48 On the Way to Krsna

mean that you exist simply in the mode of goodness?”
In the material world there are the modes of good-
ness, passion and ignorance. Thus far, Krsna has de-
scribed Himself as that which is good (for instance, sex
in marriage according to religious principles). But
what about the other modes? Does not Krsna exist
in them? In answer, Krsna replies that whatever is
seen in the material world is due to an interaction of
three modes of material nature. Whatever can be ob-
served is a combination of goodness, passion or igno-
rance, and in all cases these three states are ‘‘produced
by Me.” Because they are produced by Krsna, their
position is in Him, but He is not in them, for Krsna
Himself is transcendental to the three modes. Thus,
in another sense, bad and evil things, which are pro-
duced out of ignorance, are also Krsna, when they
are applied by Krsna. How is this? For example, an
electrical engineer is producing electrical energy. In
our homes we are experiencing this electrical energy
as coldness in the refrigerator or heat in the electric
stove, but at the power plant electrical energy is
neither cold nor hot. The manifestations of this
energy may be different for the living entities, but
for Krsna they are not different. Therefore Krsna
sometimes acts on what appears to be the principles
of passion or ignorance, but for Krsna there is nothing
but Krsna, just as for the electrical engineer electrical
energy is simply electricity and nothing else. He
makes no distinction that this is “cold electricity” or
that is “hot electricity.”

Everything is being generated by Krsna. Indeed,

janmady asya yatah: everything is flowing from the
