Text 44] Instructions for Civilized Human Beings 247

ragah—attachment; dvesah—hostility; ca—also; lobhah—greed;
ca—also; soka—lamentation; mohau—illusion; bhayam—fear;
madah—madness; manah—false prestige; avamanah—insult; asttya—
finding fault with others; ca—also; maya—deception; hirmmsd—envy;
ca—also; matsarah—intolerance; rajah—passion; pramddah—
bewilderment; ksut—hunger; nidrad—sleep; satravah—enemies; tu—
indeed; evam ddayah—even other such conceptions of life; rajah-
tamah—because of the conception of passion and _ ignorance;
prakrtayah—causes; sattva—because of the conception of goodness;
prakrtayah—causes; kvacit—sometimes.

TRANSLATION

In the conditioned stage, one’s conceptions of life are sometimes
polluted by passion and ignorance, which are exhibited by attach-
ment, hostility, greed, lamentation, illusion, fear, madness, false
prestige, insults, fault-finding, deception, envy, intolerance, pas-
sion, bewilderment, hunger and sleep. All of these are enemies.
Sometimes one’s conceptions are also polluted by goodness.

PURPORT

The actual aim of life is to go back home, back to Godhead, but there
are many hindrances created by the three modes of material. nature—
sometimes by a combination of rajo-guna and tamo-guna, the modes of
passion and ignorance, and sometimes by the mode of goodness. In the
material world, even if one is a philanthropist, a nationalist and a good
man according to materialistic estimations, these conceptions of life form
a hindrance to spiritual advancement. How much more of a hindrance,
then, are hostility, greed, illusion, lamentation and too much attachment
to material enjoyment? To progress toward the target of Visnu, which is
our real self-interest, one must become very powerful in conquering
these various hindrances or enemies. In other words, one should not be
attached to being a good man or a bad man in this material world.

In this material world, so-called goodness and badness are the same
because they consist of the three modes of material nature. One must
transcend this material nature. Even the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies
consist of the three modes of material nature. Therefore Krsna advised
Arjuna:
