133 - Transcending the Three Gunas | Swami Tattwamayananda

Bhagavad Gita | The Essence of Vedanta

14th Chapter: Verses 18, 19, 20
Our temperaments are determined by a combination of the three gunas – sattva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna. Sattva guna is the highest and most sublime. It manifests itself as wisdom and serenity. Rajo guna manifests itself as dynamism and ambition. Tamo guna manifests itself as laziness and delusion.

Gunas are not visible and cannot be physically verified. We can infer which guna is predominant in a person by observing his external temperament.
Of these three gunas, Sattva guna is the most refined. If a person has dynamism combined with a sense of serenity and wisdom, he is endowed with sattva guna. He can concentrate, and direct his time and skills in one direction. Sattva guna manifests as strength combined with humility, richness combined with generosity and so on.
A person endowed with sattva guna does his work as swadharma, as a way to properly stay active. Swadharma is our natural way of work that we feel perfect harmony with. When we do our work as Swadharma, we derive inner contentment and do not feel tired from the work.
A person endowed with sattva guna is active, but for the good of others and with no attachment. He is not opposed to rajo guna, but he is not bound by rajo guna. Spiritual giants such as Shankaracharya, St. Teresa of Avila, Buddha and Christ were endowed with sattva guna and were always active. They worked only for the good of others.
One drawback of sattva guna is that it can lead to spiritual pride. There is also the risk of descending down to a level where rajo guna becomes predominant. This can be remedied by staying detached and doing the work as swadharma.
Greed, craving, hyper activism, and restlessness prevail in a person predominated by rajo guna. A person endowed with rajo guna always has a new desire and he directs his actions towards realization of that desire. Such desires have no end. Such a person can also have delusions of grandeur – a consequence of the person having a high opinion of himself.
The predominance of rajo guna in humans and civilizations can lead to great creativity and commerce. However, it can also lead to bad outcomes such as colonization.

Rajo guna is necessary, but it should be guided and restrained by sattva guna, as was done by Rajarshis (philosopher kings). Human civilization will not survive if there was only rajo guna without sattva guna.
In a rajarshi (philosopher king) – the philosopher/sage aspect comes sattva guna and the kingly aspect comes from rajo guna. As a king, he has power, wealth and status. As a sage, he can see far into things - he understands both the merits and limitations of power, wealth and status.
Ignorance, laziness, negligence and delusion prevail in a person predominated by tamo guna. Such a person is deluded and interprets the right as wrong and wrong as right. Political anarchism prevailed in some countries due to such inversion of ideas.

Gita asks us to strive to transcend all the three gunas. Being established in sattva guna is not enough as there is a risk of descending down to rajo guna by the force of circumstances. To transcend the three gunas, we have to get established in sattva guna which promotes physical and emotional well-being and helps us make proper use of rajo guna.
18th verse: “Those with sattva guna evolve upwards – they go to the realm of angels and devas. Those with rajo guna remain in the same state. Those with tamo guna descend to lower levels. “
19th and 20th verse: “Those who are endowed with sattva guna, they will be able to realize that human being is not a just a body mind complex. There is something beyond that. The three gunas are linked to all our actions and thoughts. Our real identity is as Atman. When we realize this true identity, we can transcend the three gunas. Then the gunas will be tools in our hands, not vice versa.”
We will then be able to attain immortality, not in the physical sense, but by realizing our true nature. One cannot transcend death at the physical level. When we realize our true nature and its immortal dimension, we transcend death. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has a profound dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi on the topic of immortality.
In the 20th verse, Lord Krishna says that when we transcend the three gunas, we reach a state where there is no birth, no old age or sickness, and no death. We realize that we are the Atman, which is never born, which never dies, which is not subjected to changes and which is all-pervading. This is what is meant by attaining immortality.
The concept of the three gunas can also be applied to food. Food that agitates the mind is rajasic. Food that gives us serenity is sattvic. And food that makes us sleep and creates confusion is tamasic.