madness, stupidity and illusion. Those who are enveloped in ignorance fall into the infernal worlds (hell).

When the incarnate being is able to overcome the three gunas (the three attributes and modes of influence of material nature; virtue, passion and ignorance), he is liberated from birth, death, old age, as well than the suffering they cause. He can therefore enjoy ambrosia in this very life.

Although still embodied, humans can, by cultivating spiritual knowledge, free themselves from the influence of the three gunas. Even in his present body he can benefit from the happiness of the spiritual life, because, after having left his body, he is guaranteed to reach the spiritual world. In other words, one recognizes the man freed from the grip of the attributes of material nature by what he is established in the service of devotion, the consciousness of Krishna or consciousness of God. Indeed, when we are freed from the three gunas, we adopt the service of devotion, Krishna consciousness (thanks to which we can approach God, and see him face to face).

One who has no aversion, whether in the face of enlightenment, attachment or delusion, who also has no thirst for these things in their absence; who, above these fruits that bear the three gunas; virtue, passion and ignorance, stands as neutral, always adamant, aware that nothing acts outside of them; who views pleasure and suffering with one eye, and for whom the clod of earth, gold and stone are of equal value, who is wise and takes the same praise and blame; who is neither affected by fame nor by stigma, who treats friends and foes alike, and who has given up all interested business, of that one is said to have transcended the three gunas. He who is completely absorbed in the service of devotion, without ever failing, therefore transcends the three gunas and thus reaches the spiritual level.

I am the foundation of the Supreme Impersonal Spiritual Being (the only aspect of God known to men), which is immortal, inexhaustible, eternal, and which is the very principle of ultimate happiness.

Logos 331

The Lord says: “The being knows the perfection of spiritual bliss, when, through practice, he manages to withdraw his mind from all material activity. Then, once the mind is purified, it realizes its true identity and tastes the inner joy. In this happy state he benefits, through his purified senses, from an infinite spiritual happiness.