The Lord said: “Every man is engaged in various acts, whether or not they conform to the revealed scriptures. Know this, it is enough to use the fruit of such acts to worship Me in Krishna consciousness, to be immediately blessed with a happiness that will be perpetuated in this life and the next, in this world as in the next. No doubt about that.”

As Lord Krishna says, acts performed in Krishna consciousness, or God consciousness, ensure that all their perpetrators have the perfect satisfaction of their desires.

Lord Krishna teaches: “To use true language directed towards the good of all, but also to avoid hurtful words, as well as to recite the Holy Scriptures assiduously, these are the austerities of the verb.

Serenity, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purity of thought are the austerities of the mind.

Practiced with faith by men whose purpose is not to obtain for themselves some material benefit, but to satisfy the Supreme (God), the triple union of these austerities proceeds from Virtue.

As for the ostentatious penances, which seek the respect, honor and veneration of men, they are said to belong to passion. They are only unstable and ephemeral.

Finally, the penances and austerities accomplished by foolishness, and made of obstinate torture (of the body), or suffered in order to hurt, destroy, they are said to have come out of ignorance.

The charity dictated by duty, done without waiting in return, in just conditions of time and place, and to whom it is worthy, is said to be carried out under the sign of virtue.

But the charity inspired by the hope of reward, or the desire for a material fruit, or even made against heart, this is said to belong to the passion.

Finally, charity, which is done neither in time nor in a suitable place, nor has people who are worthy of it, or which is exercised in a disrespectful and contemptuous manner, is said to be ignorance”.

Virtue, passion and ignorance, are the three attributes and modes of influence of material nature. It is through them that material energy conditions the embodied souls that we are.