Hinduism

Upanishads: The Isa Upanishad states, "It is the renunciation of seeking and of desiring things which constitute the central feature of a life of true renunciation." Similar or related concepts are found in the New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Modern Prophets teachings to "overcome the world", "seek first for the kingdom of God", and to avoid and overcome lusts.

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Upanishads: Universal vision. The Isa Upanishad states, "Such universal vision that is described in this verse, which is the ultimate product of our spiritual endeavor, comes only when one achieves union with the Divine Soul." Other texts speak of becoming one with God.

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The Bhagavad Gita says so much about Krishna, no adequate summary can be provided. Nevertheless, some important passages include:

“Those who know Me as unborn and beginningless, and as the Supreme Lord of the universe, they among mortals are free from illusion and released from all evils.”¹

“Being freed from attachment, fear, and anger, becoming fully absorbed in me, and taking refuge in me, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of me, and thus they attained my divine love.”²

“One who departs from the body while remembering Me, the Supreme Personality, and chanting the syllable Om, will attain the supreme goal.”⁴

“But on attaining My Abode, O son of Kunti, there is no further rebirth.”⁵

“I am the basis of the formless Brahman, the immortal and imperishable, of eternal dharma, and of unending divine bliss.”⁶

“Know that I am like the brilliance of the sun that illuminates the entire solar system.”⁷

“But those who worship the formless aspect of the Absolute Truth—the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifest, the all-pervading, the unthinkable, the unchanging, the eternal, and the immoveable—by restraining their senses and being even-minded everywhere, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all beings, also attain Me.”⁸

“Those who perform all their duties for My sake, who depend upon Me and are devoted to Me, who are free from attachment, and are without malice toward all beings, such devotees certainly come to Me.”⁹

“The Supreme Lord dwells in the hearts of all living beings, O Arjun.”¹⁰

“You are the Father of the entire universe, of all moving and non-moving beings. You are the most deserving of worship and the Supreme Spiritual Master.”¹¹

“All living beings dwell in Me, but I do not dwell in them.”¹²

“I see Your infinite form in every direction, with countless arms, stomachs, faces, and eyes.”¹³

“You are Vāyu (god of wind), Yamraj (god of death), Agni (god of fire), Varuṇ (god of water), and Chandra (moon-god).”¹⁴

“You are the primeval God and the original Divine Personality .”¹⁵

“Amongst purifiers, I am the wind, and amongst wielders of weapons, I am Lord Ram. Of water creatures, I am the crocodile, and of flowing rivers, I am the Ganges.”¹⁶

“Amongst sciences I am the science of spirituality, and in debates I am the logical conclusion.”¹⁷

“Amongst secrets I am silence, and in the wise I am their wisdom.”¹⁸

“Permeating the earth, I nourish all living beings with My energy.”¹⁹

“Both you and I have had many births, O Arjun.”²⁰

“From Me alone arises...control over the senses and mind, joy and sorrow, birth and death, fear and courage, non-violence, equanimity, contentment, austerity, charity, fame, and infamy.”²¹

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They are the mode of goodness, the mode of passion, and the mode of ignorance. Some of the characteristics of these three modes follow. By comparison, Modern Prophets teaches that people will be assigned to one of three kingdoms of glory.

Mode of Goodness

• Actions are in accordance with scriptures
• The performer of actions are equipoised in success and failure
• The performer of actions are free from egotism and attachment
• Actions are without desires for rewards
• One's austerity is without yearning for material rewards
• One gives to worthy persons simply because it is right
• One gives without consideration of return
• One has steadfast willpower
• The intellect understands what is duty and non-duty
• The intellect understands what is proper and improper action
• The intellect understands what is to be feared
• One does not avoid disagreeable work
• One does not seek work because it is agreeable
• One undertakes duties while relinquishing attachment to any reward

Mode of Passion

• Actions are enacted with pride
• Actions are full of stress
• Actions are prompted by selfish desire
• The performer of actions is covetous
• The performer of actions is impure
• The performer of actions is moved by joy and sorrow
• The performer of actions is violent-natured
• The performer of actions craves the fruits of the work
• One's austerity is performed for sake of gaining honor
• One gives with hope of return
• One has steadfast willpower, holds on to duty…pleasures…wealth
• Happiness is derived from contact of senses with their objects
• The intellect cannot distinguish between right and wrong conduct
• One may renounce prescribed duties because they are troublesome or cause bodily discomfort

Mode of Ignorance

• Actions disregard consequences…loss and injury to others
• The performer of actions is deceitful
• The performer of actions is despondent
• The performer of actions is slothful
• The performer of actions is stubborn
• The performer of actions is undisciplined
• The performer of actions is vulgar
• The performer of actions is a procrastinator
• One's austerity is performed by those with confused notions…torturing self…others
• One gives to unworthy persons
• One gives without respect or with contempt…at wrong place…time
• One has an unintelligent resolve, not giving up dreaming…fearing…grieving
• Happiness covers nature of self from beginning to end
• Happiness is derived from sleep…indolence…negligence
• The intellect imagines irreligion to be religion
• The intellect perceives untruth to be the truth
• One's knowledge is not grounded in reason or truth
• One has a deluded renunciation of one's duties

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Mode of Goodness

• Actions are in accordance with scriptures
• The performer of actions are equipoised in success and failure
• The performer of actions are free from egotism and attachment
• Actions are without desires for rewards
• One's austerity is without yearning for material rewards
• One gives to worthy persons simply because it is right
• One gives without consideration of return
• One has steadfast willpower
• The intellect understands what is duty and non-duty
• The intellect understands what is proper and improper action
• The intellect understands what is to be feared
• One does not avoid disagreeable work
• One does not seek work because it is agreeable
• One undertakes duties while relinquishing attachment to any reward

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Mode of Passion

• Actions are enacted with pride
• Actions are full of stress
• Actions are prompted by selfish desire
• The performer of actions is covetous
• The performer of actions is impure
• The performer of actions is moved by joy and sorrow
• The performer of actions is violent-natured
• The performer of actions craves the fruits of the work
• One's austerity is performed for sake of gaining honor
• One gives with hope of return
• One has steadfast willpower, holds on to duty…pleasures…wealth
• Happiness is derived from contact of senses with their objects
• The intellect cannot distinguish between right and wrong conduct
• One may renounce prescribed duties because they are troublesome or cause bodily discomfort

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Mode of Ignorance

• Actions disregard consequences…loss and injury to others
• The performer of actions is deceitful
• The performer of actions is despondent
• The performer of actions is slothful
• The performer of actions is stubborn
• The performer of actions is undisciplined
• The performer of actions is vulgar
• The performer of actions is a procrastinator
• One's austerity is performed by those with confused notions…torturing self…others
• One gives to unworthy persons
• One gives without respect or with contempt…at wrong place…time
• One has an unintelligent resolve, not giving up dreaming…fearing…grieving
• Happiness covers nature of self from beginning to end
• Happiness is derived from sleep…indolence…negligence
• The intellect imagines irreligion to be religion
• The intellect perceives untruth to be the truth
• One's knowledge is not grounded in reason or truth
• One has a deluded renunciation of one's duties

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Being or becoming detached is important in the Bhagavad Gita. Specifically, a person is to become detached from the fruits of one’s actions.

“Those, who are alike to friend and foe, equipoised in honor and dishonor, cold and heat, joy and sorrow, and are free from all unfavorable association; those who take praise and reproach alike, who are given to silent contemplation, content with what comes their way, without attachment to the place of residence, whose intellect is firmly fixed in Me, and who are full of devotion to Me, such persons are very dear to Me.”

Free from Selfishness

Becoming free from selfishness is important. Accordingly, the Bhagavad Gita explains, one should,

“discard…all selfish desires and cravings of the senses that torment the mind, and become[] satisfied in the realization of the self.”

Further, “[t]hose who are indifferent to worldly gains, externally and internally pure, skillful, without cares, untroubled, and free from selfishness in all undertakings, such devotees of Mine are very dear to Me.”

Senses and Desires

• The Bhagavad Gita thus speaks both of the senses and desires of a person, as well as the sense objects.
• “When one is neither attached to sense objects nor to actions, such a person is said to be elevated in the science of Yog, having renounced all desires for the fruits of actions.”
• “[T]he contact between the senses and the sense objects gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress.”


• It is the selfish desires and cravings of the senses that one should renounce. It is not to say that one should avoid all actions and its fruits, but that one should avoid the selfish desire of the fruits of those actions, which lead to “fleeting perceptions” of happiness.

Happiness and Peace

• A key qualifier to this doctrine is that mankind can seek to be at peace and happy. True peace and happiness—not fleeting happiness—is not at the expense of others, and not selfish. Indeed, the sought-after abode of Krishna is a place of love, and peace comes by uniting the mind with God.
• “Being freed from attachment, fear, and anger, becoming fully absorbed in me, and taking refuge in me, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of me, and thus they attained my divine love.”
• “For one who never unites the mind with God there is no peace; and how can one who lacks peace be happy?”


• While not identical, other religious texts teach the importance of "overcoming the world", including the lusts of the world.

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The following is a pathway back to Krishna, receiving liberation, spiritual consciousness, and peace.

While this pathway is described separately, it may have some overlapping with other pathways.

Action, Sacrifice, and Service

• Regarding karma, or action, sacrifice and service, the Bhagavad Gita states:
• “But those who dedicate all their actions to Me...worshiping Me and meditating on Me with exclusive devotion...their consciousness is united with Me.”⁶³
• “[W]hen one discards all selfish desires and cravings of the senses that torment the mind, and becomes satisfied in the realization of the self, such a person is said to be transcendentally situated.”⁶⁴
• “Since they perform all actions as a sacrifice (to God), they are freed from all karmic reactions.”⁶⁵
• “Those who serve Me with unalloyed devotion rise above the three modes of material nature and come to the level of the Brahman.”⁶⁶

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The following is a pathway back to Krishna, receiving liberation, spiritual consciousness, and peace.

While this pathway is described separately, it may have some overlapping with other pathways.

Renunciation and Knowledge

• Regarding renunciation and knowledge the Bhagavad Gita states:
• “[C]an there be a better way of living other than renouncing the world and its things and remaining detached from them?”⁶⁷
• “One should stay amidst the world, but pursue Brahman through detachment and performance of ones ordained duties.”⁶⁸
• “Through such transcendental knowledge, they quickly attain everlasting supreme peace.”⁶⁹
• “Those who are not attached to external sense pleasures realize divine bliss in the self.”⁷⁰
• “Being freed from attachment, fear, and anger, becoming fully absorbed in me, and taking refuge in me, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of me, and thus they attained my divine love.”⁷¹
• “[B]eyond the dualities of pleasure and pain, such liberated personalities attain My eternal Abode.”⁷²
• “I shall now reveal to you that which ought to be known, and by knowing which, one attains immortality. It is the beginningless Brahman, which lies beyond existence and non-existence.”⁷³
• “[N]othing as purifying as divine knowledge.”⁷⁴
• “Through such transcendental knowledge, they quickly attain everlasting supreme peace.”⁷⁵

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The following is a pathway back to Krishna, receiving liberation, spiritual consciousness, and peace.

While this pathway is described separately, it may have some overlapping with other pathways.

Devotion, Remembering, and Worshipping

• Regarding devotion, remembering, and worshipping, the Bhagavad Gita states:
• “They are ever-content, steadily united with Me in devotion, self-controlled, of firm resolve, and dedicated to Me in mind and intellect.”⁷⁶
• “With practice, O Parth, when you constantly engage the mind in remembering Me, the Supreme Divine Personality, without deviating, you will certainly attain Me.”⁷⁷
• “One who departs from the body while remembering Me, the Supreme Personality, and chanting the syllable Om, will attain the supreme goal.”⁷⁸
• “Those who relinquish the body while remembering Me at the moment of death will come to Me. There is certainly no doubt about this.”⁷⁹
• “There are those who always think of Me and engage in exclusive devotion to Me.”⁸⁰
• “Others, engaging in the yajña of cultivating knowledge, worship Me by many methods.”⁸¹

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The following is a pathway back to Krishna, receiving liberation, spiritual consciousness, and peace.

While this pathway is described separately, it may have some overlapping with other pathways.

Meditation

• Several Bhagavad Gita passages on meditation include:
• “To the soul who is aspiring for perfection in Yog, work without attachment is said to be the means; to the sage who is already elevated in Yog, tranquility in meditation is said to be the means.”⁸²
• “Seated firmly on it, the yogi should strive to purify the mind by focusing it in meditation with one pointed concentration, controlling all thoughts and activities.”⁸³
• “Better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of actions, for peace immediately follows such renunciation.”⁸⁴

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The Bhagavad Gita states that upon death a person experiences one of three results: (a) they are immediately reincarnated into another body, (b) they go to a world where they enjoy and use up the merits of their life, and then are reincarnated, or (c) they go to Krishna’s abode never to be reincarnated again.

The Bhagavad Gita states that

(a) “those dying in the mode of ignorance take birth in the animal kingdom”,

(b) “[t]hose who die with prevalence of the mode of passion are born among people driven by work”, and

(c) “[t]hose whose intellect is fixed in God, who are wholly absorbed in God, with firm faith in Him as the supreme goal, such persons quickly reach the state from which there is no return, their sins having been dispelled by the light of knowledge.”

Going to Ancestors

• It also states that “worshippers of the ancestors go to the ancestors.” The exact meaning of this is not set forth since most ancestors will have already been reincarnated in either animal or human form.

Temporary Spirit World

For some, reincarnation is not immediate, but comes only after the soul goes to the “abode of Indra.” There they can enjoy the merits of their life, and once those merits are used up are then reincarnated.

The Bhagavad Gita explains this concept this way:

• “By virtue of their pious deeds, they go to the abode of Indra, the king of heaven, and enjoy the pleasures of the celestial gods”, and,
• “When they have enjoyed the vast pleasures of heaven, the stock of their merits being exhausted, they return to the earthly plane.”

Hell

A “hell” is spoken of at least twice in the Bhagavad Gita. Exactly how it operates in conjunction with one’s reincarnation is not fully specified. One option may be that it stands in opposition to the “abode of Indra”, and is also a temporary location prior to reincarnation.

Here are the two passages,

• “I have heard from the learned that those who destroy family traditions dwell in hell for an indefinite period of time.”
• “Possessed and led astray by such imaginings, enveloped in a mesh of delusion, and addicted to the gratification of sensuous pleasures, they descend to the murkiest hell.”

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Those who have Krishna as the Supreme Goal and are successful in worshiping and meditating on Him with exclusive devotion are liberated from the cycle of birth and death and have their consciousness united with Krishna.
The Bhagavad Gita explains this result this way,

“But those who dedicate all their actions to Me, regarding Me as the Supreme goal, worshiping Me and meditating on Me with exclusive devotion, O Parth, I swiftly deliver them from the ocean of birth and death, for their consciousness is united with Me.”

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