Natural Attributes
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, sattva, 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 Arjuna, 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 gunas in Sanskrit. This translation is incomplete because there are no relevant English words for sattva, rajas and tamas. We do not have the right word for guna. We cannot aptly translate these words into English. When the eternal living Entity comes in contact with nature, He becomes conditioned by these modes.
We may say that these are the different ways people behave; as the phrase goes, it is the good, the bad and the ugly.
Krishna explains how we are caught in three different mental setups; we operate through three different types of engraved memories. One is sattva, 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: Sattva refers to the engrams or engraved memories or samskaras that leads us to bliss. These engraved memories lead us to joy and ecstasy. Rajas refers to the engraved memories that lead us to restlessness, excitement and to work intensely. They make us active and materially productive. The third attribute, tamas, means the engraved memories that lead us to depression, laziness and to dullness. Engraved memories that lead to ecstasy and bliss form sattva, engraved memories that lead to restlessness, anger and emotional imbalance form rajas, and engraved memories that lead to depression, dullness and low moods form tamas.
A small example:
We are like passengers riding in a car. Slowly we become lost in thoughts. After a while, we suddenly recall a person or place that disturbs us. The moment the mind feels disturbed, we come back to awareness. Sometimes, we say, 'I should not think about it; let me think of something else.' Sometimes we speak these words aloud. We may make gestures.
The driver may look back and say, 'What happened? What are you doing?'
When we are lost in thoughts and a memory arises that makes us depressed, dull or disturbed, we suddenly come back to awareness. We ask ourselves, 'What am I thinking?'
Sometimes we say it aloud, 'I should not think about this. Oh God, what am I doing? I should think of something else.' Sanskrit has a beautiful word for engraved memories: samskaras.
Those engraved memories that automatically arise 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 with this thought.
Engrams that make us active or cause anger or violence and imbalance are called rajas. We are normally caught between rajas and tamas. Very rarely do we get sattvic engrams. Sattvic engrams do not disturb us. They give rise to a memory of deep bliss or joy that we have experienced. For example, if we come here everyday, the moment it is 4:30 pm, an engram like this may come up, 'Oh, yesterday the discourse was wonderful. The meditation was beautiful. I should go today as well.'
However, if it is 4.30 pm, instead of that sattvic engram, we typically get the engram to eat a snack or drink a cup of coffee!
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 engraved memories of sattva, sattvic memories or sattvic engrams. 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. It was so peaceful.' Engrams that lead us to peace, bliss and ecstasy are sattvic engrams.
These three different types of engraved memories or samskaras rule our entire life. Knowledge of these engraved memories is the basic knowledge that must be possessed by anyone who wants to live successfully. The Vedic science of health and wellness, Ayurveda, is structured around the concept of gunas and their effect on our body-mind system.
It is like an owner's manual for the person who has a mind. Without an owner's manual, when we use a product, either we miss the whole thing, or we miss the knowledge of many of the product's applications and features.
There are so many uses and features of a computer. Even the humble calculator has hundreds of applications that we are unaware of. We may use the calculator for basic features like addition and subtraction; however, we may not take advantage of its other applications. In the same way, if we don't have and don't know the owner's manual of the mind, we do not use it the way we ought to or to its full potential.
Understanding the three different engraved memories or samskaras is the operating manual of the mind*. Krishna calls it, gunatrayavibhaga yoga. When we don't comprehend this manual, we are not able to catch the whole understanding of life. We miss so many opportunities. Because we have never learned or understood about the gunas*, we live only a very small fraction of what's possible in life. We miss the beauty and potential of life when we don't have the owner's manual.
Why should we know about these samskaras? What is the use? How will it help us? We should know them because they are the owner's manuals of the mind. At the outset, samskaras are not dead memories. Here once again we don't have the correct translation of samskaras in English.
We can never understand or fully appreciate Shakespeare's work in another language. If we read the translations of Shakespeare, at the most we will understand what Shakespeare was trying to express. However, we will never understand how he expressed it or the depths that he reached. If we want to enjoy Shakespeare, we must read it in the original language and not today's spoken English. In the same way, if we want to understand these great truths, we must know a little Sanskrit.
When I ask people to learn a bit of Sanskrit they think I'm trying to spread the language. I say, 'No, for spirituality, a little knowledge of Sanskrit helps you understand many technical terms.'
Let me give the exact meaning or the idea expressed by the word samskara.
Samskara is not any dead engraved memory. It is an engraved memory that is alive and active. It has the power to pull us down and make us travel the same path again and again. Usually the word memory is understood as a dead record; however, samskara is not a dead record. It is not dead memory. It is not like the memory of a computer where pictures and word documents are stored. No. Samskaras have the power to pull us down repeatedly and to make us walk the same path over and over. We end up going in dead-end circles.
Samskaras automatically attract us, call us and make us travel the same path. Then, when we do walk down the same path, the engraving becomes even deeper and those memories get further entrenched. Modern science understands this fact. Experiments have shown that repeated emotional experiences create more receptors for that emotion being developed in the brain. Physically, physiologically, the more anger outbursts you have, the more anger receptors your brain develops. This is a horrifying thought but it's true. The great rishis, the inner scientists have known this for thousands of years.
If certain emotions are not expressed, the corresponding brain parts or receptors degenerate and die. So, the more we manage to stay out of negative emotions, the less they bother us. On the contrary, the more we indulge, the more our brain demands the same indulgence. This is the cause of addictions. Our entire life is ruled by samskaras.
Samskaras are living 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 embedded. They are engraved into our brain structure.
Krishna explains step-by-step how we become caught in these three levels of memories and how, again and again, we are pulled and pushed by these memories. 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 in our life, enlightenment is compulsory! With three wives, or husbands, one cannot live without enlightenment.
Someone asked me, 'Why did Krishna 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. Only God can manage so many women!'
Here, He gives us an understanding of how to live with these engraved memories. Another important point is that these memories are living energies and they are not dead. Because these are living energies, they can be used for bad deeds or good deeds.
When a person has energies to do bad deeds, we can tap into those energies and make him do good deeds. From my experiences of conducting meditation programs in prisons, no one puts in as much effort and goes into such deep meditation as a prisoner. We conduct meditation programs in prisons. They are so involved and go into meditation more deeply in comparison to people outside. When prisoners take up meditation, they really take it up. They are intense. They don't do anything half-heartedly. When they are transformed, their whole life is transformed!
If we look at the lives of Hindu rishis, Valmiki in South Bharat, the great saint Arunagirinadhar and many others were sinners. However, a dramatic change happened and a cognitive shift took place in their being. The cognition usually happens in the way that our mind receives data, processes it and delivers the result. Once the cognitive shift takes place, we receive data, process it and go inside instead of outside. As long as we react externally, we are working towards depression. However, once we go in, we move into bliss.
For example, the death of someone close to us, our near and dear, can lead us to the spiritual path or to frustration. We can think, 'Anyway, I am also going to die, so l should do what I want to.' Or we can decide, 'I too will die some day. Let me learn what I can and grow.'
A small story:
A person was about to be hanged. The officer on duty asked him if he had any last wishes. The prisoner said, 'No.' The officer said, 'You can pray to God. You can ask forgiveness and ask for His blessing. We can bring in a priest.'
The prisoner said, 'I want to remember God, but not in the way you suggest. Had I known earlier I would be executed for these crimes, I would have committed a few more sins.'
The prisoner continued, 'If I had known that I was going to be hanged, I would have committed more sins. So if I pray, I will ask God why He didn't let me know earlier that I was going to be hanged. I don't need a priest for that.'
When some people understand that death is ultimate, they think, 'Death is the ultimate so let me work towards the Divine, achieve God, or realize atman.' Others react differently, 'Anyway we are going to die. Let us do whatever we want and live the way we want to.' One group takes the path of meditation and the other takes the path of the outer world. The path we choose is up to us.
Engrams are living energies. Through engrams we can choose to suffer and torture ourselves again and again. Or we can make our life a blissful experience. If we know the science of how these engraved memories happen in our being and how they can transform our being, we can take the help of these engraved memories to achieve eternal Consciousness, eternal bliss in our being.
Krishna explains how engraved memories disturb our mind 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 engrams affect our decisions and how to come out of the influence of engrams. I have given a basic understanding of this diagram elsewhere, but let me repeat it so that we can connect with samskaras.
Please understand how we receive information or data from the outer world, how we process it and how we make decisions. First, we see something through the eyes. I have taken the example of the eyes but we can replace with any other sense: ears, nose, taste or touch. Among these five jnanendriya (senses of perception), any one of them can be used here.
There are five jnanendriya and five karmendriya (senses of action) that are the means of communication between the external world and us. Jnanendriya 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 indriya, karmendriya and jnanendriya, is related to one of the energy centers (chakras) in our mind-body system. For instance, locomotion is related to the manipuraka chakra, and the energy of fire.
We can take any of the five jnanendriya to replace the eyes in this example. Through the eyes we see a scene. Let us take the example of this situation, the scene of this