Category Archives: tamaha

Bhagavad Gita Verse 1, Chapter 17

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in 17.1, aaho, anvitaahaa, chapter 17 verse 1, kaa, krishna, nishthaa, rajas, sattvam, shaastravidhim, shraddhayaa, tamaha, teshaam, utrisrijya, yajante

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Arjuna uvaacha:
ye shaastravidhimutrisrijya yajante shraddhayaanvitaahaa |
teshaam nishthaa tu kaa krishna sattvamoho rajastamaha || 1 ||
 
Arjuna said:
Those who, setting aside laws of scripture, perform worship endowed with faith, O Krishna, what is their position? Is it of sattva, rajas or tamas?
 
ye : those who
shaastravidhim : laws of scripture
utrisrijya : setting aside
yajante : perform worship
shraddhayaa : faith
anvitaahaa : endowed with
teshaam : their
nishthaa : position
tu : then
kaa : what
krishna : O Krishna
sattvam : sattva
aaho : or
rajas : rajas
tamaha : tamas
 
In order to prevent the prompting of actions by selfish desire, we should use the scriptures as a guide to decide what to do or what not to do. This was the concluding message of the previous chapter. Hearing this, the word “shaastra” or scripture stuck in Arjuna’s mind. Perhaps he foresaw that over the course of time, most people will not have access to scriptures. They will not be able to receive the guidance of a real guru who truly cares about their spiritual growth versus extracting money from them. He wanted to know, like all of us do, how to use our judgement without access to scriptural laws.
 
Let us now investigate what category of people Arjuna is speaking about. There are those who may have access to the scriptures, may even understand the scriptures, but have no inclination of following them. Such people were covered in the last chapter under the category of devilish qualities. Conversely, there are people who understand the scriptures and also conduct their life according to scriptures. These people were covered under the category of divine qualities. This chapter covers those people who do not have access to the scriptures, but yet try to lead their lives through faith, sincerity and honesty.
 
So then, Arjuna asks this extremely practical question on behalf of common people who have faith in some higher principle. Some may be devotees of Shri Krishna, some of Lord Shiva, some of Lord Ganesha. Some may not have faith in a deity but may have faith in a spiritual text such as the Gita. Some may have not have faith in any of these but may have faith in a friend, spouse or relative who has faith in a deity or a spiritual text. Some may have faith in their nation or in a higher cause such as improving the state of the nation’s education system.
 
Regardless of what their faith is, such people would like to set themselves on a path that gains them happiness in the material world, and also enables them to pursue the supreme goal of self realization or liberation. In the absence of scripture as the authority, faith determines the course of action for such people. How can they determine whether their faith is saattvic, rajasic or tamasic? How can they ensure that their faith is leading them in the right direction?

Bhagavad Gita Verse 9, Chapter 14

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in 14.9, aavritya, bhaarata, chapter 14 verse 9, jnyaanam, karmani, pramaade, rajaha, sanjayati, sattvam, sukham, tamaha, uta

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sattvam sukham sanjayati rajaha karmani bhaarata |
jnyaanamaavritya tu tamaha pramaade sanjayatyuta || 9 ||
 
Sattva binds through joy, rajas through action, O Bhaarata, while tamas cloaks knowledge and binds through heedlessness.
 
sattvam : sattva
sukham : joy
sanjayati : binds
rajaha : rajas
karmani : action
bhaarata : O Bhaarata
jnyaanam : knowledge
aavritya : cloaks
tu : while
tamaha : tamas
pramaade : heedlessness
sanjayati : binds
uta : and
 
Shri Krishna recaps the characteristics of the three gunaas in this shloka. Sattva binds by making us hold on to joy experienced after attaining a sense object. Rajas binds us by giving us joy in performing actions and obtaining their results. Tamas binds us by giving us joy in holding on to laziness and heedlessness. We now begin to look into how these three are interrelated.
 
In the second chapter, we have come across a series of shlokas that describe how the mind can fall from sattva into rajas and tamas in a matter of seconds. We start with the mind resting in a peaceful sattvic state. A tinge of rajas comes in, causing us to think about some sense object, let’s say a sweet. This fuels rajas further, creating a strong attachment to that sweet, culminating in a strong desire to do anything to get that sweet. But it gets worse. If we cannot get that sweet, if someone or something obstructs our consumption of the sweet, anger arises in us. Rajas deteriorates into tamas. The last rung of the ladder of fall is when anger goes to such an extent that it causes us to lose our faculty of intelligence and memory.
 
Conversely, we can go from tamas to rajas to sattva, but it may take a little longer. For someone steeped in tamas, immersing themself in action will raise them to the level of rajas. When action becomes focused and directed towards the pursuit of a selfless goal, rajas is elevated to the level of sattva. Swami Vivekananda always used to say “awake, arise, stop not till the goal is reached”. When India was under British rule, many had become accustomed to this slavery and had fallen into a tamasic state. They could not find a way out of their predicament, and were clouded in ignorance. Swami Vivekananda’s message urged citizens to engage in action towards independence. That was the only way to get them out of the tamasic state of laziness.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 8, Chapter 14

13 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in 14.8, aalasya, ajnyaanajam, bhaarata, chapter 14 verse 8, mohanam, nibadhnaati, nidraabhihi, pramaada, sarvadehinaam, tamaha, tat, tu, viddhi

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tamastvajnyaanajam viddhi mohanam sarvadehinaam |
pramaadaalasyanidraabhistannibadhnaati bhaarata || 8 ||
 
And, know tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all the body dwellers. It binds them through heedlessness, laziness and sloth, O Bhaarata.
 
tamaha : tamas
tu : and
ajnyaanajam : born of ignorance
viddhi : know
mohanam : delude
sarvadehinaam : all body dwellers
pramaada : heedlessness
aalasya : laziness
nidraabhihi : through sloth
tat : it
nibadhnaati : binds
bhaarata : O Bhaarata
 
Tamas is our state of mind when it is dull and inert. Like a glass of dirty water cannot let light shine through, tamas prevents our mind from thinking clearly. Our mind starts to operate in moha, which means confusion or error, mistaking one thing for another. Tamas can be triggered by an overpowering emotional situation like Arjuna seeing his family members and loved ones on the opposite side of the battlefield. A tamasic state can also be triggered by abusing our sense organs through excessive drinking, smoking, watching TV and so on.
 
After a long and tiring day, when we want to rush to get a good night’s sleep, we get a call from a friend who wants to catch up. Try as we might, we will not be able to understand what he is saying because the mind has switched to a tamasic state due to exhaustion. Our memory does not work properly and our intellect’s logic is flawed. All we want to do is to rest our head on the pillow. When tamas reaches the height of its potency, we fall asleep.
 
Shri Krishna says that tamas is born out of ignorance. At its core, tamas keeps the Purusha, the jeeva, body dweller under the delusion that he is the body and not the self. When we forget our true nature as the self, the eternal essence, we assume that our body is who we are. This erroneous notion, this ignorance enables tamas to bind us, to trap us.
 
Tamas binds us in three ways, through heedlessness, laziness and sloth. Heedlessness is the performance of actions without intellectual focus or awareness. We either perform actions carelessly, such as dialing the wrong phone number, or perform actions that are futile, such as gambling or excessive alcohol consumption. Laziness is postponing or abstaining from our duties. Sloth is lying around in a state of stupor or sleep. Now, there is a place for resting and sleeping in our life, which is at the end of every day. But some of us derive joy from futile actions, from procrastination, from lazing around and so on. It is this joy through which tamas binds us.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 5, Chapter 14

10 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in 14.5, avyayam, chapter 14 verse 5, dehe, dehinam, gunaahaa, iti, mahaabaaho, nibandhanti, prakritisambhavaahaa, rajaha, sattvam, tamaha

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sattvam rajastama iti gunaahaa prakritisambhavaahaa |
nibandhanti mahaabaaho dehe dehinamavyayam || 5 ||
 
Sattva, rajas, tamas, these gunaas born of Prakriti, O mighty-armed warrior, bind the imperishable body dweller to the body.
 
sattvam : sattva
rajaha : rajas
tamaha : tamas
iti : these
gunaahaa : gunaas
prakritisambhavaahaa : born of Prakriti
nibandhanti : bind
mahaabaaho : O mighty-armed warrior
dehe : to the body
dehinam : body dweller
avyayam : imperishable
 
Shri Krishna beings the detailed analysis of Prakriti with two points. First, he breaks down Prakriti into its three components: the gunaas which are sattva, rajas and tamas. We have to note that the phrase “born of” in the shloka does not mean that Prakriti creates the three gunaas. It means that Prakriti itself is nothing but the three gunaas. Next, Shri Krishna states the effect of Prakriti on the Purusha, also known as the jeeva, the individual soul. He says that Prakriti binds or ties down the imperishable body dweller, the “dehi”, the jeeva, to the body.
 
Let us begin by understanding what the term “gunaa” means. From our point of view, gunaa is a state of mind. In just one day, we experience calmness, passion and lethargy, which are roughly equal to sattva, rajas and tamas respectively. From a broader point of view, gunaas refer to building blocks of the universe. Inert matter is tamas, action or dynamism is rajas, and harmony is sattva. Since we are primarily interested in liberation from our sorrow, we shall focus on the impact of the gunaas on our mind rather than their impact on the universe.
 
Now, if we have repeatedly heard that our self is imperishable and can never be bound, then how can the perishable gunaas bind the self? The answer is : the gunaas by themselves do not bind us. Ignorance of our true nature, followed by our mis-identification with the body, puts us in a situation where we ourselves allow the gunaas to take over control of our life.
 
Imagine that you have parked your car on the left side of road. A car that looks just like your car is also parked on the same road, but on the right side of the road. After you come out of the building and absent-mindedly think that the other car is yours, you are trapped. You see a new scratch on the car and get upset, you get a parking ticket and have to pay the fine, and so on. The other car has not “bound” you, but your incorrect knowledge has done so. We can also go back to the example of the child watching the boxing match. He is as though glued to the screen, while his grandmother is not. The TV does not bind him since it is is nothing but millions of red, blue and green dots of light. It is the child’s strong identification with the boxer that binds him.
 
Similarly, the individual soul which has mis-identified itself with the body, gets entrapped in the play of the three gunaas. In the next three shlokas, Shri Krishna takes up each gunaa one by one, and explains its power to bind the body in detail.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 11, Chapter 10

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in 10.11, aatmabhaavasthaha, aham, ajnyaanajam, anukampaartham, bhaasvataa, chapter 10 verse 11, eva, jnaanadeepena, naashayaami, tamaha, teshaam

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teshaamevaanukampaarthamahamajnyaanajam tamaha |
naashayaamyaatmabhaavastho jnaanadeepena bhaasvataa || 11 ||
 
For those, only out of compassion, I dispel darkness residing in their hearts, born of ignorance, by lighting the brilliant lamp of knowledge.
 
teshaam : for those people
eva : only
anukampaartham : out of compassion
aham : I
ajnyaanajam : born of ignorance
tamaha : darkness
naashayaami : I dispel
aatmabhaavasthaha : residing in their hearts
jnaanadeepena : lamp of knowledge
bhaasvataa : brilliant
 
Shri Krishna paints a beautiful picture to illustrate Ishvara’s grace that was explained in the previous shloka. Like a lamp that is lit to dispel darkness, Ishvara, out of sheer compassion, ignites the yoga of intellect which removes ignorance from the hearts of serious devotees.
 
The renowned Shankaraachaarya has elaborated upon this illustration in his Gita commentary. His illustration is comprised of the lamp with a lamp holder, wick, and oil. The lamp holder is the quality of vairagya or dispassion, the wick is brahmacharya or continence and the oil is prasaada buddhi or the willingness to accept everything in life as Ishvara’s blessing. The lamp is nourished by a gentle breeze in the form of constant devotion to Ishvara, but can be extinguished by an impure mind containing strong likes and dislikes.
 
With these two shlokas, Shri Krishna summarizes the path of the bhakti marga or devotional means to attain Ishvara. In bhakti, Ishvara’s grace is emphasized rather than individual effort. In the Indian tradition this is pictorially depicted by comparing a monkey with a cat. In “markatanyaaya”, the method of the monkey, a baby monkey has to hang on to its mother with its own effort. But in “marjalanyaaya”, the method of the cat, a kitten does not have to do anything because its mother holds her by its neck.
 
Likewise, Ishvara takes care of his devotees. He will ensure that their material needs are taken care of. But more importantly, he will ensure that all our ignorance is destroyed and that we are educated spiritually. This is in contrast with other paths to Ishvara that require significant self effort. There is no need to roll any beads or sit in any postures. All that is required is surrender.
 
With these words, Shri Krishna stopped speaking and Arjuna, excited by the topic, started praising him.