Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Bg 14.12

lobhaḥ pravṛttir ārambhaḥ
karmaṇām aśamaḥ spṛhā
rajasy etāni jāyante
vivṛddhe bharatarṣabha

Synonyms: 

lobhaḥ — greed; pravṛttiḥ — activity; ārambhaḥ — endeavor; karmaṇām — in activities; aśamaḥ — uncontrollable; spṛhā — desire; rajasi — of the mode of passion; etāni — all these; jāyante — develop; vivṛddhe— when there is an excess; bharata–ṛṣabha — O chief of the descendants of Bharata.

Translation: 

O chief of the Bhāratas, when there is an increase in the mode of passion the symptoms of great attachment, fruitive activity, intense endeavor, and uncontrollable desire and hankering develop.

 

lobhaḥ pravṛttir ārambhaḥ

lobhaḥ, greed

pravṛttir, action according to once inclination

 ārambhaḥ, in also means to begin but in Sanskrit it also means endeavor 

So person is ready to endeavor to work very hard

karmaṇām aśamaḥ spṛhā, 

karmaṇām, what kind of endeavor? Fruit actions like Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha 

So behind that is desire what kind of desire? 

aśamaḥ spṛhā, 

aśamaḥ, which cannot be satisfied

Samaha and Damah are characteristics of Brahmana, samah means calming down, aśamaḥ means which cannot be calm down

rajasy etāni jāyante, By Rajo guna this person is known 

vivṛddhe bharatarṣabha, when the mode of passion or Rajo guna increases these are the characteristics O bharatarṣabha, 

What are the characteristics? lobhaḥ, pravṛttir, ārambhaḥ

Lobhah is the prominent characteristic, we will see later on Krishna talk about this again? Lobhah is a prominent characteristic why? Because the primary feature one exhibit when is in mode of passion is MORE MORE MORE, This more when directed towards sexually attractive object then it manifested in lust, when it directed towards things then it becomes greed, more in term of matter, I have this much but I want more and more. 

Previous verse also Krishna used vivṛddhaṁ here also He is using vivṛddhe, when this becomes strong when this is predominated, at a time certain mode will become predominant and when that happens what happens? 

lobhaḥ pravṛttir ārambhaḥ
karmaṇām aśamaḥ spṛhā

karmaṇām aśamaḥ spṛhā, so intense desire 

This may raise a question that, is it that a person becomes greedy by disposition (our inclination) or by imposition (something by external pressure) of mode a person becomes greedy. 

Actually it is both it is matter of disposition as well as imposition. Imposition not in terms of fatalistic force it is not that irresistible force is there but certain people are by nature more greedy than others because of their past karma, but beyond that some people are placed in circumstances or choose circumstances which provoke greed in them, for example if a person watching a lot of advertisements or watches TV which describes huge amount of material prosperity then because of that people starts thinking, O this is wonderful, this is the way I wanted to live, and that fuel greed more and more.

From the point of view of lust:

There is some lust which is natural and biological also, the male female attraction, and within that also some people have higher sex drive some people have lower sex drive but the point is whatever the sex drive a person is having he can increase it or decrease it, and today’s whole socio cultural environment is meant to increase it more and more now when it increases more and more people live in a state of artificial sexual stimulation and perpetual dissatisfaction, so that is not which is something disposition, is it imposition? It is chosen by a person and once a person makes a choice it is imposition. 

  • We are forced to act as we choose to desire. 
  • We have choice of desiring but once we choose to desire, this is what I want to do then the mode takes up and forces us, then after that it becomes very difficult to resist it. 

Earlier we have discussed example of road with three forks that means we choose things we choose goodness, passion ignorance that is true at one level now let us choose another example which is more subtle this illustrates the point somewhat better.

  • Imagine a river with three different current going in three ways. A boat person can chose which current to get into but once a person chooses the current then the waves will take the person in that direction, so there is some amount of choice which current to place oneself in. 

So we are forced to act as we choose to desire.

Is it not that the mode also determine what kinds of desire I will have?

  • No the modes doesn’t determine our specific desires, the modes affects us in terms of which desires may be presented before us but it is not necessary that they determine our desire entirely. They are contributive factors they are not decisive factors, ultimately we do have free will, so a person who has been habituated to meat eating throughout one’s life and not just habituated by one’s own attraction towards meat eating but also because that is the food which people have always being eating in their culture, tradition or family then that is what people eat always and they don’t even think about it so is that person really have a choice in terms of whether to eat veg food or non veg food? Technically that person is having a choice but it will not come in his thought why I should not eat non veg? So to come out of that frame work one need input from somewhere else.
  • Once we make a choice then free will disappear, not completely though, certain actions are having consequences and those consequences cannot be changed. 

All actions are having consequences but certain things are having massive consequences and we have to be cautious while taking major decision in life.

So we can choose current, one current is clam and other are more turbulent but we have not seen it properly when things are inside us and we are already effected by it because they affect our perception e.g. for the person who is in mode of passion life for him mode of goodness may not look very attractive. A person who is answering phones, texting emails responding to phones and doing so many things and that person is taken to a clam serein beach he will feel boring he will check WhatsApp there is no range for the internet and feel what do I do now, he will start feeling agitated just by that, people goes to serein places to relax but the irony is things which causes them agitation, freedom from that irony causes them agitation. So this if we think carefully we understand that the mode of passion will make us agitated by whatever situation we are in. So as long as I am in mode of passion whether I am in an area where there is network or there is no network I will be agitated, if I change myself to the mode of goodness wherever I will be I will not be agitated that doesn’t mean our disposition can survive in all places certain places are in mode of passion and if we will go to those places we will be affected by mode of passion we cannot avoid that, therefor we have to be careful in our choices as devotees we need to avoid the places which are too much in mode of passion and ignorance, of course we cannot avoid entirely but we can avoid external stimulation which can lead to internal emotions and then they lead to certain actions. lobhaḥ pravṛttir ārambhaḥ so today we see society is much in mode of passion. There is a whole form of addiction which is called as workaholic and that sort of behavior is very damaging for a person because not only that a person doesn’t have time of spiritual life but they don’t have time for other aspect of material life also. With other addiction the harm is generally visible but with workaholic it is not even seen clearly. In alcoholism sometimes people says “drink but don’t become drunk” that is not correct understanding as alcohol becomes escape way and in times of difficulty people will take that route and will not understand how far they have gone. But workaholic is highly glamorized in today’s society e.g. O this person has not taken a leave from last seven years, this person works 14 hours 16 hours a day, this is not a glamour but this indicates that the person is very strongly viciously gripped by the mode of passion and not able to come out of it, now there may be a situation like project deadline or emergencies when a person has to work hard and we may ourselves choose a mode of passion a particular time when we have to get things done, but if that becomes habit it will take a toll on our psychological, emotional, family and balance life. In passion a person is never satisfied in what he is doing at present.

In devotional life we say that we should remain busy then we will not fall in maya that is true, but there is a difference Srila Prabhupada was busy but he was never passionate, we are passionate but we are not busy, do this and this, we do a lot but we end up in doing nothing much, we can be busy and productive without being passionate and we can be passionate without being productive, e.g. a fan moves a lot but it doesn’t go anywhere but a car goes…at least a fan does other function of circulating air but our mind when it moves like a fan it goes nowhere it does nothing, like that we work without any plan we get into so many things without thinking much as do whatever I feel like then I won’t have any balance in my life. 

SP Purport: There is no end to sense gratification.

End of transcription.