String Theory

A subtle web of strands

String Theory

Bhagavad-Gita chapter 14

continued…

String theory model

1. In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. According to Bhagavad-Gītā, the whole of material existence is tied together by a subtle web of strands, strings called gunas. 
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The “modes” or “qualities” of material nature are defined further:

BG 14.6-9

तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात् प्रकाशकम् अनामयम्

सुखसण्गेन बद्नाति ज्ञानसण्गेन चानघ

tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvāt prakāśakam anāmayam

sukhasaṇgena badnāti jñānasaṇgena cānagha

रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्ण सण्ग समुध्बवम्

तद् निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्म सण्गेन देहिनम्

rajo rāgātmakaṃ viddhitṛṣṇa saṇga samudhbavam

tad nibadhnāti kaunteyakarma saṇgena dehinam

तमस् त्व् अज्ञानजं विद्धि मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम्

प्रमादालस्यनिद्राभीस् तन् निबद्नाति भारत

tamas tv ajñānajaṃ viddhi mohanaṃ sarvadehinām

pramādālasyanidrābhīs tan nibadnāti bhārata

In terms of translations, both S. Radhakrishnan and Bhaktivedanta Swami define sattva, rajas, and tamas as “goodness,” “passion,” and “ignorance.” It's easy to frame "goodness" and "ignorance" in terms of "Good and Evil."  But it's not so black and white. Before jumping into "goodness" vs. "ignorance," with a bit of passion on the side, let's look at sattva, rajas and tamas from different points of view. 

It is important to understand the modes of nature properly, since we are told that these qualities bind us to this world. The Vedic analysis of the impulses or modes that govern our sojourn in this material world do not parallel exactly the Manichean version of a battle between good and evil. Rather they are like the psychic DNA from which the universe evolves.

The DNA double helix

It is the tendency of Western readers who are under the influence of Christianity to view Eastern philosophy through the lenses provided by the Catholic Church. Since the Church divides everything into sin and piety, the Western tendency is to jam the subtleties of Vedic  through into the same Procustean bed.

But it is worth taking a closer look at the definitions of these terms. The problem with defining sattva as goodness, is that goodness  in English means something very different from what is considered “sattvik” in the Vedic culture. In English we can speak of a “good” cigar, or a “good” steak. These things can hardly be called sattvika.

Sattva

Kṛṣṇa says, “The quality of sattva is pure, (nirmala), it causes illumination and health.”

The word  Sattva  derives from sat,  existence, or reality. It refers to the aspect of material nature or prakṛti  associated with purity, virtue, cleanliness, wholesomeness, harmony. Kṛṣṇa here says that sattva-guna  is nirmala, spotless, uncontaminated, pure. The brahminical code which defines particular food as sattvika  follows Ayur-Vedic tradition; it is something like the Judaic tradition of what is considered “kosher.”  

While saints usually live their lives within the boundaries of what is sattvika,  Kṛṣṇa here warns us not to think of sattva-guna  as “liberating” in and of itself. A life of piety may condition us to happiness.

In a sense the world of birth and death “imprisons” the living entity. The goal of life, then, should not be to make a comfortable situation within the “prison” of this material world.

While a saint may live within the parameters of sattva-guna, following a so-called sattvik life does not make one a saint. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, “sattva binds one to this world through attachment to happiness and knowledge.”

Oddly the same piety which brings happiness facilitates our attachment to the world of exploitation.  Sattva-guna is not a liberating quality. Living in piety in sattva-guna  does not free one from ego. In fact, one may develop the ego of believing oneself superior to others. One living in sattva-guna may become attached to sattvik living: an aesthetically pleasing life with organic food, peaceful surroundings, noble discussions, and a life of knowledge. 

One who lives a sattvika life feels he knows more than others. He thinks himself better than others. He becomes conditioned to believe that he is more spiritually advanced. And yet this is rejected by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who says, kiba vipra kiba nyāsī śudra kene noi… “whether one is a saint or scholar, a swami or a brahmana, or even a śudra, a lower caste, has nothing to do with self-realization. One who is deep in the science of Kṛṣṇa is fit to be guru.” C.C.M.L. 8.128

Another version of the three modes is "harmony, mobility, and inertia."  In his purport, Bhaktivedanta Swami says, The living entities conditioned by material nature are of various types. One is happy, another is very active, and another is helpless. If we read harmonic for happy, mobile for active, and helpless for inertia  we get a greater sense of these terms.

Rajas

For the same reasons that “goodness” while effective shorthand for sattva  doesn’t really convey a true meaning, “passion” for rajas,  is also ineffective. For within raja,  we also find the concepts of “motion,” “energy,” and “preservation.”

Kṛṣṇa explains that rajas has to do with rāga, attraction, craving, attraction. It binds the soul by attachment to “action.” So while sattva  binds the intellectual to this world of exploitation through curiosity, intelligent inquiry and fascination for satisfying questions, the impulse to action is  the binding factor of rajas.

It is important to mention that Kṛṣṇa is not advocating for “goodness” over “passion” as being ethically or morally superior. He is simply giving a description of the different psychological factors that bind us to the world of exploitation. Sattva refers more to intelligence, raja  to mind, and tama  to the purely physical. It is not that “intelligence” is morally superior to “mind” or that “mind” is morally superior to “body.” 

These are three factors that must be considered in an analysis of our conditioned experience in this world. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that throughout his instructions to Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa keeps telling him that the best solution is dedication, devotion, bhakti,  divine love.

Obviously the desire for “self-preservation,” coupled with “attachment,” rāga,  has another implication: sexual attachment or what Freud calls libido.

 You could think of Gandhi as being in the mode of goodness, and Tarzan in the mode of passion.

If sattva implies living in harmony with the universe, raja is the impulse not only towards action but towards sex and reproduction. Bhaktivedanta Swami comments, “The mode of passion is characterized by the attraction between man and woman. Woman has attraction for man, and man has attraction for woman.” Here, sex is not demonized as sin, but categorized as falling within the realm of raja-guna. Insofar as sexual impulse may blind one to an understanding of the self as nonmaterial, it binds the embodied soul fast to the illusory world of karma. And by this rajarshic impulse to action in the karmic  world one continues to suffer reactions in repeated birth and death.

Tamas

Tamas is “darkness,” “inertia,” or “ignorance.” The influence of tamas is seen in negligence, indolence, sleep and delusion. It is important to remember here that the so-called “modes of nature,” are not active in and of themselves. 

The living entity falls under the sway of these modes according to its conditioning, but the modes of nature are not responsible for our actions. It is not accurate to believe that one is somehow forced to act by the influences of material nature. We alone are responsible for our actions. 

But just as we sometimes associate with friends who are “bad influences,” the gunas  influence our psychology in subtle ways. It is inaccurate to attribute a causal relationship between the modes of nature and our particular karmic situation, and yet by attachment to these “friends” the living entity gradually becomes enslaved by mundane sentiments based on knowledge and happiness,  sexual attachment and love, and even inertia and inaction.  Madness, psychosis, intoxication, addiction, and dementia are some of the psychological aspects of tamas.

Madness characterizes the mode called "tamas"

Any given life is normally an unusual mixture of these three elements. While it is unusual to find someone fully dedicated to intellectual pursuits and higher knowledge, it is rarer still to find any individual who is absolutely free from the sexual impulse, and impossible to find someone who never sleeps. As humans our lives our colored by different levels of sattva, rajas, and tamas.  The idea is to find a guiding light that can deliver us from these material influences. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that this guiding light will be found in bhakti, or dedication, through which the baffling effect of the “modes of nature” may be transcended.