"Natural Attributes,
Gunas
14.5 Material nature consists of the three modes:
goodness, passion and ignorance.
When the living entity comes in contact with nature,
it becomes conditioned by these modes.
14.6 O Sinless One, the mode of goodness, satva, being purer than the others, is illuminating, and it frees one from all sinful reactions.
Those situated in that mode develop knowledge, but they become
conditioned by the concept of happiness.
14.7 Kaunteya, know that the mode of passion, rajas, is characterized by intense craving and is the source of desire and attachment.
Rajas binds the living entity by attachment to work.
14.8 Know, O Arjuna, that the mode of ignorance, tamas, the deluder of the living entity, is born of inertia. Tamas binds the living entity by carelessness, laziness, and excessive sleep.
Material nature consists of three modes or attributes: goodness,
passion and ignorance. These are called Guṇas in Saṃskṛit.
Kṛṣṇa explains how we are operate through three different
types of root thought patterns. One is satva, the other is rajas and the third is tamas. These are translated as goodness, passion and ignorance; however, these are not exact translations.
Let me explain these concepts: Satva refers to the root patterns that lead us to bliss, the space of completion. These root patterns lead us to joy and ecstasy. Rajas refers to the root patterns that lead us to restlessness, excitement and to work intensely. They make us active and materially productive. The third attribute, tamas, refers to the root patterns that lead.
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us to depression, laziness and to dullness. Root patterns that lead to ecstasy and bliss form satva. Root patterns that lead to restlessness, anger and emotional imbalance form rajas. Root patterns that lead to depression, dullness and low moods form tamas. Those root thought patterns that automatically arise and imbalance our cognition, and lead to depression are called tamas.
Sometimes a thought suddenly comes up, ‘I will not let him off so
easily. I will see that he learns a lesson. I will not let him go.’ We may unexpectedly make an angry gesture with our hands while engrossed in this thought.
Patterns that make us active or cause anger or violence and
imbalance our cognition are called rajas. We are normally caught between rajas and tamas. Very rarely do we get sātvic patterns. Sātvic patterns do not disturb us. They give rise to a memory of deep completion, bliss or joy that we have experienced. If we are pulled inwards, if we are made to do something good that leads to bliss, ecstasy and peace of mind, it is due to root patterns of satva, sāvtic memories.
For example: if we go to the Himalayas for a few days, we may experience joy and peace. Then later when we see pictures of a mountain, the memory of the Himalayan experience suddenly comes up and we think, ‘Oh, I should spend a couple of months in the Himalayas again. It was so peaceful.’ Patterns that lead us to peace, bliss and ecstasy are sāvtic patterns.
The Science of Completion
These three different types of root thought patterns or saṁskāras
rule our entire life. Knowledge of these root patterns is the basic
knowledge that must be possessed by anyone who wants to live successfully. Ayurveda, the Vedic science of health and wellness, is structured around the concept of guṇas and their effect on our body-mind system.
Understanding the three different root thought patterns or saṁskāras is the operating manual for the mind, the inner space. The science of completing with these roots thought patterns is the owner’s manual for
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life. This is the basic life science! Kṛṣṇa calls it Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yoga.
When we don’t comprehend this manual, we are not able to catch
the whole understanding of life. We miss so many opportunities. We miss expansion in life, growth in life. We miss many possibilities in many dimensions. We miss the actual life itself! Because we have never learned or understood about the guṇas, we live only a very small fraction of what is possible in life.
Listen! At the outset, root patterns are not dead memories. Mūla
vāsanas are living bio-memories and muscle-memories, not dead memories. The more we travel with these memories, the more we live with these memories, the more they become a part of our being. They take up residence in deeper levels of our consciousness. They get engraved into our brain structure.
Kṛṣṇa explains step-by-step how we become caught in these three
levels of root patterns and how, we are pulled and pushed by these patterns. It is almost like having three wives. If we have one woman in our life, enlightenment is a luxury. If we have two women, enlightenment is an option. If we have three women, enlightenment is compulsory! With three wives or husbands, one cannot live without enlightenment.
Someone asked me, ‘Why did Kṛṣṇa have so many girlfriends?’ I
answered, ‘This is solid proof that He is enlightened! The fact that He survived despite having so many girlfriends is evidence of Enlightenment. No doubt, that is also solid proof that He is God!’
Here, He gives us an understanding of how to find these root
thought patterns and complete with these bio-memories and
muscle-memories. Another important point is that because these
memories are living energies, they can be used for creating
powerlessness, the space of incompletion or powerfulness, the space of completion.
Understand, the inner space you carry is such a powerful space.
When a person has energies to do powerless acts out of incompletion, we can tap into those energies and make him do powerful acts out of
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completion. From my experiences of conducting meditation programs in prisons, no one puts in as much effort into meditation as a prisoner. When prisoners take up meditation, they really take it up. They are intense. When they are transformed, their whole life is transformed!
You are hypnotized to believe that your past has influence over
your future. No! Till this moment if somebody is a sinner, in the next moment he can become a saint. Till this moment if somebody is a saint, next moment he can become a sinner! That is the beauty of Mahākāla, Time. If we look at the lives of Indian Ṛṣis like Vālmikī or the great saint Aruṇāgirināthar, Pattināthar, Tulasidās and Angulimāla, they and many others were sinners.
Look at Vālmikī! What was his history? He just decided for a moment that he is disassociating from all the powerlessness space, he became a saint. See Aruṇāgirināthar, the great saint who lived in Tiruvannamalai.
Till the age of thirty, he was a drunkard! In one moment he decided to live in the space of completion. The whole cognitive shift happened. He became a saint!
Same way, there are millions of stories where people decided to
be in incompletion only for a moment and fell down. I can give a big list. Hṛdaya Cattopādhyaya in Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa’s life served him sincerely for almost twelve years. Only for one moment he decided to live in incompletion out of anger and disappeared from Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa’s life.
Perumal Swami in Bhagavān Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi’s life served him so much.
Just for a moment he decided to be in incompletion and fell down.
One moment of incompletion, you can vertically fall down. In one moment of completion, you can vertically fly up; because completion or incompletion does not work logically in a horizontal way, it works in a vertical way.
Please understand, how the science of completion and
incompletion work, how powerfulness and powerlessness work, how the space of satsaṇga and nissaṇga work. When you associate yourself with powerfulness, you are in satsaṇga. When you associate yourself with
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powerlessness, the wrong association, you are in nissaṇga.
When you allow incompletion, you cannot say, ‘Oh! I allowed incompletion only for three minutes, then how can thirty years of completion be destroyed?’ You cannot say, ‘Oh! I put only a drop of poison in the milk!’
Same way, in one minute of deciding to be complete, your janmas (births) of sins will be washed away. You cannot say, ‘What is this? It is unfair. This person was in completion space for only one minute! How can all his sins be washed away?’
When we entertain and associate ourselves with powerlessness,
powerlessness is so powerful that it can destroy us. Powerlessness is worst than alcohol and poison. Poison destroys our physiology. Alcohol destroys our psychology. Powerlessness destroys both our physiology and psychology. If we entertain powerfulness, if we complete, the same way completion will raise us so quickly! See Aruṇāgirināthar! See Pattināthar!
See Vālmikī! Please understand, even for a few minutes if we decide to be in incompletion, it can put us in a space where we will stoop so low, all the janmas (births) of spiritual achievement will be destroyed. And the same way, if we decide to be in the space of completion for a few minutes, it can open a new consciousness for us.
The powerfulness and powerlessness, completion and incompletion doesn’t work logically, it works miraculously. Miraculous changes
happened to these sinners and a cognitive shift took place in their being.
The shift usually happens in the way that our mind receives data, processes it and delivers the result based on the root patterns.
Once the cognitive shift takes place, we receive data, process it and
go inside instead of outside. We respond from the complete cognition we carry inside and create more and more completion outside also. As long as we operate from the incomplete cognition, we react externally and we work towards depression, powerlessness. However, once we go in and complete with our root patterns, and associate ourselves with powerfulness, we move into bliss.
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How the Mind and Senses work Kṛṣṇa explains how root thought patterns disturb our inner space and through this understanding, we can transform our being.
Before explaining these verses, let me present a small diagram through which we can understand how patterns affect our cognition, our decisions and how to come out of the influence of patterns.
Please understand how we receive information or data from the
outer world, how we internally process it or cognize it, and how we make decisions.
I am defining Cognition.
Cognition is the process of receiving information through
our five senses, processing that information internally,
relating with it based on our root patterns, and responding
to life based on our patterns. This is known as cognition.
First, we see something through the eyes. I have taken the example
of sight but we can replace it with any other sense: like hearing, smelling, tasting or touching. Among these five jñānendriya (senses of perception), any one can be used here.
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There are five jñānendriya and five karmendriya (senses of action)
that are the means of communication between the external world and us.
Jñānendriya are the senses of perception, the five senses of smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing. The karmendriya are five actions of elimination, procreation, locomotion, grasping and speaking. Each sense is related to one of the energy centers (cakras) in our body-mind system.
Let us say we see this scene of this discourse happening. You see me talking to you. First your eye captures this whole scene like a picture and this picture goes to the cakṣu (the energy behind the eyes). Understand, we don’t see with the eye, we see through the eye. There is an energy that is inside or behind the eye that actually sees. There is an energy inside or behind the ears that hears. The ears by themselves cannot hear. That is why when we are engrossed in a book, we may not hear the alarm or
doorbell ring. So, there is an energy inside the eyes that sees. We call this energy cakṣu. The whole scene is converted into a file like in a digital signal processor in a computer so that our mind can process the data.
The cakṣu is almost like the digital signal processor or DSP in
electronics. In a computer, whether it is an audio or visual file, it must be converted into a digital file. In the same way in our inner space whatever we see or hear is converted into a bio-signal file like a digital file.
Then the file starts moving up, step-by-step. The file goes to the part of the mind called citta. If we understand this, our whole life can be transformed. We will know why we do the way we do, and how we react. We will cognize how we make big decisions based upon our root thought patterns, and consequently suffer.
The file goes to citta, the place where past bio-memories are
collected. Citta means mind, inner space. This area is where the work of excluding happens as—‘Na iti, Na iti’—this is not, this is not. The process of neti neti (this is not, this is not) takes place in this area. Upon seeing this file, our citta starts eliminating whatever the object is not.
Take the example of this scene: First you see me, the whole scene is
photographed. It goes to cakṣu and becomes a bio-signal file. The file is
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then taken to citta, bio-memory. Citta says, ‘This is not a tree. This is not an animal. This is not a plant. This is not this. This is not that.’ The excluding process happens in citta.
Next, the file goes to manas, another part of the mind. The manas
tries to positively identify, ‘This is a human being. He is wearing a saffron robe. He is standing on a stage.’ The identification process, ‘iti, iti’ (this is it, this is it) identification process happens in manas. In citta, ‘neti, neti’ or the ‘not this, not this’ elimination happens.
Once this positive identification happens, the file goes to a third part of the mind called buddhi or intelligence. Buddhi is where the trouble starts. Here the analysis starts, ‘How am I related to this file? How am I connected to this scene? How is it relevant to me? How should I respond to this scene?’ If past bio-memories about me have been good or pleasant according to your intelligence, you cognize and respond in a positive way.
You immediately refer to those past memories and review, ‘It was so good at yesterday’s discourse.’
Your intelligence refers to the past bio-memory and muscle-memory and makes a decision based upon your cognition of these experiences.
If your cognition about the past experiences with me has been positive, your intelligence tells you to stay and listen. If your cognition of the past experiences has been inadequate, unpleasant and you felt bored, your intelligence tells you that this is not the place for you and that you should leave. These are logical decisions based on conscious memories retained by your mind.
Up to this point, your cognition, the transmission of what is perceived by the senses and what is the response based on that pattern is relatively straightforward. It is a conscious process.
From the conscious mind, the information is passed to the unconscious space of the mind, the ego. I call this unconscious space of the mind as the ego, not because it is arrogant, but because it provides you the identity of who you are.
Your identity stems from your unconscious incompletions which are
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your root patterns. You project who you wish to be, never who you are.
You do not even know who you are. Who you are is deeply buried in your unconscious. All the major decisions that shape your life are consigned to this unconscious space. This is the repository of all those emotionally-filled memories, the root thought patterns and beliefs about yourself; which constitute what you believe as you, what you project as you, what others expect you to be, and what you expect others or life to be for you and therefore, create your identity. This is what I call the ego.
Identify your root pattern! Listen! I am defining ‘root pattern’ once
more.
Root pattern means the first time in your life when your
cognitions were imbalanced, disturbed by some external
force; and your terrorized being started defining yourself
with a disempowering word and started defining the world
in that disempowering powerless state; and to compensate
from this death, the disempowering inner identity—the
inner image, you create a pseudo alternative compensating
cognition—the outer image. This is what I call root pattern.
When your root pattern starts, that is moment you feel yourself as an individual identity. If it starts in an accidental moment, your life will be an accident forever. It is an eternal accident. Till you complete with that root pattern, you will continue to have accidents in your life.
Completion takes away the agitated confusion and the alternative
compensating image we create in our life. Understand, this example of your life.
Please listen! Because we have a very disempowering cognition about ourselves, we go on creating an alternative compensating cognition to compensate with our inadequate cognition. It is like you first declare you are a beggar, forgetting the billions of dollars you have in your bank balance, and then you yourself try to project the rich image to cover your belief that you are a beggar. But unfortunately, the final thing is you will project that your whole life—that you were a rich man, but lived as a poor
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man, but in reality you were the richest man.
Understand, you project and you try so hard to prove to the world
that you are a rich man, but you always believed yourself and lived as a poor man; but in reality you are the richest man. You never knew about the wealth you had in your bank balance. It is like you kept all your money in some Swiss Bank and you forgot the number. To compensate the inadequate cognition which got created unconsciously inside you, which is your inner image, mamakāra, you create an alternative compensating cognition which is your outer image, ahaṁkāra.
Till the end you never feel satisfied, because you feel the guilt you showed, which is not true, without realizing your true identity is much more than what you can imagine and show. So, your whole life ends in deep incompletion and the trial and error methods you do with these incompletions.
If you complete now, the first thing you will realize is that the alternative compensating cognition is a lie and it will melt down. Second thing, your disempowering cognition about yourself will melt down. Third, you will realize that your original self is much more than what you projected as your outer image, the alternative compensating cognition. And you will have complete easeness between what you feel as you, what you show as you, and what you are as you.
The conscious mind does not make important decisions. It makes
a few decisions that can be reached by its limited intellect. Anything important moves to the unconscious ego or root patterns. Our unconscious handles all life-threatening situations with the disempowering cognitions, the so-called fight-or-flight decisions. Our conscious mind is too slow to handle them.
For example, the file travels to the ego, and the ego makes the decision, and we execute it. If there are more incompletions, the file travels to every table like in a bureaucratic office. Each incompletion stamps, puts its signature and writes its opinion. Take the example of attending this discourse and seeing me. One conflicting pattern says, ‘I had a master in my life. He was a blessing. He helped me a lot. I think I should sit here.’ So
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this pattern signs, ‘Yes, I will sit here.’ The next conflicting pattern says, ‘I read in the newspapers that these masters do this or do that.’ So, the second conflicting pattern signs off saying, ‘doubt’. Then the file goes to the next table, and the third conflicting pattern says, ‘I attended his discourse yesterday. What he says makes sense, I think I should stay.’
This conflicting pattern signs, ‘yes’.
Listen. The effects of your root pattern are your conflicting patterns.
Conflicting patterns are the branches which sprout from the root pattern.
When the file reaches the ego, the ego comes to a conclusion based on all the ‘yes’ responses and all the ‘no’ responses based out of your conflicting patterns. Yes or no is not a problem; however, we have wasted so much time and energy on this small decision. Not only that, any decision you take out of powerlessness, restlessness, will lead you to more and more powerless space. Understand, it is very important. Any decision, whether you get into some challenge, or you get into any relationship, or you get into a business decision, any decision, please see to it that you are in the space of powerfulness, completion!
You break relationships, you break businesses, you break partnerships, you break families, you break life itself when you are powerless, incomplete! Powerless moments in life create more and more powerless moments in life. For example, when we sit in our office, not doing anything, just sitting and worrying, we become stressed. Within fifteen minutes, we have pain in our shoulders. Worrying about simple decision-making leads to shoulder pain.
Continuously, again and again, look into the reasons for your powerlessness—why are you in conflict? Why are you in a powerless space?
Whenever you are possessed by powerlessness, confusion, agitation, and you don’t know what to do, please don’t take any decisions in your life.
All restlessness is powerlessness. The more patterns you have, the more powerless you feel, the more restless and rājasic you will be.
Take the example of smoking: According to the data collected at the conscious level, we know smoking is injurious to health. However, when
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the time comes, suddenly we decide to smoke. How does the file take such a quantum leap? How is the decision totally changed? When the file travels to the unconscious space, patterns say, ‘No, no! The last time I smoked, I felt really good, I felt relieved from all the stress.’
We make countless decisions based upon root thought patterns. We repent and suffer later on. Suddenly we shout and after ten minutes, we repent, ‘Why did I shout? I always wanted to keep a smiling face. Why did I shout?’ We reacted suddenly due to these patterns.
We will see later how root thought patterns disturb and torture our
decisions. Kṛṣṇa says that we should ask our being how we missed reality.
Why are we deluded by root thought patterns?
Kṛṣṇa speaks of satva guṇa saṁskāras that lead us to bliss and peace, rājasic guṇa that lead to restlessness and violence, and tamasic saṁskāras that lead to depression. He further explains how these saṁskāras influence our decision-making process.
When we try to work with different types of conflicting patterns,
satva, rajas and tamas and all three cross each other, they create hell in our lives. We need intelligence to even look into our lives to find our root pattern, and see how many times we have carried the same pattern.
We usually react out of arrogance or guilt. We say, ‘So what if I made a mistake?’ We brush it under the carpet leaving it incomplete. This is one kind of attitude, the attitude of might is right. The other attitude is that of suffering from guilt.
Kṛṣṇa gives techniques on how be complete with these three guṇas.
Before entering into these three layers of patterns—satva, rajas and
tamas, let me illustrate how we are caught in these guṇas and how these patterns work. Then, we will enter into each technique."
-Paramahamsa Nithyananda – (Bhagavad Gita Decoded)
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