Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

Now let us discuss determination in mode of ignorance

Bg 18.35

yayā svapnaṁ bhayaṁ śokaṁ
viṣādaṁ madam eva ca
na vimuñcati durmedhā
dhṛtiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī

Synonyms: 

yayā — by which; svapnam — dreaming; bhayam — fearfulness; śokam — lamentation; viṣādam — moroseness; madam — illusion; eva — certainly; ca — also; na — never; vimuñcati — one gives up; durmedhā — unintelligent; dhṛtiḥ — determination; sā — that; pārtha — O son of Pṛthā; tāmasī — in the mode of ignorance.

Translation: 

And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion – such unintelligent determination, O son of Pṛthā, is in the mode of darkness. 

yayā svapnaṁ bhayaṁ śokaṁ, so Krishna is giving various characteristics over here, yayā svapnaṁ, svapnaṁ is dreaming, here svapna refers to excessive sleeping, there are different kinds of sleep also and in general the idea is if one is extremely lazy than that often leads to a person sleeping more than necessary and if a person sleeps more than necessary that has its own consequences, in terms of further effect of mode of ignorance, so here dreaming is a mentality which is more of disconnection from reality, so similarly when a person is excessively lazy or sleepy that also means the person is disconnected from reality,

yayā svapnaṁ bhayaṁ śokaṁ, so svapnaṁ bhayaṁ, 

Bhayam, in 18.30 although Krishna has talked about kāryākārye bhayābhaye, that there are certain things which has to be feared and certain things which are not be feared…such Bhaya are healthy bhaya which protects us from doing things which are undesirable, E.g. Krishna also mentioned that out of His Bhaya Sun comes, winds blows etc. but in contrast to that there are baseless fear as the word fear indicates, False Evidence Appearing Real, if we look at our life most of the anxiety we have they don’t matter after a short time why they don’t matter because they are not consequential, if we are constantly fearful like stress, hyper tension etc. these are not good for our spiritual life, Bhaya is a sign of Tamo Guna, as devotees we should be warriors not worriers, by Krishna’s assistance we fight when problems come we deal with the problems,
yayā svapnaṁ bhayaṁ śokaṁ
, Svapna, Baya, Soka, Krishna is talking largely about the things which waste away our mental energy, so when one indulges in these things that dhṛtiḥ is in the mode of ignorance, we may wonder is there any determination required to be fearful, determination is required to be courageous, what determination is required to be fearful, actually everything requires determination, fear itself is not comforting emotion, it is distracting devastating emotions, but somehow we hold the fear for a long – long time unnecessarily, that is because we are not able to understand what are the priority in our life, if we have a proper understanding that who I am and what I should be pursuing in our life then, small-small things in life becomes too important, we thing that great dangers are coming on me only. 

yayā svapnaṁ bhayaṁ śokaṁ, 

We have discussed about soka earlier also when Krishna is discussing about Karta, Krishna has discussed about Maa Suchah in 18.66, do not lament, So Soka is indicting about mentality of sudra, Sochati iti sudra, it is sometimes said, sochati one who laments is sudra, Why soka is considered to be undesirable emotion tamasik? Sometime when someone passes away the relatives of that person stays in soka lamentation for days for loss of that person, sometimes it goes for weeks months years, decades, and one thinks that why I lose that person, there is no doubt the loss of close relatives or family member is a painful loss, but to keep living in pain is more painful than necessary, yes we have pain and when there is love naturally grief is there, there is difference between grieving and lamenting, lamenting one never comes out of it one never tries to learn from it, one never tries to grow. So grieving is not bad but lamenting is undesirable determination for this is mode of ignorance, life has to go on, we need to come out of lamentation. We need to accept the deal and move forward,

viṣādaṁ madam eva ca, visada refers to moroseness we discussed earlier Visadi dirghi sutra ca, mada means intoxication or illusion, 

na vimuñcati durmedhā,

durmedha, is bad intelligence Sumedha is good intelligence,
na vimuñcati durmedhā
dhṛtiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī

so that determination which doesn’t give up these things although they are not worth holding it at all, that determination is in mode of ignorance, 

e.g. someone sleeping for long hours say 12 hours or so and although others are telling them to give it up they don’t give it up such determination is in mode of ignorance. Same with the person who is having addictions. 

So these 5 characteristics  svapnaṁ bhayaṁ śokaṁ viṣādaṁ madam if someone continues in determination even when one should be giving them up because they are undesirable that is called as determination in mode of ignorance

na vimuñcati durmedhā, Krishna has used the strong word durmedhā, that intelligence is completely misdirected, so this determination is obstinacy, stubbiness it is insolence, when is not guided to do wrong things and yet one does wrong things, here it is also with the mindset we possess, a mindset which it too dreamy, a mindset which is too gloomy these are mindsets which are indicative of mode of ignorance, and such intelligence  are also in mode of ignorance and it is very difficult to overcome such an intelligence unless one cultivates pure devotion, if we try to cultivate Krishna Consciousness seriously Krishna said in 10.10 Dadami Buddhi Yogantam Yena Mama Upayantite, I will give you intelligence by which you can come back to Me.

End of transcription.