{"id":1401,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:34","slug":"40-above-the-gunas-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13\/40-above-the-gunas-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-40_Above the Gunas.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

FOURTEEN<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

Above the Gunas*<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nT<\/font><\/b>he distinctions
\nbetween the Soul and Nature rapidly drawn in the verses of the thirteenth
\nchapter by a few decisive epithets, a few brief but packed characterisations<\/span>
\nof their separate power and functioning, and especially the distinction between
\nthe embodied soul subjected to the action of Nature by its enjoyment of her
\ngunas, qualities or modes and the Supreme Soul which dwells enjoying the gunas,
\nbut not subject because it is itself beyond them, are the basis on which the Gita
\nrests its whole idea of the liberated being made one in the conscious law of
\nits existence with the Divine. That liberation, that oneness, that putting on
\nof the divine nature, sādharmya<\/i><\/span>,
\nit declares to be the very essence of spiritual freedom and the whole
\nsignificance of immortality. This supreme importance assigned to sādharmya<\/i><\/span> is
\na capital point in the teaching of the Gita.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>To be immortal was never held in the ancient
\nspiritual teaching to consist merely in a personal survival of the death of the
\nbody: all beings are immortal in that sense and it is only the forms that
\nperish. The souls that do not arrive at liberation, live through the returning aeons<\/span>; all exist involved or secret in the Brahman during
\nthe dissolution of the manifest worlds and are born again in the appearance of
\na new cycle. Pralaya<\/span>, the end of a cycle of aeons<\/span>, is the temporary disintegration of a universal form
\nof existence and of all the individual forms which move in its rounds, but that
\nis only a momentary pause, a silent interval followed by an outburst of new
\ncreation, reintegration and reconstruction in which they reappear and recover the
\nimpetus of their progression. Our physical death is also a pralaya<\/span>,\u2014
\nthe Gita will presently use the word in the sense of this death, pralayam<\/i><\/span> yāti<\/i><\/span> deha<\/i>–bhrt<\/i><\/span>, \u201cthe soul bearing the body
\ncomes to a
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Gita, XIV.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 407<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 pralaya<\/span>,\u201d to a disintegration of that form of matter with which
\nits ignorance identified its being and which now dissolves into the natural
\nelements. But the soul itself persists and after an interval resumes in a new
\nbody formed from those elements its round of births in the cycle, just as after
\nthe interval of pause and cessation the universal Being resumes his endless
\nround of the cyclic aeons<\/span>. This immortality in the
\nrounds of Time is common to all embodied spirits. <\/p>\n

To be immortal
\nin the deeper sense is something different from this survival of death and this
\nconstant recurrence. Immortality is that supreme status in which the Spirit
\nknows itself to be superior to death and birth, not conditioned by the nature
\nof its manifestation, infinite, imperishable, immutably eternal,\u2014 immortal,
\nbecause never being born it never dies. The divine Purushottama<\/span>,
\nwho is the supreme Lord and supreme Brahman, possesses for ever this immortal
\neternity and is not affected by his taking up a body or by his continuous
\nassumption of cosmic forms and powers because he exists always in this
\nself-knowledge. His very nature is to be unchangeably conscious of his own
\neternity; he is self-aware without end or beginning. He is here the Inhabitant
\nof all bodies, but as the unborn in every body, not limited in his
\nconsciousness by that manifestation, not identified with the physical nature
\nwhich he assumes; for that is only a minor circumstance of his universal activised<\/span> play of existence. Liberation, immortality is to
\nlive in this unchangeably conscious eternal being of the Purushottama.1<\/sup>
\nBut to arrive here at this greater spiritual immortality the embodied soul must
\ncease to live according to the law of the lower nature; it must put on the law
\nof the Divine’s supreme way of existence which is in fact the real law of its
\nown eternal essence. In the spiritual evolution of its becoming, no less than
\nin its secret original being, it must grow into the likeness of the Divine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> Mark that nowhere in the Gita is there any
\nindication that dissolution of the individual spiritual being into the unmanifest<\/span>, indefinable or absolute Brahman, avyaktam<\/i><\/span> anirdeśyam<\/i><\/span>,
\nis the true meaning or condition of immortality or the true aim of Yoga. On the
\ncontrary it describes immortality later on as an indwelling in the Ishwara<\/span> in his supreme status, mayi<\/i><\/span> nivasisyasi<\/i><\/span>, param<\/i><\/span> dhāma<\/i><\/span>, and here as sādharmya<\/i><\/span>, parām<\/i><\/span> siddhim<\/i><\/span>, a supreme
\nperfection, a becoming of one law of being and nature with the Supreme,
\npersistent still in existence and conscious of the universal movement but above
\nit, as all the sages still exist, munayah<\/i><\/span> sarve<\/span>, not bound to birth
\nin the creation, not troubled by the dissolution of the cycles.<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 408<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

And
\nthis great thing, to rise from the human into the divine nature, we can only do
\nby an effort of Godward<\/span> knowledge, will and
\nadoration. For the soul sent forth by the Supreme as his eternal portion, his immortal
\nrepresentative into the workings of universal Nature is yet obliged by the
\ncharacter of those workings, avaśam<\/i><\/span> prakrter<\/i><\/span> vaśāt<\/i><\/span>, to identify itself in its external
\nconsciousness with her limiting conditions, to identify itself with a life,
\nmind and body that are oblivious of their inner spiritual reality and of the
\ninnate Godhead. To get back to self-knowledge and to the knowledge of the real
\nas distinct from the apparent relations of the soul with Nature, to know God
\nand ourselves and the world with a spiritual and no longer with a physical or externalised<\/span> experience, through the deepest truth of the
\ninner soul-consciousness and not through the misleading phenomenal
\nsignificances of the sense-mind and the outward understanding, is an
\nindispensable means of this perfection. Perfection cannot come without
\nself-knowledge and God-knowledge and a spiritual attitude towards our natural existence,
\nand that is why the ancient wisdom laid so much stress on salvation by
\nknowledge,\u2014 not an intellectual cognizance of things, but a growing of man the
\nmental being into a greater spiritual consciousness. The soul’s salvation cannot
\ncome without the soul’s perfection, without its growing into the divine nature;
\nthe impartial Godhead will not effect it for us by an act of caprice or an
\narbitrary sanad<\/i><\/span>
\nof his favour. Divine works are effective for salvation because they lead us
\ntowards this perfection and to a knowledge of self and nature and God by a
\ngrowing unity with the inner Master of our existence. Divine love is effective
\nbecause by it we grow into the likeness of the sole and supreme object of our
\nadoration and call down the answering love of the Highest to flood us with the
\nlight of his knowledge and the uplifting power and purity of his eternal
\nspirit. Therefore, says the Gita, this is the supreme knowledge and the highest
\nof all knowings<\/span> because it leads to the highest
\nperfection and spiritual status, parām<\/i><\/span> siddhim<\/i><\/span>, and brings the soul to likeness with the Divine, sādharmya<\/i><\/span>.
\nIt is the eternal wisdom, the great spiritual experience by which all the sages
\nattained to that highest perfection, grew into one law of being
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 409<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

with the Supreme and live for
\never in his eternity, not born in the creation, not troubled by the anguish of
\nthe universal dissolution. This perfection, then, this sādharmya<\/i><\/span> is the way of immortality
\nand the indispensable condition without which the soul cannot consciously live
\nin the Eternal. <\/p>\n

The soul of man
\ncould not grow into the likeness of the Divine, if it were not in its secret
\nessence imperishably one with the Divine and part and parcel of his divinity:
\nit could not be or become immortal if it were merely a creature of mental,
\nvital and physical Nature. All existence is a manifestation of the divine
\nExistence and that which is within us is spirit of the eternal Spirit. We have
\ncome indeed into the lower material nature and are under its influence, but we
\nhave come there from the supreme spiritual nature: this inferior imperfect
\nstatus is our apparent, but that our real being. The Eternal puts all this
\nmovement forth as his self-creation. He is at once the Father and Mother of the
\nuniverse; the substance of the infinite Idea, vij\u00f1ana<\/i><\/span>, the Mahad<\/span>
\nBrahman, is the womb into which he casts the seed of his self-conception. As
\nthe Over-Soul he casts the seed; as the Mother, the Nature-Soul, the Energy
\nfilled with his conscious power, he receives it into this infinite substance of
\nbeing made pregnant with his illimitable, yet self-limiting Idea. He receives
\ninto this Vast of self-conception and develops there the divine embryo into
\nmental and physical form of existence born from the original act of conceptive creation.
\nAll we see springs from that act of creation; but that which is born here is
\nonly finite idea and form of the unborn and infinite. The Spirit is eternal and
\nsuperior to all its manifestation: Nature, eternal without beginning in the
\nSpirit, proceeds for ever with the rhythm of the cycles by unending act of
\ncreation and unconcluding<\/span> act of cessation; the Soul
\ntoo which takes on this or that form in Nature, is no less eternal than she, anādi<\/i><\/span> ubhav<\/i><\/span> api<\/i><\/span>. Even while
\nin Nature it follows the unceasing round of the cycles, it is, in the Eternal from
\nwhich it proceeds into them, for ever raised above the terms of birth and
\ndeath, and even in its apparent consciousness here it can become aware of that
\ninnate and constant transcendence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>What is it then that makes the difference,
\nwhat is it that <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 410<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 gets the soul
\ninto the appearance of birth and death and bondage,\u2014 for this is patent that it
\nis only an appearance? It is a subordinate act or state of consciousness, it is
\na self-oblivious identification with the modes of Nature in the limited
\nworkings of this lower motivity<\/span> and with this self-wrapped
\nego-bounded knot of action of the mind, life and body. To rise above the modes
\nof Nature, to be traigunyātita<\/i><\/span>,
\nis indispensable, if we are to get back into our fully conscious being away
\nfrom the obsessing power of the lower action and to put on the free nature of
\nthe spirit and its eternal immortality. That condition of the sādharmya<\/i><\/span> is
\nwhat the Gita next proceeds to develop. It has already alluded to it and laid
\nit down with a brief emphasis in a previous chapter; but it has now to indicate
\nmore precisely what are these modes, these gunas<\/span>, how
\nthey bind the soul and keep it back from spiritual freedom and what is meant by
\nrising above the modes of Nature.<\/p>\n

The modes of
\nNature are all qualitative in their essence and are called for that reason its gunas<\/span> or qualities. In any spiritual conception of the
\nuniverse this must be so, because the connecting medium between spirit and
\nmatter must be psyche or soul power and the primary action psychological and
\nqualitative, not physical and quantitative; for quality is the immaterial, the
\nmore spiritual element in all the action of the universal Energy, her prior
\ndynamics. The predominance of physical Science has accustomed us to a different
\nview of Nature, because there the first thing that strikes us is the importance
\nof the quantitative aspect of her workings and her dependence for the creation
\nof forms on quantitative combinations and dispositions. And yet even there the
\ndiscovery that matter is rather substance or act of energy than energy a motive
\npower of self-existent material substance or an inherent power acting in matter
\nhas led to some revival of an older reading of universal Nature. The analysis
\nof the ancient Indian thinkers allowed for the quantitative action of Nature, mātrā<\/span>; but that it regarded as proper to its more
\nobjective and formally executive working, while the innately ideative<\/span> executive power which disposes things according to
\nthe quality of their being and energy, guna<\/i><\/span>, svabhāva<\/i><\/span>,
\nis the primary determinant and underlies all the
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 411<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nouter quantitative
\ndispositions. In the basis of the physical world this is not apparent only
\nbecause there the underlying ideative<\/span> spirit, the Mahad<\/span> Brahman, is overlaid and hidden up by the movement of
\nmatter and material energy. But even in the physical world the miraculous varying
\nresults of different combinations and quantities of elements otherwise
\nidentical with each other admits of no conceivable explanation if there is not
\na superior power of variative<\/span> quality of which these
\nmaterial dispositions are only the convenient mechanical devices. Or let us say
\nat once, there must be a secret ideative<\/span> capacity of
\nthe universal energy, vij\u00f1ana<\/i><\/span>,\u2014
\neven if we suppose that energy and its instrumental idea, buddhi<\/i><\/span>, to be themselves
\nmechanical in their nature,\u2014 which fixes the mathematics and decides the
\nresultants of these outer dispositions: it is the omnipotent Idea in the spirit
\nwhich invents and makes use of these devices. And in the vital and mental
\nexistence quality at once openly appears as the primary power and amount of
\nenergy is only a secondary factor. But in fact the mental, the vital, the
\nphysical existence are all subject to the limitations of quality, all are
\ngoverned by its determinations, even though that truth seems more and more
\nobscured as we descend the scale of existence. Only the Spirit, which by the
\npower of its idea-being and its idea-force called mahat<\/i><\/span> and vij\u00f1āna<\/i><\/span> <\/i>fixes these conditions, is not so determined, not subject to any
\nlimitations either of quality or quantity because its immeasurable and
\nindeterminable infinity is superior to the modes which it develops and uses for
\nits creation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But, again, the whole qualitative action of
\nNature, so infinitely intricate in its detail and variety, is figured as cast
\ninto the mould of three general modes of quality everywhere present,
\nintertwined, almost inextricable, sattva<\/i><\/span>, rajas, tamas<\/span><\/i>. These modes are described in the Gita only by
\ntheir psychological action in man, or incidentally in things such as food
\naccording as they produce a psychological or vital effect on human beings. If
\nwe look for a more general definition, we shall perhaps catch a glimpse of it
\nin the symbolic idea of Indian religion which attributes each of these
\nqualities respectively to one member of the cosmic Trinity, sattwa<\/span>
\nto the preserver Vishnu, Rajas <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 412<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

to the creator
\nBrahma, Tamas<\/span> to the destroyer Rudra<\/span>.
\nLooking behind this idea for the rationale of the triple ascription, we might
\ndefine the three modes or qualities in terms of the motion of the universal
\nEnergy as Nature’s three concomitant and inseparable powers of equilibrium,
\nkinesis and inertia. But that is only their appearance in terms of the external
\naction of Force. It is otherwise if we regard consciousness and force as twin terms
\nof the one Existence, always coexistent in the reality of being, however in the
\nprimal outward phenomenon of material Nature light of consciousness may seem to
\ndisappear in a vast action of nescient unillumined<\/span>
\nenergy, while at an opposite pole of spiritual quiescence action of force may
\nseem to disappear in the stillness of the observing or witness consciousness. These
\ntwo conditions are the two extremes of an apparently separated Purusha<\/span> and Prakriti<\/span>, but each at
\nits extreme point does not abolish but at the most only conceals its eternal
\nmate in the depths of its own characteristic way of being. Therefore, since
\nconsciousness is always there even in an apparently inconscient<\/span>
\nForce, we must find a corresponding psychological power of these three modes
\nwhich informs their more outward executive action. On their psychological side the
\nthree qualities may be defined, Tamas<\/span> as Nature’s
\npower of nescience, rajas as her power of active seeking ignorance enlightened
\nby desire and impulsion, Sattwa<\/span> as her power of
\npossessing and harmonising<\/span> knowledge. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The three qualitative modes of Nature are
\ninextricably intertwined in all cosmic existence. Tamas<\/span>,
\nthe principle of inertia, is a passive and inert nescience which suffers all
\nshocks and contacts without any effort of mastering response and by itself
\nwould lead to a disintegration of the whole action of the energy and a radical
\ndispersion of substance. But it is driven by the kinetic power of rajas and
\neven in the nescience of Matter is met and embraced by an innate though unpossessed<\/span> preserving principle of harmony and balance and
\nknowledge. Material energy appears to be tamasic<\/span> in
\nits basic action, jada<\/i><\/span>,
\nnescient, mechanic and in movement disintegrative. But it is dominated by a
\nhuge force and impulsion of mute rajasic<\/span> kinesis
\nwhich drives it, even in and even by its dispersion and disinte<\/span>– <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 413<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 <\/span>gration<\/span>,
\nto build and create and again by a sattwic<\/span> ideative<\/span> element in its apparently inconscient<\/span>
\nforce which is always imposing a harmony and preservative order on the two
\nopposite tendencies. Rajas, the principle of creative endeavour<\/span>
\nand motion and impulsion in Prakriti<\/span>, kinesis, pravrtti<\/i><\/span>, so seen
\nin Matter, appears more evidently as a conscious or half-conscious passion of
\nseeking and desire and action in the dominant character of Life,\u2014 for that
\npassion is the nature of all vital existence. And it would lead by itself in
\nits own nature to a persistent but always mutable and unstable life and
\nactivity and creation without any settled result. But met on one side by the disintegrating
\npower of tamas<\/span> with death and decay and inertia, its
\nignorant action is on the other side of its functioning settled and harmonised<\/span> and sustained by the power of Sattwa<\/span>, subconscient<\/span> in the lower
\nforms of life, more and more conscient<\/span> in the
\nemergence of mentality, most conscious in the effort of the evolved
\nintelligence figuring as will and reason in the fully developed mental being. Sattwa<\/span>, the principle of understanding knowledge and of
\naccording assimilation, measure and equilibrium, which by itself would lead
\nonly to some lasting concord of fixed and luminous harmonies, is in the motions
\nof this world impelled to follow the mutable strife and action of the eternal
\nkinesis and constantly overpowered or hedged in by the forces of inertia and
\nnescience. This is the appearance of a world governed by the interlocked and
\nmutually limited play of the three qualitative modes of Nature.<\/p>\n

The Gita applies
\nthis generalised<\/span> analysis of the universal Energy to
\nthe psychological nature of man in relation to his bondage to Prakriti<\/span> and the realisation<\/span> of
\nspiritual freedom. Sattwa<\/span>, it tells us, is by the
\npurity of its quality a cause of light and illumination and by virtue of that
\npurity it produces no disease or morbidity or suffering in the nature. When
\ninto all the doors in the body there comes a flooding of light, as if the doors
\nand windows of a closed house were opened to sunshine, a light of
\nunderstanding, perception and knowledge, \u2013 when the intelligence is alert and
\nillumined, the senses quickened, the whole mentality satisfied and full of
\nbrightness and the nervous being calmed and filled with an illumined ease and <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 414<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

clarity, prasāda<\/i><\/span>, one should
\nunderstand that there has been a great increase and uprising of the sattwic<\/span> guna<\/span> in the nature. For
\nknowledge and a harmonious ease and pleasure and happiness are the
\ncharacteristic results of sattwa<\/span>. The pleasure that
\nis sattwic<\/span> is not only that contentment which an
\ninner clarity of satisfied will and intelligence brings with it, but all
\ndelight and content produced by the soul’s possession of itself in light or by
\nan accord or an adequate and truthful adjustment between the regarding soul and
\nthe surrounding Nature and her offered objects of desire and perception.<\/p>\n

Rajas, again,
\nthe Gita tells us, has for its essence attraction of liking and longing. Rajas
\nis a child of the attachment of the soul to the desire of objects; it is born
\nfrom the nature’s thirst for an unpossessed<\/span>
\nsatisfaction. It is therefore full of unrest and fever and lust and greed and
\nexcitement, a thing of seeking impulsions, and all this mounts in us when the
\nmiddle Guna<\/span> increases. It is the force of desire
\nwhich motives all ordinary personal initiative of action and all that movement
\nof stir and seeking and propulsion in our nature which is the impetus towards
\naction and works, pravrtti<\/span>. Rajas, then, is evidently
\nthe kinetic force in the modes of Nature. Its fruit is the lust of action, but
\nalso grief, pain, all kinds of suffering; for it has no right possession of its
\nobject \u2014 desire in fact implies non-possession \u2014 and even its pleasure of
\nacquired possession is troubled and unstable because it has not clear knowledge
\nand does not know how to possess nor can it find the secret of accord and right
\nenjoyment. All the ignorant and passionate seeking of life belongs to the rajasic<\/span> mode of Nature. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Tamas<\/span>, finally, is
\nborn of inertia and ignorance and its fruit too is inertia and ignorance. It is
\nthe darkness of Tamas<\/span> which obscures knowledge and
\ncauses all confusion and delusion. Therefore it is the opposite of Sattwa<\/span>, for the essence of Sattwa<\/span>
\nis enlightenment, prakāśa<\/i><\/span>,
\nand the essence of Tamas<\/span> is absence of light,
\nnescience, aprakāśa<\/i><\/span>.
\nBut Tamas<\/span> brings\u00a0
\n<\/span>incapacity and negligence of action as well as the incapacity and
\nnegligence of error, inattention and misunderstanding or non-understanding;
\nindolence, languor and sleep belong to this Guna<\/span>.
\nTherefore it is the opposite too of Rajas; for the essence of Rajas is movement <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 415<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

and impulsion and kinesis, pravrtti<\/i><\/span>, but the
\nessence of Tamas<\/span> is inertia, apravrtti<\/i><\/span>. Tamas<\/span>
\nis inertia of nescience and inertia of inaction, a double negative.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>These three qualities of Nature are evidently
\npresent and active in all human beings and none can be said to be quite devoid
\nof one and another or free from any one of the three; none is cast in the mould
\nof one Guna<\/span> to the exclusion of the others. All men
\nhave in them in whatever degree the rajasic<\/span> impulse
\nof desire and activity and the sattwic<\/span> boon of light
\nand happiness, some balance, some adjustment of mind to itself and its
\nsurroundings and objects, and all have their share of tamasic<\/span>
\nincapacity and ignorance or nescience. But these qualities are not constant in
\nany man in the quantitative action of their force or in the combination of
\ntheir elements; for they are variable and in a continual state of mutual
\nimpact, displacement and interaction. Now one leads, now another increases and
\npredominates, and each subjects us to its characteristic action and
\nconsequences. Only by a general and ordinary predominance of one or other of
\nthe qualities can a man be said to be either sattwic<\/span>
\nor rajasic<\/span> or tamasic<\/span> in
\nhis nature; but this can only be a general and not an exclusive or absolute
\ndescription. The three qualities are a triple power which by their interaction
\ndetermine the character and disposition and through that and its various
\nmotions the actions of the natural man. But this triple power is at the same
\ntime a triple cord of bondage. \u201cThe three Gunas<\/span> born
\nof Prakriti<\/span>\u201d says the Gita \u201cbind in the body the
\nimperishable dweller in the body.\u201d In a certain sense we can see at once that
\nthere must be this bondage in following the action of the Gunas<\/span>;
\nfor they are all limited by their finite of quality and operation and cause
\nlimitation. Tamas<\/span> is on both its sides an incapacity
\nand therefore very obviously binds to limitation. Rajasic<\/span>
\ndesire as an initiator of action is a more positive power, but still we can see
\nwell enough that desire with its limiting and engrossing hold on man must
\nalways be a bondage. But how does Sattwa<\/span>, the power
\nof knowledge and happiness, become a chain? It so becomes because it is a
\nprinciple of mental nature, a principle of limited and limiting knowledge and
\nof a happiness which depends upon right fol<\/span>– <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 416<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 lowing or attainment of this or
\nthat object or else on particular states of the mentality, on a light of mind
\nwhich can be only a more or less clear twilight. Its pleasure can only be a
\npassing intensity or a qualified ease. Other is the infinite spiritual
\nknowledge and the free self-existent delight of our spiritual being. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But then there is the question, how does our
\ninfinite and imperishable spirit, even involved in Nature, come thus to confine
\nitself to the lower action of Prakriti<\/span> and undergo
\nthis bondage and how is it not, like the supreme spirit of which it is a
\nportion, free in its infinity even while enjoying the self-limitations of its
\nactive evolution? The reason, says the Gita, is our attachment to the Gunas<\/span> and to the result of their workings. Sattwa<\/span>, it says, attaches to happiness, rajas attaches to
\naction, Tamas<\/span> covers up the knowledge and attaches to
\nnegligence of error and inaction. Or again, \u201cSattwa<\/span>
\nbinds by attachment to knowledge and attachment to happiness, rajas binds the
\nembodied spirit by attachment to works,Tamas<\/span> binds by
\nnegligence and indolence and sleep.\u201d In other words, the soul by attachment to
\nthe enjoyment of the Gunas<\/span> and their results concentrates
\nits consciousness on the lower and outward action of life, mind and body in
\nNature, imprisons itself in the form of these things and becomes oblivious of
\nits own greater consciousness behind in the spirit, unaware of the free power
\nand scope of the liberating Purusha<\/span>. Evidently, in
\norder to be liberated and perfect, we must get back from these things, away from
\nthe Gunas<\/span> and above them and return to the power of
\nthat free spiritual consciousness above Nature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But this would seem to imply a cessation of
\nall doing, since all natural action is done by the Gunas<\/span>,
\nby Nature through her modes. The soul cannot act by itself, it can only act
\nthrough Nature and her modes. And yet the Gita, while it demands freedom from
\nthe modes, insists upon the necessity of action. Here comes in the importance
\nof its insistence on the abandonment of the fruits; for it is the desire of the
\nfruits which is the most potent cause of the soul’s bondage and by abandoning
\nit the soul can be free in action. Ignorance is the result of tamasic<\/span> action, pain the consequence of rajasic<\/span>
\nworks, pain of reaction, dis<\/span>– <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 417<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

appointment, dissatisfaction or
\ntransience, and therefore in attachment to the fruits of this kind of activity
\nattended as they are with these undesirable accompaniments there is no profit.
\nBut of works rightly done the fruit is pure and sattwic<\/span>,
\nthe inner result is knowledge and happiness. Yet attachment even to these
\npleasurable things must be entirely abandoned, first, because in the mind they
\nare limited and limiting forms and, secondly, because, since Sattwa<\/span> is constantly entangled with and besieged by rajas
\nand tamas<\/span> which may at any moment overcome it, there
\nis a perpetual insecurity in their tenure. But, even if one is free from any
\nclinging to the fruit, there may be an attachment to the work itself, either
\nfor its own sake, the essential rajasic<\/span> bond, or
\nowing to a lax subjection to the drive of Nature, the tamasic<\/span>,
\nor for the sake of the attracting rightness of the thing done, which is the sattwic<\/span> attaching cause powerful on the virtuous man or the
\nman of knowledge. And here evidently the resource is in that other injunction
\nof the Gita, to give up the action itself to the Lord of works and be only a desireless<\/span> and equal-minded instrument of his will. To see
\nthat the modes of Nature are the whole agency and cause of our works and to
\nknow and turn to that which is supreme above the Gunas<\/span>,
\nis the way to rise above the lower nature. Only so can we attain to the movement
\nand status of the Divine, madbhāva<\/i><\/span>, by which free from subjection to birth and death
\nand their concomitants, decay, old age and suffering, the liberated soul shall
\nenjoy in the end immortality and all that is eternal. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But what, asks Arjuna<\/span>,
\nare the signs of such a man, what his action and how is he said even in action
\nto be above the three Gunas<\/span>? The sign, says Krishna,
\nis that equality of which I have so constantly spoken; the sign is that
\ninwardly he regards happiness and suffering alike, gold and mud and stone as of
\nequal value and that to him the pleasant and the unpleasant, praise and blame,
\nhonour and insult, the faction of his friends and the faction of his enemies
\nare equal things. He is steadfast in a wise imperturbable and immutable inner
\ncalm and quietude. He initiates no action, but leaves all works to be done by
\nthe Gunas<\/span> of Nature. Sattwa<\/span>,
\nrajas or Tamas<\/span> may rise or cease in his outer
\nmentality and his physical movements with their results of <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 418<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

enlightenment, of impulsion to
\nworks or of inaction and the clouding over of the mental and nervous being, but
\nhe does not rejoice when this comes or that ceases, nor on the other hand does
\nhe abhor or shrink from the operation or the cessation of these things. He has
\nseated himself in the conscious light of another principle than the nature of
\nthe Gunas<\/span> and that greater consciousness remains
\nsteadfast in him, above these powers and unshaken by their motions like the sun
\nabove clouds to one who has risen into a higher atmosphere. He from that height
\nsees that it is the Gunas<\/span> that are in process of
\naction and that their storm and calm are not himself but only a movement of Prakriti<\/span>; his self is immovable above and his spirit does
\nnot participate in that shifting mutability of things unstable. This is the
\nimpersonality of the Brahmic<\/span> status; for that higher
\nprinciple, that greater wide high-seated consciousness, kūtastha<\/i><\/span>, is the immutable
\nBrahman. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But still there is evidently here a double
\nstatus, there is a scission of the being between two opposites; a liberated
\nspirit in the immutable Self or Brahman watches the action of an unliberated<\/span> mutable Nature,\u2014Akshara<\/span>
\nand Kshara<\/span>. Is there no greater status, no principle
\nof more absolute perfection, or is this division the highest consciousness possible
\nin the body, and is the end of Yoga to drop the mutable nature and the Gunas<\/span> born of the embodiment in Nature and disappear into
\nthe impersonality and everlasting peace of the Brahman? Is that laya<\/i><\/span> or
\ndissolution of the individual Purusha<\/span> the greatest liberation?
\nThere is, it would seem, something else; for the Gita says at the close, always
\nreturning to this one final note, \u201cHe also who loves and strives after Me with
\nan undeviating love and adoration, passes beyond the three Gunas<\/span>
\nand he too is prepared for becoming the Brahman.\u201d This \u201cI\u201d is the Purushottama<\/span> who is the foundation of the silent Brahman
\nand of immortality and imperishable spiritual existence and of the eternal
\ndharma and of an utter bliss of happiness. There is a status then which is greater
\nthan the peace of the Akshara<\/span> as it watches unmoved the
\nstrife of the gunas<\/span>. There is a highest spiritual
\nexperience and foundation above the immutability of the Brahman, there is an
\neternal dharma greater than the rajasic<\/span> impulsion to
\nworks, pravrtti<\/i><\/span>,
\nthere is an absolute delight which is untouched by rajasic<\/span>
\nsuffer-<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 419<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

ring and beyond the sattwic<\/span> happiness, and these things are found and possessed
\nby dwelling in the being and power of the Purushottama<\/span>.
\nBut since it is acquired by bhakti<\/span>, its status must
\nbe that divine delight, Ananda<\/span>, in which is experienced
\nthe union of utter love1<\/sup> and possessing oneness, the crown of bhakti<\/span>. And to rise into that Ananda<\/span>,
\ninto that imperishable oneness must be the completion of spiritual perfection
\nand the fulfilment of the eternal immortalising<\/span>
\ndharma.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

1<\/sup>niratśayapremāspadatvam<\/font><\/i> \u00a0<\/span><\/font>ānandatattvam<\/font><\/i><\/span>. <\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 420<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOURTEEN Above the Gunas*   The distinctions between the Soul and Nature rapidly drawn in the verses of the thirteenth chapter by a few decisive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","wpcat-31-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}