sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṁ rajaso lobha eva cha
pramāda-mohau tamaso bhavato ’jñānam eva cha (14.17)

While these 3 gunas are there in everyone, how do we manage these 3 gunas? This is viveka (discrimination). This is purushartha (self-effort). This is not prarabhadh (a type of karma which cannot be changed). We think that if we are in tamo guna in life that is because of prarabdha karma. No. The effort to overcoming tamo guna is purusharth. The effort to keep rajo guna in check is purusharth. Increasing sattva guna is purusharth. If there is anything that we must do in life, we only have ensure that rajo guna and tamo guna does not dominate. And how will you do this? Through food, behavior, thought, and by keeping our intellect pure.

Often when we have negative feelings, if we sit with someone who speaks positively we don’t like it. We find people who will only speak negatively. Isn’t this true? We think that this government, this municipality is not good. And those people who agree with us, we become friends with them. And then we sit and talk. By doing this what happens? Does negativity increase or positivity? Our negative feelings increase and our negative beliefs become stronger because of this. Thinking that our delusion is reality and remaining stuck to it, this happens when Tamo and Rajo guna dominates.

When Sattva guna dominates, the mind is open and the intellect is open. Then faith is not on the negative but faith is there on the positive. This doesn’t mean that you keep flying in the air and don’t see what the ground reality is. While remaining aware of the ground reality, keeping the mind positive is purusharth.

In this world, you can find a million reasons to flow with negative emotions. To overcome the storm of negative emotions and to remain above these is purusharth. When and how will you be able to do purusharth? First, identify what is the disease. Only when you identify the disease, you can find a solution. One has to inquire. Here, Lord Krishna talks about inquiry. Lord Krishna says, “Don’t think of yourself as a criminal. This is happening because of gunas. Because of the rise sattva, rajas, tamo gunas in you at different times, you behave in different ways. Understand this.”

He has described what happens when you leave your body while a particular guna is dominant. Why are you talking about leaving the body, right now we are alive, we are living, talk about what happens while we are living as well. So he ways whatever you’ve done all your life is what will happen in the last few seconds. The last few seconds of life are very important that is why you must be alert throughout your life. Be a witness to what’s happening in your mind and in your emotions. Keep witnessing.

Why should we increase our sattva? Within every creature on this planet there is a desire to be happy. That one can attain that happiness only through sattva.

When rajo guna is dominant, it creates a desire for happiness but it never gives happiness. It creates a thirst for happiness, but never delivers.

Before doing any action (karma), look at the state of your mind. Is there more sattva, more rajo or tamo guna? If you’re in tamo guna, the fruit of that action is ignorance. If you’re in rajo guna while doing the action, for sure the fruit of that action is sorrow. No one else gives you sorrow. If you are sad and you hold another responsible for your sadness, then there is no one who is more foolish that you in this world. Who is the cause for your sadness? Not anyone else but your own self and the rajo guna inside you. If you had sattva guna, the situation would have remained the same but your perception would have changed.

Sattvic consciousness has the strength to change anything. In sattvic consciousness, there is courage, there is the can do attitude. Even if an enemy comes in front of you, you’ll believe that you can change their mind. You’ll go with this enthusiasm. You’ll understand that this person (the enemy) is unhappy, that’s why he’s disturbing others.

The importance of sattva guna is that sattva guna is always victorious. You may feel in the beginning that you are being beaten down but at the end you always get victory.

Rajasic consciousness has desires, pride, and complaints. Rajo guna creates a desire for happiness, but it doesn’t give you any happiness.
We get defeated because of our greed. This is the tendency of rajo guna. If someone says, ‘I’ll double your money in a month.’ You think that is great and put your money there. You think they are doubling your money. They may even give some returns, but in the third month your entire investment disappears. So many people get trapped in such schemes. They get trapped into such schemes because of their greed.
In life rajo guna keeps raising its head again and again. Rajo guna also increases because of our company or associations we keep. The company that can increases sattva guna is very rare. That is why satsang is so important as in satsang increases sattva guna. The whole world is there to cause greed and increase your rajo guna. All kinds of people will create greed in you. You might be sitting peacefully. They’ll say, ‘You are sitting peacefully. Get up and do this, you’ll get so many crores.’ They’ll keep creating greed within you. This is the tendency of rajo guna.

We have to bring a balance (in the gunas).

Tamo guna binds you in moh (attachment). Moh is that which causes pain when you leave it as well as when you hold on to it. Tamas binds you to that. This is called moh. That which causes sorrow when it is not there and causes even more sorrow when it is there is called moh. Tamo guna is such that is binds you in moh. If you’ve surrendered to God or if you have a Guru, then the path for you rise above the three gunas becomes clear.

Tamo guna increases ignorance. The tendency of tamo guna is to strengthen any negative feeling that you have on a daily basis. And such situations will also arise to make you firmly believe that whatever you have thought is correct. In sattva guna the faith (in positive) does not latch on very strongly because the faith of sattva guna is very soft, gentle, blossomed, and light. The faith of tamo guna holds on to you very strongly. It latches on within us like the roots. The effect of tamo guna is like a stone. The effect of sattva gun is like the wind; it is fluid, simple . If tamo guna goes deep within us, the effect is that your mind and body becomes heavy, the intellect becomes dull or inert, and senses become dull. If you ever experience these things, know that it is the influence of tamo guna. Then you should think about where you sat, what you ate, and what you did.

ūrdhvaṁ gachchhanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣhṭhanti rājasāḥ
jaghanya-guṇa-vṛitti-sthā adho gachchhanti tāmasāḥ (14.18)

A sattvic person always moves ahead or up. A person with rajo guna tendency stays in the middle. They neither go up nor down or they keep going up and down but stay in the middle. The one who is in tamo guna they fall day by day. Sometimes it appears as though a person with tamo guna tendency is rising, but that is an illusion. If such a person rises up, it is only to fall down really hard from a great height. If someone falls from a short distance then they don’t get hurt. For a greater injury, you have to climb up a lot, and then fall. And nature does this. That is why if you see a person with tamo guna tendencies appearing to rise, don’t get agitated. Keep your patience for a few days. Then see how he falls from there. This is certain that a person with tamo guna tendencies will fall day by day.

nānyaṁ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṁ yadā draṣhṭānupaśhyati
guṇebhyaśh cha paraṁ vetti mad-bhāvaṁ so ’dhigachchhati (14.19)

Now, you know that you have increase sattva guna, but that doesn’t mean that you start craving for sattva nor should you take pride in being sattvic. ‘I’m the most sattvic person. You all are tamo guni.’ If someone says everyone else has tamo guna and rajo guna tendencies and I am the only sattvic person, then that will cause a problem. That pride itself will take you from sattva guna to rajas and then you will go to tamas. If you blame others, then you are in tamo guna. The pride of being in sattva guna will take you away from sattva. It’s a very delicate situation. Rajo and tamo gunas are waiting to hold on to you. And if you take pride in your sattva guna, then very easily you become a sacrificial goat. That is why you should neither take pride in service, spiritual practices, nor in your own qualities. ‘I’m so good. I have so many talents. You don’t look at me. You don’t do this and that.” If there is sattva guna, all this will drag you toward rajo and tamo guna. This becomes the path to sorrow.

That is why he says rise above the three gunas and know that everything that is happening here is happening only because of the three gunas. I have nothing to do with this. When you become a witness, at that moment you’ll know me and you’ll become one with me.

All that is happening is happening only because of sattva, rajo, and tamo gunas. Sattva, rajo, and tamo gunas even have an impact on time. At night, tamo guna is dominant. In the day, it is rajo guna. In the early morning, there is sattva guna. That is why early morning is called Bramha Muhurat; you feel fresh and you get good thoughts. In the evening, after sunset, at that time too sattva guna dominates. That is why people spend their listening to music, dancing, or laughing in the evenings as at this time sattva guna dominates. Similarly in seasons, time, and country too you can see the manifestation of the three gunas.

When we know this, we rise above the three gunas. Know the three gunas as the cause and not an individual or a thing. For example if your husband gets angry one day, know that rajo guna has increased in him.

When you see that all actions are a result of the gunas, then you will not see any fault in people. How can you find fault with a guna? How can you have aversion toward guna? Is it possible? Can you have aversion toward chilli? It is the chili’s characteristic to be spicy. It is chili. Do you ask a chili, ‘Why are you so spicy?’ You can fight with your relatives by saying why are you using fiery words. But will you tell a chili, “Why are you spicy?” The person who is speaking fiery words, know that rajo guna and tamo guna has increased in them, that is why they are speaking like this. Then tell me won’t you be at peace? When you look at someone’s behavior, don’t blame that person or their soul. When you see only the gunas as the cause for their behavior, when you see all behavior as a result of the sattva, rajo, and tamo gunas then a new light will dawn in your life. And I am that light. By being a witness, you’ll come close to me and you’ll know me.

guṇān etān atītya trīn dehī deha-samudbhavān
janma-mṛityu-jarā-duḥkhair vimukto ’mṛitam aśhnute (14.20)

The seekers who are in the witness consciousness, they don’t get old. Those who are a witness to the three gunas, they never feel that they have become old, death is near. What is death? In death you just drop the body. When people see a dead body, they say ‘Oh! Poor thing, he has died.’ We never feel that we are going to do. In the back of your mind, you have this experience but this experience is not clear. The moment you become a witness, this experience becomes clear: where am I going to die, who can harm me, only the body can be hurt, but no one can harm Me. This courage rises within. When does this courage rise? When we become a witness to all the three gunas and whatever happens we see the three gunas as the cause for that. We don’t see an individual or their mindset, behavior as the cause. We only see the three gunas as the cause. Did you understand this? This is a very practical thing and it brings great benefit. If you understand this you’ll keep smiling. You’ll not have any hesitation, no one can insult you. How can someone is insult you? If someone tries to insult you, you’ll see that rajo and tamo guna has arisen in that person. It is their rajo and tamo gunas that is making them dance. We don’t have to think what will the other person say. What can the other person say? Let them say. And if your sattva is powerful, then you can make the rajo and tamo gunas in others go down. Sattva has such strength. Don’t think that sattva is weak. But we need to have strong faith in our own self. Then you’ll be free from birth, death, old age, and kinds of sorrow. You have found a very good solution to be free of sorrow. If you feed things that increase tamo guna and rajo guna to a good person, then that person can behave with you exhibiting tamo guna and rajo guna tendencies. Believe firmly in the fact that everything happens because of the change in gunas.

When rajo guna and tamo guna dominates, you’ll keep taunting others and say things that will hurt them. When sattva dominates, you’ll increase joy in everyone. Even if someone insults you, you’ll transform it into a joke. If someone makes fun of you, you’ll also laugh with them. Whatever someone tells you, you can convert it into humor. Being humorous is an indication of sattva guna. When your sattva grows, you become dear to everyone. Sometimes someone may be jealous and they may remain in rajo guna or tamo guna; that is their problem; it is not your problem. If they create a situation, it is a test for you to see how much sattva you have or if you flow in their rajo guna and tamo guna.

arjuna uvācha
kair liṅgais trīn guṇān etān atīto bhavati prabho
kim āchāraḥ kathaṁ chaitāns trīn guṇān ativartate (14.21)

This is a normal question. Even some of you may have had this question. How will we know that we’ve risen above these three gunas? What are the qualities of someone who has risen above the three gunas? We only know that when one rises above the three gunas, then there is freedom from death, old age, and kinds of sorrow; you will be blossomed. But what are the indications to show that we have risen above the three gunas? This is a normal question which may have arisen in you as well, and that is what Arjuna asks. Lord Krishna answers Arjuna’s question.

śhrī-bhagavān uvācha
prakāśhaṁ cha pravṛittiṁ cha moham eva cha pāṇḍava
na dveṣhṭi sampravṛittāni na nivṛittāni kāṅkṣhati (14.22)
udāsīna-vad āsīno guṇair yo na vichālyate
guṇā vartanta ity evaṁ yo ’vatiṣhṭhati neṅgate (14.23)

When the light of sattva guna dawns and joy wells up in you, if you hold on it and start craving for it, then you go into rajo guna. ‘I should get this type of joy, this type of joy. My meditation was so good and I experienced such bliss, I will drop all work and sit in the ashram.’ These thoughts will not help as things don’t happen in this way. Wherever we are, if we experience light, get a desire to act, or get into moh, we should neither get scared by these experiences nor desire for them after the experience ends. After the experience ends if you still crave for it, that does not help. And if we get worried when these experiences come, that also will not help. Being a witness means knowing that the gunas come and go. Knowing that everything is happening because of the gunas, we remain a witness. This is the quality of those who are already established. Did you understand this? This is very subtle. The perspective is different for a sadhak (seeker) and a siddha (the perfect being or the one who is already established).

Arjun is asking the qualities of those who have already become one with Krishna. A siddha is not attached to anything, but they keep doing action. Every saint takes up service for the society, why? They don’t do it because they have any attachment to it nor do they do it with the intention that they will get something out of it. It is their dharma (duty) so they keep doing their dharma. When these gunas arise, they are not averse to it.

Krishna says it again and again, be like the leaf of a lotus. While living in the world, neither should you let the world stick to you nor should you get attached to the world. This is sanyasi or a saint.