THE
HOLY GITA
CHAPTER
NUMBER 14
VERSE
NUMBER 05
GUNATRAYA
VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THE THREE GUNAS
TEXT
IN TRANSLITERATION
sattvam
rajas tama iti gunaah prakritisambhavaah
nibadhananti
mahaabaah dehe dehinam avyayam
SANSKRIT
WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH
sattvam
= Sattva
rajah
= Rajas
tamah
= Tamas
iti
= these
gunaah
= Gunas
prakriti
sambhavaah = born of Prakriti
nibadhanti
= bind
mahaabaaho
= O mighty-armed
dehe
= in the body
dehinaam
= the embodied
avyayam
= indestructible
TEXT
IN ENGLISH
Sattva,
Rajas, Tamas –these Gunas, O mighty-armed, born of Prakriti, bind the
indestructible embodied one fast in the body.
COMMENTARY
BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
The
Prakriti is made up of three Gunas. It should not be construed that just as
forms are superimposed on substances like gold, the Gunas are superimposed on
the Prakriti. Verily just as fire and its heat are one and the same, Prakriti
and the Gunas are identical. In tricolour printing, all the various hues and
shades are required for a colourful picture can be very effectively brought
out. Even so the entire Prakriti consists of the three Gunas. In substance they
are one while in expression they are three.
Prakriti
or Kshetra is dependent on the Kshetrajna. How can the Gunas bind him who is
the owner thereof? The fact is that the unfettered Atman seems as if fettered
due to ignorance. Wavelets in the water cause the reflection of the sun in it
to quiver. It is the reflection of the sun that trembles, but not the real sun.
In this manner, the reflected Atman seems to be in the shackles of the Gunas,
while actually neither the reflected Atman nor the original Atman in any way
gets bound.
The
characteristics of the three Gunas are delineated in the next verse.
COMMENTARY
BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
What
leads to the appearance of the immortal soul in the cycle of birth and death is
the power of the gunas or modes. They are “the primary constituents of nature
and are the bases of all substances. They cannot therefore be said to be
qualities inhering in these substances.” Anandagiri. They are called gunas,
because their emergence is ever dependent on the purusha of the Saamkhya or the
Kshetrajna of the Gita. The gunas are the three tendencies of prakriti or the
three strands making up the twisted rope of nature. Sattva reflects the light
of consciousness and is irradiated by it, and so has the quality of radiance
(prakaasa). Rajas has an outward movement (prakriti) and tamas is characterized
by inertia (apravrtti) and heedless indifference (pramaada). It is difficult to
have adequate English equivalents for the three words, sattva, rajas and tamas.
Sattva is perfect purity and luminosity while rajas is impurity which leads to
activity and tamas is darkness and inertia. As the main application of the
gunas in the Gita is ethical, we use goodness for sattva, passion for rajas and
dullness for tamas.
The
cosmic trinity reflects the dominance of one of the three modes, sattva in
Vishnu, the preserver, rajas in Brahma, the creator, and tamas in Shiva, the
destroyer. Sattva contributes to the stability of the universe, rajas to its
creative movement and tamas represents the tendency of things to decay and die.
They are responsible for the maintenance, origin and dissolution of the world.
The application of the gunas to the three aspects of the Personal Lord shows
that the later belongs to the objective or the manifested world. God is
struggling in humanity to redeem it and the godlike souls cooperate with him in
this work of redemption.
When
the soul identifies itself with the modes of nature, it forgets its own
eternity and uses mind, life and body for egoistic satisfaction. To rise above
bondage, we must rise above the modes of nature, become trigunaatitaa, then we
put on the free and incorruptible nature of spirit. Sattva is sublimated into
the light of consciousness, jyoti, rajas into austerity and tamas into
tranquility or rest, shanti.
COMMENTARY
BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Sattva
is the best. Rajas comes next. Tamas is the lowest and the worst. The three
qualities indicate the triple mentality. They produce attachment in the
individual souls, delude them and bind them down, as it were to Samsara. Just
as the three conditions of the childhood, youth and old age are found in the
same body, so also the three qualities inhere in the mind. The soul gets
limited by identifying itself with the body and the three qualities. It is
subject to birth and death and experiences happiness and misery, pleasure and
pain, joy and sorrow, till it realizes its identity with the Supreme Self.
The
word Guna is usually translated as ‘quality’. It does not signify property,
attribute or quality, such as the blue colour of a cloth. Gunas are really the
primary constituents of Nature and are the basis of all substances. Therefore
it is not proper to call them ‘qualities inhering in substances’.
If
you want to attain freedom or perfection, if you wish to become immortal, you
must rise above the modes of Nature. You must transcend the Gunas.
If
the water in the vessel is agitated, the reflected sun in the water also
appears to be agitated through Pratibimba Adhyasa (superimposition of
reflection on water). Even so the pure unchanging Self appears to be bound by
the qualities of Nature through superimposition. In reality the Self is ever
free and untainted. It is beyond them.
The
Gunas which are only forms of ignorance are ever dependent on the knower of the
field. They bind fast, as it were, the knower of the field. They have him as
the basis of their existence.
A
knowledge of the Gunas and their operation is very necessary. Only if you have
this knowledge can you free yourself from their clutches.
Mahabaho:
Mighty-armed with strong and sinewy arms reaching down to the knees. This is a
very auspicious sign. Yogis and sages have such beautiful arms.
These
three Gunas are present in all human beings. No one is free from the operation
of any one of the qualities of Nature. They are not constant. Sometimes Sattva
predominates; at other times Rajas or Tamas predominates.
Sattva
has the characteristics of effulgence. It is also harmony and goodness or
purity. Rajas is passion or activity. Tamas is inertia or darkness.
Analyse
all phenomena in terms of these three. Know their characteristics. Stand as a
witness of these three qualities. Do not identify yourself with them. Separate
yourself from them. Become a Gunatita. You will attain Supreme Peace,
immortality and eternal bliss.
Blogger’s
Comments:
Nature
is made up of these three Gunas. If
‘prakriti’ or Nature itself is made up of three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and
Tamas, how can Man, a product of Nature, as it were, escape the onslaught of
them, the three Gunas?
Indeed,
apart from the Rishis of ancient India, some other people in the medieval
period in the West were aware of them, as were the people in Tamil Nadu, who had
developed the system of medicine known as Ayurveda, who had understood the working of the three Gunas
by way of three ‘nadis’ (piththa nadi, vayu nadi and kaba nadi).
The
medieval people in the West called the Gunas not as ‘gunas’ and the number is
not restricted to three either. In medieval science in the West, people spoke about Four Humours. These humours
are different kinds of liquids in the body.
All people have these four liquids or humours, and there must be perfect
equilibrium among them. A person’s predominant character is determined by the
predominance of any of these four liquids. That is the cause for a person’s
character. But any one of these four humours may have an upper hand,
temporarily, in a man, and that is the reason why he is angry, humorous or sad, malevolent,
etc.
In
this sense, the Ayurvedic scientists in Tamil Nadu come close to the Medieval
people’s notion of ‘humour’ in the West. For the Ayurvedic scientists held -
and the system of medicine is holding its own even today in treating thousands
of patients in South India - there are three ‘nadis’ (subtle tubular
passages) in human bodies, namely, Piththa Nadi, Vayu Nadi and Kaba Nadi. There
must be perfect equilibrium among these three nadis. And when any one of these
three nadis becomes higher by getting more acute, then the person is said to be
ill and is suffering from a disease. For example, when the Kaba Nadi gets
affected and becomes virulent and acute in the human body, the person gets a common cold or, as the case may be, severe bronchial and chest infections
depending upon the affection in the Kaba Nadi. The Ayurveda and Siddha medicinal
systems speak of three Gunas. Moreover, they also knew that the ascendancy of
any of these particular Gunas was important to go through the day-to-day life.
For example, the Sattva Guna must be on the ascendant when we read, write, or
speak about higher ideals of life, or when we show devotion to God. The man
must be in an activated mode and thus have a preponderance of the Rajas, as when
he is indulging in any arduous activity either of the body or, importantly,
mind. For a Rajasic person is full of activities. And the ascendancy of the
Tamas in the human body is as important as the other Gunas! For example, when
it is bedtime, we must not be affected by Rajasic mentality, which will spoil
the quality and quantity of our sleep at night. So when it is time for us to go
to bed at the end of the day, we must have the ascendancy of the Tamasic Guna!
But
none can come anywhere near the ancient Indian Rishis in their innate
understanding of the working and dynamics of the three Gunas as also their nature.
They knew that, like the prakriti or Nature, man also is constituted of these
three Gunas. And that all these three Gunas inhere in Man, in every human
being, of course, in varying degrees. And that if there is no variation in
these three Gunas present in human beings, the consequences will be disastrous!
They knew that for a man to have moods,
temporary in nature, one of these three Gunas must be on the ascendant.
Not
only this, the ancient Indian Rishis understood, a man’s main and foremost
character is determined by the preponderance of one of these Gunas all the
time.
Of
course, all people have and must have all these three Gunas in their makeup.
Otherwise there would be no room and place and explanation for differing
characters of people. Each Guna must be present in each of us, in differing degrees. This factor is responsible
for the character of us. And the main or chief character of each of us is
determined by the preponderating Guna in us.
Furthermore,
there is a scientific explanation for why people have varying character and
characteristics. Not one person is like the other, see? If all the people are
Sattvic, life will become monotonous. If all the people of this world are
Rajasic in character, the world will be bustling with unending and tumultuous
activities, and there would be no peace of mind for anyone. And if
all people are affected by the preponderance of the Tamasic Guna, nothing would
be happening here in the world, for all of us will be in a continuous
somnolent mood and mode!
This
leads us to the same question: why do we have differing preponderances of the
Gunas?
The
ancient Indian Rishis of Hinduism hold the answer.
Neither
the three Gunas nor the fact of their existence in each of us in varying
degrees thus constituting our chief character CAN BE EXPLAINED otherwise than
in terms of THE DOCTRINE OF REINCARNATION! The Soul’s tendency to take and go
through countless re-births lies at the root of this matter.
How?
Hinduism
holds that man does not or cannot script his own emancipation in just one birth as a
human being. That even before he is born as a human being, he has to go through countless
births as animals and even subhuman beings. That is why, when man ultimately
comes to the earth as a human being, it is considered to be a milestone in the
course of his evolving into a perfect being fit to experience Brahman and
mingle in him. So human birth is very special! But being born as a human being
is no guarantee of automatic and immediate attainment of freedom from ‘samsara’, the
obligation to go through so many births and deaths.
There
are many ways of attaining ‘jnana ’, or the liberating wisdom. Hinduism speaks
of ‘artha’, ‘kama’, ‘dharma’ and ‘moksha’, four stages of development towards
emancipation in the case of ordinary worldly men and women. Artha means
amassing worldly riches, that is, within the bounds of dharmic laws.
Kama means the householder can enjoy what he has earned along with his family,
that too, within the bounds of dharma. Overindulgence is never allowed at any
stage. Dharma means conduct of the day-to-day life by a householder so that
he/she can enrich him/her self in dharma. And finally, Moksha, means the
attainment of freedom from the worldly life and realisation of one’s self.
For
others who are prepared to renounce the world in favour of a life in the forest
in contemplation of one’s self and meditation till the realisation of the soul,
there are meditative ways of life involving Yoga and Tapas.
So
everyone must work hard to escape the pulls and onslaught of ‘samsara’. Hinduism also contemplates the attainment of mukti, or emancipation, by gradation through many lives as human beings.
Thus
when a man lives out his entire life in this world, he becomes the author of many a
karma. He has produced many results of actions through his worldly exertions. So
at the end of the day, when he dies, he goes up with the effect of the totality
of his karma. From this mass of karma is produced his prarapdha karma. Prarapdha
karma is a conglomeration of his unexpended past karmas earned through past
lives (sanchitha karma), and the karmas
created by him in the present birth. At the end, when he dies, his ‘prarapdha
karma’ decides the kind of life he is going to have in the next birth. Not only
this, each and every important fact and factor of his future life, including his
place of birth and parentage, are predetermined by man’s ‘prarapdha karma’ that
has accrued to him till the time of his death. Thus, his prarapdha karma decides
where he will be born, whether as a man or woman, to whom, and in what surroundings, and the rest of the things.
Among
such things are what kind of differing Gunas he will have in the next birth, what will preponderate, and the ratio of the distribution of the Gunas in him
are predetermined by the prarapdha karma he earned in his previous life just before his death.
Thus,
friends, the Gunas are the direct result of the prarapdha karma of one’s own!!!
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