tri-vidhākṛtayas tasya
rākṣasā asurāḥ surāḥ
guṇinyā māyayā sṛṣṭāḥ
sattvaḿ tat tīrtha-sādhanam
tri-vidha -- of three kinds; akritayah -- forms; tasya -- of His; rakshasah -- the ignorant spirits; asurah -- the demons; surah -- and the demigods; guninyah -- qualified by the material modes; mayaya -- by His material energy; srishtah -- created; sattvam -- the mode of goodness; tat -- among them; tirtha -- of success in life; sadhanam -- the means of attainment.
The Lord expands into three kinds of manifest beings -- the Rakshasas, the demons and the demigods -- all of whom are created by the Lord's material energy and conditioned by her modes. But among these three modes, it is the mode of goodness which is the means of attaining life's final success.
In Krishna Srila Prabhupada writes, "There are different kinds of people existing in the modes of material nature. Those who are in the mode of ignorance are called rakshasas, those in the mode of passion are called asuras [demons], and those in the mode of goodness are called suras, or demigods. Under the direction of the Supreme Lord, these three classes of men are created by material nature, but those who are in the mode of goodness have a greater chance to be elevated to the spiritual world, back home, back to Godhead."
