{"id":1405,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:35","slug":"45-the-gunas-mind-and-works-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\/45-the-gunas-mind-and-works-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-45_The Gunas, Mind and Works.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

NINETEEN<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font>The Gunas, Mind and Works*<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T<\/font>HE<\/font> Gita has not
\nyet completed its analysis of action in the light of this fundamental idea of
\nthe three gunas and the transcendence of them by a self-exceeding culmination
\nof the highest sattwic discipline. Faith, śraddhā<\/i><\/span>, the will to
\nbelieve and to be, know, live and enact the Truth that we have seen is the
\nprincipal factor, the indispensable force behind a self-developing action, most
\nof all behind the growth of the soul by works into its full spiritual stature.
\nBut there are also the mental powers, the instruments and the conditions which
\nhelp to constitute the momentum, direction and character of the activity and
\nare therefore of importance for a full understanding of this psychological
\ndiscipline. The Gita enters into a summary psychological analysis of these
\nthings before it proceeds to its great finale, the culmination of all it
\nteaches, the highest secret which is that of a spiritual exceeding of all dharmas<\/span>, a divine transcendence. And we have to follow it
\nin its brief descriptions, summarily, expanding just enough to seize fully the
\nmain idea; for these are secondary things, but yet each of great consequence in
\nits own place and for its own purpose. It is their action cast in the type of
\nthe gunas that we have to bring out from the brief descriptions in the text;
\nthe nature of the culmination of any or each of them beyond the gunas will automatically
\nfollow from the character of the general transcendence. <\/p>\n

This part of the
\nsubject is introduced by a last question of Arjuna regarding the principle of
\nSannyasa and the principle of Tyaga<\/span> and their
\ndifference. The frequent harping, the reiterated emphasis of the Gita on this
\ncrucial distinction has been amply justified by the subsequent history of the
\nlater Indian mind, its constant confusion of these two very different things
\nand its strong bent towards belittling any activity of the kind taught by
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 476<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

the Gita as at best only a
\npreliminary to the supreme inaction of Sannyasa. As a matter of fact, when people
\ntalk of Tyaga<\/span>, of renunciation, it is always the
\nphysical renunciation of the world which they understand by the word or at
\nleast on which they lay emphasis, while the Gita takes absolutely the opposite
\nview that the real Tyaga<\/span> has action and living in the
\nworld as its basis and not a flight to the monastery, the cave or the hill-top.
\nThe real Tyaga<\/span> is action with a renunciation of
\ndesire and that too is the real Sannyasa. <\/p>\n

The liberating activity of the
\nsattwic self-discipline must no doubt be pervaded by a spirit of
\nrenunciation,\u2014that is an essential element: but what renunciation and in what
\nmanner of the spirit? Not the renunciation of work in the world, not any outward
\nasceticism or any ostentation of a visible giving up of enjoyment, but a
\nrenunciation, a leaving, tyāga<\/i><\/span>,
\nof vital desire and ego, a total laying aside, sannyāsa<\/i><\/span>, of the separate
\npersonal life of the desire soul and ego-governed mind and rajasic<\/span>
\nvital nature. That is the true condition for entering into the heights of Yoga
\nwhether through the impersonal self and Brahmic<\/span> oneness
\nor through universal Vasudeva<\/span> or inwardly into the
\nsupreme Purushottama<\/span>. More conventionally taken,
\nSannyasa in the standing terminology of the sages means the physical depositing
\nor laying aside of desirable actions: Tyaga<\/span>\u2014this is the
\nGita’s<\/span> distinction\u2014is the name given by the wise to a
\nmental and spiritual renunciation, an entire abandonment of all attached
\nclinging to the fruit of our works, to the action itself or to its personal
\ninitiation or rajasic impulse. In that sense Tyaga<\/span>,
\nnot Sannyasa, is the better way. It is not the desirable actions that must be
\nlaid aside, but the desire which gives them that character has to be put away
\nfrom us. The fruit of the action may come in the dispensation of the Master of works,
\nbut there is to be no egoistic demand for that as a reward and condition of
\ndoing works. Or the fruit may not at all come and still the work has to be
\nperformed as the thing to be done, kartavyam<\/span> karma,
\nthe thing which the Master within demands of us. The success, the failure are
\nin his hands and he will regulate them according to his omniscient will and
\ninscrutable purpose. Action, all action has indeed to be given up in the end,
\nnot physically by abstention,<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 477<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 by immobility, by inertia, but spiritually
\nto the Master of our being by whose power alone can any action be accomplished.
\nThere has to be a renunciation of the false idea of ourselves as the doer; for
\nin reality it is the universal Shakti that works through our personality and
\nour ego. The spiritual transference of all our works to the Master and his
\nShakti is the real Sannyasa in the teaching of the Gita.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The
\nquestion still arises, what works are to be done? Those even who stand for a
\nfinal physical renunciation are not at one in this difficult matter. Some would
\nhave it that all works must be excised from our life, as if that were possible.
\nBut it is not possible so long as we are in the body and alive; nor can
\nsalvation consist in reducing our active selves by trance to the lifeless
\nimmobility of the clod and the pebble. The silence of Samadhi does not abrogate
\nthe difficulty, for as soon as the breath comes again into the body, we are
\nonce more in action and have toppled down from the heights of this salvation by
\nspiritual slumber. But the true salvation, the release by an inner renunciation
\nof the ego and union with the Purushottama<\/span> remains
\nsteady in whatever state, persists in this world or out of it or in whatever
\nworld or out of all world, is self-existent, sarvathā<\/i><\/span> vartamāno’pi<\/span><\/i>, and does not depend
\nupon inaction or action. What then are the actions to be done? The thoroughgoing
\nascetic answer, not noted by the Gita\u2014it was perhaps not altogether current at
\nthe time\u2014might be that solely begging, eating and meditation are to be
\npermitted among voluntary activities and otherwise only the necessary actions
\nof the body. But the more liberal and comprehensive solution was evidently to
\ncontinue the three most sattwic activities, sacrifice, giving and askesis<\/span>. And these certainly are to be done, says the Gita,
\nfor they purify the wise. But more generally, and understanding these three
\nthings in their widest sense, it is the rightly regulated action, niyatam<\/span> karma, that has to be done, action regulated by the
\nShastra, the science and art of right knowledge, right works, right living, or
\nregulated by the essential nature, svabhāva-niyatam<\/i><\/span> karma, or, finally and best of all,
\nregulated by the will of the Divine within and above us. The last is the true
\nand only action of the liberated man, muktasya<\/span> karma.
\nTo renounce these works is not a right move<\/p>\n

Page
\n– 478  <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

ment\u2014the Gita lays that down plainly
\nand trenchantly in the end, niyatasya<\/i><\/span> tu<\/span> sannyāsah<\/span> karmano<\/span> nopapadyate<\/span><\/i>. To
\nrenounce them from an ignorant confidence in the sufficiency of that withdrawal
\nfor the true liberation is a tamasic renunciation. The gunas<\/span>
\nfollow us, we see, into the renunciation of works as well as into works. A
\nrenunciation with attachment to inaction, sango<\/i><\/span> akarmani<\/span><\/i>, would be equally a tamasic
\nwithdrawal. And to give them up because they bring sorrow or are a trouble to
\nthe flesh and a weariness to the mind or in the feeling that all is vanity and
\nvexation of spirit, is a rajasic<\/span> renunciation and
\ndoes not bring the high spiritual fruit; that too is not the true Tyaga<\/span>. It is a result of intellectual pessimism or vital
\nweariness, it has its roots in ego. No freedom can come from a renunciation
\ngoverned by this self-regarding principle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The sattwic principle of renunciation is to
\nwithdraw not from action, but from the personal demand, the ego factor behind
\nit. It is to do works not dictated by desire but by the law of right living or
\nby the essential nature, its knowledge, its ideal, its faith in itself and the
\nTruth it sees, its śraddhā<\/i><\/span>.
\nOr else, on a higher spiritual plane, they are dictated by the will of the
\nMaster and done with the mind in Yoga, without any personal attachment either
\nto the action or to the fruit of the action. There must be a complete
\nrenunciation of all desire and of all self-regarding egoistic choice and
\nimpulse and finally of that much subtler egoism of the will which either says,
\n\u201cThe work is mine, I am the doer\u201d, or even \u201cThe work is God’s, but I am the
\ndoer.\u201d There must be no attachment to pleasant, desirable, lucrative or
\nsuccessful work and no doing of it because it has that nature; but that kind of
\nwork too has to be done,\u2014done totally, selflessly, with the assent of the
\nspirit,\u2014when it is the action demanded from above and from within us, kartavyam<\/i><\/span> <\/i>karma. There must be no aversion to
\nunpleasant, undesirable or ungratifying<\/span> action or
\nwork that brings or is likely to bring with it suffering, danger, harsh
\nconditions, inauspicious consequences; for that too has to be accepted,
\ntotally, selflessly, with a deep understanding of its need and meaning, when it
\nis the work that should be done, kartavyam<\/i><\/span> karma<\/i>.
\nThe wise man puts away the shrinkings<\/span> and hesitations
\nof the desire-soul and the doubts of the ordinary hu<\/span>–<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 479<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 man intelligence, that measure by
\nlittle personal, conventional or otherwise limited standards. He follows in the
\nlight of the full sattwic mind and with the power of an inner renunciation
\nlifting the soul to impersonality, towards God, towards the universal and
\neternal the highest ideal law of his nature or the will of the Master of works
\nin his secret spirit. He will not do action for the sake of any personal result
\nor for any reward in this life or with any attachment to success, profit or
\nconsequence: neither will his works be undertaken for the sake of a fruit in
\nthe invisible hereafter or ask for a reward in other births or in worlds beyond
\nus, the prizes for which the half-baked religious mind hungers. The three kinds
\nof result, pleasant, unpleasant and mixed, in this or other worlds, in this or
\nanother life are for the slaves of desire and ego; these things do not cling to
\nthe free spirit. The liberated worker who has given up his works by the inner sannyasa<\/span> to a greater Power is free from Karma. Action he
\nwill do, for some kind of action, less or more, small or great, is inevitable,
\nnatural, right for the embodied soul,\u2014action is part of the divine law of
\nliving, it is the high dynamics of the spirit. The essence of renunciation, the
\ntrue Tyaga<\/span>, the true Sannyasa is not any rule of
\nthumb of inaction but a disinterested soul, a selfless mind, the transition
\nfrom ego to the free impersonal and spiritual nature. The spirit of this inner
\nrenunciation is the first mental condition of the highest culminating sattwic discipline. <\/p>\n

The Gita then speaks of the five
\ncauses or indispensable requisites for the accomplishment of works as laid down
\nby the Sankhya<\/span>. These five are, first, the frame of
\nbody, life and mind which are the basis or standing-ground of the soul in Nature,
\nadhisthāna<\/i><\/span>,
\nnext, the doer, kartā<\/i><\/span>,
\nthird, the various instrumentation of Nature, karana<\/span>,
\nfourth, the many kinds of effort which make up the force of action, cestāh<\/i><\/span>, and
\nlast, Fate, daivam<\/span>, that is to say, the influence of
\nthe Power or powers other than the human factors, other than the visible mechanism
\nof Nature, that stand behind these and modify the work and dispose its fruits
\nin the steps of act and consequence. These five elements make up among them all
\nthe efficient causes, kārana<\/i><\/span>,
\nthat determine the shaping and outcome of whatever work man undertakes with
\nmind and speech and body.<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 480<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 The doer is ordinarily supposed
\nto be our surface personal ego, but that is the false idea of the understanding
\nthat has not arrived at knowledge. The ego is the ostensible doer, but the ego
\nand its will are creations and instruments of Nature with which the ignorant
\nunderstanding wrongly identifies our self and they are not the only
\ndeterminants even of human action, much less of its turn and consequence. When
\nwe are liberated from ego, our real self behind comes forward, impersonal and
\nuniversal, and it sees in its self-vision of unity with the universal Spirit
\nuniversal Nature as the doer of the work and the Divine Will behind as the
\nmaster of universal Nature. Only so long as we have not this knowledge, are we bound
\nby the character of the ego and its will as the doer and do good and evil and
\nhave the satisfaction of our tamasic, rajasic<\/span> or
\nsattwic nature. But once we live in this greater knowledge, the character and
\nconsequences of the work can make no difference to the freedom of the spirit.
\nThe work may be outwardly a terrible action like this great battle and slaughter
\nof Kurukshetra<\/span>; but although the liberated man takes
\nhis part in the struggle and though he slay all these peoples, he slays no man
\nand he is not bound by his work, because the work is that of the Master of the
\nWorlds and it is he who has already slain in his hidden omnipotent will all
\nthese armies. This work of destruction was needed that humanity might move forward
\nto another creation and a new purpose, might get rid as in a fire of its past
\nkarma of unrighteousness and oppression and injustice and move towards a
\nkingdom of the Dharma. The liberated man does all his appointed work as the living
\ninstrument one in spirit with the universal Spirit. And knowing that all this
\nmust be and looking beyond the outward appearance he acts not for self but for
\nGod and man and the human and cosmic order,1<\/sup> not in fact himself
\nacting, but conscious of the presence and power of the divine Force in his
\ndeeds and their issue. He knows that the supreme Shakti is doing in his mental,
\nvital and physical body, adhisthāna<\/i><\/span>,
\nas the sole doer the thing appointed by a Fate which is in truth not Fate, not
\na mechanical dispensation, but the wise and all-seeing Will that is at work behind
\nhuman Karma. This <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup>The cosmic order comes into question, because the
\ntriumph of the Asura<\/span> in humanity means to that extent
\nthe triumph of the Asura<\/span> in the balance of the
\nworld-forces.<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 481<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cterrible work\u201d on which the
\nwhole teaching of the Gita turns, is an extreme example of action inauspicious
\nin appearance, akuśalam<\/i><\/span>,
\nthough a great good lies beyond the appearance. Impersonally has it to be done
\nby the divinely appointed man for the holding together of the world purpose, loka-sangrahārtham<\/i><\/span>,
\nwithout personal aim or desire, because it is the appointed service.<\/p>\n

It is clear then that the work is
\nnot the sole thing that matters; the knowledge in which we do works makes an
\nimmense spiritual difference. There are three things, says the Gita, which go
\nto constitute the mental impulsion to works, and they are the knowledge in our
\nwill, the object of knowledge and the knower; and into the knowledge there
\ncomes always the working of the three gunas<\/span>. It is
\nthis element of the gunas<\/span> that makes all the
\ndifference to our view of the thing known and to the spirit in which the knower
\ndoes his work. The tamasic ignorant knowledge is a small and narrow, a lazy or
\ndully obstinate way of looking at things which has no eye for the real nature
\nof the world or of the thing done or its field or the act or its conditions.
\nThe tamasic mind does not look for real cause and effect, but absorbs itself in
\none movement or one routine with an obstinate attachment to it, can see nothing
\nbut the little section of personal activity before its eyes and does not know
\nin fact what it is doing but blindly lets natural impulsion work out through
\nits deed results of which it has no conception, foresight or comprehending
\nintelligence. The rajasic<\/span> knowledge is that which
\nsees the multiplicity of things only in their separateness and variety of
\noperation in all these existences and is unable to discover a true principle of
\nunity or rightly coordinate its will and action, but follows the bent of ego
\nand desire, the activity of its many-branching egoistic will and various and
\nmixed motive in response to the solicitation of internal and environing
\nimpulsions and forces. This knowing is a jumble of sections of knowledge, often
\ninconsistent knowledge, put forcefully together by the mind in order to make
\nsome kind of pathway through the confusion of our half-knowledge and
\nhalf-ignorance. Or else it is a restless kinetic multiple action with no firm
\ngoverning higher ideal and self-possessed law of true light and power within
\nit. The sattwic<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 482<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

knowledge on the contrary sees
\nexistence as one indivisible whole in all these divisions, one imperishable
\nbeing in all becomings<\/span>; it masters the principle of
\nits action and the relation of the particular action to the total purpose of
\nexistence; it puts in the right place each step of the complete process. At the
\nhighest top of knowledge this seeing becomes the knowledge of the one spirit in
\nthe world, one in all these many existences, of the one Master of all works, of
\nthe forces of cosmos as expressions of the Godhead and of the work itself as
\nthe operation of his supreme will and wisdom in man and his life and essential
\nnature. The personal will has come to be entirely conscious, illumined,
\nspiritually awake, and it lives and works in the One, obeys more and more
\nperfectly his supreme mandate and grows more and more a faultless instrument of
\nhis light and power in the human person. The supreme liberated action arrives
\nthrough this culmination of the sattwic knowledge. <\/p>\n

There are again
\nthree things, the doer, the instrument and the work done, that hold the action
\ntogether and make it possible. And here again it is the difference of the gunas<\/span> that determines the character of each of these
\nelements. The sattwic mind that seeks always for a right harmony and right
\nknowledge is the governing instrument of the sattwic man and moves all the rest
\nof the machine. An egoistic will of desire supported by the desire-soul is the
\ndominant instrument of the rajasic<\/span> worker. Anignorant<\/span> instinct or the unenlightened impulsion of the
\nphysical mind and the crude vital nature is the chief instrumental force of the
\ntamasic doer of action. The instrument of the liberated man is a greater
\nspiritual light and power, far higher than the highest sattwic intelligence,
\nand it works in him by an enveloping descent from a supraphysical<\/span>
\ncentre and uses as a clear channel of its force a purified and receptive mind,
\nlife and body.<\/p>\n

Tamasic action
\nis that done with a confused, deluded and ignorant mind, in mechanical
\nobedience to the instincts, impulsions and unseeing ideas, without regarding
\nthe strength or capacity or the waste and loss of blind misapplied effort or the
\nantecedent and consequence and right conditions of the impulse, effort or
\nlabour. Rajasic action is that which a man undertakes under the dominion of
\ndesire, with his eyes fixed on the work and its hoped- <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 483<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

for fruit and nothing else, or
\nwith an egoistic sense of his own personality in the action, and it is done
\nwith inordinate effort, with a passionate labour, with a great heaving and
\nstraining of the personal will to get at the object of its desire. Sattwic
\naction is that which a man does calmly in the clear light of reason and
\nknowledge and with an impersonal sense of right or duty or the demand of an
\nideal, as the thing that ought to be done whatever may be the result to himself
\nin this world or another, a work performed without attachment, without liking
\nor disliking for its spur or its drag, for the sole satisfaction of his reason
\nand sense of right, of the lucid intelligence and the enlightened will and the
\npure disinterested mind and the high contented spirit. At the line of
\nculmination of sattwa<\/span> it will be transformed and
\nbecome a highest impersonal action dictated by the spirit within us and no
\nlonger by the intelligence, an action moved by the highest law of the nature,
\nfree from the lower ego and its light or heavy baggage and from limitation even
\nby best opinion, noblest desire, purest personal will or loftiest mental ideal.
\nThere will be none of these impedimenta; in their place there will stand a
\nclear spiritual self-knowledge and illumination and an imperative intimate
\nsense of an infallible power that acts and of the work to be done for the world
\nand for the world’s Master.<\/p>\n

The tamasic<\/span> doer of action is one who does not put himself
\nreally into the work, but acts with a mechanical mind, or obeys the most vulgar
\nthought of the herd, follows the common routine or is wedded to a blind error
\nand prejudice. He is obstinate in stupidity, stubborn in error and takes a
\nfoolish pride in his ignorant doing; a narrow and evasive cunning replaces true
\nintelligence; he has a stupid and insolent contempt for those with whom he has
\nto deal, especially for wiser men and his betters. A dull laziness, slowness,
\nprocrastination, looseness, want of vigour<\/span> or of
\nsincerity mark his action. The tamasic man is ordinarily slow to act, dilatory
\nin his steps, easily depressed, ready soon to give up his task if it taxes his
\nstrength, his diligence or his patience. The rajasic<\/span>
\ndoer of action on the contrary is one eagerly attached to the work, bent on its
\nrapid completion, passionately desirous of fruit and reward and consequence,
\ngreedy of heart, impure of mind, <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 484<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

often violent and cruel and
\nbrutal in the means he uses; he cares little whom he injures or how much he
\ninjures others so long as he gets what he wants, satisfies his passions and
\nwill, vindicates the claims of his ego. He is full of an incontinent joy in
\nsuccess and bitterly grieved and stricken by failure. The sattwic doer is free
\nfrom all this attachment, this egoism, this violent strength or passionate
\nweakness; his is a mind and will unelated<\/span> by success,
\nundepressed<\/span> by failure, full of a fixed impersonal
\nresolution, a calm rectitude of zeal or a high and pure and selfless enthusiasm
\nin the work that has to be done. At and beyond the culmination of sattwa<\/span> this resolution, zeal, enthusiasm become the
\nspontaneous working of the spiritual Tapas<\/span> and at
\nlast a highest soul-force, the direct God-Power, the mighty and steadfast
\nmovement of a divine energy in the human instrument, the self-assured steps of
\nthe Seer-will, the gnostic intelligence and with it the wide delight of the
\nfree spirit in the works of the liberated nature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The reason armed with the intelligent will
\nworks in man in whatever manner or measure he may possess these human gifts and
\nit is accordingly right or perverted, clouded or luminous, narrow and small or
\nlarge and wide like the mind of its possessor. It is the understanding power of
\nhis nature, buddhi<\/i><\/span>,
\nthat chooses the work for him or, more often, approves and sets its sanction on
\none or other among the many suggestions of his complex instincts, impulsions,
\nideas and desires. It is that which determines for him what is right or wrong,
\nto be done or not to be done, Dharma or Adharma<\/span>. And
\nthe persistence of the will1 <\/sup>is that continuous force of mental
\nNature which sustains the work and gives it consistence and persistence. Here
\nagain there is the incidence of the gunas<\/span>. The
\ntamasic reason is a false, ignorant and darkened instrument which chains us to
\nsee all things in a dull and wrong light, a cloud of misconceptions, a stupid
\nignoring of the values of things and people. This reason calls light darkness
\nand darkness light, takes what is not the true law and upholds it as the law,
\npersists in the thing which ought not to be done and holds it up to us as the
\none right thing to be done. Its ignorance is invincible and its persistence <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup>dhrti<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 485<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 of will is a persistence in the
\nsatisfaction and dull pride of its ignorance. That is on its side of blind
\naction; but it is pursued also by a heavy stress of inertia and impotence, a
\npersistence in dullness and sleep, an aversion to mental change and progress, a
\ndwelling on the fears and pains and depressions of mind which deter us in our
\npath or keep us to base, weak and cowardly ways. Timidity, shirking, evasion,
\nindolence, the justification by the mind of its fears and false doubts and cautions
\nand refusals of duty and its lapses and turnings from the call of our higher
\nnature, a safe following of the line of least resistance so that there may be
\nthe least trouble and effort and peril in the winning of the fruit of our
\nlabour,\u2014rather no fruit or poor result, it says, than a great and noble toil or
\na perilous and exacting endeavour<\/span> and
\nadventure,\u2014these are characteristics of the tamasic will and intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The rajasic<\/span>
\nunderstanding, when it does not knowingly choose error and evil for the sake of
\nthe error and evil, can make distinctions between right and wrong, between what
\nshould or should not be done, but not rightly, rather with a pulling awry of
\ntheir true measures and a constant distortion of values. And  this is because its reason and
\nwill are a reason of the ego and a will of desire, and these powers
\nmisrepresent and distort the truth and the right to serve their own egoistic
\npurpose. It is only when we are free from ego and desire and look steadily with
\na calm, pure, disinterested mind concerned only with the truth and its
\nsequences that we can hope to see things rightly and in their just values. But
\nthe rajasic<\/span> will fixes its persistent attention on
\nthe satisfaction of its own attached clingings<\/span> and desires
\nin its pursuit of interest and pleasure and of what it thinks or chooses to
\nthink right and justice, Dharma. Always it is apt to put on these things the
\nconstruction which will most flatter and justify its desires and to uphold as
\nright or legitimate the means which will best help it to get the coveted fruits
\nof its work and endeavour<\/span>. That is the cause of three
\nfourths of the falsehood and misconduct of the human reason and will. Rajas
\nwith its vehement hold on the vital ego is the great sinner and positive
\nmisleader. <\/p>\n

The sattwic
\nunderstanding sees in its right place, right<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 486<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 form, right measure the movement
\nof the world, the law of action and the law of abstention from action, the
\nthing that is to be done and the thing that is not to be done, what is safe for
\nthe soul and what is dangerous, what is to be feared and shunned and what is to
\nbe embraced by the will, what binds the spirit of man and what sets it free.
\nThese are the things that it follows or avoids by the persistence of its
\nconscious will according to the degree of its light and the stage of evolution
\nit has reached in its upward ascent to the highest self and Spirit. The culmination
\nof this sattwic intelligence is found by a high persistence of the aspiring buddhi<\/span> when it is settled on what is beyond the ordinary
\nreason and mental will, pointed to the summits, turned to a steady control of
\nthe senses and the life and a union by Yoga with man’s highest Self, the
\nuniversal Divine, the transcendent Spirit. It is there that arriving through
\nthe sattwic guna<\/span> one can pass beyond the gunas<\/span>, can climb beyond the limitations of the mind and its
\nwill and intelligence and sattwa<\/span> itself disappear
\ninto that which is above the gunas<\/span> and beyond this
\ninstrumental nature. There the soul is enshrined in light and enthroned in firm
\nunion with the Self and Spirit and Godhead. Arrived upon that summit we can
\nleave the Highest to guide Nature in our members in the free spontaneity of a
\ndivine action: for there there<\/span> is no wrong or
\nconfused working, no element of error or impotence to obscure or distort the
\nluminous perfection and power of the Spirit. All these lower conditions, laws, dharmas<\/span> cease to have any hold on us; the Infinite acts in
\nthe liberated man and there is no law but the immortal truth and right of the
\nfree spirit, no Karma, no kind of bondage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Harmony
\nand order are the characteristic qualities of the sattwic mind and temperament,
\nquiet happiness, a clear and calm content and an inner ease and peace.
\nHappiness is indeed the one thing which is openly or indirectly the universal pursuit
\nof our human nature,\u2014happiness or its suggestion or some counterfeit of it,
\nsome pleasure, some enjoyment, some satisfaction of the mind, the will, the
\npassions or the body. Pain is an experience our nature has to accept when it
\nmust, involuntarily as a necessity, an unavoidable incident of universal
\nNature, or voluntarily as a means to what we seek after, but not<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 487<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 a thing desired for its own
\nsake,\u2014except when it is so sought in perversity or with an ardour<\/span>
\nof enthusiasm in suffering for some touch of fierce pleasure it brings or the
\nintense strength it engenders. But there are various kinds of happiness or pleasure
\naccording to the guna<\/span> which dominates in our nature.
\nThus the tamasic mind can remain well-pleased in its indolence and inertia, its
\nstupor and sleep, its blindness and its error. Nature has armed it with the
\nprivilege of a smug satisfaction in its stupidity and ignorance, its dim lights
\nof the cave, its inert contentment, its petty or base joys and its vulgar pleasures.
\nDelusion is the beginning of this satisfaction and delusion is its consequence;
\nbut still there is given a dull, a by no means admirable but a sufficient
\npleasure in his delusions to the dweller in the cave. There is a tamasic
\nhappiness founded<\/p>\n

in inertia and ignorance.<\/p>\n

The mind of the rajasic<\/span> man drinks of a more fiery and intoxicating cup;
\nthe keen, mobile, active pleasure of the senses and the body and the
\nsense-entangled or fierily kinetic will and intelligence are to him all the joy
\nof life and the very significance of living. This joy is nectar to the lips at
\nthe first touch, but there is a secret poison in the bottom of the cup and
\nafter it the bitterness of disappointment, satiety, fatigue, revolt, disgust,
\nsin, suffering, loss, transience. And it must be so because these pleasures in
\ntheir external figure are not the things which the spirit in us truly demands
\nfrom life; there is something behind and beyond the transience of the form,
\nsomething that is lasting, satisfying, self-sufficient. What the sattwic nature
\nseeks, therefore, is the satisfaction of the higher mind and the spirit and
\nwhen it once gets this large object of its quest, there comes in a clear, pure
\nhappiness of the soul, a state of fullness, an abiding ease and peace. This happiness
\ndoes not depend on outward things, but on ourselves alone and on the flowering
\nof what is best and most inward within us. But it is not at first our normal
\npossession; it has to be conquered by self-discipline, a labour of the soul, a
\nhigh and arduous endeavour<\/span>. At first this means much
\nloss of habitual pleasure, much suffering and struggle, a poison born of the
\nchurning of our nature, a painful conflict of forces, much revolt and
\nopposition to the change <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 488<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 due to the ill-will of the members
\nor the insistence of vital movements, but in the end the nectar of immortality
\nrises in the place of this bitterness and as we climb to the higher spiritual
\nnature we come to the end of sorrow, the euthanasia of grief and pain. That is
\nthe surpassing happiness which descends upon us at the point or line of
\nculmination of the sattwic discipline. <\/p>\n

The
\nself-exceeding of the sattwic nature comes when we get beyond the great but
\nstill inferior sattwic pleasure, beyond the pleasures of mental knowledge and virtue
\nand peace to the eternal calm of the self and the spiritual ecstasy of the
\ndivine oneness. That spiritual joy is no longer the sattwic happiness, sukham<\/i><\/span>, but the
\nabsolute Ananda<\/span>. Ananda<\/span> is
\nthe secret delight from which all things are born, by which all is sustained in
\nexistence and to which all can rise in the spiritual culmination. Only then can
\nit be possessed when the liberated man, free from ego and its desires, lives at
\nlast one with his highest self, one with all beings and one with God in an absolute
\nbliss of the spirit.<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 489<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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