Chapter Fourteen

The Three Modes of Material Nature

Gita 14.01 The Gita uses diverse frames of analysis to reiterate its consistent conclusion
Gita 14.02 Death can't be avoided, but affliction due to death can be
Gita 14.03 We determine our bodies and our bodies determine us
Gita 14.04 The seed-giving father is also the soul-attracting liberator
Gita 14.05 Modes are a combination of matter that trigger emotion which matter in isolation doesnt
Gita 14.06 Anything that keeps us away from realizing our spirituality is binding, even if it is illuminating
Gita 14.07 Passion is composed of attachment, gives rise to craving and binds us to work
Gita 14.08 The mode of ignorance begins with not knowing and leads to false knowing
Gita 14.09 The longer a pleasure lasts, the greater its lure
Gita 14.10 The modes are neither in segregation nor in integration but are in competition
Gita 14.11 Illumination of knowledge regulates the input and output through the doorways of the senses
Gita 14.12 Desires that drive us with the lure of pleasure are insatiable
Gita 14.13 The mode of ignorance block us in both contemplation and action
Gita 14.14 A disposition of knowledge and purity elevates to the destination of the knowledgeable and the pure
Gita 14.15 The modes are not just psychological constructs, they are also post-mortem destination shapers
Gita 14.16 Piety purifies, craving torments and intoxication stupefies
Gita 14.17 Different modes foster different emotions, dispositions and destinations
Gita 14.18 Goodness leads to elevation, passion to stagnation, ignorance to degradation
Gita 14.19 Seeing that our actions are impelled by the modes inspires us to resist the desires induced by the modes
Gita 14.20 Those who transcend the modes transcend miseries
Gita 14.21 When the disease is subtle, we need education to perceive the symptoms of sickness and health
Gita 14.22 Be a non-judgemental non-committal observer of your emotions
Gita 14.23 We are not our scars, be they physical or emotional
Gita 14.24 To be equipoised, be situated in the self, not in the world
Gita 14.25 As long as we are materially motivated, we will be materially agitated
Gita 14.26 Health is a product of medication but it is also a precondition for medication
Gita 14.27 Brahman refers not just to the impersonal spiritual but also the generically spiritual