If we drink water from a dirty well, we are bound to get a stomach upset. Similarly, if we are influenced by the three modes, we are bound to experience their consequences, which are repeated birth within the material realm, disease, old age, and death. These four are the primary miseries of material life. It was by seeing these that the Buddha first realized that the world is a place of misery, and then searched for the way out of misery.
The Vedas prescribe a number of codes of conduct, social duties, rituals, and regulations for human beings. These prescribed duties and codes of conduct are together called
karm dharma
, or
varṇāśhram
dharma
, or
śhārīrik
dharma
. They help elevate us from
tamo guṇa
and
rajo guṇa
to
sattva guṇa
. However, to reach
sattva guṇa
is not enough; it is also a form of bondage. The mode of goodness can be equated to being fettered with chains of gold. Our goal lies even beyond it—to get out of the prison house of material existence.
Shree Krishna explains that when we transcend the three modes, then Maya no longer binds the living being. Thus, the soul gets released from the cycle of life and death and attains immortality. Factually, the soul is always immortal. However, its identification with the material body makes it suffer the illusion of birth and death. This illusory experience is against the eternal nature of the soul, which seeks release from it. Hence, the material illusion is naturally discomforting to our inner being and, from within, we all seek the taste of immortality.