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TEXT 16 karmanah sukrtasyahuh
SYNONYMS  karmanah--of
work; su-krtasya--in the mode of goodness; ahuh--said; sattvikam--mode
of goodness; nirmalam--purified; phalam--result; rajasah--of
the mode of passion; tu--but; phalam--result; duhkham--misery;
ajnanam--nonsense; tamasah--of the mode of ignorance; phalam--result.
TRANSLATION By acting
in the mode of goodness, one becomes purified. Works done in the mode of
passion result in distress, and actions performed in the mode of ignorance
result in foolishness.
PURPORT By pious activities
in the mode of goodness one is purified; therefore the sages, who are free
from all illusion, are situated in happiness. Similarly, activities in
the mode of passion are simply miserable. Any activity for material happiness
is bound to be defeated. If, for example, one wants to have a skyscraper,
so much human misery has to be undergone before a big skyscraper can be
built. The financier has to take much trouble to earn a mass of wealth,
and those who are slaving to construct the building have to render physical
toil. The miseries are there. Thus Bhagavad-gita says that in any
activity performed under the spell of the mode of passion, there is definitely
great misery. There may be a little so-called mental happiness--"I have
this house or this money"--but this is not actual happiness.
As far as
the mode of ignorance is concerned, the performer is without knowledge,
and therefore all his activities result in present misery, and afterwards
he will go on toward animal life. Animal life is always miserable, although,
under the spell of the illusory energy, maya, the animals do not
understand this. Slaughtering poor animals is also due to the mode of ignorance.
The animal killers do not know that in the future the animal will have
a body suitable to kill them. That is the law of nature. In human society,
if one kills a man he has to be hanged. That is the law of the state. Because
of ignorance, people do not perceive that there is a complete state controlled
by the Supreme Lord. Every living creature is a son of the Supreme Lord,
and He does not tolerate even an ant's being killed. One has to pay for
it. So, indulgence in animal killing for the taste of the tongue is the
grossest kind of ignorance. A human being has no need to kill animals because
God has supplied so many nice things. If one indulges in meat-eating anyway,
it is to be understood that he is acting in ignorance and is making his
future very dark. Of all kinds of animal killing, the killing of cows is
most vicious because the cow gives us all kinds of pleasure by supplying
milk. Cow slaughter is an act of the grossest type of ignorance. In the
Vedic literature the words gobhih prinita-matsaram indicate that
one who, being fully satisfied by milk, is desirous of killing the cow,
is in the grossest ignorance. There is also a prayer in the Vedic literature
that states:
namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca
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