Studying the Bhagavad-Gita, Part 3:
The Gunas
by Alex Rau
All Nature is but a reflection of the Divine ALL, Parabrahman (1). At the beginning of the Day of Brahma, as the Universe awakes, It draws upon the unmanifested Substance of Parabrahman - Mulaprakriti (2). It makes of this Wholecloth a garment with which It dresses Itself. Mulaprakriti is now prakriti differentiated. Its latent qualities, in Sanskrit - gunas, are now manifest and trine: sattva, rajas, and tamas.
Citing S. Radhakrishnan and C.A. Moore in A Sourcebook In Indian Philosophy (3), sattva is defined as potential consciousness, rajas as the source of activity, and tamas as the source of that which resists activity. G. de Purucker in his Occult Glossary (4) defines sattva as being the quality of truth and goodness, rajas as that of passion and longing, and tamas - darkness and ignorance, but also rest, passivity and inertia. Both sources liken the gunas to threads inextricably interwoven through the fabric of Nature, not existing apart, but now one and then another in ascendancy, coloring the weft accordingly.
Given the above definitions, the casual reader might say, “Well then, if the sattva guna is consciousness and goodness and truth, then we should all be striving to exhibit only that quality.” Yet in Chapter II of the Bhagavad-Gita (5), Krishna tells Arjuna “Be thou free from these (three) qualities...”, and then, paradoxically, in the next sentence tells him to be constant in the quality of Sattva! What is the meaning of this disparity? It requires a closer look.
In “Studying the Bhagavad-Gita Pt. 2 - What is right action?” (6), we discussed in part the discrimination of the kshetra (material nature) from kshetrajna (spiritual man). Kshetra translates literally as “the field”, kshetrajna as “the field knower”. This kshetra, this “field” is prakriti, the manifested substance of the divine; it is Nature. Kshetrajna is the other half of manifested duality - that which knows; Purusha (7), the Divine Man. For there to be an Object, there must be a Subject to observe it, to bring it into Being. Nature alone cannot form itself into the Universe. It has not the consciousness nor the volition to do so. It is Iswara (8), the awakened Logos, which looks upon Parabrahman and perceives and objectifies it as Mulaprakriti. And it is Parabrahman acting through the Logos as the force or energy called Daiviprakriti (9) which enables the Logos to impress Its thought upon this Divine Matter. This thought changes the balance of the gunas thus starting the process of evolution. That is, we could say that the Universe had been in a state of tamas or rest, and upon receiving the focused attention of the awakened Logos, it moved into a state of rajas or activity. And now we, humanity, and all manifested entities of our present globe, having passed the halfway point in our evolution, are moving collectively towards a state of sattva, the culmination of which will be our reabsorption back into Parabrahman.
As we see from the larger view, each of the gunas has its appropriate place and function and need not hold a positive or negative connotation. In manifestation, it is appropriate and necessary that rajas be in ascendancy as it is action which allows that we and all Nature exist. Quoting the Bhagavad-Gita - Chapter III, Krishna tells Arjuna:
“There is nothing, O son of Pritha, in the three regions of the universe which it is necessary for me to perform, nor anything possible to obtain which I have not obtained; and yet I am constantly in action. If I were not indefatigable in action, all men would presently follow my example... If I did not perform actions these creatures would perish; I should be the cause of confusion of castes, and should have slain all these creatures.”
Krishna goes on to say that unlike the ignorant who act according to desire for gain, the wise man should act without self-interest, in an effort to benefit the world. It is the delusion of ignorance which prompts us to think “I am the actor”, and to attach ourselves to the results of those acts. The True Self does not act. Being one with Parabrahman, It has all and is needful of nothing. It is the material nature which acts according to the influence of the gunas. The wise man however, should not act to shake the faith of those less knowledgable or cause them to stop performing good actions. Krishna assures Arjuna that he who constantly strives to do his proper duty with firm faith will be freed even by actions. And what is man’s duty? To return to our former question, how is one to be constant in the quality of sattva while still performing action, the attribute of rajas?
In Chapter III there is a somewhat cryptic reference to the Vedas (10):
“Beings are nourished by food, food is produced by rain, rain comes from sacrifice, and sacrifice is performed by action. Know that action comes from the Supreme Spirit who is one; wherefore the all-pervading Spirit is at all times present in the sacrifice.”
It is easy enough to understand the first two ideas, but what of the third? If we are not to relegate this speech to some archaic priestcraft warning the people to remain faithful to the prescribed religious rites, then we must try to understand what is meant by this word ‘sacrifice’. The Sanskrit word is ‘yajnas’, translated in Winthrop Sargeant’s edition of the Bhagavad-Gita as sacrifice or worship. Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary defines sacrifice as “an act or action of making an offering of animal or vegetable life, of food, drink, or incense, or of some precious object to a deity or spiritual being”; or, alternately, the “giving up of some desirable thing in behalf of a higher object.” The sacrifice then is in the giving up of the attachment to one’s actions. To offer up to the God within our likes, our dislikes; the results of all our actions. Quoting Krishna in Chapter V:
“Whoever in action dedicates his actions to the Supreme Spirit and puts aside all selfish interest in their result is untouched by sin... The man who is devoted and not attached to the fruit of his actions obtains tranquillity; whilst he who through desire has attachment for the fruit of action is bound down thereby....For those enjoyments which arise through the contact of the senses with external objects are wombs of pain, since they have a beginning and an end...”
Now allowing that the sacrifice referred to could mean our own giving up of personal desires, in what way can this sacrifice produce the rain? The simplest answer to this is: through karma. The word ‘karma’ itself translates - action, (incidentally, explaining the fourth part of the Vedic reference: “sacrifice is performed by action”). Every thought, word, and act is karma. Through these thoughts and actions, we, the entities of this globe, collectively and literally have built our world around ourselves. It is our choice whether our collective construction is harmonious or discordant. Do we strive to bring the rain or the drought?
Some schools of thought ask at this point why are we striving at all - that the quickest way to enlightenment is through withdrawal from all worldly influences and a renunciation of action. This, I believe, would be devoting oneself exclusively to the quality of sattva to which Krishna answered “Be thou free from these qualities, O Arjuna!”. A desire for enlightenment for oneself is also a kind of selfishness, and perhaps there is the danger here also, of falling under the influence of tamas, which is indifference as well as passivity. The Irish author and playwright, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) once said: “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: That’s the essence of inhumanity.”
One can, however, act in the quality of sattva, as Krishna says: “...free from worldly anxiety and the desire to preserve present possessions, self-centered and uncontrolled by objects of mind or sense.”(11) If we are not swayed this way or that by the currents of life around us, we are free to follow the harmony of the Spirit. If we are not focussed on self, the personal self, and its myriad desires, then we are free to give our whole attention to the benefit of the world.
Again in Chapter III, another difficult passage follows the one about sacrifice:
“He who, sinfully delighting in the gratification of his passions, doth not cause this wheel thus already set in motion to continue revolving, liveth in vain, O son of Pritha.”
What can this mean? Is not our ultimate goal to get off the revolving wheel of incarnation? Yet Krishna is saying we live in vain if we do not play our part in keeping the wheel going. The answer is there in the phrase “this wheel thus already set in motion.” The universe is cyclical, awake and well into its cycle of rajas. We have, all of us, as a collective entity, built it out of the primal stuff of Parabrahman, each aspect, each thing and entity exhibiting its own nature, its own individual blend of the gunas within the whole. We are responsible for what we have created down to the most insignificant thought-entity. It is the philosophy of the Gita that the highest good is in the giving up of the personal self for the sake of the whole. It is not necessary, Krishna tells Arjuna, nor even absolutely desirable that man withdraw from the world of action in his efforts to unite with the Supreme Spirit. It is necessary, rather, that he recognize that the agents of action are the gunas which belong to Nature and that the Supreme Self is that which transcends Nature, contains it yet is without attributes; is changeless and without beginning or end. And yet each of us in our manifested natures exhibits our own unique combination of qualities which affect how we view and interact with our world; tools given us to work with. It is Krishna’s advice to examine these; to see what is the highest purpose we can put these particular tools to work doing. Though we may feel impatience or dissatisfaction in performing the duties Nature sets before us, it is we ourselves who have constructed these lives we lead, having built them act by act and from life to life. Only we can live our own lives. Quoting Krishna:
“It is better to do one’s own duty, even though it be devoid of excellence, than to perform another’s duty well. It is better to perish in the performance of one’s own duty; the duty of another is full of danger.” (12)
If we perform our duties in the true spirit of sacrifice, then all acts will be in harmony with the Divine. If we are in harmony, there is no need to give anxious thought to our release from the cycle, it is inevitable. But greater still is selfless devotion to all humanity just as the many great sages and avataras have done. We need not fear that the universe will not reach its culmination in sattvic bliss, that “the wheel in motion” will not cease its spinning. This also is inevitable. The present great cycle will come to a close in some distant future and all will be reabsorbed into Parabrahman once more; tamas will reign again. But we can affect the overall outcome in this way. We can work to bring about an even greater harmony in the universe, helping to speed the evolution of all creatures and insuring that we and they reach the highest level of growth of which we are capable in this age.
(1) Parabrahman - the Absolute All. It is neither being nor not-being; without attributes or boundaries, without beginning or end. Contained within It are two main aspects: abstract undifferentiated Substance, (Mulaprakriti in the Sanskrit), and Unconditioned Consciousness or Iswara. (back)
(2) Mulaprakriti - a Sanskrit compound of mula (root) and prakriti (nature). It is that aspect of Parabrahman which is primordial matter. Undifferentiated and without form until impressed with the thought of primal Consciousness which builds the universe of Its Substance. (back)
(3) Princeton University Press, 1957 (back)
(4) Theosophical University Press - 2nd Revised Edition, 1996 (back)
(5) All Gita quotes are taken from Bhagavad-Gita Recension by W. Q. Judge, Theosophical University Press, 1978 (back)
(6) See Kali Yuga Rag - Winter 1998/1999 issue (back)
(7) Purusha - the Divine Man; (W. Q. Judge’s definition): the aspect of the individual spirit in every human breast; it is the cause of our experiencing pain and pleasure through the connection with nature found in the body. (back)
(8) Iswara - Unconditioned Consciousness; the Logos. The other aspect of Parabrahman which is unborn and eternal, residing in the All in a latent state until the Day of Brahma when It awakes and perceiving Parabrahman, objectifies it as Mulaprakriti and thus unfolds the universe from within Itself. (back)
(9) Daiviprakriti - the Divine light of the Logos. According to T. Subba Row, it brings about the first manifestation of Parabrahman - a Trinity consisting of Mulaprakriti, Iswara and Daiviprakriti - or matter, consciousness or ego, and force (from Notes On The Bhagavad-Gita - Theosophical University Press, 2nd edition 1978). This Divine Light is the same force as the Sophia of the Gnostics and the Holy Ghost of the Christians and the Fohat of esoteric Buddhism. It is the force of Daiviprakriti sent by Parabrahman through the Logos which impresses Divine Thought upon Mulaprakriti thus building the Universe. (back)
(10) The Vedas - ancient texts which are the foundation of Hindu religion, generally believed to have been written between 1,500 - 1,000 BCE or by oral tradition - 6000 BCE. (back)
(11) Bhagavad-Gita Chapter II (back)
(12) Bhagavad-Gita Chapter III (back)