Purpose, movement, inertia

Bhagavad-Gītā
14th Chapter Continued

In summary, then, our involvement with these different qualities or modes of nature colors and conditions our experience in the material world. 

The evolution from complete spiritual awareness to hazy consciousness to embodied soul takes place with the mediation of these elemental forces or laws of nature, called sattva, raja, and tama.

 No value is judgment is made about the “good” or “evil” of these modes. They are simply universal elements influencing consciousness, a kind of color theory of light and shadow. By themselves the so-called “modes” are neither good nor bad. They do not provoke action any more than a powerful drug like opium forces someone to become addicted. But once under the influence of a particular mode consciousness becomes further bewildered. The “modes” are inherent aspects of prakṛti  elemental in the devolution of consciousness from aware spiritual energy to conditioned embodied soul, according to the Vedic analysis.

While the modes are not “causal,” attachment with them provokes certain effects. Attachment in sattva conditions one to happiness, raja conditions one to the fruits of action, and tamas to madness. From sattva, real knowledge develops; from raja, grief develops; and from the tama, foolishness, madness and illusion. In Sattva-guna, a man becomes attached to happiness and knowledge. Raja increases libido and sexual desire, and binds through attachment. Tama binds through inertia.

While the 3 qualities, sattva, raja, and tama  are inherent in prakṛti  conjoined with atma,  they  interact according to karmic conditions, gradually producing a myriad variety of shapes, forms, colors, and qualities.

The Vedic universe is not an empty time-space continuum constructed from atoms and a void: it is an organic cosmos where puruṣa and prakṛti  combine in an endless dance of evolutionary character. The interplay between positive and negative forces include not only quantum particles of matter, but of conscious energy as well. The cosmic principles known as “gunas” are the substratum or background of the physical universe, responsible in their turn for the material elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, according to how they are balanced.

Normally we think of the mind-body problem as a kind of “ghost in a machine.” Since we can’t find the ghost in the machine, we decide to study only the machine. But our obsession with analyzing the mechanics of the physical world forces us, as a kind of scientific discipline, to wall off the organic cosmos as incapable of analysis. 

It’s difficult to locate life or its source and we ignore it entirely as a philosophical problem in the name of scientific integrity. Since only concrete matter bears scrutiny, we focus our studies on its physical properties and are satisfied when this bears fruit in the form of technology.

And yet this emphasis lacks integrity since it ignores the organic cosmos. The Vedic philosophy takes a different view: the organic world matters.   

A true analysis of reality must take prakṛti  and puruṣa  into consideration. The relationship between consciousness, intelligence, mind, and the physical universe is essential and cannot be ignored.

One may define sattva, rajas, and tama  as “purpose, movement, and inertia.” These different qualities of material nature are rarely found in pure, distilled, isolation: purpose, movement, and inertia combine as do all natural elements of the physical universe.

Krishna explains that where movement and inertia are weak, purpose may be strong. Where purpose  is weak, movement  or inertia  may predominate. One may see the relative dominance of sattva, raja, or tama  by analyzing their effects.

For example, when knowledge is present sattva predominates. When action and sensuality, rajas.  When ignorance and inertia are present, then tamas  predominates.

The three modes are present in all human beings, though in different degrees. No one is free from them and in each soul one or the other predominates at any given moment. We may be sāttvika, rājasa, or tāmasa  according to the mode which prevails. In traditional medicine before the 20th century, scientists took quite seriously the theory of the “humours” of physiology.

The Four "Humours of the Body"

Metabolisms were sanguine, bilious,  lymphatic or nervous, according to the balance of four humours. Where the “humours” were an attempt by ancient medical science at explaining certain physiological conditions, the “modes” attempt to take spiritual, conscious, or psychic characteristics nto account. A sāttvika  nature aims at light and knowledge;



 the rājasa  nature wants action, sense-gratification.



The tāmasa nature is inert; a tamasic being lives in ignorance, reacting only to the world around it.

Kṛṣṇa says (BG 14.10), “Sometimes purpose stands over action and inertia; O son of Bharata, sometimes action defeats purpose, and at other times inertia overcomes both purpose and action. There is a constant dynamic between purpose, action and inertia, or goodness, passion and ignorance.

When raja increases the symptoms are attachment, desire, hankering, and action. As for the time of death: When one dies in sattva, he attains the pure higher worlds. One who dies in raja, is born again within the world of karma; and when he dies in ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom.

The fruit of sattvik action is purity. Rajasik karma brings pain, where the fruit of laziness and inertia is ignorance.

The psychological effects of the three modes are as follows: from goodness arises knowledge and from passion greed; negligence and error arise from dullness, as also ignorance.  Those who are established in goodness rise upwards; the passionate remain in the karmic world of struggle the dull sink downwards. In this way the soul evolves through various stages, rising from dull inertia and subjection to ignorance through the struggle for material enjoyments within various biological frameworks to the pursuit of divine knowledge and eternal happiness.

As long as the living being is attached, even to noble objects, we are limited and conditioned. Tamas  and rajas so integrally saturate the experience of the mundane world it is difficult to end their influence entirely.  Transcending the world of inertia, karmic energy, and mundane knowledge should be the goal of the conditioned living entity.

Kṛṣṇa says that one who transcends material knowledge sees that the organic cosmos is  a fusion of these elemental forces, sattva, rajas, and tamas. An enlightened soul perceives that apart from these modes of nature there is no cause of action. He knows that the Supreme is transcendental.  Such a great soul can know the true spiritual nature and understand his personal relationship with God Himself.  When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes, he can become free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can enjoy the sweet exilir of divine love even in this life.

Arjuna said: O Lord, what are the symptoms of such a great soul who is transcendental to these three modes? How does he act? And how does he transcend the modes of nature?

The Lord replies:

“A realized soul understands the influences of the modes of nature. He knows that their influences come and go. And so he doesn’t resent purpose, action or inertia. He knows that illumination and attachment come and go. Desire and illusion are constants as are understanding. The wise man neither treasures these when they are present, nor does he long for them for them when they are absent.

"He is indifferent to the actions and reactions of purpose, activity and inertia. The modal effects bring happiness and distress, but the enlightened man knows these effects are impermanent and fugitive. He sees a lump of coal a diamond, and a piece of gold equally.

"To a wise man, praise and blame, honor and dishonor are the same. He treats friend and foe alike, for he has no enemies.

"An enlightened soul who has abandoned all karmic endeavors has transcended the · modes of nature.  One who engages in full devotional service to Me in my form of Shyamasundara the Lord of Vṛṇdāvana, free from the tendencies for exploitation and renunciation at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of spiritual realization o his internal divine identity. And I am the basis of the undivided Divinity, the inexhaustible nectar, the timeless pastimes and the sweetness of the ambrosia of profound love divine; this  is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness, immortal, imperishable and eternal.”