The 3 Gunas (Satsang)

Smt. Hansaji and Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra

“We are born with some temperament and that carries us through life. We don’t even detect it unless often we are told that we are a very angry person, etc. But then we can’t repair the whole thing.

These are very basic qualities. The Yogis of the old times, they discovered something wonderful – The human being has 3 basic qualities and they are changing and we are influenced by them and we act and suffer the consequences also. And that goes on. We are totally clamped into this. Either we are dull, stupid, lazy or we are energetic, active, quarrelsome or we are balanced and can see things better. And these 3 qualitites keep on changing. Sometimes we are balanced, sometimes we are angry and upset.

The training in yoga is to see if we can increase the Sattvic qualities. The more we maintain balance, the more we see things with clarity, the better for us. But we have never tried to understand and improve. All our life goes on like that.

A solicitor once told me he had a neighbour who was very quarrelsome. He used to meet everyone. He’d begin speaking ill about somebody and once he’d start, he wouldn’t stop and all his life this was his nature. He never could settle down to understand and function the right way. So these are those basic traits that should settle down in our personality. But we can’t correct them, they are part of our nature. Only when situations that happen, accidents happen, quarrels take place and then we are told to bring a change in ourselves, which we can’t do quickly.

There is the story of a man who was punished and was to be hanged. He was pleading innocent, but the judgement was very clear. Next day, he would be hanged. A lawyer was a little concerned. He went to jail and asked this man, “Tell me, did you murder that man?” The man said, “Sir, I did not. I tell you honestly, it is a wrong allegation.” He was very sincere. The lawyer asked, “Did you anytime murder somebody?” The man said yes, a month ago, he murdered somebody. The lawyer went away. The next morning the statement was made that the man was to be hanged for murder. However the lawyer was so influenced by the meeting that he resigned and he wrote a book, a lecture on these qualities – how we get into a system where we just can’t change them.

So you see, we should understand ourselves, understand our basic nature, consequences and start making some attempt to change. We could turn out into better persons.”

But, in Rajasic state, emotions are not in control. The person keeps acting n that state and does not think. Here we need to bring balance.

Sattvic state is a more mature state where we act but in balance; where we know what is right and what is wrong.

So the objective of our discussion today is that no state is constant. A person may act wisely one moment but go into a Tamasic or Rajasic state in the other. It is very difficult to maintain the same state throughout. A lot of awareness is required.

There is the story of Vivekananda and his Guru Ramakrishna Paramhamsa. One day Vivekananda was walking and he heard some people talking bad about his Guru. He felt very indignant and angry. He went and shouted at them. When he returned to the Asrama and narrated the incident to his Guru, Ramakrishna scolded him and told his he should have kept quiet and left those people alone.

The next day, another student of Ramakrishna came to the Asrama very sad and depressed. When asked what had happened, he said, he heard some people on the road talking bad about his Guru. Ramakrishna asked him, “So what did you do?” The student said sadly, “What could I do? I felt very bad.” The Guru scolded him and told him, he should have gone ahead and talked to the people and told them they were wrong.

The others did not understand the contradicting behaviour of the Guru. But he knew that Vivekanand had an aggressive, Rajasic nature and had to bring some Tamas into his personality while the other student was Tamasic and needed to bring some Rajasic qualities in his personality.

So we should understand that even at home, no one can be the same and work the same way. We need to see what level they are on and explain to them accordingly. If today someone is treating you well, do not get disturbed if tomorrow they act differently. We must not react. We must increase awareness about ourselves and bring ourselves to the correct state.

There is a state even higher than these 3 states, called ‘Gunatitha‘ which is beyond the three Gunas and does not get affected by them.