Third Force Blind

“First force, second force, third force, this is how the material world is constituted, and this is how we can dovetail our activities to the cause of Krishna consciousness.”

The Fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is is so clear. Indeed, reading that chapter alone makes the understanding of all of the other chapters much more realizable.

Now, there are three modes of material nature; this every devotee knows. However, we, as conditioned souls, are generally third force blind, i.e., we do not see that three factors are involved in, and necessary for, the intended accomplishment of any action. These factors can be called first force, second force, and third force, but they are really in terms of tri-guna. Any effective action and every profession is intrinsically composed of a triad in which one of the three modes takes its position as either first force or second force or third force.

First force is the initiative. Everyone recognizes that. But the initiative is not always passionate; sometimes it is goodness. Sometimes it is ignorance. Now, many people do not even recognize the second force; the second force is the resistance to the initiative. That is why the whole endeavor is called work, because the resistance must be overcome in accordance with the intention of the endeavor.

Often it is not overcome, and then there is either no accomplishment or something other than what was intended is accomplished. The triad was not appropriate and not what it seemed to be. This often leads to calamities “with the best of intentions.”

But almost everyone is third force blind. The third force is just as important as the first force. The third force is what energizes or provides emotion to the first force in its effort to overcome the resistance; the third force also is intrinsic to the ultimate outcome. When it is not present, then everything is either aborted or turns around in circles. When it is inappropriate and another incompatible triad is being employed to accomplish what it is not meant for, then you have an incompatible result. All such initiatives are counterproductive, which means unproductive.

Every profession is ruled by one of these triads. Take a journalist. He has goodness as his first force. His resistance is the mode of passion, and he is energized and provided emotion to successfully carry out his goal by the mode of ignorance. He wants to report truthfully about a situation (goodness).

The activity (activity means passion) he wants to report about and expose in his writing will provide resistance to being reported about and often be uncooperative. But he very much wants to report about and expose what has happened, and why it has happed. And that will reveal and serve to destroy (ignorance) the forces that caused the event. No wonder there is so much bad news.

Reporters are energized by the mode of ignorance and so are, on the whole, writers. There are very few, indeed rare, exceptions to this. And those rare exceptions are not very successful in their professions, because the triad of a reporter or a writer must be in this order of the modes as per the three forces governing its triad.

Take a security officer. He represents the mode of ignorance as his first force. His resistance is in the mode of passion, and he is energized by the mode of goodness. He wants to be on the lookout to thwart any kind of intrusion-to impede something is a characteristic of the mode of ignorance. Any form of change, which means any form of new activity, is a potential threat to be thwarted.

All activity represents passion, i.e., action. Then, when an activity impinges against the post orders he is ordered to maintain, he thwarts or redirects that activity in order to re-establish and maintain the situation as it was. Maintenance is intrinsic to goodness.

Brahminical activities have goodness as the first force. Second force can either be passion or ignorance. Ksatriyas have passion as the first force, as do vaishya activities-but they have differing second and third forces. Sudra activities have ignorance as the first force. This is how the material world is constituted, and this is how we can dovetail our activities to the cause of Krishna consciousness.