Nothing Good Nothing Bad

Mahanidhi Madan Gopal Das

When Sanatana Gosvami asked Sri Chaitanya not to touch him because of his oozing sores from a tropical disease, Mahaprabhu said: dvaite bhadra abhadra-gyana, saba manodharma ei bhala, ei manda, ei saba bhrama, “In this world, ideas of good and bad are all creations of the mind. Therefore, saying, ‘This is good and this is bad,’ is an illusion.” (Cc. Antya 4.176)

Mahaprabhu told Sanatana Gosvami that his body was completely spiritualized and therefore He took great pleasure in embracing him. The material body is neither good or bad.

When one is fixed in Krishna consciousness one understands that in the material world of duality nothing is good or bad. Likes and dislikes, good and bad, are all due to the three modes of material nature—goodness, passion, and ignorance (sattva, rajas, tamas) which bind everyone in ignorance.

Srimad Bhagavatam (11.28.4) confirms this point:

kim bhadram kim abhadram va, dvaitasya vastunah kiyat

vacoditam tad anrtam, manasa dhyatam eva ca

 “That which is expressed by material words or contemplated by the mind is all false. What, therefore, is actually good or bad within this insubstantial world of duality, and how can the extent of such good and bad be measured?”

Visvanatha Cakravartipada tika: Duality (good & bad) is false (avastunah). The meaning for the devotee is: because Bhagavan Sri Krishna’s form, abode, name and devotees are all spiritual entities, they are Brahman and nothing else. What arises by words or by the mind related to duality is all false. In that case, what does good or bad mean? Later Sri Krishna says, nirguno mad-apashrayah: My devotee is beyond the gunas. (SB 11.25.26)

Sri Krsna continues: The only perceptions that are true are those that include the relationship of the object being perceived with the Absolute Truth. Seeing or naming an object as good or bad that has no relationship with the Absolute Truth is the definition of illusion.

To attain this clear vision of reality, one needs “the sword of transcendental knowledge sharpened by worship of the spiritual master, gyana asina upasanaya shitena.” (SB 11.28.17)

Comment: The actual absolute truth is Bhagavan Sri Krishna, from whom everything emanates, by whom everything is maintained, and in whom everything rests. The idea of good and bad as separate from Sri Krishna is like the good and bad dreams experienced when sleeping. Both dreams are equally unreal.

Sri Krishna compares the soul’s material life to a dream: one experiences events in a dream as if they are real, but upon awaking one realizes those events were unreal. For conditioned souls, good and bad, enjoying and suffering occur, but they have no substance because they are part of the material dream. It’s all illusion: Night dream,  day dream,

When one awakens to one’s actual eternal spiritual identity, one stops being affected by their dreams. But if one stays locked into one’s dream worlds, Sri Krishna says, “One will eternally experience lamentation, elation, fear, anger, greed, confusion, and hankering, and repeated birth and death which are all experiences of the false ego and not of the pure soul, shoka harsha bhaya krodha lobha moha sprha ahankarasya janma mrtyuh na atman.” (SB 11.28.15)

In Uddhava Gita, Sri Krsna says: The only perceptions that are true are those that include the relationship of the object being perceived with the Absolute Truth. Seeing or naming an object as good or bad without connecting it with the Absolute Truth is the definition of illusion.

Anything not conceived in relationship to Krishna should be understood to be illusion. None of the illusions uttered by words or conceived in the mind are factual. Because illusion is not factual, there is no distinction between what we think is good and what we think is bad.

Good and bad are not fixed universally, but are determined according to particular circumstances. Good and bad are considerations of material duality. We think that something is good or bad based upon our conditioning and four inherent defects: imperfect senses (karana apatava), tendency to be deluded (bhrama), commit mistakes (pramada), and the tendency to cheat (vipralipsa). (Cc. 1.2.86). For materialists good and bad are based on selfish personal enjoyment.

Thus, in our temporary material existence nothing is good and nothing is bad. But on the absolute spiritual platform Krishna is all-good, and whatever is done for the service of Krishna according to shastras is also absolutely all-good.

Jai Jai Sri Radhe!