Three Types of Gunas(Qualities)

        

      

    Sattva Guna

Sattva is luminous and stainless,when Sattva comes to dominate as the most important influence in our thought-life,it is always luminous because of its purity.It has neither dull colours of Rajas,nor the dark impurities of Tamas.Under the Sattvic -influence ,the mind is steady,reflecting ever faithfully, consciousness,the self(Atama).Sattva is free from evil,i,e healthy -evil tendencies must rise in the mind long before the action expressing the same is committed in the world outside, as the thought ,so the actions.Thus,the evil starts germinating in the mental world.We call that evil whereby we try to satisfy the appetites of the flesh,the selfish agitations of the mind and the egocentric desires of our head.Egocentric self-gratifications is the womb from which all evils are born.Such low impulses and confusions can arise when the mind is under the influences of Rajas and Tamas.Therefore,what is implied here is that Sattva is free from all evils.

Though,Sattva is thus the most divine mental attitude,still it binds us and acts as limitation on our divine nature .when the mind is purified from all its agitations(Rajas) and the intellect is cleansed of its low passions and criminal lusts(Tamas),no doubt ,the personality becomes purified,experiencing a greater share of  inward peace and happiness,and enjoys a greater share of subtle understanding and intellectual comprehension.But even these can create bondage on freedom of the absolute self(Atama).A gold -chain,if sufficiently strong can also bind as any iron-chain.'Goodness' though it gives us freedom from all vulgarities ,can also shackle us within its own limitations.A perfect one, absolutely free ,is bound neither by goodness nor evil.

Consciousness ,the pervading principle of awareness,expressed as the self(Atama),In each one of us ,does not directly  comprehend(judge) any object or idea in the world outside.what we generally understand as intelligence is the internal light of consciousness,reflected in our mind-intellect  equipment.Naturally therefore,the capacity to perceive the world intelligently differs from person to person because in no two persons of us the inner equipment can be the same.

The reflection  in the reflecting medium (mirror) will depend entirely upon the cleanliness and steadiness of the medium.If the mind is clean and intellect steady,a more efficient intelligence is manifested.Thus ,whenever a given mind is in an inspiring and creative mood.it is actually intelligent and it is capable of taking longest flight into the area of wisdom.On all such occasions of vast knowing and deep understanding,the inner equipment is under the influence of Sattva Guna,Wherein the agitations created by Rajas and Tamas, do not express themselves.

Sattva Guna also binds the infinite to matter through the attachment to 'knowledge' and 'happinees'.when once one has experienced the thrilling  joys of creative thinking and the inspiring life of goodness and wisdom,one gets so attached to them that he/she will thereafter sacrifice anything around in order to live constantly in that subtle joy. A true scientist ,working  self-dedicating in the laboratory ,a painter working at his canvas in his shabby studio,or a poet hunted from the society living in public parks,seeking his own joy in his own vision and words .All are the examples of how ,having known the subtler thrills of a higher joy ,when a person is inspired with Sattva Guna,the individual becomes as much bound with attachment to the creativity , happiness and joy.

Now let us understand diagnosis of 'Rajas Gunas' when it comes to play it's havoc in the human personality (bosom)

  

                   Rajsic  Gunas

  A  seeker ,who is striving to conquer his own mind must know all its subtle inclinations by which ,again and again,his thoughts run only to return and increasingly sabotage his inner personality.Rajas Gunas is the nature of passion where there is an onslaught of Rajaguna influences in the personality ,man's mind is conquered (wrecked) with a hundred painful passions.Passions are the main symptoms of the working of Rajaguna in psychological field.Passion expresses itself in a million different urges ,desires,emotions and feelings,Yet, all of them can fall only under two distinct categories; desires and attachments.Thus ,in Geeta ,it is mentioned that these two are the very source from which all passions arise and give rise to thirst and attachments-the term used in Sanskrit for 'desire'is "ichha".When an individual is thirsty , nothing for the time being,is of as much importance as water,which alone can satisfy his thirst.Just as a thirsty man would struggle and suffer,wanting nothing but water to relive his pangs,so Will a human personality thirsts for the satisfaction of every desire that burns him down.Once the desire is fulfilled a sense of attachment comes like a vicious passion to smoother down all the peace and joy of the mind.Desire is our mental relationship towards 'object' which has not yet been acquired by us and ATTACHMENT is the mental slavishness binding us to the objects so acquired.

These two-Desire for acquisition of things and creation of situations which are expected to yield a certain quota of personal happiness and sense of clinging and Attachment to things already acquired-are the volcanoes that constantly throw up their molten lava to raze the smiling fields of life.The burning lava that is emitted by these fiery mountains, comprising the various passions that man expresses in his sensual life,makes up the struggles to acquire,to possess and to guard what is already gained.It binds fast the spirit by attachment to action-when once an individual has come under the influence of Rajas,he expresses innumerable desires and bound in his own attachments,he lives on in the world manifesting a variety of passions.Such a passionate being -goaded(urges) by his desires for things not yet acquired and crushed under the weight and responsibilities of his attachments to things that he possesses-can never keep quite but must necessarily act on endlessly earning and spending and yet thirsting for more and more.Anxious to have more,fearing to lose,he becomes entangled in the joys of his success,involved in the pangs of his failures,and lives as chained by his own actions.

Actions are born of passions.Passions arises from desires and attachments.And all these are symptoms of presence of Rajas Guna-influences upon our mind.Thus ,Sattva guna binds us with its own anxieties for happiness and peace, wisdom and knowledge as has been said previously,Rajas guna also seemingly binds the infinite self(spirit) to  matter-vestures(covering) and makes it play the part of a limited being through an endless array of inexhaustible actions.Though the self(Atama) is not an agent (actor),Rajas guna makes it act with the idea"I AM THE DOER'.

TAMAS Gunas also helps to bind the divine(Atama)to the mortal(body)flesh.

                         TAMAS GUNAS

Tamas is born of 'IGNORANCE'-under the influence of Tamas man's intellectual capacity to discriminate between right and wrong gets hidden(veiled) and he starts acting as if under some mental disorder(hallucination) or intoxication (drinker).In Geeta,it is said that Tamas,in human being,binds it to its lower nature by providing it with endless misconceptions and miscomprehensions of the true divine purpose of life,which naturally ,forces one in that condition to live in indolence,heedless of higher purposes.one thereafter lives ever asleep to the nobler and divine aspirations of life.There is no consistency of purpose, brilliance of thought ,tenderness of emotions,or nobility of action in an individual who comes under the contamination of the Tamas guna -influences.

So far,the symptoms which are observed in our mental life when these Gunas pollute over inner personality (tranquility) are mentioned .These three Gunas not only bring about different amounts of divine brilliance in a given individual but also limit the Eternal self(Atama),in all perfection ,to feel and act as though it is limited and conditioned by matter -envelopments.

Sattva Gunas attaches itself to happiness-An individual ,who has experienced the thrills of creative moments in life-a scientist,an artist,a poet,or for that matter any independent thinker-will not ever like to come down to the passionate world of Rajas,or into the dark sorrows of Tamas.Sattva makes us attached to the inward happiness, arising from life fully lived.

Rajas Guna to action -if ,on the other hand ,one is under the influence of Rajas,it makes one naturally passionate with hundreds of thirsty'desires' and deep attachments and in the course of their fulfillments,one is made to sweat and toil in the fields of endless activities.

Tamas Gunas-delusion of  knowledge attaches one to heedlessness-when Tamas comes to play ,by its own nature,it covers (veils) right judgements, and in the resultant indiscrimination, we get attached to wrong comprehensions. We become heedless to the calls of the higher in us.