||ShriHari||
7. Convictions of the Persons of Divine & Demoniac Traits
The men possessing divine traits knowing God as the source of all beings and the imperishable, with a single mind (renouncing the desire for pleasures here or here after) worship Him (9/13).
The men of demoniac traits hold the opinion that in the world there is nothing except sensous pleasures and prosperity (16/11).
Those who hanker after mundane pleasures and prosperity attach importance to the world and think that it is real while the strivers engaged in devotion to God realize that the world is unreal while God is real. The conviction that the world exists is para-dharma (duty of others), while the conviction that the world is unreal and God is real is sva-dharma (one’s own duty) because God is one’s own.
[In the twenty sixth verse of the second chapter and fifty ninth verse of the eighteenth chapter the term ‘manyase’ has been used for others’ conviction rather than one’s own conviction. In the first verse of the third chapter the term ‘mata’ has also been used for other’s conviction. Similarly in the thirty fifth verse of the second chapter the term ‘mamsyante’ and in the fourth verse of the eleventh chapter, the term ‘manyase’ have been used in the sense of ‘possibility.
prakrtau jaayate yattat sahajam parivartanam
manusyah kurute yattannu tanam parivartanam
In Nature and in the world, the evolute of Nature the change that is taking place is natural change while the new action performed by a person is the new change.
The natural change undergoes continuously in bodies of persons, gods, ghosts, evil spirits, celestial musicians, demi-gods etc. as well as in the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the planets, trees, plants, creepers birds, beasts, insects, oceans and mountains ete. Some times this natural change is said to be taking place in Nature (13/29) while sometimes it is said to be taking place in the modes of Nature (3/27). It means that in the whole creation what ever change is taking place in bodies of moving and unmoving creatures as well as in insentient objects is natural.
The human body experiences birth, childhood, youth, old age and death (2/13). This is natural change. But a person also undergoes new change. As good company, study of sacred books, chanting of the Lord’s name lead a person to goodness, so do the company of passionate and ignorant persons and study of such books lead him respectively to the modes of passion and ignorance. The men of the mode of goodness go to higher regions, those of the mode of passion remain in the middle while those of the mode of ignorance go to the lower regions (14/18).
New change can also be observed in birds and animals etc.
As even a monkey can act as a soldier or a cyclist having received training. But it can’t undergo such spiritual change which may lead it to salvation. The reason is that its life is to reap the fruit of its past deeds rather than to perform new deeds which is possible for human beings. Therefore a lion incurs no sin if he kills and devours any animal because he enjoys the fruit of his past deeds; he can not perform new action.
A human being takes birth in high or low social order ( caste) according to the past deeeds. But new actions can change the course of his life. The bad company and training can conduce a
man of the high social order to a down fall while good company and training can make a man of a low social order virtuous and saintly. Such a man can be a model for others by inculcating uncommon virtues.