Vivekananda Mailing List-11/6/02

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CHAPTER II

 

EACH IS GREAT IN HIS OWN

PLACE

 

According to the Sânkhya philosophy, nature is composed of three forces

called, in Sanskrit, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. These as manifested in

the physical world are what we may call equilibrium, activity, and

inertness. Tamas is typified as darkness or inactivity; Rajas is

activity, expressed as attraction or repulsion; and Sattva is the

equilibrium of the two.

 

In every man there are these three forces. Sometimes Tamas prevails. We

become lazy, we cannot move, we are inactive, bound down by certain

ideas or by mere dullness. At other times activity prevails, and at

still other times that calm balancing of both. Again, in different men,

one of these forces is generally predominant. The characteristic of one

man is inactivity, dullness and laziness; that of another, activity,

power, manifestation of energy; and in still another we find the

sweetness, calmness, and gentleness, which are due to the balancing of

both action and inaction. So in all creation — in animals, plants, and

men — we find the more or less typical manifestation of all these

different forces.