BG 14.6: Amongst these, sattva guṇa, the mode of goodness, being purer than the others, is illuminating and full of well-being. O sinless one, it binds the soul by creating attachment for a sense of happiness and knowledge.
The mode of goodness is serene and illuminating. Thus, sattva guṇa engenders virtue in one’s personality and illuminates the intellect with knowledge.
It makes a person become calm, satisfied, charitable, compassionate, helpful, serene, and tranquil. It also nurtures good health and freedom from sickness.
While the mode of goodness creates an effect of serenity and happiness, attachment to them itself binds the soul to material nature.
BG 14.7: O Arjun, rajo guṇa is of the nature of passion. It arises from worldly desires and affections, and binds the soul through attachment to fruitive actions.
The mode of passion fuels the lust for sensual enjoyment. It inflames desires for mental and physical pleasures. It also promotes attachment to worldly things.
Persons influenced by rajo guṇa get engrossed in worldly pursuits of status, prestige, career, family, and home. They look on these as sources of pleasure and are motivated to undertake intense activity for the sake of these. In this way, the mode of passion increases desires, and these desires further fuel an increase of the mode of passion. They both nourish each other and trap the soul in worldly life.
The way to break out of this is to engage in karm yog, i.e. to begin offering the results of one’s activities to God. This creates detachment from the world, and pacifies the effect of rajo guṇa.
BG 14.8: O Arjun, tamo guṇa, which is born of ignorance, is the cause of illusion for the embodied souls. It deludes all living beings through negligence, laziness, and sleep.
Tamo guṇa is the antithesis of sattva guṇa. Persons influenced by it get pleasure through sleep, laziness, intoxication, violence, and gambling. They lose their discrimination of what is right and what is wrong, and do not hesitate in resorting to immoral behavior for fulfilling their self-will. Doing their duty becomes burdensome to them and they neglect it, becoming more inclined to sloth and sleep. In this way, the mode of ignorance leads the soul deeper into the darkness of ignorance. It becomes totally oblivious of its spiritual identity, its goal in life, and the opportunity for progress that the human form provides.
Let us understand this through an example. A traveler was passing through a forest, when three robbers attacked him. The first said, “Let us kill him and steal all his wealth.” The second said, “No, let us not kill him. We will simply bind him, and take away his possessions.” Following the advice of the second robber, they tied him up in ropes and stole his wealth. When they had gone some distance away, the third robber returned. He opened the ropes of the traveler, and took him to the edge of the forest. He showed the way out, and said, “I cannot go out myself, but if you follow this path, you will be able to get out of the forest.”
The first robber was tamo guṇa, the mode of ignorance, which literally wants to kill the soul, by degrading it into sloth, languor, and nescience. The second robber was rajo guṇa, the mode of passion, which excites the passions of the living being, and binds the soul in innumerable worldly desires. The third robber was sattva guṇa, the mode of goodness, which reduces the vices of the living being, eases the material discomfort and puts the soul on the path of virtue. Yet, even sattva guṇa is within the realm of material nature. We must not get attached to it; instead, we must use it to step up to the transcendental platform.
Beyond these three, is śhuddha sattva, the transcendental mode of goodness. It is the mode of the divine energy of God that is beyond material nature. When the soul becomes God-realized, by his grace, God bestows śhuddha sattva upon the soul, making the senses, mind, and intellect divine.
How to be free the three modes of bondage will discuss in next topic.
PriyankaSrivastava 