This chapter is called The Yoga of Distinction between the Three Gunas (of the Field), or The Forces of Evolution (from Prakriti to Purusha). This chapter further deepens our understanding of the distinction between the Knower and the Field by explaining the nature and qualities of the Field.
In Chapter XIII, Sri Krishna talked to Arjuna about the Field and the Knower of the Field, or Prakriti and Purusha. Here prakriti (matter, mind, energy and the constituents of nature) are explained. In modern science the study of biology, chemistry, quantum physics, neuroscience and psychology is comparable to studying the Gunas. This is the fabric of the universe which we as human phenomenal beings are part and parcel. Here the Gita explains how the three Gunas (constituents of nature) play a major role in keeping us occupied with the concerns of the body, the senses and the mind and bound to samsara (earthly existence) with its laws of Karmas and Samskaras. It is only when the Gunas are transcended does the jiva (combination of prakriti and Purusha) realize that he is really the eternal Purusha or Brahman, not the changing human body, mind or senses. These qualities are constantly changing and impermanent – at times, noble and triumphant, at times ignoble and unworthy.
Sri Krishna explains that there are two kinds of knowledge – intellectual knowledge, known as para and spiritual wisdom known as apara. “The distinction here is between what the Upanishads call para and apara: intellectual knowledge on the one hand, spiritual wisdom on the other. The purpose of intellectual knowledge is simply to know more, which can be useful. But the supreme purpose of spiritual wisdom is to take us beyond death,” beyond the field.
He again describes the three Gunas – Sattva, Raja and Tamas which go into the make of Prakriti or material nature. From its divine source, according to the scriptures, life evolves through the differentiating power of three forces. This theory of the three gunas, as they are called, is one of the most important concepts in the Gita. The gunas are the very fabric of prakriti. All that exists in the realms of matter, energy, and the mind can be described in terms of these three principles, forces, or qualities. They are as follows:
Sattva stands for law, harmony, balance, lightness,understanding, insight, wisdom
Rajas for energy, desire, attachment to “I, Me, Mine”, reactive
Tamas for inertia, lack of earnestness, indolence, fear, worry.
In personal terms, sattva can be looked upon as the door into the kingdom of joy and security that is our source, our home. Rajas then is the force we can harness to take us there; unharnessed, however, it takes us everywhere else. And tamas is the obstacle that blocks our way.”
All three Gunas are present in each of us and it is this combination that shapes our personalities. The Gunas are always shifting and changing in intensity. These Gunas or forces are like strands that make up the whole fabric of phenomenal life. The Gita tells us what the forces of personality are, so that we can reshape ourselves to be better equipped for our spiritual journey.
“Sattva, rajas, and tamas can be looked on as three stages in individual evolution. Those who are easily overcome by inertia, who procrastinate, who feel they have very little energy and cannot bring themselves to do anything worthwhile in life, whose actions say, “I don’t care; what does it matter?” – these are people in whom tamas is predominant. Those who have plenty of energy for compulsive activities, who are always “on the go” but with no particular direction, who have tempestuous passions but not the will to govern them, are people in whom rajas is predominant. And those who give their time and energy freely to help others, who are “slow to wrath” and quick to forgive, have attained sattva. They have released the energy latent in every human being and learned to harness it for the welfare of all.”
None of us, in other words, is cast in a rigid mold that limits our capacity to grow. We can change ourselves completely if we really want to. But we must have a strong enough desire to change the direction of our lives, to swim against the current of our conditioning. First we have to transform tamas to rajas – apathy into energetic, enthusiastic effort. This is the purpose of rajas: we have passions like anger, fear, and greed so that we can harness them all into the immense drive that is required to overcome the inertia of physical living. This is the power that will take us towards the goal of spiritual realization. But that is far from enough. We then have to transform rajas to sattva, channel all that passionate energy into selfless, not ego driven action. And finally, if we want to cut ourselves free from all conditioning, we have to go beyond the gunas completely.
As Sri Krishna says in Sloka 18 – 20 about the forces of evolution:
18. Those who live in sattva go upwards; those in rajas remain where they are. But those immersed in tamas sink downwards through their own inertia.”
19. The wise see clearly that all action is a product of the gunas. Knowing that which is above the gunas, they enter into union with me.
20. Going beyond the three gunas which form the body, they leave behind the cycle of birth and death, decrepitude and sorrow, and attain immortality.
When we go beyond the gunas, we are no longer limited by time, place, and circumstance. We become a beneficial force, as the immense power of the Self is released through us into the stream of life.
After that the ego can tug at them as long as it likes; it will not govern your responses.
As Sri Krishna continues about those who have transcended the Gunas:
22. They are unmoved by the harmony of sattva, the activity of rajas, or the delusion of tamas. They feel no aversion when these forces are active, nor do they crave for them when these forces subside.
23. They remain detached, undisturbed by the actions of the gunas. Knowing that it is the gunas which act, they abide within themselves and do not vacillate.
In practical language, those who transcend the gunas go beyond the pull of likes and dislikes.
Likes and dislikes makes us the puppets of our circumstances. When we are subject to total identification with likes and dislikes, desires and aversions, we are constantly hampered in our spiritual evolution.
The Gita talks the same way. Sri Krishna reminds us, “This is a battle.” If you want to live at the summit of life, free from conditioning it is not enough merely to transform rajas to sattva, which is a tremendous achievement in itself. Even in sattva thinking is conditioned, although our motives are purer. To be free we have to go beyond the gunas completely – beyond time, space, and circumstance, where the mind is completely stilled and the ego disappears. According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, “ yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind”. You are now beyond Prakriti. Krishna states that such a person is detached from the constant shifting and interaction of the Gunas. Identified with the Self, he or she realizes that the Gunas and their play are external. Even the emotions and thoughts that seem so personal, so interior, are really only the play of prakriti. The thoughts and emotions that disturb ahamkara (the ego self) stop at the gate of the inner Self. The Self abides in the inner chamber of the heart always at peace whatever forces of prakriti may storm outside. The illumined man or woman stands in equanimity like a “lotus leaf on water, in the world, but not of the world”.
Various Excerpts From: Eknath Easwaran. “The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living.”
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