The Bhagavad Gita is a treasure trove of knowledge - all that you need to be is an inquisitive student, because only when the student is ready, the master appears! Join me this month in the 'April A to Z challenge,' as I take you through selected verses of this monumental scripture, and try to decipher the amazing lessons it has in store for us.
Translation
In this verse, Krishna tells us that sattva, rajas and tamas are the three gunas (nature) that humans are born with. How a person acts is conditioned by these modes of nature.
Our nature is a mix of all three gunas .
Gods are purely sattva, demons are purely tamo. However, we humans are a mix of all three in varying proportions. Each one of us has unique traits because the mix of the gunas is the not the same in each one of us. If a person has more of sattva guna, they act in the mode of goodness - serene, wise, caring, joyful. A person having more of rajo guna acts in the mode of passion - ambitious, workaholics, aggressive, greedy, full of desires. A person with predominant tamo guna acts in the mode of ignorance - laziness, confusion, delusion, negligent, dull.
A story from the Srimad Bhagavatam - the story of Vena and Pruthu.
King Vena was born in the royal lineage of the great King Dhruva. Yet he was arrogant and tyrannical. He banned all religious rituals and charitable acts. He wanted his subjects to worship him and none else. Vena's atrocities caused his subjects to live in constant fear. Most occupations, especially agriculture, declined. His inherent strong tamo guna, and a destructive rajo guna, were visible in his cruelty towards his subjects, ignorance of dharma, and disrespect of sages.
Ushering a new rule under King Pruthu.
The sages, seeing the suffering of the people, eventually intervened and ended Vena’s rule by killing him. They then churned the dead Vena’s arms, and the part manifestation of Vishnu himself, Maharaja Pruthu, emerged. Pruthu was guided by sattva guna with a rajas properly aligned.
At the beginning of his rule, the Earth, refused to yield
resources due to Vena’s previous misrule. The Earth took the form of a cow and
ran away. Pruthu reined her in and convinced her to provide all resources to nourish
humanity. This was on account of his well-balanced rajo guna purified by sattva.
Pruthu was a great king. He ruled with justice, brought back
worship and religious rituals, took care of the elderly as an affectionate son
and the women and children as a caring father and respected the sages. People followed his guidance. He
was the first to create a planned living arrangement for his subjects and the
Earth was named ‘Prithvi’ after him. Under his leadership, the earth prospered
and people lived in harmony.
The competition for supremacy.
The gunas in us keeping competing for supremacy. Sometimes when sattva becomes prominent, we find ourselves inclined towards worship, helping others, being joyful and calm. When rajo guna dominates, we become competitive, workaholics, aggressive, angry, feel more powerful or ambitious. When tamo guna dominates, we tend to feel lazy, sleepy, make careless mistakes, or are confused.
We might wonder why we don't feel active all the time, or why our devotion keeps swaying and the peace we find in worship is not the same on all days. The reason is our nature or guna. Whichever guna dominates on a particular day is how we act on that day.
Is it possible to stay balanced or situated in one guna?
It is not entirely in our hands to balance our gunas. However, being in constant remembrance of Krishna can help us align more and more in the mode of sattva and rajas purified by sattva.
