Bhagavad-Gītā
Chapter 14
Continued…
The Laws of Material Nature
BG 14.5
सत्त्वं रजस् तम इति
गुनः प्रकृति-सम्भवाः
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो
देहे देहिनम् अव्ययम्
sattvaṃ rajas tama iti
gunaḥ prakṛti-sambhavāḥ
nibadhnanti mahābāho
dehe dehinam avyayam
“Sattva, rajas,
and tama are the “modes” or
“qualities” (guṇas) that characterize prakṛti
or material nature: the embodied soul becomes conditioned by these
qualities when he becomes involved in the world of exploitation.”
The guṇas are
the primary constituents of material nature and the basis of all substances and
situations in the perceived world of exploitation. The “qualities” of material
nature are dependent on the perceptive cognizance of the conditioned soul and
cannot exist without consciousness. And yet, once the soul has been somewhat
conditioned by the exploiting tendency, the constituent qualities of material
nature afford the opportunity to dwell within the hypnotic illusion with much
greater detail.
Consider the metaphor of a holographic
projection.
How is “imaginary” reality constructed? The
material world has often been compared to a dream. When we dream, we are asleep to the “real
world.” Thanks to modern anaesthesia, we may dream very pleasantly while a doctor
performs heart surgery. Unconscious to objective reality, we live in the
subjective world of imagination.
But a dream is personal. My dreams and yours are
very different.
How could we all possibly have the same dream?
It is something like “mass hypnosis,” where
everyone buys into the same illusion.
It’s hard to believe. But we are constantly
involved in the suspension of disbelief. When we wish to escape from mundane
routines, we might read a book. As we read, we try to imagine the author’s
world. Reading is highly subjective. In reading, everyone has his own idea of
what a hero might look like, for example.
People are often unsatisfied when the see the movie
version of a book, because the movie actor is not exactly the hero as they
imagined him. In fact, we are disappointed because we identify ourselves as the
hero.
A more visual medium involves an artist’s
conception. A graphic novel or comic book is a step removed from pure
text. As we project ourselves into a
world of fantasy and adventure and read a comic book, we sacrifice some
imagination to share the artist’s idea of the hero. We know what Spiderman or
the Hulk looks like, because we have seen the artist’s idea.
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| Spiderman |
We can still
identify ourself with the hero, but we have a more specific idea of how he
looks. We can imagine ourselves flying through the sky like Superman, but can
see more clearly the “S” on his blue uniform.
There is less connotation
involved; we don’t have to use our imagination so much. But the denotation is
clearly laid out; we can see the details, so we don’t have to create our own
subjective version. The so-called "Objective Reality" created subjectively in collusion with the three modes wants our complete suspension of disbelief. We are not supposed to reflect on anything, but simply accept the perceived world as absolute truth.
Marshall Mcluhan, writing in the 20th
Century, describes the different “Media” in terms of “hot” and “cold.” He considers both “media” and “technology” to
be extensions of the physical, social, psychological functions of human beings.
For example, the wheel extends our feet, the phone extends our voice,
television extends our eyes and ears, the computer extends our brain and
electronic media our central nervous system. He is particularly interested in
the electronic extension of consciousness. Writing in the 1960s Mcluhan
predicts the advent of the internet.
“Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the
extension of man—the technological simulation of consciousness, when the
creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to
the whole of human society, much as we have already extended our senses and
nerves by the various media.”
His argument vis-à-vis “hot” vs. “cold” media is
interesting in terms of the metaphor of the holographic universe. Mcluhan defines as “hot,” media that heats
the brain: that is media that itself being less denotative, leaves something to
the imagination. Radio “heats up” the brain, since the listener, must supply the heat to
decode the message.
A “hot” media then will be print, a book, or radio,
where the listener, apparently passive supplies all the imagery within his
brain. Topographical brain scans have demonstrated that certain areas of the
brain, for example, “light up” when we read a story or imagine a melody. Media
is “hot” when it lights up the brain. A good example is the story of Alice in
Wonderland or “Through the Looking Glass,” where we need to wrap our head
around riddles, enigmas, puzzles, mathematical paradoxes, chess problems,
word-games and puns, all of which heat the brain. The mental effort required to solve the puzzle is rewarded by the "montessorian explosion" of discovery which accompanies real learning.
A “cool” medium on the other hand provides no such discovery. Nothing is learned and no effort is required. It leaves nothing to
the imagination. All the imagery is supplied to us. An example would be the
Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, where we are seduced by colorful images,
cartoons, and songs based on the book’s ideas, but with no room for real
contemplation of its meaning.
Returning to the idea of the mass hypnosis
influenced by the “modes of nature,” and
how these 3 qualities or dimensions color our world and influence us, we can
consider the metaphor of a holographic 3D projection, created simultaneously by the subject and the supersubject. It seems unquestionably real. But consciousness has passed through "hazy consciousness" to produce a kind of "mass hypnosis."
Consider a “rave” party where thousands of people
high on LSD or MDMA are subjected to a 3D holographic light show. Little
imagination or thinking is involved. The subjective capacity of each audience
member is diminished by drugs and powerful media displays until the experience
becomes total. The more powerful and
“cool” the medium, the more each individual becomes trapped in an organic mass
experience, a “tribal” event.
Perhaps this is an extreme example of “mass
hypnosis,” but I think it works.
"Propaganda" has a similar effect on our view of reality. When a false
premise is repeated long enough and loud enough on a number of “media” our
worldview becomes influenced to the point where we are ready to act. This
problem is widely explored in Orwell’s 1984.
As Jacques Ellul points out in his seminal work, “Propaganda, the Formation of
Men’s Attitudes,” we subscribe to the propaganda we think defines us, while the
propagandist’s job is to tailor the message to suit our attitudes. The modes of
nature affect us in a similar way: we are drawn to exploit in a particular way
and the modes suit the object to the subject according to our attitudes.
सत्त्वं रजस् तम इति
गुनः प्रकृति-सम्भवाः
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो
देहे देहिनम् अव्ययम्
sattvaṃ rajas tama iti
gunaḥ prakṛti-sambhavāḥ
nibadhnanti mahābāho
dehe dehinam avyayam
“Sattva,
rajas, and tama are the “modes”
or “qualities” (guṇas) that characterize prakṛti
or material nature: the embodied soul becomes conditioned by these
qualities when he becomes involved in the world of exploitation.”
The point is that the “modes of nature” are not
objective forces that shape us; rather they are products of our own subjective
projection of exploitative reality. They have to do with a kind of “suspension
of disbelief.” We know that we are not God; we know we are not the creators of
the universe. We know that death is an imminent force. We know that we aren’t
going to be here forever. We know that we aren’t all powerful. Still, it’s fun
to pretend. This material world is effectively a kind of fantasy-land where we
try to play at being gods.
When we read, we construct a kind of literary
fantasy world. I’ve always been addicted to reading. Sometimes my parents would
say “he lives in his own little world.” Readers of the Lord of the Rings create
their own versions of “Smaug the Dragon” or Frodo or Gandalf.
Harry Potter
addicts create their own Hogwarts. But as readers our intimate imagination of a
particular literary world is subjective. Once it becomes a film, the experience
of a particular “world” becomes more and more objective as millions of viewers
participate in the creation of an imaginary event.
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| Hogwarts |
The “Star Wars” phenomenon is well-known. George
Lucas has created an imaginary world with its own languages, laws, politics,
and mythology. “Star Wars” has been seen by millions who know exactly how Han
Solo and Darth Vader look. I attended a 3D high-tech simulator ride at
Universal Studios in California that made me feel I was really flying through
other planets at top speed.
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| Star Wars |
Where it’s easy to look up from a book and have a
conversation or answer the door, leaving behind the special world of literary
fantasy, a movie allows us to suspend our disbelief more forcefully and enter
into the trance of mass hypnosis.
Ordinary movies pale when we step into a 3
dimensional holographic experience. Still we know that it’s all in fun. Anyone
who cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality is a candidate for the
psychiatric ward.
Still fantasy dies hard. And as we suspend our
disbelief in materialistic pleasures, we are easy prey to mythology and propaganda of
advertisements that convince us that sense gratification equals happiness. Our penchant for fantasy
and entertainment drives a multi-billion dollar industry that strives for a
total “virtual reality” experience.
Probably the most powerful “virtual
reality” trip is internet porn, which provides perverted and imaginary
sexual experiences for millions of men worldwide on a daily basis. And the
propaganda which flows from all these different forms of virtual experience
serve to hold us in sway, serve to adapt our
individual consciousness to a society in self-denial. As we submit our
imagination to these “modes” or “media” we fall into a kind mass hypnosis designed
to hold us to a certain living standard, designed to make us believe in a
product, a country, or a political figure.
Karl Rove, the famous political operative who guided George Bush to the
presidency of the United States once famously commented “Perception is
Reality.” George Bush was no war hero, in fact he disappeared from his national
guard unit during the war. On the other hand, John Kerry his opponent was
demonstrably a “war hero,” having served under fire on a swift boat on the
Mekong River in Vietnam. Nonetheless, thanks to propaganda people were
convinced that Kerry was a coward and Bush a hero. Berkeley originated the expression, and Samuel
Butler, kicking a stone said, “I refute Berkeley thus.” http://thomasjaredfarmer.blogspot.mx/2013/08/the-kick-of-refutation-samuel-johnsons.html
Well, Samuel Butler is
no longer with us and the stone he kicked is nowhere to be found. And while it
is easy to quibble with Berkeleyan idealism, the meme that “Perception is
Reality” is very much alive.
According
to Jacques Ellul, propaganda is a kind of
mass hypnosis that aims to involve us in
a social activity aiming to make the individual serve and conform. The propaganda of virtual
reality aims at a kind of inner control to maintain conformity to the social or
national force.
All of these forms of “entertainment” or “virtual
reality” however, are useless without our willful suspension of disbelief. We need to stop believing in divine nature and invest faith in material nature in order to enjoy the sensory world of sex and death.
As long as we pretend to believe in “virtual reality” it has meaning. The particular media of “virtual reality’ may vary according to our own inclinations. The genre of propaganda or "mode" that attracts us has to do with our own psychological makeup, affected in turn by our spiritual level of consciousness.
As long as we pretend to believe in “virtual reality” it has meaning. The particular media of “virtual reality’ may vary according to our own inclinations. The genre of propaganda or "mode" that attracts us has to do with our own psychological makeup, affected in turn by our spiritual level of consciousness.
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| The Modes of Nature: Artist's Conception |
According to our own particular investment in the
perceived world, or the “world of exploitation,” certain realities are unfolded
to us, colored by our own clouded consciousness. All “reality” is “virtual” in
the sense that it is perceived and interpreted differently according to our
circumstances, our capacity for sensory
perception, our motives and biological framework.
A dog sees color differently than a human being; so
does a bee. A realized soul sees God in everything; an economist sees only
money. The glass is half-full for an optimist, half-empty to the pessimist,
poison to the cynic, H2O to the scientist, and the flavor of purity to the devotee
of Kṛṣṇa. Which is true?
It is difficult to explain how the subjective world
becomes objective. Do the rods and cones in the vegetable eyeball produce
vision? Or is it a product of the neurons and synapses in the brain. Or is
vision itself a mental condition dependent on consciousness? Constructing an explanation for the origin of
the subjective world is just as difficult; in fact it is impossible for a materialist to explain the origin of
vision. The best one can do is to try to get at the mechanics of seeing: how
does it work?
So, here in the 14th Chapter of
Bhagavad-Gītā, Kṛṣṇa is explaining the quantum mechanics of consciousness.
सत्त्वं रजस् तम इति
गुनः प्रकृति-सम्भवाः
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो
देहे देहिनम् अव्ययम्
sattvaṃ rajas tama iti
gunaḥ prakṛti-sambhavāḥ
nibadhnanti mahābāho
dehe dehinam avyayam
“Sattva,
rajas, and tama are the “modes”
or “qualities” (guṇas) that characterize prakṛti
or material nature: the embodied soul becomes conditioned by these
qualities when he becomes involved in the world of exploitation.”
The trimodal influences or guṇas facilitate the subjective evolution of mental processes as the
metaphysical world congeals into the physical world through a kind of
suspension of disbelief.
We want to believe in the eternal reality of
material nature; we want to believe that we can go on living in the material
world forever, exploiting and enjoying. We want to continue as the subjects,
the center of the universe. And because we cling to this psychosis, we are
willing to do anything to perpetuate it, even to deny the very existence of the
self.
Self-denial is the core of our illusion; our determination to exploit the
world flourishes at the expense of our self-awareness. The “modes of nature,” are subtle effects of
conscious states that harden into experience according to our talent for
self-denial.
The “modes of nature: are threefold: Absolute
denial of the self is ignorance, darkness, “tama.”
Partial awareness of the self is called raja.
A less hazy consciousness is called sattva. Another way to see this is that sattva is sunlight, raja is light refracted
across the color spectrum in various shades and hues, where twilight, tama is twilight, shadow, darkness and
the relative absence of light.
This is a much subtler approach to the problem of
good and evil than that given in the Judea-Christian-Islamic world. Ordinarily
we tend to think of ethical problems in dualities of sin and piety, good and
evil, black and white. But the Bhagavad-Gītā is not reading morality in terms
of black and white, but in full color.
Our thoughts, words, and deeds are not to be
classified as exclusively good or bad. Kṛṣṇa does not preach “hell hot and sin
black.” He tells Arjuna that our thoughts, words and deeds evade easy
classification. Thoughts, words and actions done in the light, with a higher cognizance
of spiritual awareness are more sattvik;
actions colored with a lack of light are darker and rajarshik. While actions done in darkness are tamasik. The same applies to
the variety of species: the higher species are closer to illumination, the lower
species live in darkness.
At the same time, it is difficult to be “sattvik” and “live in the mode of
goodness,” while still laboring under the illusion of being the center of the
universe. Denial of the self is the root of our sojourn in the material world; sattva-guna itself is a covered form of consciousness.
Mere materialistic piety is not enough to break the chains binding us to the wheel
of birth and death.
Equally important is the idea that our normal
existence involves a complex combination of these three elements. Just as all the color known
to the human eye may be broken down into three primary colors, cyan, magenta,
and yellow, so in the same way the elements of our experience within this world
may be decoded with reference to these three different influences on
consciousness.
सत्त्वं रजस् तम इति
गुनः प्रकृति-सम्भवाः
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो
देहे देहिनम् अव्ययम्
sattvaṃ rajas tama iti
gunaḥ prakṛti-sambhavāḥ
nibadhnanti mahābāho
dehe dehinam avyayam
“Sattva,
rajas, and tama are the “modes”
or “qualities” (guṇas) that characterize prakṛti
or material nature: the embodied soul becomes conditioned by these
qualities when he becomes involved in the world of exploitation.”
 |
| DNA: the double helix |
The modes of material nature comprise in a certain
sense the DNA of the universe, according to this 14th Chapter of the
Bhagavad-Gītā. Just as the linear
sequence of DNA whose double helix determines genetic characteristics may be
broken down into A,C,G, and T nucleotides, in a similar manner the hazy
consciousness that creates the holographic universe of exploitation may be defined by the threefold absence or
presence of spiritual “light.”
This absence or presence of illumination conditions
our attachment to this material world in such a way that we are bound to
material existence. Our “karma” leaves
an impression, a trace, on the mental body. It is something like the “black box”
of an airplane. When an airplane falls from the sky and crashes it leaves
behind a “black box” which explains the conditions of the plane at the time of
its destruction. In the same way, the soul carries with it a karmic impression,
coded in terms of sattva, rajas, and tamas, that determines its placement in
the next life.
In this way the “trimodal qualities” encode an
exact karmic DNA for the next birth experience on the wheel of birth and death
according to the level of consciousness inherent in the prakṛti -conjoined being. The jiva
soul, conditioned by this “karmic
DNA” is bound to a particular body as evolved through time from primordial prakṛti itself.
Technically speaking, then, the soul itself is
never bound by the “modes of material nature.” But by giving tacit approval to
involvement in the exploitation world, by “suspending disbelief” much in the
way that we do when we see a 3 dimensional holographic show, we agree to allow
the modes to influence our perception of virtual reality. And so it is that the
individual living being becomes bound within the restrictions of corporeal
existence.
Bhaktivedānta Swāmī comments, “The living entity,
because he is transcendental, has nothing to do with this material nature. Still,
because he has become conditioned by the material world, he is acting under the
spell of the three modes of material nature. Because living entities have
different kinds of bodies, in terms of the different aspects of nature, they
are induced to act according to that nature. This is the cause of the varieties
of happiness and distress.”
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