Swamy Dayananda Saraswati at PRASHANT KUTIR -jigni-bangalore from 12th july till 17th evening..

[Guest guest]

namaskaram to all,

Poojya Sw Dayananda Saraswatiji is to talk at Prashanti Kutir, Sw Vivekananda Kendra for yoga , Jigani, Bangalore..

for information - if u are anywhere near bangalore

and i understand that there will be 3 sessions during day

9-10 am, 11-12 and in the evening...i am not sure about the evening session timing.

namaskaram

 

bhaskar.yr (AT) in (DOT) abb.com wrote:

CAturvarNyam -Verse 4.13 Bhagavad Gita Home study by Swami Dayananada

Sarasvati? Continued

 

The Four groups of people according to guNa

 

The sattva-rajas-tamas composition is a very beautiful description of a

person's inner composition. A person can be predominantly contemplative, a

thinking person, because of which certain things are very evident to him or

her. Any emotionally mature person, any inquirer or philosopher, anyone who

thinks predominantly about fundamental values, the ends in life, and so on,

is naturally a combination of sattva-rajas-tamas in that order. In such a

person sattva is predominant, backed by rajas in second place, tamas taking

third place. This, then is one type of person.

 

The second type will naturally have rajas predominant, the second can be

either sattva or tamas. When rajas is predominant, the person is very

active, fired by a certain ambition. When this ambition is directed to the

welfare of others and to certain deals, there is a lot of thinking

involved. There fore sattva is in second place, the person's enthusiasm and

actions being backed up by thinking. Such people generally become good

teachers.

 

Then we have the third group of people, those who are always active, having

rajas predominant, but who have tamas rather than sattva in the second

place. This means they have ambitions rather than thinking behind their

actions. An example of ambition without thinking is when someone goes after

money, power or whatever, without any consideration for others. Because

such a person who has some sattva, some thinking capacity, he or she may

not only be very active, but may also be very clever, very intelligent.

But, because tamas is predominant over sattva, there will be a lot of

scheming, manipulation, and exploitation of others.

 

If, on the other hand, sattva is backing up the rajas, there will be

consideration for other people. There will be respect for life and for

wealth and for the freedom of others. Whereas when tamas backs up rajas,

there is only disrespect for dharma, meaning there will be no regard for

others. For such a person, individual ambition is the most important and he

or she becomes a despot. If they do not become leaders, only their families

and perhaps their neighbours suffer, whereas if they assume world

leadership roles, the results can be devastating.

 

The fourth type of person, wherein tamas predominates, presents no such

problem. At worst these people are small-time criminals and at best, simple

employees ? not out of any real contentment or anything but simply because

of dullness. Such people have no ambition whatsoever, not even to make

money. In fact, they have already decided that they cannot make money. 'If

I could make money, I would have made it long ago,' they will say. And

then, to justify their laziness, they add, 'Who needs money anyway?' And if

such a person has little ambition for something, he or she will not work to

make it happen and will compromise at every turn. This, then. is what is

meant by dullness, tamas.

 

If tamas ?rajas-sattva wants to become sattva- rajas- tamas, he or she has

to become rajas-tamas-sattva first, then rajas ?sattva-tamas, and only then

sattva-rajas-tamas. There is no jumping possible here. It is a process

involving growth and that is what maturity is all about. This is also what

we mean by karma yoga whereby one becomes mature by doing karma with a

karma yoga attitude.

 

Up to rajas ?tamas ?sattva growth is simply a matter of performing karma,

pursuing one's own ends according to dharma. Only when one performs karma

with the attitude of karma yoga does the person become sattva-rajas-tamas.

This is the person who can become a sannyAsi.

 

Shades of difference exist within these four groups. For example,

rajas-tamas ?sattva can be criminal or just an ambitious sales person. When

the later invites you to his or her place with a smile, you may end up

paying for the smile too! There is a rank selfishness in this type of

person that makes him or her convert every action into dollars and cents.

Rajas ? tamas ?sattva people can follow either dharma or adharma, shades of

difference being there. Once you reach rajas-sattva-tamas you

autromatically follow dharma.

 

The universality of the four-fold division

 

These are the three qualities, which cause the differences in the groups of

people, not only in India but all over the world. Sattva, rajas, tamas

belong to prakrti, to nature, which belongs to BhagavAn alone. On the basis

of this prakrti, then this division of people according to qualities, this

guna vibhAga is done.

 

All people come under the four groups formed by the possible combinations

of the three guNas because everyone has to work his or her way through the

four compositions in order to mature. In the Vedic context, the people

having the first combination sattva ? rajas-tamas are called brAhmaNAs,

those having the second combination rajas ? sattva ? tamas are called

kshatriyas, those having the third rajas ?tamas ?sattva are called

vaishyas, and those having the fourth combination tamas-rajas-sattva are

called shUdras. This, then, is the guNa vibhAga, the four-fold division

based on qualities, referred to in this verse.

 

To be continued

 

om namo narayanaya

 

Lakshmi Muthuswamy

 

 

 

 

 

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