Satawic, Rajasic and Tamasic

[Guest guest]

Respected members,

I wish all of you and the members of your family a

hearty greetings on the occassion of Dussehra and

forthcoming Deepavali festivals.

May Maa Durga and Goddess Lakhmi bless you for sound

health, mind and spirit, harmony and prosperous life.

The discussion on Satvic, rajsic and Tamsic is going

on. The best explanation has been given in Bhagwat

Geeta in chapter 18. I am quoting from the same.

 

DEFINITION OF RENUNCIATION

 

AND SACRIFICE

 

Lord Krishna said: The sages define renunciation as

abstaining from all work for personal profit. The wise

define sacrifice as the sacrifice of, and the freedom

from, the selfish attachment to the fruits of all

work. (See also 5.01, 5.05, and 6.01) (18.02)

 

Some philosophers say that all work is full of faults

and should be given up, while others say that acts of

sacrifice, charity, and austerity should not be

abandoned. (18.03)

 

O Arjuna, listen to My conclusion about sacrifice.

Sacrifice is said to be of three types. (18.04)

 

Acts of service, charity, and austerity should not be

abandoned, but should be performed, because service,

charity, and austerity are the purifiers of the wise.

(18.05)

 

Even these obligatory works should be performed

without attachment to the fruits. This is My definite

supreme advice, O Arjuna. (18.06)

 

THREE TYPES OF SACRIFICE

 

Giving up one's duty is not proper. The abandonment of

obligatory work is due to delusion, and is declared to

be in the mode of ignorance.(Tamasic) (18.07)

 

One who abandons duty merely because it is difficult,

or because of fear of bodily trouble, does not get the

benefits of sacrifice by performing such a sacrifice

in the mode of passion.(Rajasic) (18.08)

 

Obligatory work performed as duty, renouncing selfish

attachment to the fruit, is alone regarded to be

sacrifice in the mode of goodness, O Arjuna.(Satawic)

(18.09)

 

The one who neither hates a disagreeable work, nor is

attached to an agreeable work, is considered a

renunciant (Tyagi), imbued with the mode of goodness,

intelligent, and free from all doubts about the

Supreme Being. (18.10)

 

Human beings cannot completely abstain from work.

Therefore, the one who completely renounces the

selfish attachment to the fruits of all works is

considered a renunciant. (18.11)

 

The threefold fruit of works — desirable, undesirable,

and mixed ¾ accrues after death to the one who is not

a renunciant (Tyagi), but never to a Tyagi. (18.12)

 

FIVE CAUSES OF ANY ACTION

 

Learn from Me, O Arjuna, the five causes, as described

in the Sankhya doctrine, for the accomplishment of all

actions. They are: The physical body, the seat of

Karma; the modes of material Nature, the doer; the

eleven organs of perception and action, the

instruments; various bioimpulses; and the fifth is the

presiding deities of the eleven organs. (18.13-14)

 

Whatever action, whether right or wrong, one performs

by thought, word, and deed; these are its five causes.

(18.15)

 

Therefore, the ignorant one who considers one’s body

or the soul as the sole agent due to imperfect

knowledge does not understand. (18.16)

 

The one who is free from the notion of doership, and

whose intellect is not polluted by the desire to reap

the fruit; even after slaying these people, he or she

neither slays nor is bound by the act of killing.

(18.17)

 

The subject, the object, and the knowledge of the

object are the threefold driving force to an action.

The eleven organs; the act, and the agent or the modes

of material Nature are the three components of action.

(18.18)

 

THREE TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE

 

Self-knowledge, action), and agent are said to be of

three types according to Sankhya doctrine. Hear duly

about these also. (18.19)

 

The knowledge by which one sees a single immutable

Reality in all beings as undivided in the divided;

such knowledge is in the mode of goodness.(Satawic)

(See also 11.13, and 13.16) (18.20)

 

The knowledge by which one sees different realities of

various types among all beings as separate from one

another; consider that knowledge to be in the mode of

passion.(Rajasic) (18.21)

 

The irrational, baseless, and worthless knowledge by

which one clings to one single effect (such as the

body) as if it is everything; such knowledge is

declared to be in the mode of darkness of

ignorance.(Tamasic) (18.22)

 

THREE TYPES OF ACTION

 

The obligatory duty performed without likes and

dislikes, and without selfish motives and attachment

to enjoy the fruit, is said to be in the mode of

goodness.(Satwic) (18.23)

 

Action performed with ego, with selfish motives, and

with too much effort; is declared to be in the mode of

passion.(Rajasic) (18.24)

 

Action that is undertaken because of delusion;

disregarding consequences, loss, injury to others, as

well as one’s own ability is said to be in the mode of

ignorance.(Tamasic) (18.25)

 

THREE TYPES OF AGENT

 

The agent who is free from attachment, is

non-egotistic, endowed with resolve and enthusiasm,

and unperturbed in success or failure is called

good.(Satawic) (18.26)

 

The agent who is impassioned, attached to the fruits

of their work, greedy, violent, impure, and is

affected by joy and sorrow is called

passionate.(Rajasic) (18.27)

 

The undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, wicked,

malicious, lazy, depressed, and procrastinating agent

is called ignorant.(Tamasic) (18.28)

 

THREE TYPES OF INTELLECT

 

Now hear the threefold division of intellect and

resolve, based on modes of material Nature, as

explained by Me fully and separately, O Arjuna.

(18.29)

 

O Arjuna, the intellect by which one understands the

path of work and the path of renunciation, right and

wrong action, fear and fearlessness, bondage and

liberation, that intellect is in the mode of goodness.

(Satawic)(18.30)

 

The intellect by which one cannot distinguish between

righteousness (Dharma) and unrighteousness (Adharma),

and right and wrong action; that intellect is in the

mode of passion, O Arjuna.(Rajasic) (18.31)

 

The intellect ¾ when covered by ignorance ¾ accepts

unrighteousness (Adharma) as righteousness (Dharma),

and thinks everything to be that which it is not, is

in the mode of ignorance, O Arjuna.(Tamasic) (18.32)

 

THREE TYPES OF RESOLVE, AND THE FOUR GOALS OF HUMAN

LIFE

 

The resolve by which one manipulates the functions of

the mind, Prana (bioimpulses), and senses for

God-realization only; that resolve is in the mode of

goodness, O Arjuna.(Satawic) (18.33)

 

The resolve by which a person, craving for the fruits

of work, clings to duty, accumulating wealth, and

enjoyment with great attachment; that resolve, O

Arjuna, is in the mode of passion.(Rajasic) (18.34)

 

The resolve by which a dull person does not give up

sleep, fear, grief, despair, and carelessness; that

resolve is in the mode of ignorance, O

Arjuna.(Tamasic) (18.35)

 

THREE TYPES OF PLEASURE

 

And now hear from Me, O Arjuna, about the threefold

pleasure. The pleasure one enjoys from spiritual

practice results in cessation of all sorrows. (18.36)

 

The pleasure that appears as poison in the beginning,

but is like nectar in the end, comes by the grace of

Self-knowledge, and is in the mode of

goodness.(Satwic) (18.37)

 

Sensual pleasures appear as nectar in the beginning,

but become poison in the end; such pleasures are in

the mode of passion.(Rajsic) (See also 5.22) (18.38)

 

Pleasure that confuses a person in the beginning and

in the end; which comes from sleep, laziness, and

carelessness; such pleasure is said to be in the mode

of ignorance.(Tamsic) (18.39)

 

There is no being, either on the earth or among the

celestial controllers in the heaven, who can remain

free from these three modes of material Nature.

(18.40)

 

Now it is for the learner to understnad what is

Satwic,Rajsic and Tamsic

With regards