The play of Gunas in our minds

Hari Om.

It is well known in yoga philosophy that there are three Gunas or qualities present everywhere in the Cosmos, both externally and internally within ourselves. These are termed sattva, rajas and tamas in Sanskrit.

Let us analyse these gunas in terms of the human mind and then see how they interact within us to help or hinder our spiritual practice. Lord Krishna says in the Gita (Chapter 6)- Mind alone is friend, Mind alone is enemy, One should lift oneself with the help of one's mind and not allow it to pull us down. Yoga philosophy is very clear that we are not our minds. We say "my hat", "my clothes", "my body", "my mind"- in other words, mind also like the body, clothes and hat is a possession of ours- it belongs to us...but it is not us. No, yoga philosophy says clearly, you are the Immortal Self, ever pure, ever above the vagaries of your mind, Realise this and be free. And to realise this for ourselves of course, we have taken to the spiritual path.

So with regard to the mind, sattva refers to all qualities that help us live in harmony with others here on Earth and which help us to move onwards on our spiritual journey to realise God. This includes kindness, wisdom, determination, hard work, self-analysis, self-correction, non-judgementalness, compassion, forbearance, patience, humility and many other good qualities.
Rajas encompasses negativity such as anger, pride, lack of self-awareness, lack of self-control, rudeness, hate, impatience....these are hot bubbling emotions that consume a lot of energy.
Tamas is also a type of negativity but of a different sort. This involves apathy (the feeling that I don't care about myself or anything), laziness, dullness, foolishness, inertia. While rajas is about over-activity in the mind, tamas is about under-activity. Sattva is the golden middle way- the path of harmony and balance.

We know as sadhakas, we need to increase sattva in our minds to help us progress and reduce rajas and tamas. This is done in a variety of ways, including through diet, yogic exercises, karma yoga and of course practices such as mantra japa, puja and other devotional exercises.

Let us now examine our minds with regard to some attitudes to our sadhana that we may experience at different times.

The Sattvic mind has this attitude to sadhana:
I am a pure divine soul in reality, I have simply forgotten this, I must discover my essential nature, this is why I have been born as per my Guru and the scriptures (these are the words of God Him/Herself).
My Guru has said Yoga is about acceleration, about speeding up this spiritual evolution (what would take millions of years can take one or a few lifetimes).
I have faith in my Guru- he/she said I must try hard to achieve the spiritual goal of life in this lifetime so I must try.
Also I have faith in God- I may see a hundred flaws in my mind but I know God's Name is all-powerful as per my Guru and the scriptures, therefore I will not lose heart. I will carry on with japa even when the mind is as restless as a monkey, or even when it is as dull as can be. Under no circumstances will I stop my sadhana.
May God always help me to walk the spiritual path, without Him/Her, I would surely fall, but with Him/Her, success is the only option.
Come on, mind, let us do more and more sadhana. It may take one lifetime or a few, it does not matter. Let God do as He/She wishes with us, and He/She knows best. I am in good hands. All is well.

The Rajasic mind has this attitude to sadhana:
No no, no time for japa today, I have to cook, clean, check my emails, write a blog entry, go shopping, check facebook/twitter/whatever social media site, ring my friend, meet that person etc etc.
(If it decides to do sadhana)- Hurry up, hurry up and finish the japa, I've got many more things to do today for pity's sake!
Or at other times, it says, Yes sadhana is very important....but I can't keep doing this sadhana all my life, or even for a few lifetimes....it's too long, I simply don't have the patience......I want to attain God by the age of 40....quick quick, hurry up and attain God.....hurry up and come God...(it doesn't matter that I'm not yet fit to experience You.....just give me a short-cut pleaaaase?!)....

The Tamasic mind has this approach to sadhana:
Oh I'm so depressed.....my sadhana is taking me nowhere. Poor me. I know my Guru (and all Gurus) say you cannot measure the effects of sadhana with the ordinary mind that I have. I know they say the effects of japa, kirtan, karma yoga and other sadhanas are very great but not easily visible. But still, I am not able to really believe this. I don't really trust them.
I also don't really trust myself, or have any faith in myself. I am a very hopeless character. Look at me - I am soooo bad! Anger, lust, pride, jealousy and more nasty qualities all reside in me. I am a verrry depraved person.
 God would never like me. I will not get His/Her Darshan for at least a billion years. What is the use then of my few malas of japa a day. It's pitiful, simply pathetic.That too, my japa is done without any feeling, or real bhakti. I do not have any bhakti. I am just a good-for-nothing.
 Yes I know the story of Ajamila. How he said "Narayana" once without even intending to call for God, and all his sins were wiped out and he attained the Grace of God. But I am even lower than him. Ok it's true I have taken the Name of God a few times but I feel my sins are more powerful than the Name of God!  So poor me, alack-a-day, I am doomed...
 As the tamasic mind reflects in this way on an apparently miserable situation, it concludes that there is no point in continuing any sadhana. It says....my sincerity is all fake anyway....I am simply fooling myself, I am not a genuine seeker.....I may as well just give up now...I simply want to crawl away and do nothing except sigh over my very sad situation....
If one gently asks the tamasic mind, well, how about doing some sadhana to emulate the Gurus as they themselves command, it angrily says.....How dare I even think I can become like Sivananda, Ramanuja and other spirtual greats. How dare I? Yes these great Gurus may tell me a 1000 times that I am a divine being with divine potential like them. But no, I refuse to accept what they say. I like to keep these noble Gurus on a very high pedestal and consider myself very low. It is simply egoistic to want to be great like them! It is better to just accept that I am a lowly being and not bother doing any sadhana than be egositic and want to be like them.
No I refuse to listen to what they say (ironically, the tamasic mind doesn't consider this to be egoism!). Ok they may say "Obedience is better than reverence", they may say "For God's sake stop worshiping me, but instead do some sadhana and become like me!".....but I say, no Guruji....you are up there, you are very great...I cannot be like you, I cannot do sadhana like you.....no I shall not even try to obey you in this.....please save me Guruji, even though I am lazy and do not want to do any sadhana.....I know they say, God helps those who help themselves, but I can't help myself Guruji....I simply can't...help me please.....please ask God to make an exception in my case and grant me instant effortless Samadhi....(LOL :)

I don't know about you but I see all of the above types of thoughts in my mind. I witness this tussle between the sattva, rajas and tamas in my mind.
For example, my sattvic mind says cheerfully, Come let us do japa now, it is very good for us in every way. :)
 The rajasic mind says Ok fine, but hurry up and finish fast, I've got other things to do you know....and while you're at it, hurry up and attain God because this sadhana business is really exhausting.... :(
The tamasic mind says glumly, Ok, we can do japa, but what's the point, we've got sooooo far to go on the spiritual path, what's a few malas of japa gonna do (we're not Ajamila).... :(

(I do not literally talk to myself in this way (not always anyway! ;) ,  but such types of thoughts do arise....am writing them in this format to make it clearer).

Anyway, at present, I feel the sattvic mind by God's Grace has won a little ground over the other two minds to keep some form of sadhana going. It's very useful to monitor our states of mind and see what Guna is predominant.....

To summarise,
Rajas and Tamas are self-sabotage. Destroying oneself from within through doubt, lack of belief in oneself, Guru and God.
Rajas is about self-aggrandisement....feeling oneself to be very important....this will lead to utter destruction on the spiritual path....as it fattens the ego with a sense of superiority and creates separateness from God....
Tamas is self-denigration.....this will also lead to utter destruction on the spiritual path. It is harder to detect than rajas sometimes as it can be mistaken for humility at times....because of the difficulty in detecting this, it is a dangerous hidden enemy within us and is, in some ways even more dangerous than rajas (which is cruder and easier to see so can be recognised and dealt with sooner). Self-denigration subtly destroys our self-confidence under the pretext of humility, and thus erodes our motivation to continue on the spiritual path.....it prompts us to quit the spiritual path altogether or do sadhana dully at a snail's pace, thus not utilising this lifetime properly to realise God...

In the case of rajas, one feels superior to others, to the Gurus and to God...
In the case of tamas, one feels inferior to others, to the Gurus and to God.....
Both are a case of egoism, two sides of the same ego coin, that prevent us from experiencing a sense of oneness with others, with the Guru and with God.

Sattva is self-affirmation. It is absolutely based on trust and faith in God. Faith in God on three levels:
1. Faith in oneself, as a child of God. Yoga philosphy/Vedanta says all is God. The sattvic mind says I am a part of God. My true nature is one with God. My mind may manifest all sorts of rajasic and tamasic nonsense and try and convince me otherwise....but I will not believe these thoughts in my mind....I will believe my Guru who says I am a child of God, that I am divine, stainless, ever pure. I am beyond all the three Gunas in reality, my nature is was and ever will be one with God. Therefore to experience my true Reality, I will with confidence, take the Name of God, knowing this is the way to God....
2. Faith in Guru, as a manifestation of God. The Guru tells us to do sadhana and reveal our true nature which is that of God, like the Guru also did. To obey the Guru is to obey God, therefore the Guru is to be obeyed (not merely worshiped, though that is also good). The Guru/God wants our highest welfare and gives advice to achieve this.
3. Faith in God.....here one says, I will not take lightly stories from the Puranas about the extraordinary saving grace of the Name of God.
Stories such as that of Ajamila and others are not merely from a time long gone and now only for reading purposes....there is a deep spiritual meaning to these events, and a serious relevance to my own life today, living in this modern world.
God remains as accessible to me today, as He was to Ajamila and Gajendra a long time ago. I will with great seriousness therefore take the Name of God, knowing that as it removed Ajamila's burden of sins, it will destroy my negativity and sins too and bring me face to face with God.....

Let us therefore develop a 'gunas thermometer', a witnessing component of our mind that watches our thoughts. Let us regularly monitor our mental gunas temperature....and try our best to stay in the warm balanced sattvic zone, and as far as possible avoid the heated agitated rajasic and the cold dull apathetic tamasic modes of thinking.

Thus we ensure that we follow Lord Krishna's command in the Gita to lift ourselves to experience our real Self/God, through the help of our minds. 

Hari Aum Tat Sat.