Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Seventy-two–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

The Three Gunas–Part One

In Chapter Three the subject of the gunas was introduced. They were briefly mentioned in Chapter Four, and now this fourteenth chapter is devoted to them.

Highest wisdom

The first two verses are reminiscent of others we have encountered already: “Once more I shall teach you that uttermost wisdom: the sages who found it were all made perfect, escaping the bonds of the body. In that wisdom they lived, made one with my holy nature: now they are not reborn when a new age begins, nor have they any part in its dissolution.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:1, 2)

Simplistic, linear (two dimensional) thinking characterizes Western thought, including religion. In some instances the entire range of their beliefs can be summed up in a moderate-sized paragraph. Neatly tied up theological and philosophical packages are the delight of the Western mind. As I. K. Tamini points out in The Science of Yoga, there is little interest in the reality of the theories as long as they “hang together,” are “logical,” and “sound right.” The competing Western ideologies are empty packaging, hollow boxes whose appeal lies only in their external impression. As the prophet said: “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so.” (Jeremiah 5:30, 31)

In contrast we have the rich, multilevel, and wide-embracing philosophies of the East, philosophies that are demonstrable, whose esoteric principles are proven by the observable changes in those that fulfil them. Much of the time they appear inconsistent, even contradictory, but that is a characteristic of reality itself. They often say the same thing about differing subjects. For example, in Hinduism all the sahasranamavalis (collections of one thousand titles) addressed to various deities declare each of them to be the only true deity, and a great deal of the same titles are attributed to them all. It is, furthermore, usual for a Hindu to recite several of these over a period of time without any unease whatsoever. I have known yogis who would say: “The one thing you need is…,” and then name differing things at different times. Of course. Eastern religion does not “make sense” it IS sense, and it makes the adherent sensible.

More than once already, Krishna has stated his intention to give us the highest wisdom. And has spoken differently each time. Now he does it again, but giving us an understanding of what true wisdom really does for the wise.

Prabhavananda’s translation is very interpretive, though exactly correct in its interpretation. The literal meaning is: “I shall further declare the highest knowledge, the best of all knowledge, having known which all the sages have gone from here to supreme perfection.” However, we should look at Prabhavananda’s insightful rendering more closely.

Once more I shall teach you. He is introducing a virtually new subject, yet he says: “once more I shall teach you,” because all that has gone before (and will be coming after) is a expression of the One Truth.

Uttermost wisdom. Beyond this wisdom there is simply nothing more to be known, because Wisdom and Brahman are the same. That is, Truth is not a set of intellectual ideas, but Reality Itself. When someone asked Shankara: “What is Truth [Satya]?” he answered: “There is no such thing as Truth, there is only The True [Sat].” This is because Shankara was a yogi, not a mere philosopher, and he knew that “open vision direct and instant” (Bhagavad Gita 9:1) was the only thing that really mattered.

The sages who found it. Knowledge (jnana) must be sought for. True, it is already inside us, but what value is that to us who are blind to it? We must open our eyes–or remove the debris that separates us from it. In the newborn infant are all the faculties and powers of the adult. Yet that means nothing to the infant. In time the inner seeds will manifest and adulthood be gained. It is the same with us. There is a necessary search for Truth, but that search must be an inner search, the practice of yoga.

Were all made perfect. The Supreme Perfection attained by the sages is Brahman, Infinity Itself. It is not mere freedom from fault or a plenitude of good attributes. It is a transcending of the condition in which good or bad, vice or virtue, can exist–a transcendence in which there is not even the possibility of their existence.

Escaping the bonds of the body. The bonds of the body are manifold, including material consciousness and the false sense of ego as well as the limitations and hindrances inherent in the embodied condition. The wise go beyond the need for a body and thereby become freed from it.

In that wisdom they lived. How important! They LIVED in that wisdom. It was not theory, it was the state of liberation which manifested in each moment of their life. It had nothing to do with this absurd “know inwardly that there is unity, but live outwardly as though there is duality.” Brahman is beyond both unity and duality.

Made one with my holy nature. United with Brahman, the Brahman-nature was living through them–for It was them. “This is the state of enlightenment in Brahman: a man does not fall back from it into delusion. Even at the moment of death he is alive in that enlightenment: Brahman and he are one.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:72)

Now they are not reborn when a new age begins, nor have they any part in its dissolution. Having no longer any need for the cosmic school, they have graduated from the plane of relativity. They are not compelled to take birth in a future creation cycle, nor are they dispossessed of a body-dwelling when the universe dissolves. They have moved beyond all such cycles into Original Being. They experience the fulfilment of Jesus’ prayer: “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17:5)

Prakriti: the originating womb

“Prakriti, this vast womb, I quicken into birth with the seed of all life: thence, O son of Bharata, the many creatures spring. Many are the forms of the living, many the wombs that bear them; Prakriti, the womb of all wombs and I the seed-giving Father.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:3, 4)

Prakriti is the great field of creative energy, but the “seeds” planted therein are the individual spirits who are evolving through the vast span of creation cycles. Thus, Prakriti is our “mother” and Brahman is our “father”–the only real parents we will ever have, all others being but temporary reflections of these divine archetypes. We need to realize that we are divine in origin, and that our purpose in “being here” is to manifest our innate divinity.

Although Prabhavananda uses the term “Prakriti” in this verse, the Sanskrit is “Great Brahma” (mahad Brahma), reminding us that Prakriti is really Purusha, that what we mistake for matter is really Spirit. Although there appear to be many separate beings, in essence they are one in Brahman.

All forms within Prakriti are really only modifications and combinations of the three gunas. So Krishna continues: “From Prakriti the gunas come forth, sattwa, rajas, tamas: these are the bonds that bind the undying dweller imprisoned in the body.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:5)

The gunas are not three “things” but merely qualities of the energy that is Prakriti. They are modes or functions of energy. The primal energy “moves” in three different ways. So the gunas are not “things” of themselves, only appearances. But very significant appearances.

The three gunas are called sattwa, rajas, and tamas. When we experience them as real, they bind and limit us to body consciousness, making us undergo change and death, even though we are unchanging and immortal. So the three gunas are the basic forces of illusion. It is interesting that there are three primary colors whose combinations make all other colors. Without these three we would never see any forms whatsoever.

The next thirteen verses deal with the gunas, moving back and forth between them. To make it much easier to understand their differences, I am going to separate the verses into three sections so we can look at one guna at a time in depth.

Sattwa

“Sattwa the shining can show the Atman by its pure light: yet sattwa will bind you to search for happiness, longing for knowledge.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:6) This conveys the general idea quite well, but literally the verse is: “Of these, sattwa, free from impurity, illuminating and free from disease, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge.” From this we know that sattwa is free from impurity–from any element that obstructs higher consciousness from functioning on any level. Further, sattwa illuminates the mind and whatever the mind is fixed upon. Understanding and practical knowledge arise naturally in the sattwic mind. Sattwa is free from any defect, either mental or physical. Nevertheless, sattwa is as much an element of bondage as rajas or tamas. It binds us through attachment to happiness and ease of heart and to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom. When these are sought as attributes of the Self, such seeking frees us. But if they are sought under the influence of sattwa, they are sought for their benefits–ultimately for our personal well-being and understanding. The motive is tainted–albeit only as the faintest shadow–by egoic motive. Sattwa, too, must be shed by the ascending spirit. For: “The power of sattwa enslaves the happy.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:9)

“When sattwa prevails over rajas, tamas, man feels that sattwa.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:10) That is, sattwa is a force of positive introversion, of keen awareness of inward states–a condition essential for proficiency in meditation. It is a psychic sensitivity, an awareness of subtler realms of being. This is because sattwa is fundamentally an orientation toward spiritual ascension which results from the dissolving of all lower things. The ultimate sattwa (shuddhasattwa) is a melting away of all that is not spirit.

“When understanding shines in through the senses, the doors of the body: know sattwa is present.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:11) Those in whom sattwa predominate are not bewildered by life and its experiences. Rather, the sattwic person is ever gaining in understanding, being taught by life itself. The sattwic persons SEES in the fullest sense.

“That man who meets death in the hour of sattwa goes to a sinless home among the saints of God.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:14) Being himself a knower, at the time of death he ascends to the pure worlds of those established in the highest consciousness, his state of mind being in harmony with theirs.

“Fruit of the righteous act is sattwa.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:16) Action that increases the quality of sattwa in us is the only truly good action. This is a necessary lesson for us who seek the Highest. For: “Of sattwa, knowledge is born.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:17) And as has been said: “Abiding in sattwa, man goes to higher realms [after death].” (Bhagavad Gita 14:18) But he must abide in sattwa, be established in sattwa, not just having occasional bouts or flashes of sattwa. Sattwa must be a steady condition.

Rajas

“Rajas the passionate will make you thirsty for pleasure and possession: rajas will bind you to hunger for action.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:7) Rajas produces fevered desire in us, whatever the object might be. Fundamentally it makes us crave enjoyment and possession of the objects of enjoyment. It literally addicts us to action–the shackles of rebirth and karma. In sum: “The power of rajas enslaves the doers.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:9) Pity the fool who says: “I am a doer, not a thinker,” who considers himself “a man of action.,” and thinks it is an enviable virtue.

Rajas is a consuming monster, for: “When rajas prevails over sattwa, tamas, man is seized by that rajas.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:10) His will is wiped out, at least for the moment. In the second chapter Arjuna asks: “Krishna, what is it that makes a man do evil, even against his own will; under compulsion, as it were?” (Bhagavad Gita 3:36) And Krishna answers: “The rajoguna has two faces, rage and lust: the ravenous, the deadly: recognize these: they are your enemies.” (Bhagavad Gita 3:37) “In greed, in the heat of action, in eager enterprise, in restlessness, in all desire, know rajas the ruler.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:12) And we are the slaves!

The following are self-explanatory:

• “He who dies in rajas will be reborn among those whose bondage is action.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:15)
• “As for the deeds of rajas, pain is their fruit.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:16)
• “Of rajas, greed [is born].” (Bhagavad Gita 14:17)
• “[After death,] remaining in rajas, in this world he remains.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:18)

Tamas

“Tamas the ignorant bewilders all men: tamas will bind you with bonds of delusion, sluggishness, stupor.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:8) “The power of tamas enslaves the deluded and darkens their judgment.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:9) When this is seen in anyone or anything, tamas is prevailing–and enslaving, for Krishna says: “When tamas prevails over rajas, sattwa, man yields to that tamas.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:10) “When the mind is dark, bewildered, slothful and lost in delusion: know tamas prevailing.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:13)

“He who dies in tamas will return to the womb of a dullard.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:15) Commentators say this means that the tamasic person is born either to parents of utter stupidity and torpor, or that they may even sink to rebirth in a subhuman form.

“Truly, ignorance is all the fruit of tamas.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:16) “Tamas brings forth bewilderment, delusion, darkness.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:17) That is clear to any but the tamasic.

“[After death,] sunk in tamas, his lowest nature, he sinks to the underworld.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:18) Again, this means either birth among the stupid or the subhuman (whatever the form, human or animal); and it can also mean sinking into the regions of darkness known as “hells.”

All in all, tamas is not a good thing.

The three doers

“Let the wise man know these gunas alone as the doers of every action; let him learn to know that Which is beyond them, also: thus he will reach my oneness.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:19)

Of course it is really Prakriti alone that does all things, the gunas simply being modes of the Primal Energy, only modes of energy behavior. Yogananda usually elucidated these concepts by the example of a motion picture. The picture itself is Prakriti, with its colors and forms being the gunas, and the white undifferentiated light is the Purusha, the Infinite. (Sometimes he likened Prakriti to the screen.) So everything that happens or that we perceive are merely joinings and disjoinings of the gunas. The gunas alone “do” anything. Realizing this we should be stimulated to look beyond the gunas to the transcendent Spirit which is absolute Unity. Through yoga we can enter into that Oneness and be free from the illusions of the gunas.

The conqueror

“When the dweller in the body has overcome the gunas that cause this body, then he is made free from birth and death, from pain and decay: he becomes immortal.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:20)

Sargeant has it a bit better: “When an embodied being transcends these three qualities [gunas], which are the source of the body, released from birth, death, old age, and pain, he attains immortality.” This is better because it makes it clear that we do not need some kind of mastery or control over the gunas, but rather we require a metaphysical transcendence, an awakening that will take us beyond their reach. What to the ignorant are unbreakable bonds then become nothing more than cobwebs–not even that: mere illusions.

The gunas are not only the source, the “material” of the body, they are also the forces that impel us into imprisonment in the body. When the poet wrote: “Change and decay all around I see,” he was speaking of the gunas. But when he continued: “O thou that changest not,” he was addressing the Self.

Freed from the gunas, and therefore from the body, “he is made free from birth and death, from pain and decay: he becomes immortal.” That is, he knows who he really is and dreams no more dreams of the gunas.

(Verse 21 was omitted by Swami Prabhavananda because it is a list of questions that are about to be answered.)

How do we know when the gunas are transcended? “A man is said to have transcended the gunas when he does not hate the light of sattwa, or the activity of rajas, or even the delusion of tamas, while these prevail; and yet does not long for them after they have ceased.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:22)

This is an important point. We want to transcend the gunas, yet we are to be indifferent to their presence or their absence. Non-interaction with them is the secret. But the even greater secret is the will and the desire to reach God Who is beyond the gunas. Finding God is the real secret. The idea that it is wisdom to just remain in the world and “skillfully” weave through the maze is absurd–and so very Western. (Like the silly idea that being able to make holograms of match-boxes in your mind is a preparation for meditation.) God must be the central focus of our consciousness and our life.

We will do well to never forget Krishna’s description of the true yogi: “His heart is with Brahman, his eye in all things sees only Brahman equally present, knows his own Atman in every creature, and all creation within that Atman.

“That yogi sees me in all things, and all things within me. He never loses sight of me, nor I of him.” (Bhagavad Gita 6:29, 30)

The next three verses are so perfect they need no comment beyond our embodying of them.

“He is like one who sits unconcerned, and is not disturbed by the gunas. He knows that they are the doers of all action, and never loses this power of discrimination.

“He rests in the inner calm of the Atman, regarding happiness and suffering as one. Gold, mud and stone are of equal value to him. The pleasant and the unpleasant are alike. He has true discernment. He pays no attention to praise or to blame.

“His behavior is the same when he is honored and when he is insulted. When men go to war, he does not regard either side as his enemies or his partisans. He feels no lack of anything; therefore he never initiates any action.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:23-25)

How it is done

I have given my ideas about getting beyond the gunas, but these words of Krishna far exceed them:

“He who worships me with unfaltering love transcends these gunas. He becomes fit to reach union with Brahman.”

“For I am Brahman within this body, life immortal that shall not perish: I am the Truth and the Joy for ever.” (Bhagavad Gita 14:26, 27)

Om Tat Sat Om.

Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.