dimensions of Good and Evil

The Moral Universe and Vaisnava Philosophy

nitir asmi jigisatam

“Of those who seek victory I am morality.” (Bhagavad-gita 10.38)

PREFACE

We experience ourselves subject to conditions imposed by nature. We experience ourselves subject to laws, natural and man-made, that govern our interaction with other living entities, and finally we experience ourselves subject to the disposition of our bodies and minds. In short, we are subjugated by matter. Matter shapes life into these three dimensions of experience, which in Sanskrit are termed adhidaivika, adhibhautika and adhyatmika. Western philosophy calls them the macrocosm, mesocosm and microcosm. The first is the vast, all-enveloping natural universe. The second is the “middle” (meso) universe of our relations with other sentient beings. The third is a private universe known inwardly by each individual. The Vedic teachings point to a transcendental dimension experienced by the soul liberated from the powers of matter.

But were it not for our values, what sense could we make of these dimensions of experience? Experience is but a moment-by-moment presentment of choices in the world and in ourselves. In making choices, we rely on our values, of which there are five dimensions. The first is the dimension of sensory value. Here is “the school of hard knocks.” Once as a boy I put my hand into the back of a radio and received a shock. After that, I was leery of handling electronic equipment. Here also we find our “matters of taste”—for example, that I prefer strawberries over gooseberries. Then there is the dimension of intuitive value. Here we find the conscience, which dawns upon us as we contemplate certain acts, telling us, “No, this not good” or “Yes, you must do this.” Also from the intuitive dimension come hunches like, “I think I can trust this person,” or “This doesn't feel right to me.” Here too we have our feelings of guilt. Beyond this is the dimension of rational value. Here we decide things by calling upon values we've learned from authorities: parents, teachers, sacred scriptures, legal, ethical and moral codes. We rely on logic to judge right from wrong, correcting if necessary our sensory and intuitive feelings. Then there is the dimension of spiritual (or idealistic) value. Spirit wants liberation from evil: sin, corruption and enslavement to materialism. The senses, intuition, and even the laws of reason may tremble at the call to overturn evil, because that could mean a death sentence. But high ideals take command of persons with strong spirit: we know well the stories of brave men and women who embraced martyrdom for the cause of freedom. At last there is the dimension of devotional value. Out of love and devotion for another, a person may let the values of the senses, intuition and reason go unheeded. For love, one may even ignore the ideal of liberation so dear to the spirit.

We judge three kinds of experience by five kinds of value. The words “good” and “evil” indicate what our judgements are ultimately about. For example, in the devotional dimension of value, many possible objects of love can be considered: mother, father, the family dog, the girl next door, a Hollywood film star, a pop music idol, V.I. Lenin, the goddess Athena, Church of the SubGenius messiah J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, and so on. Which of these objects of devotion are really good?

Even a simple question like this seems to many people to have no certain answer. They find the interplay between the dimensions of experience and the dimensions of value baffling in complexity and instability. People use the word “good” so lightly, but when asked to pin down what it means, often they either come up empty-handed or reach for equally vague generalities like “love,” “truth” and “beauty.”

This book defines goodness as virtue. Coming from Latin virtus which translates as “strength”, the word virtue indicates a healthy, wholesome and chaste relationship to the world, other living entities and one's own self. It is the mission of every human being to perfect his or her virtue. Perfect virtue is the soul's victory over the powers of matter, which threaten to delude the soul into identifying with the material body, its lusts and its hatreds. Perfect virtue ushers the victorious soul into the dimension of transcendental experience, and attracts the mercy of the supremely virtuous Original Person. In the following verse, Lord Visnu praises the virtues of His pure devotee, King Prthu.

varam ca mat kancana manavendra

vrnisva te 'ham guna-sila-yantritah

naham makhair vai sulabhas tapobhir

yogena va yat sama-citta-varti

My dear King, I am very captivated by your elevated qualities and excellent behavior, and thus I am very favorably inclined toward you. You may therefore ask from Me any benediction you like. One who does not possess elevated qualities and behavior cannot possibly achieve My favor simply by performance of sacrifices, severe austerities or mystic yoga. But I always remain equipoised in the heart of one who is also equipoised in all circumstances. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.20.16)

“Evil,” opposed to virtue, means vice. It is a state of spiritual weakness in which the soul, fallen from the grace of the Lord, comes under the slavish control of matter. An evil person's attitude toward the world, living entities and the self is unhealthy and impure.

The phrase “dimensions of good and evil” is summarized by the term “the moral universe.” What I am driving at here is that we cannot divorce morality from the objective nature of the world. By way of the dimensions of experience and value, we measure good and evil. These measurements indicate a cosmic moral order, no less than measurements of length, breadth and width indicate the shape and size of the room I am in.

One often hears the argument that the moral order is merely a private state of mind, not a state of the universe. For example, one person of puritanical mentality may estimate the disease AIDS to be good, since it forces moderation on licentious people. Another person of humanistic mentality may estimate AIDS a great evil. But in fact, goes the argument, AIDS is coldly indifferent to notions of good and evil. So too is the universe as a whole. In reply, it must be admitted that my private estimate of the good and evil of events around me may be wrong, just as my private estimate of the shape and size of my room may be wrong. But that my estimates are wrong does not mean that the universe is without a moral dimension—just as it does not mean that my room is without shape and size.

As much as mankind is able to accurately calibrate the facts of the world on a true scale of moral value, that much can we know the moral universe as an objective fact. Today, scientists try to fit the facts of the world to reductionism—a value-neutral simplicity believed to be at the heart of nature's complexity. But prior to the seventeenth century, civilized people worldwide associated macro-, meso-, and microcosmic phenomena with values that begin with absolute good at the top of the scale, descending to total evil at the bottom. And so it was that the science of classical and medieval Europe, upholding the moral dimension of the universe, tried to account for things by assigning them a grade of moral worth.¹

From the Padma Purana we get the Vedic scale of universal morality.

dvau bhuta-sargau loke'smin

daiva asura eva ca

visnu-bhakta smrto daiva

asuras tad-viparyayah

Throughout the universe, there are but two classes of living beings—the godly (devas) and the demonic (asuras). The godly are devoted to Visnu, the Supreme Person, who is opposed by the demonic.

As made clear in the next quotation, it is very difficult for a human being lacking high moral qualifications to perceive the devas who dwell in higher cosmic dimensions. This means virtue expands one's perception of the universe. Vice reduces it. As was noted earlier, King Prthu was perfectly virtuous by dint of being a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord. He was therefore fully cognizant of the moral dimension of the universe and the extraordinary beings who dwell there—for example the four Kumaras, to whom Prthu spoke this verse:

aho acaritam kim me

mangalam mangalayanah

yasya vo darsanam hy asid

durdarsanam ca yogibhih

My dear great sages, auspiciousness personified, it is very difficult for even the mystic yogis to see you. Indeed, you are very rarely seen. I do not know what kind of pious activity I performed for you to grace me by appearing before me without difficulty. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.22.7)

King Prthu is an example of a person utterly devoted to Visnu. That person is called a Vaisnava. The Sanskrit word vaisnava means “like Visnu.” Hence, like Visnu, the Vaisnavas are lustrous with transcendental virtue, which is termed suddha-sattva (pure goodness). Vaisnava philosophy is the body of knowledge that emanates from Visnu as the purely sattvic portion of the Vedic scriptures. The pure sattvic texts are those uncontaminated by rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance).

The term “Vedic” is as important to the understanding of this book as is the term Vaisnava. “Vedic” comes to the English language from the Sanskrit word veda (knowledge). Some scholars regard as Vedic only four orders of ancient Indian literature: Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanisad. The Samhita is comprised of the Vedas known as Rg, Sama, Yajur and Atharva. These texts contain mantras for ritualistic sacrifices, as well as adorations to various deities. The Brahmanas are prose texts about sacrifice. The Aranyakas are teachings for retired sacrificial priests who have left city life for the peaceful forest. The Upanisads point to Brahman, the supreme transcendence. This, say some scholars, is the limit of texts that can be called Vedic. On the contrary, the Vaisnavas include Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam as Vedic also. This inclusion is not unsupported by Vedic evidence. Chandogya Upanisad 7.1.2 declares the Itihasas (histories like the Mahabharata , which contains the Bhagavad-gita) and the Puranas (ancient narratives like the Srimad-Bhagavatam) to be the fifth Veda (itihasa-puranam pancamam vedanam vedam). The acaryas (great authorities of Vedic learning) have long upheld this understanding. For example, Ramanujacarya in Vedartha-sangraha 216 advises: itihasa-puranayoh vedopabrmhanayoh—“the Itihasas and Puranas, which seek to augment the Vedas, embody the same truth.” This book, Dimensions of Good and Evil , accepts as Vedic all scriptures so designated by the acaryas .

Another point important to mention here is that Vaisnavas reject the theory, promoted by a good number of modern scholars, that the Vedas were written by “Aryan invaders” who conquered India some two thousand years before Christ. I'll not say more about that here except that there is no support for such an idea anywhere in the Vedic scriptures. A few recent publications that contest with historical evidence the Aryan invasion theory are mentioned in the notes that follow this preface². Tied to the Aryan invasion theory is a system of dating the Vedic scriptures. This too Vaisnavas reject. From the scriptures themselves we learn that the Samhita, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanisads, Puranas and Itihasas were handed down by an ancient oral tradition extending millions of years into the past. Five thousand years ago the sage Vyasadeva wrote these scriptures down in the Sanskrit language.

I have no claim of being a pure Vaisnava myself. But I am a disciple of a pure Vaisnava—my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. My duty is to represent the philosophy he taught me. It is said to become a real philosopher, one must learn when to stop philosophizing. Philosophy shows us what logically follows from fundamental principles. But philosophy cannot show us what fundamental principles follow from logic. Principles can only be established by authority, not by mental speculation. Inevitably, in any school of thought, the progress of logic we call “philosophizing” conforms to principles that were dictated by an authority. The authority behind the logic of this book is Srila Prabhupada.

“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts,” said a wise man of recent times, “but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates.”³ This means that philosophy is to be demonstrated, not just thought, read or talked. As marksmanship is demonstrated by hitting the mark, so philosophical wisdom is demonstrated by living under the dictates of the wise authority one loves. This brings us back to the issue of morality. The moral demonstration of Vedic wisdom is delineated in Canakya-sloka (10):

matrvat para-daresu

para-dravyesu lostravat

atmavat sarva-bhutesu

yah pasyati sa panditah

One who considers another's wife as his mother, another's possessions as a lump of dirt and treats all other living beings as he would himself, is considered to be learned.

It is unwise and even immoral for a Vedic philosopher to call into doubt the very path that his authorities reveal. Since veda means “knowledge,” one who does this is left with nothing to know. Rather than to fruitlessly doubt, we are to apply our intelligence to the Vedic path so as to attain the fruit it leads to. The fruit of the Vedas is the only goal of the Vaisnava. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah , as Lord Krsna declares in Bhagavad-gita 15.15: “By all the Vedas I am to be known.” The Lord personally guided many great devotees to the goal glorified by the Vedic scriptures. The pure devotees guided by Sri Krsna are our guides.

As a disciple morally bound to the authority of my spiritual master, it is self-evident to me that Krsna is God and His teachings are unquestionable. But “self-evident” does not mean “something obvious to everybody right now.” The 1996 edition of the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy defines “self-evident propositions” as those that can be seen to be true once one fully understands them⁴. To understand Vaisnava philosophy fully, one's consciousness must be illuminated by the light of pure goodness. In that light—the light of the Supreme Self—the propositions of this book are self-evident.

In this book I present Vaisnava philosophy in two parts. The first is “The Vedic Context,” the second “The Modern Context.” There are those who say, “In Vedic culture, or Hinduism, many other gods are worshiped besides Visnu or Krsna—for example, Siva, Durga and Ganesa. Furthermore, the Vedic conclusion (Vedanta) goes beyond worship altogether, to the philosophy of the ultimate oneness of all beings in nameless, formless Brahman. Yet you Vaisnavas say the Vedas mean to teach pure devotion to Krsna as the final goal. That is sectarian.” Part One answers them. Others say, “In the West, we have what we call an ethico-empirical principle. It tells us that it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything on insufficient evidence. Both the science and morality of the modern West conform to this principle. Thus it is wrong, scientifically speaking, to believe in any reality beyond the physical cosmos. It is wrong, morally speaking, to believe in any good beyond physical pleasure and any evil beyond physical pain. You Vaisnavas do not hold to this principle. That is sectarian.” Part Two answers them.

I've included in both parts a good deal of evidence drawn from non-Vaisnava academic sources. I do not endorse this evidence as conveying the same quality of knowledge as Vedic sources. It does, I hope, offer a plausible account of the decline of moral values in our age. The Vedic evidence I cite is our guide away from total moral collapse.

Let me close this preface with a few words about my spiritual master and the spiritual fellowship he founded, the International Society for Krsna Consciousness (ISKCON). In 1965, at seventy years of age, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived in the United States from India. His humble mission was to implant in the West a root of the great movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Golden Avatara who took birth in Bengal 500 years ago to revive the eternal teachings of loving devotional service to Lord Krsna. Sri Caitanya's movement is compared to a great banyan tree. A single banyan tree can expand itself to appear like an entire forest grove. How? By lowering new roots from branches that spread out from the central trunk. These new roots harden into new trunks, which support the spreading of new branches, which again lower newer roots. The central trunk is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Prabhupada is a mighty branch that grew across the ocean, lowering a root in New York City. Within a short time that root hardened into a new trunk that supported the spread of branches to other cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Montreal and Buffalo. Branches soon spread across the North Atlantic to London, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Paris. In 1971, the year I joined ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada even implanted a root in Moscow. By then Hare Krsna temples flourished on every continent.

The great tree of Lord Caitanya's movement offers humanity the chance to cultivate sadacara. The word sadacara means “pure behavior,” a life in which the body, mind and words are dedicated to the Lord, a life free of the sinful habits of sexual promiscuity, intoxication, gambling and meat-eating. These sinful habits are called duracara. Lord Caitanya once remarked to Thakura Haridasa⁵ that the people of the present age engage only in duracara. Reassuring Him, Haridasa answered: namabhasa haite haya samsarera ksaya—“Even a faint light from the holy name of the Lord can eradicate all the reactions of sinful life.” As the light of the holy names Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare floods the world, the eyes of even the most fallen souls can be opened to the sinless path back home, back to Godhead. The proof is self-evident in the worldwide community of Srila Prabhupada's followers. Many persons in the West previously sunk in duracara now practice a standard of sadacara that even traditional brahmana communities in India find hard to match. Srila Prabbhupada wrote in 1971:

Our process is simple and practically experimented everywhere. Simply by vibrating the Hare Krsna maha-mantra daily one advances to the stage of sadacara or good habits, and when he is pure in consciousness by devotional service, he advances to the stage of ecstatic love of Krsna. We should always pray to Lord Caitanya simply to be engaged in His confidential service by chanting Hare Krsna mantra always. That will purify us and give the strength needed to infuse others with Krsna consciousness.

NOTES

¹ And so it was that the science of classical and medieval Europe, upholding the moral dimension of the universe, tried to account for things by assigning them a grade of moral worth: More than any other classical Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BC) laid the foundations of this Western version of moral cosmology, highly regarded by scientific-minded Europeans until the end of the Middle Ages. In Aristotle's system, the moon marked the cosmic border separating the superior (superlunary) and inferior (sublunary) realms. The superlunary realm was thought to be formed of pure matter and populated by “secondary gods” (demigods) who enjoy a divine, perfect and happy existence. Impure matter formed the sublunary realm populated by imperfect organic creatures like plants, animals and men.

Much of Aristotle's cosmology was enshrined as Catholic dogma by the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) sparked a crisis in that dogma. After calculating the height of the lunar mountains with the aid of a telescope, he concluded that the moon is a world similar to the earth. But Aristotle had taught that the moon is not like the earth—it is made of the stuff of heaven. Since the Church allowed only science and philosophy that was ancilla ecclesiae (servant to the Church) and ancilla Aristotelis (servant to Aristotle), Galileo was forced into public silence in 1632.

His reducing celestial “perfection” down to base elements and simple mechanics is now marked as the birth of the modern scientific creed: reductionism. As explained by Bryan Appleyard in his Understanding the Present—Science and the Soul of Modern Man (1992) 259, modern science concluded “we could not search for value in the world. We could describe nature but we could do so only objectively and without imposing our notions of good and evil.” However, in the moral universe, physical principles recede into the background to play only a supporting role in a supramundane plan that guides the right-thinking soul from evil to good, from imperfection to perfection.

² A few recent publications that contest with historical evidence the Aryan invasion theory are mentioned in the notes that follow this preface: Raj Chengappa, “The Indus Riddle,” India Today (January 26, 1998) 78-85; Parmesh Choudhury, The Aryans: A Modern Myth (1993); Klaus Klostermaier, “Questioning the Aryan Invasion Theory and Revising Ancient Indian History,” ISKCON Communications Journal (June 1998) 5-16; Shrikant G. Talageri, “Vedic History and the Aryans,” The Astrological Magazine (February 1998) 231-235.

³ “To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts,” said a wise man of recent times, “but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates.”: Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854), “Economy.”

⁴ The 1996 edition of the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy defines “self-evident propositions” as those that can be seen to be true once one fully understands them: Page 382.

⁵ Lord Caitanya once remarked to Thakura Haridasa: This conversation is found in Sri Caitanya-caritamrtra, Antya-lila Chapter Three.

PART ONE The Vedic Context

SECTION ONE Fundamentals

Containing four chapters, this section is an overview of the basic issues: God, the spirit souls, matter, the three modes of material nature, the problem of good and evil, karma, time, free will, how the soul fell into the universe, sin, piety, pure devotion, fruitive work, moral knowledge, and primary and secondary religion.

CHAPTER ONE

The Best of All Possible Worlds?

In Bhagavad-gita 15.7, Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, declares that all spirit souls, even those struggling with the material mind and senses, are eternally parts and particles of His transcendental Self. Then in 15.16 He speaks of two classes of souls—those fallen into the material world, and those liberated in the spiritual world.

dvav imau purusau loke

ksaras caksara eva ca

ksarah sarvani bhutani

kuta-stho 'ksara ucyate

There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every living entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every living entity is called infallible.

In 13.22, He says that the fallen souls undergo repeated births and deaths. The soul moves from body to body pursuing the enjoyment of matter in three modes¹ (tri-guna). These modes are goodness, passion and ignorance; like pathways rumored to lead to desirable goals, the three modes entice the desire of the living entity lost in material existence. When the soul commits himself to these paths, good and evil advent. This pair of opposites, good and evil, forges the destiny of all living entities birth after birth.

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.

According to the mode in which they try to enjoy matter, the fallible living entities schedule their future destiny. Bhagavad-gita 14.18 explains the process.

urdhvam gacchanti sattva-stha

madhye tisthanti rajasah

jaghanya-guna-vrtti stha

adho gacchanti tamasah

Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the abominable mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.

Thus heaven, earth and hell are stations through which souls riding the circuit of repeated birth and death move. No station is permanent. The path of one mode eventually joins the paths of the other two; thus the “good” of heaven eventually leads to the “evil” of hell. The entire universe is subject to time and must at last pass out of existence. From the beginning to the end of the cosmic manifestation, most souls rotate countless times throughout the tri-loka (three divisions of heavenly, earthly and hellish worlds).

Western Judaeo-Christian theology has long been weighed down by a so-called “problem of evil.” Sometimes it is said that in the East this problem is eased by certain strengths of the Vedic philosophy. An eminent scholar, writing in a special issue of the magazine Time², explains.

Why would a good God allow evil in the world? This problem, one that Judeo-Christian man had created for himself by his belief, has haunted Western thought for millennia. It is plainly a by-product of ethical monotheism—“a trilemma” created by the three indisputable qualities of an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-benevolent God...Not until the 18th century did Leibniz give a name to this troublesome problem—Theodicy, from the Greek theos (God) and dike (Justice)...This question has not equally troubled people everywhere. Religions in the East have provided plausible theological explanations for divine punishment and retribution in the concept of karma (the accumulation of debts from earlier lives) and the work of Kali and other destructive divinities.

Atheists presume evil to be unjustified. This rules out, in their minds, the possibility of a God who is perfect (meaning all-wise, all-powerful and all-good). Theists presume evil to be justified. They argue that God neither created evil at His whim, nor is He powerless to stop it. A defense of theodicy—the justness of God—requires a sound explanation of how evil is part of God's plan for everyone's ultimate good. The Vaisnava philosophy has three contributions to make here. The first is that evil is the consequence of one's desire in connection with material nature. The second is that material nature has two aspects: one that binds us (thus giving rise to evil), and one that releases us (thus ending evil). The third is that the medium of our bondage is our own desire. Under the thrall of desire, we pursue material objects that we are convinced are good. We flee other objects we fear are evil. But all the while, the soul is transcendental to matter. The light of transcendental knowledge reveals the duality of good and evil to be an illusion of blind desire.

As should be clear from Bhagavad-gita 13.22, fallible souls meet with good and evil not at the whim of God or any deity. Good and evil take form as the consequence of our actions (karma) of trying to enjoy matter. Bhagavad-gita 9.10 states that this matter we hope to enjoy is Lord Krsna's prakrti, His feminine creative energy. The whole universe is deluded by her modes, says 7.13. Busy trying to satisfy themselves in goodness, passion and ignorance, the fallen souls have lost consciousness of the real desirable object, the Lord who is beyond the modes as the inexhaustible source of both spirit and matter. The fallen souls seek their desirables within the microcosm, mesocosm and macrocosm, which are nothing other than appearances of the modes. The values they use to judge these desirables—sensory, intuitive, rational, idealistic and devotional—are likewise pervaded by the three modes.

Bhagavad-gita 15.2 says that the modes nourish our material identity—the karmic body—the way water nourishes a tree. Another useful example, one that I shall develop here over several paragraphs, is that the modes power the movement of the body, and direct that movement from beginning to end, just as electrified rails power and direct the movement of a subway train from the beginning to the end of its journey.

In its simplest sense, the word karma means the work of a human being. And “human being” is just a material designation. The human body is a machine that works as designed by nature, states Bhagavad-gita 18.61. So it follows that the soul is not the doer of work—the three modes are. The soul is entangled in the karma (work) of the modes simply out of desire to enjoy these modes. The modes do the karma, and the soul “takes” that karma by desire. I “take” a ride on a subway train out of a desire to get downtown. The subway system is doing all the work (karma), but I identify with that work: “I'm going downtown.” In fact the train is going downtown; I'm just sitting in my seat.

To make sense of “the law of karma,” we need to understand the terms prarabdha, aprarabdha and kriyamana. Prarabdha-karma is the result we experience now of work done in previous lives. It is manifest as our present status in the greater universe (the macrocosm), as our present status among other creatures (the mesocosm) and as the present status of our body and mind (the microcosm). If these are auspicious, it means we are enjoying the result of past pious activity. If they are mixed—partly good and partly bad—that is the result of past passionate work. If they are thoroughly inauspicious, we are suffering past ignorant work. Aprarabdha-karma is the stock of potential reactions that are yet unmanifest. From this unlimited stock of karma-seeds, fruits (future bodies) will develop endlessly.

In the midst of the condition we have created for ourselves by our previous work, we act from moment to moment and so create newer and newer reactions that are constantly added to the stock of aprarabdha-karma. This work we do now is called kriyamana-karma. Again, it is not really “our” doing; it is done by the three modes, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita 3.27. We falsely identify ourselves with that work, and so are forced by that same identification to accept its reactions which will appear in time.

The soul in the human form of life does have the power to choose what activities he “takes.” That choice is between spiritual and material activities. Choosing matter, the soul loses the power of choice and is tied and dragged away by the modes (the word guna means “rope” as well as “mode” or “quality”). To choose spiritual activities means to choose to obey God, who is Acyuta, the topmost infallible person. Linkage with Lord Acyuta frees the soul from the ropes of matter. The Vaisnava answer to the debate between “free will” philosophers and “determinist” philosophers is that the soul enjoys free will in obedience to God. But free will has a special meaning. It does not mean freedom to do whatever one likes. It means will that is free of the control of matter. One who does not obey God is captured by the three modes, which determine his destiny for inestimable births.

The living entity by nature has minute independence to choose his own good or bad fortune, but when he forgets his supreme master, the Personality of Godhead, he gives himself up unto the modes of material nature. Being influenced by the modes of material nature, he identifies himself with the body and, for the interest of the body, becomes attached to various activities. Sometimes he is under the influence of the mode of ignorance, sometimes the mode of passion and sometimes the mode of goodness. The living entity thus gets different types of bodies under the modes of material nature. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.29.26-27)

The soul taking a body was compared to a commuter taking a subway train. Any karmic body, even that of a great demigod who resides in heaven, must at different stages in the journey of life run the route laid down by each of the three modes. The journey begins on the route of passion (birth from sexual combination). It transfers to the route of goodness (maturation), and ends on the route of ignorance (disease, old age, death). By her modes, Prakrti—the mother-goddess of the materially embodied souls—bears, develops and devours her own children. She is the powerful Kali described in Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.6.2 (kala-sanjnam tada devim bibhrac-chaktim urukramah). “The hand of God” that people often say inexorably guided them to success or failure is in truth the hand of Kali. As per the subway example, Kali holds authority over the rail system: the routing and running times. She draws power for the rails from Kala (the deity of time), which emanates from Lord Krsna like electricity emanates from a powerhouse. Without the powerhouse, the subway could not run; still, the powerhouse is not to be held responsible for where and when the subway runs.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His inconceivable supreme energy, time, causes the interaction of the three modes of material nature, and thus varieties of energy become manifest. It appears that He is acting, but He is not the actor. He is killing, but He is not the killer. Thus it is understood that only by His inconceivable power is everything happening. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.11.18)

Theodicy, “the attempt to understand the relationship of the God to a cosmos that suffers,”³ remains an intractable problem as long as we do not admit that it is madness for the spirit soul to seek happiness in the material world.

yada na pasyaty ayatha guneham

svarthe pramattah sahasa vipascit

gata-smrtir vindati tatra tapan

asadya maithunyam agaram ajnah

Even though one may be very learned and wise, he is mad if he does not understand that the endeavor for sense gratification is a useless waste of time. Being forgetful of his own interest, he tries to be happy in the material world, centering his interests around his home, which is based on sexual intercourse and which brings him all kinds of material miseries. In this way one is no better than a foolish animal. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.7)

It is a common enough fact of life that a person strongly attracted to sense gratification is at risk of falling into criminal activity like prostitution and theft, for which the state imposes a prison sentence. For all those attracted by maya—the illusion that matter is enjoyable by the spirit soul—the entire material world is a prison. Reward and punishment are meted out according to the good behavior and misbehavior of the inmates. This is to prepare them for release into the free society of liberated souls. Thus the “good” and “evil” we experience here are not ultimate. Beyond them, liberation beckons. Who is eligible for liberation? Those souls who have learned to be neither attracted to nor disappointed by matter. Such indifference is an automatic feature of Krsna consciousness. Krsna consciousness is cultivated through contact with sadhus (devotees of Krsna) and sastra (the Vedic scriptures). When Prakrti is satisfied that an inmate is Krsna conscious, she liberates him from maya.

sadhu-sastra-krpaya yadi krsnonmukha haya

sei jiva nistare, maya tahare chadaya

If the conditioned soul becomes Krsna conscious by the mercy of saintly persons who voluntarily preach scriptural injunctions and help him to become Krsna conscious, the conditioned soul is liberated from the clutches of maya, who gives him up. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 20.120)

Souls released from repeated birth and death are transferred to the association of Lord Krsna in the spiritual world. From here, they never fall down again.

mam upetya punar janma

duhkhalayam asasvatam

napnuvanti mahatmanah

samsiddhim paramam gatah

After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection. (Bhagavad-gita 8.15)

The inventor of the term “theodicy,” G.W. Leibniz (1646-1716), conceived of the problem of evil as one wholly of this world, the realm of material nature—a world he called “the best of all possible worlds.”⁴ According to Vaisnava philosophy, only a soul in spiritual ignorance accepts the duality of mundane life as the best of all possible worlds. Bhagavad-gita 2.57 states that when a person is situated in perfect awareness of the existence that is truly the best—spiritual existence—the good and evil of the material world do not touch him. In this connection, the Sarvajna Sukta, quoted by Jiva Gosvami⁵ in his Bhagavat Sandarbha, instructs us:

hladinya samvid aslistah sac-cid-ananda isvarah

svavidya samvrto jivah sanklesa nikarakarah

The Supreme Lord is full of eternity, knowledge and bliss. He is always embraced in the spiritual world by His divine energies called hladini (the ecstatic potency) and samvit (the omniscient potency). In the material world, the individual soul (jiva) experiences many sufferings, being covered by his own ignorance.

Once we understand karmic embodiment to be the fallen, ignorant state of the soul, it becomes clear how easily living entities who seem to be good can be overwhelmed by evil. As good as they might try to be, their attraction to impermanent happiness and their disinclination to get free of the bondage of embodied life insures that they will meet with evil. Bhagavad-gita 14.10 warns that material goodness is not a firm position at all. By his impulsive attachment to sense enjoyment, a soul willingly moves from goodness to passion to ignorance.

We have, from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto Four, an unmistakable illustration of this in Daksa, a denizen of heaven. In the assembly of demigods, Daksa outshone all others, so graced was he by sattvic qualities. Regrettably, he felt himself very powerful, a symptom of passion. His passion turned to ignorance, impelling him to show haughty disrespect for the great Lord Siva. And ignorance, in the form of the furious demon Virabhadra who avenged the insult to Siva, was Daksa's downfall.

In contrast, from Bhagavad-gita 5.21 we learn that liberated souls enjoy an inner spiritual happiness unlimitedly superior to the fleeting psychosensory experiences proffered by the modes. The soul who relishes his or her higher spiritual nature even while living within the material body is called jivan-mukta. The jivan-mukta uses the body only in the service of God. Deriving complete happiness from the Lord's personal association, such a soul is not attracted to the good, passionate and ignorant pleasures displayed by the external material nature.

iha yasya harer dasye

karmana manasa gira

nikhilasvapy avasthasu

jivan-muktah sa ucyate

Regardless of one's circumstances, if one fully engages his activities, mind and words in the devotional service of the Lord, he should be understood to be a liberated person. (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.187)

“Regardless of one's circumstances” means that a jivan-mukta is fixed in loving service to the Lord whether in heaven or hell (the adhidaivika condition), whether other living entities are agreeable or not (the adhibhautika condition), and whether the body and mind are nicely disposed or not (the adhyatmika condition).⁶ These three conditions are products of the three modes of nature; the jivan-mukta knows “I am transcendental to them.”

The senses of the jivan-mukta act only for Krsna's sake. He is intuitively detached from whatever attractions or repulsions the universe has on offer. For the reason of the Lord's pleasure, and for the reason that ordinary people must be led on the path back to Godhead, all the jiva-mukta does in life conforms to scriptural laws. He constantly tries keep himself free from selfish material desires so that the supremely pure Lord will be satisfied with his devotional endeavors. Always thinking of Krsna within his heart, the jivan-mukta relishes nectarean bliss.

Thus the sensory, intuitive, rational, spiritual and devotional values of the liberated soul are ever centered on Krsna. For further elaboration, the reader may consult Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.4.18-27, where the excellent qualities of Maharaja Ambarisa are described. In contrast to Daksa, King Ambarisa remained the hearty well-wisher of even his so-called rival, the yogi Durvasa. Though the envious Durvasa tried to kill Ambarisa with a curse, the king was undisturbed, protected as he was under the loving shelter of the Supreme Lord. The fiery Sudarsana disc, the personal weapon of Visnu, pursued the yogi all around the universe for a whole year. At last the Lord advised Durvasa that unless Ambarisa forgave him for his offense he would never be free of His fire-disk. When Durvasa humbly returned to the king, Ambarisa welcomed him as a friend and assured him that he had taken no offense whatsoever at the yogi's behavior. His anxiety had only been for Durvasa's safety during his year-long flight from Sudarsana. By his magnanimous conduct, the liberated Ambarisa was never touched by the influence of the three modes.

NOTES

¹ The soul moves from body to body pursuing the enjoyment of matter in three modes: Sri Krsna summarizes the outstanding characteristics of each mode in Chapter Fourteen of the Gita. Text 6 says of the mode of goodness:

it is purer than the other two; it is illuminating; it frees one from sinful reactions; it binds a person to a sense of happiness and knowledge.

Text 7 says of the mode of passion:

it is born of unlimited desires and longings; it binds the living entity to material fruitive actions.

Text 8 says of the mode of ignorance:

it is dark; it is the delusion of all living entities; it results in madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the soul.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.6.9 lists the following as interests typical of the mode of goodness:

vidya—ordinary worship; sruta—hearing and obeying the injunctions of the Vedas; adhyaya—study of various Vedic scriptures; dana—giving charity; tapa—austere penances; kriya—ritual activities.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.9 lists the following as interests typical of the mode of passion:

sriya—great wealth; vibhuti—special abilities; abhijana—aristocratic heritage; vidya—education; tyaga—renunciation; rupa—physical beauty; bala—strength; karma—successful performance of Vedic rituals.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.11 lists the following as interests typical of animalistic people (that is, those in the mode of ignorance):

vyavaya—sexual indulgence; amisa—meat-eating; madya-seva—taking intoxicants.

² An eminent scholar, writing in a special issue of the magazine Time: Daniel J. Boorstin, U.S. Librarian of Congress Emeritus, in Time Winter (1997/98) Special Issue, 21.

³ Theodicy, “the attempt to understand the relationship of the God to a cosmos that suffers”: Jeffery Burton Russell, The Prince of Darkness (1988) 7.

⁴ ...which he called “the best of all possible worlds”: in Theodicy, Book 1, s. 8.

⁵ ...quoted by Jiva Gosvami: Srila Jiva Gosvami appeared in AD 1533 in Bengal as the son of Sri Vallabha Anupama. His uncles were Sri Sanatana and Sri Rupa Gosvamis. When Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited Ramakeli, He accepted Rupa and Sanatana as His disciples and blessed Sri Jiva, who was then only a baby, to become a great authority among the Vaisnavas of Gauda (Bengal). Jiva Gosvami lived for 85 years and is honored to this very day as the foremost philosopher of Lord Caitanya's movement.

⁶ “Regardless of one’s circumstances” means that a jivan-mukta is fixed in loving service to the Lord whether in heaven or hell (the adhidaivika condition), whether other living entities are agreeable or not (the adhibhautika condition), and whether the body and mind are nicely disposed or not (the adhyatmika condition):

narayana-parah sarve

na kutascana bibhyati

svargapavarga-narakesv

api tulyartha-darsinah

Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.17.28)