A Steady Perspective amid the Three QualitiesRead

Shri Krishna gives Arjuna knowledge by which a seeker can understand the bonds of nature and move beyond them. He says that sattva, rajas and tamas arise from nature and bind the living being embodied in the body.

These qualities operate in a person’s experience and conduct. At times the mind is clear and peaceful; at other times restlessness for desire and action increases; and at still other times lethargy and confusion take over. Shri Krishna gives the discernment to recognise these states.

Sattva is connected with purity and illumination. When it increases, knowledge becomes clear and the mind feels content. Even so, attachment to happiness and knowledge can bind the living being. A seeker can also become proud of being peaceful.

Rajas is connected with desire, craving and attachment. It keeps a person engaged in actions. The person makes constant efforts to gain, increase and establish something. Even after one achievement, another desire arises.

Tamas veils knowledge. It increases negligence, laziness, delusion and carelessness. A person postpones necessary work and cannot clearly see the consequences of decisions.

The three qualities do not remain equally steady. Sometimes one becomes dominant, sometimes another. It is therefore not wise to treat one’s current state as a permanent identity. A seeker must notice which tendency is working within at a given time.

When clarity, illumination and discernment increase in the senses and intellect, the rise of sattva can be recognised. When greed, restlessness and eagerness for new actions grow, rajas becomes strong. When confusion and indifference to duty increase, tamas is at work.

The fruits of these qualities also differ. Sattva leads toward knowledge and purity. With rajas, greed and distress increase. Tamas deepens ignorance and negligence. A person’s direction is connected with the tendencies one nourishes within.

But Shri Krishna’s teaching does not stop at recognising the qualities. He speaks of a state in which the seeker understands that it is the qualities of nature that perform their respective functions. The seeker recognises the self beyond these qualities.

Arjuna asks how to recognise someone who has risen above the three qualities. What is such a person’s conduct, and how does one reach this state?

Shri Krishna explains that such a person neither resents the appearance of illumination, activity and delusion nor longs for them when they subside. The person recognises the states that arise within but is not swept away by them.

The person’s stance is like that of a witness. There is the discernment that the qualities are carrying out their functions. Thus, every movement of the mind does not become the person’s entire identity.

The person remains even-minded through pleasure and pain, what is dear and what is not, and blame and praise. Honour and dishonour, or the conduct of friends and opponents, do not repeatedly break the inner foundation. The person loosens the hold of undertakings driven by ego.

This equanimity comes through non-attachment and self-knowledge. The person is steady and can therefore see one’s actions more clearly. Peace does not depend on demanding that circumstances always be favourable.

Shri Krishna says that a seeker who serves Him through unwavering devotion becomes capable of rising beyond these qualities. The purpose of understanding this triad is to recognise the states of one’s mind and move beyond them, so that life’s foundation can shift from changing tendencies to the imperishable truth. The author has expanded on this in his following book in 60,108 words. (Shrimad Bhagavad Gita — Part 14 — The Threefold Nature)