanam--knowledge; rajasah--from the mode of passion; lobhah--greed; eva--certainly; ca--also; pramada--madness; mohau--and illusion; tamasah--from the mode of ignorance; bhavatah--develop; ajnanam--nonsense; eva--certainly; ca--also.

TRANSLATION

From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, greed develops; and from the mode of ignorance develop foolishness, madness and illusion.

JOURNAL:

Srila Prabhupada opens his purport with these words; Since the present civilization is not very congenial to the living entities, Krsna consciousness is recommended. Through Krsna consciousness, society will develop the mode of goodness. When the mode of goodness is developed, people will see things as they are.

Seeing "things as they are" involves practicing seeing Krishna everywhere. Everything is the Lord's energy and he is the spark, or the soul, of everything alive.

At the end of his purport he states; When one is engaged in the mode of passion, not only is he mentally unhappy, but his profession and occupation are also very troublesome. He has to devise so many plans and schemes to acquire enough money to maintain his status quo. This is all miserable. In the mode of ignorance, people become mad. Being distressed by their circumstances, they take shelter of intoxication, and thus they sink further into ignorance. Their future in life is very dark.

Every day out here on the road I see this state of affairs. The homeless sink into despair and turn to drugs and alcohol to blot out their miserable existence. They become so mad that they actually think that they have more freedom than the man in the mode of passion who works hard every day. Some of these at least go to church on Sunday and pray that God will have pity on them.