Gita Satsangh Chapter 14 Verses 5 & 6

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Dandavat pranams to all!

 

Gita Satsangh Chapter 14 Verses 5 & 6

 

To listen to Swami Brahmanananda of the Chinmaya Mission

chanting this Chapter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn3Hro5Ib4U & feature=channel_page

 

To listen to Meena Mahadevan of KailashMusic

chanting this Chapter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9FyEwbZAOs

 

Sattwam rajastama iti gunaah prakriti sambhavaah;

Nibadhnanti mahaabaaho dehe dehinam avyayam.

5. Purity, passion and inertia-these qualities, O mighty-armed Arjuna, born of

Nature, bind fast in the body, the embodied, the indestructible!

 

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

5. O mighty-armed one, the qualities, viz sattva, rajas and tamas, born of

Nature, being the immutable embodies being to the body.

 

O mighty-armed one-who are possessed of hands which are great and mighty, and

extend up to the knees, gunah, the qualities are named sattva, rajas and tamas.

And they, prakrti-sambhavah, born of Nature, born of Maya which belongs to God;

nibadhnanti, bind, as it were; the avyayam, immutable-the immutability has been

spoken of in the verse, 'Being without beginning....,' etc. (13.31); dehinam,

embodied being; dehe, to the body.

 

The word guna is a technical term, and is not a quality like colour etc. which

inhere in some substance. Nor is it meant here that quality and substance are

different. Therefore they are ever dependent on the Knower of the field, just

as qualities are dependent (on some substance). Being of the nature of

ignorance, they bind the Knower of the field, as it were. They come into being,

making That (Knower) their sustainer. In this sense it is said that they bind.

 

Objection; Was it not said that the embodied one does not become defiled (see

13.31-2)? So, why as it contrarily said here that 'they bind'?

 

Reply: We have rebutted this objection by using the word iva (as it were) in

'they bind, as it were'.

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

TAKING UP THE MAIN THEME OF THE CHAPTER, LORD KRISHNA EXPLAINS WHAT THE " GUNAS "

ARE, AND HOW THEY BIND THE SPIRIT WITHIN MATTER TO CREATE THE INDIVIDUALISED

EGO-SENSE IN US:

 

5. Purity, passion, and inertia --- these qualities (GUNAS) , O! mighty-armed,

born of " PRAKRITI " bind, the Indestructible, Embodied one, fast in the body.

 

GUNAS BORN OF PRAKRITI --- It is indeed difficult to find an adequate rendering

for the word " guna " in English. The tradition of thought in the West has nothing

equivalent to these terms, as the science of psychology in the West is even

today passing through its very early childhood. The influences (gunas) under

which the thoughts function in each bosom, will be considered by it only when

analytical and experimental psychology has exhausted its observations and study.

 

The concept of Sattwa is rather that of perfect purity and luminosity, the

opposite of " foul-darkness " called Tamas, and distinctly different from the

" dusky-colour " of Rajas. We find in our literature that these gunas are

associated with-light (Sattwa), red-colour (Rajas) and darkness (Tamas).

 

The term guna also means 'rope,' by which, the spiritual beauty of life in us is

tied down to the inert and insentient Matter-vestures. In short, gunas are the

three different influences under which every human mind has to play in such an

endless variety at different moments of its changing environments.

 

These gunas are born of Matter. Produced by Nature, the " Field, " they generate a

feeling of attachment, and successfully delude the indwelling Self and chain It

AS IT WERE, to the cycle of birth-and-death, in a stream of constant change and

pain. The gunas have no separate existence as attributes inherent in a

substance. All that we can say is that they are as many different mental

climates in which the minds behave so differently from each other, according to

their given moods, governed by the predominating gunas at any particular moment

of observation.

 

These gunas, like chords, AS IT WERE, bind the Spirit to Matter and create, in

the Infinite Spirit, the painful sense of limitations and sorrows. The Infinite

and All-pervading Spirit can never be contaminated by the dreamy projections of

a delusory world-of-Matter. The ghost that emerges from a post cannot leave its

marks on the post. Even after murdering a dozen people in my dream, my hands,

that were dripping with blood, cannot, when I wake up, carry any blood stains.

While dreaming, no doubt, the " dream world " of my own imaginations was real to

the dreamer in me. But, on waking, the waker in me cannot have any marks left

over on him from the dream. Similarly, the Eternal Life, functioning in Matter,

gets, AS IT WERE, bound to the limitations and finitude of Matter, and this

delusory experience is continued as long as the gunas bind It to and entangle It

in Matter.

 

Now it becomes evident how a clear understanding of what constitutes the gunas

and how they bind us to Matter will provide us surely with a charter of freedom,

a scheme for getting ourselves freed from the tentacles of our own imaginations.

 

The embodied-self, though Indestructible and Infinite, in Its identifications

and attachments with the body, feels the changes in the body as Its own changes.

This delusion is maintained, in each one of us, by the play of the three gunas

in us. In the following stanzas, we have a clear enumeration of the behaviour of

the mind when it comes under the influence of each of these gunas separately.

 

 

Tatra sattwam nirmalatwaat prakaashakam anaamayam;

Sukhasangena badhnaati jnaanasangena chaanagha.

6. Of these, Sattwa, which from its stainlessness is luminous and healthy, binds

by attachment to knowledge and to happiness, O sinless one!

 

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

6. Among them, sattva, being pure, [Nirmala, pure-transparent, i.e., capable of

resisting any form of ignorance, and hence as illuminator, i.e.a revealer of

Consciousness.] is an illuminator and is harmless. O sinless one, it binds

through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.

 

Tatra, among them, among sattva etc.;-the characteristics of sattva itself is

being stated first-sattva, nirmalatvat, being pure like a crystal stone;is

prakasakam, an illuminator; and anamayam, harmless. Anagha, O sinless one;

badhnati, it binds. How? Sukhasangena, through attachment to happiness.

Bringing about the association of happiness, which is the object, with the Self,

which is the subject, in the form of the idea, 'I am happy', is certainly an

unreal contact with happiness. This as such is nescience, for the quality of an

object cannot belong to a subject.

 

And it has been said by the Lord that all the qualities, from 'desire' to

'fortitude' (see 13.6), are, indeed, of the field, which is the object.

Therefore, it is certainly through nescience, which is an attribute [in reality,

though nescience has no connection with the Self, yet, since there is none other

with which it can become associated and since it has no independence, therefore

the Commentator imagines it as an attribute of the Self.] of the Self and has

the characteristics of non-discrimination between object and subject, that

sattva apparently brings about the association with happiness, which is not the

Self. It makes (the Self) attached, as it were; [Here Ast. adds 'asangam saktam

iva, (makes) the Unattached attached, as it were'.-Tr.] makes one not possessed

of happiness as though possessed of it!

 

Similarly, it binds also jnana-sangena, through attachment to knowledge. [Jnana,

derived in the sense of 'that through which one knows,' means an instrument of

knowledge, and not Consciousness. (S.: Knowledge arising from the study of the

import of various scriptures; or, jnanam, means the scriptures, through which

the supreme God is known and which leads to devotional practices, but not to

steadfastness in (the absolute) Brahman.] Because of its concomitance with

happiness, knowledge here is an attribute of the internal organ, the field, but

not of the Self. Were it an attribute [if knowledge were a natural attribute of

the Self, then there can be no question of the latter again becoming bound

through association with the former.] of the Self, there could be no contact

(between it and the Self), and 'bondage' would become illogical. Association

with knowledge etc. should be understood in the same sense as with happiness.

 

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

OF THESE THREE GUNAS, " SATTWA " IS THUS DEFINED:

 

6. Of these, " SATTWA " which because of its stainlessness, is luminous and

healthy, (unobstructive) . It binds by (creating) attachment to 'happiness' and

attachment to 'knowledge, ' O sinless one.

 

Nothing can be defined as such --- this is an accepted fact in all sciences. No

disease can be defined by itself; nor can any emotion be described as such ---

without explaining its symptoms and expressions. So too, no gunas can be defined

directly. In the following stanzas we find descriptions of a mind under the

influence of each of these gunas, by enumerating the type of emotions that are

aroused in it, and its peculiar and distinct behaviours. This symptomatic

description is, no doubt, more helpful to us, the seekers, because each of us

can observe and analyse the types of emotions and thoughts arising in our

mind-intellect equipments and determine what type of guna is governing us at any

given time.

 

BECAUSE OF ITS STAINLESSNESS, SATTWA IS LUMINOUS --- When Sattwa comes to

dominate as the most important influence in our thought-life, because of its

purity, it is ever luminous --- it has neither the dull-colour of Rajas, nor the

dark impurities of Tamas. Under the Sattwa-influence, the mind is steady,

reflecting ever faithfully, the Consciousness, the Self.

FREE FROM EVIL i. e. HEALTHY --- Evil tendencies must rise in the mind long

before the action expressing the same is committed in the world outside; as the

thought, so the actions. Thus the evil starts germinating in the mental life. We

call that an evil whereby we try to satisfy the appetites of the flesh, the

selfish agitations of the mind and the ego-centric desires of our head.

Ego-centric self-gratification is the womb from which all evils are born. Such

low impulses and confusions can arise only when the mind is under the influence

of Rajas and Tamas. Therefore, what is meant here is, Sattwa is free from all

evils, as it is relatively free from Rajasic agitations or Tamasic darkness.

Though Sattwa is thus the most divine mental attitude, still it binds us and

acts as a limitation on our divine nature.

 

SATTWA BINDS BY ATTACHMENT TO 'HAPPINESS' AND 'KNOWLEDGE' --- When the mind is

purified from all its agitations (Rajas) and the intellect is cleansed of its

agitations (Rajas) and the intellect is cleansed of its low passions and

criminal lusts (Tamas), no doubt, the personality becomes purified, experiencing

a greater share of inward peace and happiness and enjoys a greater share of

subtle understanding and intellectual comprehension. But even these can create a

bondage on the freedom of the Absolute Self. A gold-chain, if sufficiently

strong can also bind as any iron-chain. " Goodness, " though it gives us freedom

from all vulgarities, can also shackle us within its own limitation! A perfect

one, absolutely free, is bound neither by goodness, nor by evil.

 

Consciousness, the All-pervading Principle of Awareness, expressed as the Self,

in each one of us, does not directly comprehend any object or idea in the world

outside. What we generally understand as intelligence is the Eternal Light of

Consciousness, reflected in our mind-intellect-equipment. Naturally therefore,

the capacity to perceive the world intelligently, differs from person to person

because in no two of us the inner equipments can be the same.

 

The reflection in a reflecting medium, will depend entirely upon the cleanliness

and steadiness of the medium. If the mind is clean and the intellect steady, a

more efficient intelligence is manifest. Thus, whenever a given mind is in an

inspiring and creative mood, it is actually intelligent and it is capable of

taking longest flights into the realms of wisdom. On all such occasions of vast

knowing and deep understanding, the inner equipment is under the influence of

Sattwa, wherein the agitations, created by Rajas, and the murkiness, created by

Tamas, do not express themselves.

 

Sattwa also binds the Infinite to Matter through the attachment to 'knowledge'

and 'happiness'. When once one has experienced the thrilling joys of creative

thinking and the inspiring life of goodness and wisdom one gets so attached to

them that one will thereafter sacrifice anything around in order to live

constantly that subtle joy. A true scientist, working self-dedicatedly in his

laboratory; a painter working at his canvas in his shabby studio, pale with

hunger and weak with disease; a poet hunted out from society, living in public

parks, seeking his own joys in his own visions and words; martyrs facing cruel

persecutions; politicians suffering long years of exile; mountaineers embracing

death --- are all examples of how, having known the subtler thrills of a higher

joy, when the bosom is inspired with Sattwa, the individual becomes as much

bound with attachment to them as others are to their own material joys and

possessions.

 

to be continued...

 

Hare Krishna!!!