Rising Above The Three Gunas
Divine Life
Society Publication: Commentary
on the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
What do the gunas do? What is their effect on a
person? When a particular guna is
preponderating in a person, what happens to that person?
When sattva has the upper hand in us, we
feel satisfied, contented, relieved, and happy. When rajas is preponderating, we feel
like getting up and doing this work and that work, and never want to sit quiet.
When tamas is predominating, we have no
idea as to what to do and what not to do. There is confusion about the pros and
cons of things. There is no proper judgment as to the way any step has to be
taken in a given direction; and even if some step is taken, it will be a wrong
step and it will end in some fumbling and catastrophic conclusion. This is what
tamas does. Sattva leads to happiness and
satisfaction, rajas to intense activity, and tamas to ignorance and inability to
decide what is proper and what is improper.
No particular guna can be operating always in any
person. They have a cyclic movement, as it were. Partly due to their fickleness
and partly due to some karmas that a
person has done in a previous birth, certain gunas operate for
a shorter period or a longer period; but no guna can operate
continuously throughout the life of a person. There is a coming and going of
the gunas.
When sattva rises up into action, it
suppresses rajas and tamas for the time being. When rajas rises into action, it
suppresses sattva and tamas for the time being. When tamas is predominant, it suppresses
rajas and sattva. It doesn’t mean that the
suppressed qualities are destroyed. They are only made inoperative for the time
being on account of the vehemence of the activity of a particular guna. Why they should be so very predominant
at a particular time in the case of an individual is difficult to explain,
except in terms of the karmas of the
past – because in some cases a guna may be there
for a fraction of a moment, or it may there for days; but why this difference?
This has to be attributed to what one has done in the previous birth. Anyway,
the principle behind the operation of the three gunas
is that when one is active, the other two are inactive.
When all the sense organs are
in a kind of radiance, as it were, there is brightness in the face; there is a
kind of composure in the personality of an individual, and there is a kind of
calm and quiet aura around that person. If this is recognized in any
individual, we must conclude that sattva is
predominant in that person. There will be sparkling of the eyes, clarity of
perception, radiance of face, and perspicuity even in speaking and expression.
When rajas becomes active, there is
greed in the mind of a person. There is a sense of possessiveness: “I want
this, I want that,” and the person is never satisfied with anything. The more
we have, the still more we want; that is called greed, and it is one of the
characteristics of rajoguna. Always
starting new projects but not being able to bring them to conclusion, never
ceasing activity, and going on creating occasions for activity till the end of
one’s life – with desire at the back of all these projects of action – these
are supposed to be the basic qualities of rajoguna.
When tamas predominates, what happens?
There is no light in front of oneself. There is no radiance or hope on the
horizon at all and, therefore, there is no inclination to do anything. There is
an inactive tendency in the person. As mentioned already, there is always the
committing of mistakes whenever any kind of initiative is taken. There is
delusion at the back of all these things. That is the essential nature of tamoguna.
If a person leaves this body
while sattva is predominant, then that
person reaches higher worlds such as heaven, and even regions above heaven. But
if a person dies while rajas is
predominant in the mind, he is then reborn into conditions of intense labor,
work and attachment. If one dies while tamas is
predominant, he will be reborn in a subhuman species as some kind of animal;
and even if he is born as a human being, he will be a non-utilitarian
individual with no understanding and no consciousness of the purpose of life –
the kind of person who is usually called idiotic.
The result of meritorious
deeds, which are sattvic in
nature, is purity, internal illumination, and satisfaction. If actions are rajas-ridden, pain is the result
that follows. If actions are done under the influence of tamas, there is some increase in
one’s own ignorance. This is because every action done under the influence of tamas, because of its being
motivated by ajnana or ignorance, will be only
capable of producing an effect which will be another form of ajnana.
Knowledge arises through sattva. Intellectuality,
rationality, understanding, education, wisdom – all these are qualities of sattva. Greed is the quality of rajas. Ajnana (ignorance) and the
inability to do anything with a consciousness of the effect of the action are
results of tamoguna prakriti.
Those who live in a state of sattva and depart while sattva is preponderating go to
higher worlds. Those with rajoguna pravritti
and those who die when the rajoguna pravritti
is predominant will be reborn into this world. Those who are predominantly tamasic and die while tamas is preponderating will be
born in regions lower than the earth. The scriptures call them nether regions.
When a person with his eye of
wisdom sees that all the drama of life is only a performance of the three gunas, and nobody does anything
anywhere except the three gunas, and knows
at the same time there is something above the three gunas
– such a person attains to unity with Brahman. Nanyam
gunebhah kartaram yada drashtanupasyati, gunebhyas cha param vetti madbhavam
so’dhigacchati (14.19): “He attains to Me, attains union with Me in
my Eternal State provided that there is a vision perpetually maintained by that
person that there is no actor in this world, no performer of deeds other than
the three gunas of prakriti, and one’s own real self
is transcendent, above the three gunas. Such a
person is liberated even while in this life itself.”
Excerpts from:
Commentary on the
Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
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