Category:Mode of Darkness
Theme Analysis
The mode of darkness, or tamo-guṇa, is the lowest of the three modes of material nature, characterized by ignorance, madness, laziness, and sleep. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that this mode binds the conditioned soul to delusion and degrades them to lower forms of life, such as animals or trees. People influenced by the mode of darkness are attracted to stale, decomposing foods and unclean habits. Their determination is based on dreaming, fearfulness, and lamentation. Lord Śiva is the presiding deity of this mode for the purpose of annihilation, although he is personally transcendental. In the modern age, the mode of darkness is becoming increasingly prominent, leading to a scarcity of natural resources and a rise in sinful activities like intoxication and illicit sex.
- Symptoms: Madness, indolence, sleep, and delusion are the primary characteristics.
- Diet: Foods that are stale, tasteless, decomposing, or putrid (like meat and leftovers) are dear to those in this mode.
- Worship: People in darkness worship ghosts, spirits, or terrible forms like Kālī and Bhairava.
- Destination: The result of acting in darkness is degradation to hellish planets or animal bodies.
- The Cure: Kṛṣṇa consciousness immediately dispels the modes of passion and darkness, establishing one in pure goodness.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Characteristics of Mode of Darkness.
Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.
Pages in category "Mode of Darkness"
The following 53 pages are in this category, out of 53 total.
A
- A sannyasi may perform a marriage ceremony to help his disciple in the advancement of Krsna consciousness. If one renounces such activities, it is to be understood that he is acting in the mode of darkness. BG 1972 purports
- According to the different modes of material nature - the mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of darkness - there are different living creatures, who are known as demigods, human beings and hellish living entities
- Although an incarnation of the material energy, Lord Brahma is nonetheless the director of the material mode of passion. Similarly, Lord Siva, although simultaneously one with and different from Krsna, is still the incarnation of the mode of darkness
- And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion - such unintelligent determination, O son of Prtha, is in the mode of darkness
- At the end of the day, under the insignificant portion of the mode of darkness, the powerful manifestation of the universe merges in the darkness of night. By the influence of eternal time, the innumerable living entities remain merged in that dissolution
B
- Because people are becoming more and more in the modes of darkness, they are eating so many abominable things. And prakrti also, I mean to say, minimizing the supply of sattvika food. Just like nowadays it has become scarcity of grains, of milk, of sugar
- Because the Lord is always transcendentally situated, the material modes of passion and ignorance cannot touch Him. Whenever the Lord is present, there cannot be any darkness from the mode of ignorance
- Because they (food cooked more than three hours before it is eaten) are decomposing, such foods give a bad odor, which often attracts people in mode of darkness but repulses those in the mode of goodness. BG 1972 purports
C
- Ceremonial shows of religiosity are not accepted as genuine. They are all in the mode of darkness; they produce a demoniac mentality and do not benefit human society. BG 1972 purports
- Chili is tama-guna; that is the symptom of tama-guna. As soon as you chew, it becomes hot, everything. You see? So ugra. And sattva-guna is sweetness, so sweet. Therefore, ordinarily in India it is stated that a brahmana is known who can eat more sweets
F
- Faith in the mode of darkness or ignorance is actually faithlessness. BG 1972 purports
- Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness
- Foods in the mode of ignorance or darkness are essentially those that are not fresh. Any food cooked more than three hours before it is eaten (except prasadam, food offered to the Lord) is considered to be in the mode of darkness. BG 1972 purports
- From Brahma there is Rudra (Siva), who is in charge of the mode of ignorance or darkness. He destroys the whole creation by the will of the Lord
I
- If a person gives charity to a suitable person but without respect and without attention, that sort of charity is also said to be in the mode of darkness
- If a person gives charity to a suitable person without respect and without attention, that sort of charity is said to be in the mode of darkness. BG 1972 purports
- If one associates with the mode of ignorance and darkness, he goes down to lower life forms - animals, trees and plants. This is the proclamation of Sri Krsna in Bhagavad-gita - 14.18
- If one's heart is in the mode of passion, his faith is also in the mode of passion. And if his heart is in the mode of darkness, illusion, his faith is also thus contaminated. BG 1972 purports
- In the arena of the sacrifice performed by Visvamitra, Lord Ramacandra, the King of Ayodhya, killed many demons, Raksasas and uncivilized men who wandered at night in the mode of darkness
- In the Supreme Absolute, the modes of passion, darkness and goodness appear as consecutive energies. Sometimes they appear, and sometimes they disappear
- In this age, people take pleasure in committing all kinds of sins. They have no brains to see that this body is temporary and full of suffering. They are completely in the mode of darkness, just like the animals they slaughter
K
- Know that the mode of darkness, born of ignorance, is the delusion of all embodied living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul
- Krsna said, "They are praying for further advancement in spiritual life through Your personal association. Generally, living entities in the mode of darkness obtain the bodies of trees"
M
O
- One who is attracted by the material quality of darkness is in the lowest stage of life, whereas one who is attracted by the material quality of goodness is in a better position
- One who takes pleasure in laziness and in sleep is certainly in the mode of darkness, ignorance, and one who has no idea how to act and how not to act is also in the mode of ignorance. BG 1972 purports
P
- People are becoming more and more in the modes of darkness, they are eating so many abominable things. And prakrti also, I mean to say, minimizing the supply of sattvika food
- Persons who subject themselves to the rules and regulations of atonement are not at all intelligent. Indeed, they are in the mode of darkness
S
- Sexual service is considered to be in the mode of darkness
- Sexual service is considered to be in the mode of darkness. Similarly, in remote villages in India there are worshipers of ghosts. BG 1972 purports
- Such knowledge (that God is money, and knowledge means the satisfaction of bodily demands) is described here (in BG 18.22) as the product of the mode of darkness. BG 1972 purports
T
- That determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusion-such unintelligent determination is in the mode of darkness. BG 18.35 - 1972
- That knowledge by which one is attached to one kind of work as the all in all, without knowledge of the truth, and which is very meager, is said to be in the mode of darkness
- That knowledge by which one is attached to one kind of work as the all in all, without knowledge of the truth, and which is very meager, is said to be in the mode of darkness. BG 18.22 - 1972
- The "knowledge" of the common man is always in the mode of darkness or ignorance because every living entity in conditional life is born into the mode of ignorance. BG 1972 purports
- The elephant and the lion are embodiments of the passionate mode of nature, while the dog and the candala (dog-eater) are the embodiments of nature's mode of darkness, or ignorance
- The King knew that any nondevotee who attains such opulence merges increasingly into material nature's mode of darkness
- The Lord has nothing to do with anyone's protection or destruction, but for the creation, maintenance and annihilation of this material world He apparently has to act either in goodness, in passion or in darkness
- The remnants of food are considered to be in the mode of darkness, and they increase infection or disease. Such foodstuffs, although very palatable to persons in the mode of darkness, are neither liked nor even touched by those in goodness. BG 1972 pur
- The sudras are the lowest social order, inasmuch as they imbibe the modes of darkness, or ignorance, and generally take up the service of the other three social orders. As a class, the sudras are servitors of the whole mundane social body
- These demigods (Kala-bhairava, Smasana-bhairava, Sani, Mahakali and Candika) are worshiped mostly by those who are in the lowest categories of the mode of darkness or ignorance
- They (Nalakuvara and Manigriva) were in the mode of darkness, and being therefore unable to control their senses, they were addicted to sex life. It was the duty of a saintly person like Narada to save them from their abominable condition
- This energy (time) is called Kali and is represented by the dark destructive goddess generally worshiped by persons influenced by the mode of darkness or ignorance in material existence
- This verse is an explanation of the night of Brahma, which is the effect of the influence of time in touch with an insignificant portion of the modes of material nature in darkness
- Those in the modes of darkness and passion are not allowed to enter the higher planets
- Those influenced by the mode of passion engage in various types of productive activities in the planetary systems where human beings live.Those influenced by the mode of darkness are subjected to various types of misery and live in the animal kingdom
- Those who are acting in the modes of passion, they'll remain in the same position as they are now, and those acting in the modes of ignorance, darkness, without any knowledge, they are being degraded in lower grades of life. This is material world
- Those who are in the mode of passion worship and create such gods, and those who are in the mode of ignorance, in darkness, worship dead spirits. Sometimes people worship at the tomb of some dead man. BG 1972 purports
- Transcendental literature is above the mode of darkness, and its light becomes more luminous with progressive reading and realization of the transcendental subject matter