Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Now Krishna talked about the immediate result:

Bg 14.17

sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṁ
rajaso lobha eva ca
pramāda-mohau tamaso
bhavato ’jñānam eva ca

Synonyms: 

sattvāt — from the mode of goodness; sañjāyate — develops; jñānam — knowledge; rajasaḥ — from the mode of passion; lobhaḥ — greed; eva — certainly; ca — also; pramāda — madness; mohau — and illusion; tamasaḥ — from the mode of ignorance; bhavataḥ — develop; ajñānam — 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.

sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṁ, from the mode of goodness comes knowledge

Knowledge of spirituality in not just ingestion of some facts and figures but it is realignment of our view it is harmonization of our thinking and living with reality and that is never easy.

rajaso lobha eva ca, from mode of passion comes greed.

So if we want knowledge we have to live in mode of goodness.

We have seen that if we go to temple, read some transcendental literature calmness comes to us. 

In mode of passion one never satisfies what one have.

pramāda-mohau tamaso, so tama guna is characterized by pramada and moha and its result is ajnana,

Even on a short term as soon as we come in mode of passion, agitation, dissatisfaction, hankering, greed of more and more happens.

SP Purport: Although one think that his money will make him happy when in mode of passion but it will not. Why? Because the mode shapes our thinking and in mode of passion we will be seeing what we don’t have. He is having better car then me, when I get that I feel temporarily happiness but then the focus will go on even better car then this. So there is no end to this.

There will always be something which we don’t have and mode of passion will keep us not satisfied. 

A devotee can have material life based on his capacity so that he can also practice spiritual life there has to be a balance.

While performing our spiritual life nicely we can take care of our material duties and by Krishna’s mercy if wealth come we will accept that and use it in a proper way.

So a devotee don’t have to give up wealth but a devotee has to give up the illusion that wealth can make one happy. 

SP Purport: When one is engaged in the mode of passion, not only is he mentally unhappy, but his profession and occupation are also very troublesome.

This is because of more and more and also one engage in Ugra Karma, work in workaholic way.

End of transcription.