The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 17.5. - Swami Krishnananda.
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Saturday 17, Feb 2024 08:00.
Chapter 17: The Play of the Cosmic Powers - 5.
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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.
In our faiths, in our beliefs, we are either tamasika, or rajasika or sattvika. We may have the faith of an animal or the faith of a highly prejudiced person, or the faith of one who is enlightened and has a direct grasp of truth by an intuition of the nature of things. This belief, this faith, decides practically everything we do in this world. Our political life, our social relationships, our personal conduct, our religious practices, even our idea of God and the aim of life—all these are determined by the kind of guna that operates in us, in any measure. If we are tamasika, lowest in the rung of evolution, we have the world view of an animal, which, too, has a philosophy of its own, according to which it works. We can think like insects, reptiles, lions and tigers, or we can think of the world from a point of view which today we sometimes call humanitarian, or we can think in a divine way which surpasses all human judgements.
It is this background upon which the Seventeenth Chapter is based, which describes three types of faith that propel the conduct and the activity of people in the world. The food that we eat, the way in which we speak, the kind of relationship that we maintain with others, the religious practices in which we engage ourselves, are all rooted in, and defined by the belief or faith that we entertain as a philosophy of our lives. Suffice it to say that it is up to us to move from tamas to rajas, and from rajas to sattva, and put forth effort to transform ourselves into diviner beings rising above even the human level of understanding. Each one is a judge for one's own self. We know where we stand, with some exercise of good reason. By a measure of sensible impersonality and discriminative effort, we will be able to decide the stage in which we are.
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Continued
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