GUNAS
A reference to the gunas was made by Krishna in the Gita earlier vide Chapter 2 verse 45. In the beginning of this Chapter we have seen the Lord is of two kinds of nature viz, Purusha and Prakriti. Thee former denotes the Soul or Consciousness and the latter Nature or matter, which is dull and insentient. Prakriti consists of three gunas namely, sattva, rajas, and tamas. Rajas denotes restlessness or active principle. Tamas is the principle of inertia and Sattva, serenity and harmony, is the equilibrium between rajas and tamas. As prakriti consists of the three gunas, every object in prakriti is compounded of these three gunas. Samsara is the realm of the gunas. Freedom is beyond these gunas.
Prakriti is not independent of the Lord. Everything constituted by the three gunas is in no sense a self-dependent essence independent of God but springs from Him alone. While He contains and comprehends all, they do not contain and comprehend Him. This is the distinction between God and His creatures. They undergo changes because of the divine but their changes do not touch the integrity of the Divine. The lord is not subject to any one else, while all things are subject to Him.
Matter exists because of Spirit and Spirit is never restrained or regulated by the finite matter. The three Gunas - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas - which are temperaments or nature of the head and heart, by which the instruments of feeling, thinking and action come to play their role everywhere, rise from the Self.
MODES OF NATURE CONFUSE MEN
tribhirgunamayair bhaavairebhih sarvamidam jagat
mohitam naabhijaanaati maamebhyah paramavyayam // 7.13 //
Deluded by these threefold Gunas (modes of nature) of Prakriti the whole world does not recognize Me as distinct from them and imperishable.
The people of this world are deluded by the three gunas or qualities of nature. Affection, attachment and infatuated love, hatred are all the characteristics of the gunas. On account of delusion created by these qualities they are not able to break worldly ties and turn their minds towards the Supreme Lord though the Lord is the inmost Self of all beings and the object of direct and immediate perception.
The Lord in His purest essence is untouched by the gunas which belong only to His prakriti. The Self is the essence which does not have the six modifications of the body viz. birth, growth, existence, old age, decay and death.
This verse answers the question as to why the ordinary mortals are not able to understand at least the presence of the great truth about the spirit and matter. The answer in short is that deluded by the modifications of the three Gunas the living beings become blind to the divine possibilities in themselves. So long as a ghost is seen in the post, the vision of the post will not be available to the perceiver. Thus deluded, the ego does not realize the Supreme as different from it.
Dr.S.Radhakrishnan comments: “According to Sankara the Supreme expresses His regret that the world does not know Him, the Supreme Lord who is, by nature, eternal, pure, enlightened and free, the Self of all beings, devoid of attributes (gunatheetha) by knowing whom the seed of the evil of samsara is burnt up. We see the changing forms and not the Eternal Being of which the forms are the manifestations. We see the moving shadows on the wall whereas we must see the Light from which the shadows emanate”.
WHO CAN REALIZE THE SUPREME?
daivee hyeshaa gunamayee mama maayaa duratyayaa
maameva ye prapadyante maayaametaam taranti te // 7.14 //
Verily, this divine illusion of Mine (Maya), consisting of the gunas, is hard to overcome. But those who take refuge in Me alone shall cross over this illusion.
Maya or illusion is divine because it is a part of the Lord’s nature and inscrutable to human reason as we have seen earlier. It is hard to overcome by self-effort if unaided by divine grace. Although Sri Krishna Himself admits that it is not easy for any egocentric individual to transcend this illusion which is caused by His Maya, the Lord says that those who devote themselves to Him alone can overcome this obstacle which creates sorrows and imperfections in the objective world.
How to do this was already explained under `Meditation' in the previous Chapter.
IF MAYA CAN BE OVERCOME BY DEVOTION WHY DO NOT ALL WORSHIP HIM?
na maam dushkritino moodhaah prapadyante naraadhamaah
maayayaapahritajnaanaa aasuraam bhaavamaashritaah // 7.15 //
The evil-doers and the deluded and the vilest among men, deprived of knowledge by Maya and following the ways of demons do not worship Me.
In the previous verse Sri Krishna talked of those who can successfully transcend their own subjective delusion. In this verse He gives the negative nature in those who cannot overcome this delusion for realizing the Divinity in themselves.
He says that low men because of their delusion and indulgence in evil actions, follow the path of the devil (Asura) and get themselves deprived of their discrimination. The difference between man and animal is his rational intellect by which he can distinguish between the good and the evil, the high and the low, the moral and the immoral etc. This rational discriminative capacity alone helps the man to cast off his imperfections and become aware of his essential nature of Absolute Divinity.
The evil doers cannot attain to the Supreme, for their mind and will are not instruments of the Spirit but of the ego. They do not seek to master their crude impulses but are a prey to the Rajas and Tamas in them. If they control their crude tendencies by the Sattva in them, their action becomes orderly and enlightened and ceases to be the outcome of passion and ignorance.
To go beyond the three gunas, first, we have to submit ourselves to the rule of Sattva. We have to become ethical, before we can become spiritual. At the spiritual level, we cross the dualities and act in the light and strength of the Spirit in us. We do not act then to gain any personal interest or avoid personal suffering but only as instrument of the Divine.