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The Bhagavad Gita, in the seventh chapter, speaks about the three different aspects of human nature, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the Gunas innate in human beings. Each of these imparts its own unique character and behavioural traits to man, the accumulated impressions of the actions in countless earlier births, manifesting as aforementioned.’
Sattva Guna is associated with all positive and divine qualities like truthfulness, straightforwardness, honesty, a sense of restraint in everything, a marked predilection for spiritual pursuits and so on. Rajas is marked by tendencies like constant activity to acquire name, wealth, position, etc., and a sense of pride, vanity and arrogance, among others. Tamas brings with it qualities like laziness, ignorance, disinterest, and so on.
It is these traits that determine and mark the trajectory of human life, either pulling man towards higher realms of existence or pulling him down to the depths of human wretchedness. This latter state, of human misery and suffering, the Gita says, is brought upon by man himself, a result of the predominance of the Rajasic and Tamasic aspects of his nature.
These two deleterious qualities are the stumbling blocks in man’s journey, preventing him from realising the real goal of his birth, the presence of the divine spark in his own heart. These two qualities mask his original, true nature as a divine creature by tempting and deluding him with the myriad worldly attractions. It is like, as revered Swami Chinmayananda says, a man seeing a vertical pole at dusk and mistaking it for another man. As long as this ignorance remains, he will never realise that it is just a pole.
Similarly, as long as the concealing power of these two Gunas has the upper hand, man remains ensnared in their grip.
“It is extremely difficult to extricate oneself from their stranglehold,” says the Gita. At the same time, it holds out hope saying “those who completely surrender themselves to the divine power, by consciously suppressing these two negative qualities and try to acquire more of the Sattvic characteristics will be able to cross the formidable barriers of sense attractions and move towards higher levels of existence.
As for those who succumb to the pull of the other two Gunas, they sink into the morass of aimless, empty, unprincipled existence, doing all prohibited and beastly things, the Naradhamas (lowliest among men) and Mudhas (stupid, brainless), who bring about their own downfall, says the Gita stridently.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)