The Yoga of Guna Distinctions

 

Krishna continues his talk about distinctions, however, he shifts his focus specifically on the gunas (nature’s properties of creation, sustaining, and dissolution). Again, Krishna says after attaining supreme wisdom through experience, a person no longer needs to be reborn.

Nature (prakriti) is God’s womb. God places the seed of creation in this womb, and the birth of all beings arise. It is the three gunas, sattwa, rajas, and tamas, who are themselves born of nature, who bind the eternal Soul in the body.

Sattwa ― with the qualities of being transparent, luminous, and free from negativity ― binds the embodied Soul by attachment to the experiences of happiness and knowledge.

Rajas ― with the qualities of passion, thirst for pleasure, and attachment itself ― binds the embodied Soul through action.

Tamas ― with the qualities of ignorance, lethargy, and delusion ― binds the embodied Soul by illusion (covering wisdom), idleness (sloth), and sleep.

At various times, each guna will dominate one’s awareness. When the light of understanding radiates from the person, it is sattwa that predominates. When greed, hyper or excessive activity, enterprise, restlessness, or longing prevail, rajas prevails. And tamas outweighs when behaviors of darkness, inertia, illusion, and delusion are expressed.

A person’s future life will depend on the predominating guna at the time of death. Dying with the guidance of sattwa causes the person to attain a stainless region in the afterlife, where the highest knowers reside. If one dies during a predominately rajasic time, they will be reborn to a family and life of excess action. When death comes while a person is ruled by tamas, they will be born to dull-minded, people lacking the quality of reasoning.

When a wise person can see only the gunas as the ‘doers’ or ‘actors’ of life (i.e., that they are the only cause of action in the world), and simultaneously sees the Soul or God as that which is higher than the gunas, that person becomes one with God (Self-Realization). This person is freed from the endless cycle of birth and death as they realize their true immortal Soul.

This means a person who knows (though direct experience) that they are not doing their actions or any actions in the world, and also see God as above and beyond all actions of the gunas, they attain Self-Realization. In the Bhagavad Gita, this is an intellectual description of a very intimate, loving connection to God. It was apparently necessary to explain things to Arjuna by appealing to his mind.

Arjuna next asks, How do you tell if a person has attained Self-Realization; what are their personality characteristics; how do they go beyond the three gunas?

Krishna answers, A Self-Realized person neither craves nor hates any of the predominating gunas; they accept whatever guna is temporarily in charge.

Such a person sits like a witness to the activities of the gunas, without being shaken by their effects. The Self-Realized person has an even temperament when life brings pain or pleasure; they see a clump of mud and a handful of gold as the same; they act the same while being praised or being condemned. A person who has crossed beyond the three gunas will be seen to behave the same, whether being honored or dishonored, acting the same to friends or foes, and giving up selfish endeavors. Such a person serves God with unwavering devotion and attains Oneness with God (Brahman). God is the absolute, eternal dharma (righteous life-path), ever steady, absolute bliss.

The term guna has been used since the beginning of the book. In this chapter and in the upcoming chapters, there is specific and in-depth focus of the gunas. Still, gunas seem difficult to grasp from a Western point of view.

The best analogy I can find is that the gunas are like a movie projector or a DVD player. Imagine a dark room, where it seems that nothing exists. Then turning on the player, suddenly there is light, sound, and thoughts, ideas, and emotions. Horror movies produce fear in the viewer; thrillers cause tension; drama causes sadness; comedies create happiness.

If a person were to watch TV more than live their life, they would not be able to distinguish between what is real in the world and what is pretend. There are stories of people who have met actors and yelled at them for what their character did on TV or in the movies.

They did not realize that the actors were different from the roles they were playing.

So the gunas are like the movie projector. This world of objects, sounds, emotions, feelings ― all is simply a projection of the three gunas. In science fiction movies such as Star Trek, people engage in virtual reality, visiting fictitious places that are seemingly real.

Virtual reality is analogous to the gunas.

Beyond the gunas is the still, eternal no changing, ever-blissful Soul or God. This is why the Vedic texts admonish a person to know the source of the gunas and to live in that existence even while watching the movie called life that is a product of the gunas. Know the no changing truth, and the movie will never cause undue suffering. [Verse 1–27]

I shall again describe the supreme wisdom, the best of all knowledge, knowing which all the sages attained ultimate perfection. [1]

Following this wisdom, attaining my nature, one is neither reborn again during universal creation nor destroyed during universal destruction. [2]

O Arjuna, the entire nature is the womb into which I plant the seed that generates all of life. [3]

O Arjuna, whatever forms are produced from all the wombs, the great nature (prakriti) is the womb and I am the seed-bestowing father. [4]

O mighty-armed one, the qualities of goodness, passion, and ignorance (sattwa, rajas, tamas), produced by nature, enslave the unchangeable, embodied Soul in the body. [5]

O sinless one, of these, purity (sattwa) is transparent, resplendent, and healthy; attaches a person to happiness and attaches them to wisdom. [6]

O Arjuna, know that the quality of passion (rajas) causes desire for sense gratification and enslaves the embodied Soul by attachment to the results of actions. [7]

O Arjuna, understand tamas to develop from ignorance. It deludes all creatures and binds through illusion, lethargy, and sleep. [8]

O Arjuna, sattwa attaches one to happiness, rajas to sense pleasures, and tamas obscures wisdom, to illusion. [9]

O Arjuna, sometimes sattwa rules rajas and tamas, sometimes rajas dominates over sattwa and tamas; and sometimes tamas predominates over sattwa and rajas. [10]

When illuminating wisdom manifests through the bodily senses, know this to mean sattwa prevails. [11]

O Arjuna, when greed, excess action and enterprise for reward, restlessness, and longing are present, rajas rules. [12]

O Arjuna, when darkness, inertia, illusion, and delusion are prevalent, tamas is in control. [13]

When a body transitions to death predominated by sattwa, at that time they attain the highest regions of heaven. [14]

When a body dominated by rajas dies, one is next born among those attached to action.

When the body ruled by tamas dies, it is reborn in the animal kingdom. [15]

The return on virtuous actions is declared pure (sattwic). The return on actions based in desire (rajas) is pain. Foolishness is the return on actions based on ignorance (tamas). [16]

Wisdom grows from sattwa; greed from rajas; delusion and ignorance develop from tamas. [17]

Those living sattwa go upward; those living rajas dwell in the middle; and tamasic-living people go downward. [18]

When one sees there is no doer beyond the gunas, and knows the Supreme Lord that is higher than the gunas, then they realize My true nature. [19]

When the embodied being goes beyond the three gunas, from which the body grew, liberation from birth, death, decay, and pain results; attaining immortality. [20]

O Lord, what are the signs of one who has gone beyond the three gunas? What are their characteristics, and how do they go beyond the gunas? [21]

O Arjuna, those who are neither adverse to experiencing illumination (sattwa), excess action (rajas), or delusion (tamas), nor crave them when they disappear; [22]

who sits unconcerned, unmoved by the gunas, remaining firm in the knowledge that the gunas are the only agents of action; [23]

who remains equal in pain and pleasure, and sees a lump of earth, a stone, and gold alike, who wisely is the same in praise and blame; [24]

who remains unchanged in honor and dishonor; treating friend and foe alike; who has given up all selfish undertakings; they are said to have gone beyond the gunas. [25]

Those who, while surpassing the gunas, lovingly and continuously worship Me, realizes the onesness of life (Brahman). [26]

I am the home of Brahman, the unchangeable, immortal, eternal life purpose (dharma), and absolute bliss. [27]

Exercise

• Review the gunas as they prevail in your life (happiness/knowledge, hyper/longing, idle/sleep). Notice if they cause your mind and actions to become imbalanced — causing behavior you normally wouldn’t express if your ideal self was in charge. If you see an imbalance, do your best to regain balance and merely witness the guna’s effect.

Chapter 15

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