The choice to adopt special attributes

An individual has three qualitiesor gunas: sattvic, rajas and tamas, wired into his system. Until he gains mastery over the sensory organs, these three qualities show up intermittently as per his thoughts and behaviour. Krishna says in the Gita that the person who remembers Him constantly, is equipoised, does not have any enemy, sees Krishna in everything and vice versa, that person is dear to Him and will surely come to Him. So it is up to the individual to mould himself into this desired sattvic state.

The sattvic personality is God fearing, acts without expectations and only to please the Almighty, is cheerful and balanced, has the excellent virtues of service, honesty, compassion, and goodwill towards everyone. Rajas is impatient, restless, attached to seeking sensory pleasures and does actions for reward and shows anger when expectations are not met. Tamas is the state of boredom, laziness, ignorance, excessive attachment, along with indifference towards gaining spiritual knowledge.

The scriptures categorise even the foods accordingly, and advise a sattvic diet to develop the same nature in oneself. The principle of ahimsa is the foundation for propagation of sattvic food. It is also said that one should be careful as to where one eats the food as food imbibes the qualities of the person serving it. In Mahabharata, when Draupadi was suffering immense indignity at the hands of Dushyasana, veterans like Bheeshma and Drona kept silent - seemingly out of fear of prince Duryodhana, but subconsciously due to the effect of the food served at vile Duryodhana’s palace.

When Bheeshma finally lay on the bed of arrows and requested for water, Duryodhana jumped to offer him water in a golden vessel. But Bheeshma rejected it saying that due to the food that he had partaken of at Duryodhana’s palace he had done regretful acts of commission and omission, but all that blood had flowed away due to Arjuna’s arrows, and he did not want to be defiled again.

Arjuna then shot an arrow into the ground and brought forth the Ganga water - Ganga Devi being Bheeshma’s mother herself - straight into his grandfather’s mouth. Krishna himself once had refused an offer of food at Duryodhana’s palace and visited sattvic Vidhura’s house and accepted the loving offerings.