Weekly definition - Prakriti and the three Gunas (temperaments) ..Tama

[Guest guest]

The last and final quality- TAMAS !

 

Tamas tvajnanajam viddhi mohanam sarva-dehinam,

Pramad alasya nidrabhis tan nibadhnati bharata.

Chapter 14 VIII

 

But, know thou Tamas is born of ignorance, deluding all embodied

beings, it binds fast, O Bharata, by heedless-ness, indolence and

sleep.

 

SWAMIJI'S EXPLANATION

 

Tamas is born out of ignorance – Under the influence of Tamas man's

intellectual capacity to discriminate between the right and wrong

gets veiled and he starts acting as if under some hallucination or

stupefaction. Lord Krishna says that Tamas, in the human

personality, binds it to its lower nature by providing it with

endless misconceptions and miscomprehensions of the true divine

purpose of life, which, naturally, forces one in that condition to

live I indolence, heedless of the higher purposes. One thereafter

lives ever asleep to the nobler and the diviner aspirations of life.

There is no consistency of purpose, brilliance of thought,

tenderness of emotion, of nobility of action in an individual who

comes under the contamination of the Tamoguna-influences.

 

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WHAT WAS THE POINT IN POSTING SUCH DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ALL THE

THREE GUNAS ? TO BE QUITE HONEST , SATTWA BINDS US TOO ! However ,

cultivation of 'sattwic' gunas help us to purify our minds but in

the ultimate analysis , one needs to transcend all the three

gunas ... Therefore a correct understanding of all the three gunas

is very essential in spiritual pursuit.

 

May i now leave you with these verses from chapter 14 , verse 22 to

25 ?

 

sri-bhagavan uvaca

prakasam ca pravrttim ca

moham eva ca pandava

na dvesti sampravrttani

na nivrttani kanksati

 

udasina-vad asino

gunair yo na vicalyate

guna vartanta ity evam

yo 'vatisthati nengate

 

sama-duhkha-sukhah sva-sthah

sama-lostasma-kancanah

tulya-priyapriyo dhiras

tulya-nindatma-samstutih

 

manapamanayos tulyas

tulyo mitrari-paksayoh

sarvarambha-parityagi

gunatitah sa ucyate

 

Srila Prabhupada's TRANSLATION

 

The Blessed Lord said: He who does not hate illumination, attachment

and delusion when they are present, nor longs for them when they

disappear; who is seated like one unconcerned, being situated beyond

these material reactions of the modes of nature, who remains firm,

knowing that the modes alone are active; who regards alike pleasure

and pain, and looks on a clod, a stone and a piece of gold with an

equal eye; who is wise and holds praise and blame to be the same;

who is unchanged in honor and dishonor, who treats friend and foe

alike, who has abandoned all fruitive undertakings--such a man is

said to have transcended the modes of nature.

 

ENJOY THE INNER FREEDOM FROM THE THREE GUNAS SO ONE CAN BE ETERNALLY

FREE !

 

AS Ashtavakra Gita says

 

Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of

the mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor

the reaper of the consequences, so you are always free. 1.6

 

(professorji - thanx for the wonderful series on 'i am neither the

doer; nor the experiencer !' all the pieces of the puzzle now fit

together! )

 

Hari Aum Tat Sat!