The Three Modes of Nature
33
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  Yes. According to the association of the modes of nature, your activities are being contaminated.
kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu
A man gets a higher birth or lower birth according to the association of the  guṇas , or the modes of nature.
BOB:  So cheating and like that—what mode is that?
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  Cheating is mixed passion and ignorance. Suppose one man cheats another. That means he wants to obtain something; he is passionate. But if he commits murder, he does not know that he will have to suffer for it, so it is a mixture of passion and ignorance.
BOB:  And what about when somebody helps another person?
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  That is goodness.
BOB:  Why is that goodness? What intelligence is that? I mean—this represents knowledge of what? You said that goodness is when you have knowledge.
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  Yes.
BOB:  Intelligence.
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  Yes.
BOB:  So helping another person?
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  That means that he is ignorant and you are trying to enlighten him.
BOB:  So giving intelligence . . .
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  Yes, that is goodness.
BOB:  And what about just giving assistance?
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  That is also goodness.
BOB:  If a beggar has nothing and you give him alms . . .
ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA:  So that may still be goodness. But in your Bowery Street, they give some charity, and