If you carefully observe yourself and the people around you, you will notice that everyone has a unique nature, which is reflected in the thoughts and desires of the person and how he or she interacts with others. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna teaches us about nature's three fundamental gunas or attributes and how they shape our mental makeup and deeds. By becoming aware of their functioning, we can make a positive change encompassing all aspects of life and allow divine love to blossom.
Three Qualities of Nature
Nature comprises three basic qualities called gunas: tamoguna, rajoguna and sattvaguna. Tamoguna means inertia, and rajoguna stands for activity or transformation, whereas sattvaguna means luminosity, purity, intelligence, and knowing.
This world of gross matter is borne of tamoguna. The soil, trees, lakes and rivers, and the countless stars in the sky are tama-pradhaan (predominantly tamoguna). Suppose you are holding a flower in your hand. Does the flower know you are holding it, does it know that its colour is white or red? It does not because it is of tamoguna, which means ignorance, darkness, not-knowing. Your body is also tamoguni, it is inert. Your finger does not know that “I am a finger”. You can cut your nail, but it will not cry. If you cut the skin, then your mind will suffer, and not the skin. When you are admitted to a hospital for surgery, you will be given anaesthesia. Then the surgeons cut open your body to take out any diseased tissue and stitch it back together – you are lying down merrily, not noticing anything. Why? Your brain is put to sleep, so the mind does not know what is happening to the body. The brain is the hardware, and the mind is the software.
Knowing is a function of sattvaguna. Therefore, your mind-intellect is formed from sattvaguna. Your knowing happens through five cognitive senses with the respective sense organs: hearing (ears), touch (skin), sight (eyes), taste (tongue) and smell (nose). These senses of perception are made of sattvaguna. When an object touches your skin, the stimulus is transmitted to the brain through the nervous system, and the brain processes the information. This process happens due to both sattvaguna and rajoguna, as knowing happens due to sattvaguna and the nervous activity due to rajoguna. All actions are caused by rajoguna, whether walking or talking, eating or drinking, laughing or crying.
The mind-intellect is made of sattvaguna, albeit impure – it is stained with some degree of rajas and tamas. The three gunas determine the nature of your mind and, therefore, the nature of all your actions. Depending upon which guna is predominant in a person at any given moment, their mind, speech and actions will reflect that.
Tamas, Inertia and Darkness
Tamasic people are usually gloomy and prone to delusion and depression. They are also full of anger and always ready to take revenge. Since tamoguna leads to laziness, they prefer to sleep and be idle.
Assess yourself, how much is the level of tamas in your mind? For example, the Guru says, “Get up early in the morning”. You respond, “Yes, Guruji”. The alarm rings at five a.m., but you promptly switch it off and go back to sleep. If your mind is filled with sattvaguna, then you will definitely wake up. And if you wake up early in the morning before the sun rises and do your yogasanas and pranayama at that time, your immunity, vitality, strength and energy will increase, and you will practically never fall sick. But for those who sleep while the sun is up, their inner sun, or energy levels, go down. If someone has too much tamoguna, take them in a car, and they will sit there and sleep with their mouth open and neck hanging. But in the night, they cannot sleep due to excess worry. Furthermore, procrastinating tasks and urging someone else to take up your responsibilities are also tamasic traits.
Rajas, Activity and Passion
A rajoguni person’s mind is like a monkey. They are constantly thinking and disturbed – their mind is never tranquil and peaceful. If someone’s mind is rajasic, they will be egoistic and greedily pursue their desires and ambitions with a goal-oriented attitude. And for any achievement, they would like to have their name publicly announced or written on a board. When facing any obstructions, they will easily become frustrated, angry and quarrelsome. Such a mind will be full of kleshas (afflictions), clinging to one thing and averse to another. The influence of rajas leads to a constant pursuit of excitement and sensory titillation. These are the qualities that indicate excess rajoguna in your mind.
Sattva, Purity and Intelligence
Since sattva denotes truth, luminosity, virtue, honesty and nobility, such would be the attributes of a person with heightened sattvaguna. When your mind is sattvic, it will be calm, stable and pure, and your senses will be sharp. Your actions will be egoless and filled with love, servitude, compassion, friendship, and respect. You will enjoy being quiet, performing spiritual practices, or engaging in swadhyaya (contemplating scriptures). Waking up early in the morning and doing selfless actions will come naturally to you.
How the Gunas Find Expression
If your mind is sattvic, your voice will be sweet and soft. When you talk, it is with great sensitivity and intelligence. But if you have rajoguna dominance in your mind, you will say just about anything, whether appropriate or not. And if you are tamasic, you will be abusive in your talk. Check your language: how do you talk?
Once, a girl was going to see a boy in a restaurant and wondered how she could gauge whether he was a fine person. So a smart friend told her, “Just observe how he talks and behaves with you and others”. Then they met. The boy sat in the chair straight away without offering her a seat first. When they went on to order food, the young man signalled the waiter: “Tsh tsh, hey, come here.” Seeing this, the girl picked up her purse and left the date right there. This matter reveals so much about you – how you speak and in what tone. By this alone, it is evident whether you are tamasic, rajasic or sattvic in nature.
If you look at it from the perspective of food choices, then tamasic individuals relish old, stale, or cold food. They will cook something, store it in the fridge for four days, and then simply warm up a portion to eat. Rajoguni folk, always looking for stimulation and excitement, will go for foods full of chilli peppers, deep-fried items, sour condiments and pickles. During breakfast, they will already be planning for dinner or thinking about what they will do that day. In contrast, a sattvic person will eat freshly cooked, warm meals that are easy to digest and less spicy, preferably with organic ingredients. Remember that the food you eat not only nourishes your body but also influences the state of your mind.
Understand it through another scenario: a crowd has gathered to listen to a satsang (spiritual discourse). Those of rajoguni nature, if they are interested in coming at all, will keep fidgeting and shifting their position, looking here and there. They would be lost in thinking: “This chandelier is very nice. How much would it have cost?” or, “Her saree is looking good… But what the hell is he wearing?” They can’t sit for long in one place and will soon want to get up. They will ask themselves, “When will we get to eat in the langar (free buffet)?”
If a person has too much tamoguna, bring them to a satsang – they will not come in the first place – and if they come, they will be drowsy. For a tamoguni person, gyana (knowledge) and dhyana (meditation) are a far-off domain.
Those of sattvaguni disposition will sit quietly, with back and neck straight, listening aptly to every word the Acharya (teacher) speaks.
There is a beauty that can only experienced when you sit with the Master in person. The energy emitted from a Sadguru cannot be felt via TV or the internet, as it cannot be transmitted through the camera. That is why it is important to sit together. The Guru and seeker need a heart-to-heart connection to make a difference.
How to Experience Divine Love?
A greedy mind obsesses over money and never takes a break from economics. A sexual mind keeps obsessing over men or women. Thus, poet-sage Tulsidas writes in the Ramcharitmanas: “Just as a lustful person is attached to a woman, and a greedy person is to wealth, similarly, a devotee cherishes Lord Rama above all, as their very life”. Know that such intense love for the Divine can only arise in a highly sattvic mind, not in a rajoguni or tamoguni mind. There may be many people who regularly visit a temple to do a bow and go home. But it is a different matter if it is your heart that pulls you down to prostrate, and you are filled with surrender and devotion. Only the ones with a highly pure and sattvic mind will spend their time in sadhana, sewa, simran. So, if you want this divine love to arise in the heart, then strive to increase your sattvaguna.
Changing the Climate of Your Mind
The gunas are interacting with one another, hence whatever actions you do, in turn, affect your nature. The predominance of a particular guna will create a climate in your mind, deciding the quality of your life journey. To steer your life in a positive direction, strive to understand these principles and the present condition of your mind. By changing the nature of your mind, your actions will change automatically.
If you want an empty cup, you do not have to add space to it; you just have to remove the water. Similarly, when you subjugate your tamas and rajas, sattva will automatically take precedence, thus creating a space in your heart. For example, if you are too greedy for money, a simple way out of this obsession is to donate – learn to give it away to charity.
With the knowledge of the three gunas, introspect, analyse and refine your nature. To foster sattvaguna, lead your life in such a way that promotes purity and balance, and engage in selfless service and daily spiritual practice. Eating nourishing, simple and fresh foods supports a calm and clear mind. Gradually, tamas and rajas will become subdued, inviting sattva to illumine your life.
