PREDOMINANCE OF GUNAS(QUALITIES)

As explained before the three qualities (Gunas) are born of Prakriti(nature) and are always present together in living beings.The mental faculty of the individual,actions of his past life and the way he acquires in this life determine which one of these qualities (Gunas) will gain ascendancy (upper hand) by suppressing the other two.when this happens,the individual operates under the influence of dominant quality and behaves as outlined above.It may ,however ,be understood that the influence of the other two qualities also be there.The extent of this influence will depend upon how dominant is the prevailing quality.This can provide infinite variations in the resultant effects of the three qualities and explains the great diversity in human behaviour.As a first approximation, one can say that when Sattva Guna prevails by suppressing Rajas and Tamas, attachment of knowledge and happiness results.when the Rajas gets the upper hand by dominating over Sattva and Tamas Gunas,greed desire and lust takes over.The dominance of Tamas Guna over Sattva and Rajas obscure(no clarity) the knowledge and results in ignorance,sleep, laziness and carelessness.

But how are we to know when a particular 'Guna' is predominating over the other Gunas.

    Predominance of Sattva                          Guna

When through every gate(sense)in this body,the light of intelligence shines-The apertures of physical structure through which the perceived world of object enters us ,are the windows-of-knowledge,the sense-organs.Through these holes,the light-of-awareness goes out,as it were,to illuminate the various objects of the world.The knowledge pouring out through the eyes becomes the power of vision and illumines all forms and colors of the world.The same eternal awaeness ,through the ears,which cannot illuminate form,brings within comprehension the world of sound around.So too,the divine light of consciousness beaming out through,the tongue illumines the taste.It must be the experience of all that while we perceive something and efficiently illuminating it.we are really in a state of Sattva Guna,at this moment.If there be at the time of Rajas and Tamas in us ,our perception is hampered.Thus,the more often and more completely we go beyond Rajas and Tamas,and thereby make our personality full of Sattva,the more grows our capacity to observe,to analyze,to understand and to become aware of the world outside and judge it correctly.

The mechanism of knowing the world outside is the intellect, and the consciousness,reflected in the intellect,is the light of intelligence by which we illuminate the world of ideas,feelings and objects available in our life.The sunlight outside never comes directly to a room to illuminate the things in the room.It is always the light of sun reflected .on the walls that  illuminates a cozy room.Similarly, the light of consciousness, reflected in the intellect, is the beam of light that illumines the world of objects.The Gunas influence under which the mind and intellect work.It is very well known that a clean and steady reflecting medium will reflect more efficiently than an unsteady,unclean surface.Rajas and Tamas Gunas create agitations and make the intellect unsteady.Naturally,the greater the proportion of Rajas and Tamas in a personality,the lesser will be it's quota of intelligence.Therefore ,it is highly scientific to say that at the moment of knowing the world one's personality (bosom) is in its pure Sattvic -mood.

           Predominance of                          Rajsic Guna

Greed,activity,unrest,longing-enumerating the thoughts and motives that rise up in a mind in which Rajas Gunas dominates.Greed is the inexhaustible desires to appropriate the property of others,an appetite which has the tendency of growing more in volume as we satisfy it.All activities motivated by extreme egoism, understanding with the intention to fulfill and satisfy the egocentric and therefore ,the selfish desires.Restlessness is another type of experience that is lived through by a Rajsic Personality.Because of restlessness,the individual fails to enjoy quietude.To a large extent these three Gunas are interconnected,and each successive one can be seen to have risen from the previous tendency.Greed must make the greedy  vary active indeed and when an activity motivated by greed is undertaken.it expresses in selfishness and once a man enters such a field of selfish activities-in his anxiety for the results,in his mental agitations -he creates a set of unhealthy circumstances around him and gets dragged towards their centre,where he is led to penetrate more and more bitter cruelties,base immoralities and bloody crimes and his inner quietude gets completely shattered,He experiences extreme unrest.Naturally ,one who is in this condition of mind , sweating and laboring in the outer fields with a heart poisoned by Rajas,must come under the sway of endless longings-for things not yet accomplished,for objects not yet acquired ,for profits not yet gained.

          Predominance of                              Tamas Gunas:

Dullness, inertness, heedlessness and delusion,when these symptoms are recognized by an individual in himself,the seeker can take it that he is suffering from Tamas.Dullness is that condition for the intellect where it is incapable of arriving at any decision,a state when a sort of drowsiness covers (veils) the potentialities of one's intelligence and makes it impossible for one to disciminate between right and wrong.The tendency to escape all responsibilities and the sense of incapacity   to undertake and endeavor and lack of enthusiasm to strive for and achieve anything in the world-is the state of inaction.The energy is dormant,capacity is gone,and thereafter,eating and sleeping alone becomes the individual's main occupation in life.He not only becomes incapable of responding to the good or bad in him but also slowly sinks into delusions. He miscalculates the world around him,misinterprets his own possibilities and always makes mistakes in determining his relationship with the world around.When thus,an individual fails to understand rightly himself,the world outside ,and his own right relationship with the world around him,the life becomes an error-his very existence a sad mistake.