Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 17.5 - Swami Krishnananda.

 ==============================================================

==============================================================

Friday, March 04, 2022. 20:00.

Chapter 17. The Play of the Cosmic Powers-5.

================================================================

It appears from what we gather in the Seventeenth Chapter that the mysterious thing we call faith has a great part to play in our walks of life. We do not always refer to scriptures when we work in the world. We are people belonging to various professions and vocations, having many types of duty to perform, and when we choose the kind of duty that we have to execute in life, or do anything for the matter of that, we do not go to the Sermon on the Mount, the Upanishads or the Bhagavadgita for consultation, though these are great authorities, indeed. We have something in us which seems to guide us, independent of any scripture. That is the faith that we have in our own selves, a confidence that we entertain in our own capacities, the conscience, as it is usually called.

Yes, Krishna tells that faith is a great criterion and standard of judgement indeed, but there are faiths and faiths. All created beings have some sort of an instinct, and they have their own methods of evaluation of things. There is a subhuman level, there is a human understanding, and there is a superhuman faculty of knowing. So, when we speak of faith, we do not refer merely to any sudden impulse which rises on the spur of a moment, but to a considered judgement which springs from the whole nature of our being. Our nature decides the kind of faith that we entertain in our life. And natures, again, are classified as threefold: sattvika, rajasika and tamasika. Every one of us has some kind of confidence, faith and understanding and feeling. Everybody believes in something. But that belief varies in quality, character and intensity in accordance with the root from which it arises: sattva, or rajas, or tamas.

The world of the tiger is different from the world of a human being. The instinct which impels the beast in the jungle is qualitatively different from the judgement that operates in a sage. The gunas of prakriti operate in different intensities, in different levels of evolution. The law of the jungle operates according to one level in which the gunas manifest themselves, and the law of human society works in another level. The law that reigns in the world of angels is based on a different standard altogether, which rises from a still higher stage of the evolution of the gunas. Tamas is the lowest level, and rajas is higher, but sattva is the highest.

The reason why we regard these three gunas as higher and lower is due to the amount of reality which they express through their media. In tamas, reality is not expressed in its essentiality, in rajas it is expressed, no doubt, but in a distracted and distorted form, whereas in sattva there is perspicuity of the expression of reality. When sunlight falls on dark pitch, we know what sort of expression of the light can be there. And the very same light can be reflected through turbid water shaking in its contents. This light can be expressed through a clean glass or crystal clear water. One can see the difference. So is the way in which reality is expressed through the gunas of prakriti. In sattva, which is perfect equilibrium and freedom from distraction, there is no direct contact with reality, of course; yet there is a complete reflection thereby, even as clean glass may permit the entry of sunlight entirely, though the glass acts as an obstacle, an obstruction standing between the perceiver and the perceived. But in shaky water which is also muddy, the reflection is inadequate, and we do not see things properly. And in opaque objects no reflection is possible. Tamas is an inert something which completely screens off experience of Truth. In rajas there is some sort of an entry of reality into experience, but it is no good for practical purposes. It is only sattva that permits a clear picture of things.

To be continued ...

================================================================

===========================================