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results in leading a life full of misery and the mode of ignorance results

in foolishness and abject suffering due to consistently making the wrong
decisions. In the following excerpt from the Bhagavad‐gita As It Is by
Bhak vedanta Swami Prabhupada, dire consequences of living under
the influence of the mode of ignorance is described.

“As far as the mode of ignorance is concerned, the performer is
without knowledge, and therefore all his ac vi es result in present
misery, and a erwards he will go on toward animal life. Animal life is
always miserable, although, under the spell of the illusory energy, maya,
the animals do not understand this. Slaughtering poor animals is also
due to the mode of ignorance. The animal killers do not know that in the
future the animal will have a body suitable to kill them. That is the law of
nature. In human society, if one kills a man he has to be hanged. That is
the law of the state. Because of ignorance, people do not perceive that
there is a complete state controlled by the Supreme Lord. Every living
creature is a son of the Supreme Lord, and He does not tolerate even an
ant’s being killed. One has to pay for it. So indulgence in animal killing
for the taste of the tongue is the grossest kind of ignorance. A human
being has no need to kill animals, because God has supplied so many
nice things. If one indulges in meat‐ea ng anyway, it is to be understood
that he is ac ng in ignorance and is making his future very dark. Of all
kinds of animal killing, the killing of cows is most vicious because the
cow gives us all kinds of pleasure by supplying milk. Cow slaughter is an
act of the grossest type of ignorance. In the Vedic literature (Ṛg Veda
9.46.4) the words gobhiḥ prīṇita‐matsaram indicate that one who, being
fully sa sfied by milk, is desirous of killing the cow is in the grossest
ignorance. There is also a prayer in the Vedic literature that states:
namo brahmaṇya‐devāya
go‐brāhmaṇa‐hitāya ca
jagad‐dhitāya kṛṣṇaya
govindāya namo namaḥ
‘My Lord, You are the well‐wisher of the cows and the
brāhmaṇas, and You are the well‐wisher of the en re human society and
world.’ (Viṣhṇu Purāṇa 1.19.65) The purport is that special men on is
given in that prayer for the protec on of the cows and the brāhmaṇas.
Brāhmaṇas are the symbol of spiritual educa on, and cows are the
symbol of the most valuable food (Ahimsa milk); these two living

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