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Thank you for completing this wonderful series. Good work!
Very useful analysis of the gunas.
(I’ll post more under this title tomorrow – your post reminded me of an interesting passage on the gunas from another Indian scripture. – )
Many thanks!
Looking forward to your subsequent post. 🙂
(I posted something ,but I am still looking for another one which explains the inner relationship between the guNas maybe I’ll find it another day. Please enjoy what I typed from the Svami Laksmanjoo Raina talks on the Gita Samgraha.)
A most scholarly endeavor! I am sure I’m not alone here in expressing sincerest thanks for this contribution.
As promised, here is a little something from Swami Lakshmanjoo commentary on the Gitartha Samgraha which is the Kashmiri recension of the Bhagavad Gita:
page 322 — I’ll type it out using Harvard-Kyoto transliteration as it is simpler (if I make any mistakes I apologize as I am a total beginner in Sanskrit):
it is the Sanskrit of the Kashmiri recension with Svami’s commentary interspersed – it is a bit repetitive because it was originally a speech but it makes it even better for contemplating upon
“ye caiva sAttvikA bhAva, the states of sattvaguNa, rAjasa states of rAjaguNa, tAmasa (states of tAmaguNa) all these threefold states, matta eva iti tAnviddhi, they are produced by Me. natu aham teSu, I am not existing in them, they are produced by Me. They are produced from Me. sattvic bhAva, rAjas bhAva, and tAmas bhAva, the waves, these three kinds of threefold waves, tides, are spread, are produced by Me, but I am not in them. It means I, [lord kRSNA], have not come into the grip of these three guNas. Three guNas are produced by Me, but I am not caught in the three. I am not in them, te mayi, they are existing in Me. I am not in them. I am not in the three guNas. natvahaM teSu, I am not existing in them. On the contrary, te mayi, they are existing in Me.
By these threefold guNas, by which this whole universe is plluted, is being crushed … sattvaguNa also crushes people, rajaguNa also crushes people, and tamaguNa also crushes people. sattvaguNa crushes people and keeps them away from rajaguNa and tamaguNa. rajaguNa crushes people and keeps them away from sattvaguNa and tamaguNa.
… in the same way [people] are crushed. They don’t become whole, [their] wholeness is lost, t[their] completion and fullness [are lost]. If you have got sattvaguNa, then rajaguNa and tamaguNa are lacking in you. If you can’t be that you will be [experiencing] sattvaguNa, rajaguNa, and tamaguNa all together. You can’t be, because the behavior of these three guNas are separate.
In Me, these three behaviors [i.e. guNas] are existing. So this fullness shines in Me. I am sattvaguNa, rajaguNa, and tamaguNa, but I am … not in them.
In this way, you should feel that the whole universe is filled with the state of Bhairava and the state of Bhairava is shining in each and every being. “
“Why is it that those who are existing in sattvaguNa, those who are existing in rajaguNa, and those who are existing in tamaguNa, why don’t they achieve the reality of bhagavAn, lord Bhairava ?
It is because of mAyA. And it is duratyayA, nobody has conquered this. Nobody has won over this mAyA.
… Now there is a trick. I will tell you the trick how you can subside mAyA.
Others commentators have commented upon this verse in the following way: ”’those who take refuge in Me, they succeed in conquering mAyA!”’ –
[But I will proceed to show you another interpretation, that of the greatest teacher of Kashmir Shaivism, Trika philosophy, Abhinavagupta.]
Abhinavagupta has explained, mAmeva ye prapadyante, those persons, those elevated souls who think, “mAmeva ye pradyante, mAyA is me (mAmeva), mAyA is the reality of Brahman” – those who attribute mAyA in their own nature [and feel], “I am mAyA; mAyA is Parabhairava” – then they are free from mAyA. You should know that mAyA is not other than Parabhairava [ = YOUR TRUE NATURE!], then you will succeed.
Otherwise there is no hope of getting rid of mAyA, because this is guNamayI daivI.***
Those, on the contrary, who are situated in the supreme state of Parabhairava, tad anitiriktaM vizvam pazyanto, they realize that this whole universe, which is created by the mAyA of Lord Śiva, is not separate from the Parabhairava state. For them, there is no mAyA. They have conquered mAyA!
—-
*** ( ” daiVi is divine. Divine means devaH krIDAkaraH, devaH means who is always playful, Lord Śiva is always playful. mAyA and not mAyA, illusion and not illusion, consciousness and unconsciousness – this is all His play.” )
Favorable and unfavorable gods are illusions that need to be overcome. – Bardo Thodol
“There are other dangers too: gods and other beings come to tempt the yogi. They do not want anyone to be perfectly free. They are jealous, just as we are, and even worse than us sometimes. They are very much afraid of losing their positions.” – Swami Vivekananda Raja Yoga.
One who desires perfect freedom from any and all forms of ignorance must inevitably take complete refuge in the perfect jewel known to him as Mind Only.
In it, there is no place for any gods or mortals, nor demons or other sentients of the samsaric mindset. In it, there is only the nirvana of spiritual singularity – or the absolute reality of perfect, undivided, awareness power – Bodhi.
Thank you for reminding us of that temptation.
Indeed, if we beginner yogis will be lucky enough (or rather: will exert enough self-effort) to come to the stage to be tempted by gods, we should better keep in mind that some of the divine beings that appear before such a yogi are hard to resist.
Who can resist at such temptations?
Only one who is fixed upon the ultimate goal and is not interested in the intermediate, the super-powers, or divine beings (even they are powerless against Time the destroyer of all).
It is a boon to be reminded of this by advanced yogis who walked this path already before.
I’ll do my part to remind the readers that there is some confusion when people refer to “god”. Sometimes people will think of “god” as “one of the gods” – or a “creator god” such as Brahma … or “Lord Shiva” who is one of the trinity (Trimurti) etc.
But when the Tantrika of Kashmir say “Shiva” they do not mean the Vedic Shiva or the Puranic Shiva, they just use the same word. There is a confusion however because the same word is used for two different things; in the case of Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra, “Shiva” refers to Brahman, the absolute, pure consciousness (chaitanya):
“” Do you know who ‘god’ is? God is not Vishnu or Shiva or Brahma; not the wind, the sun nor the moon; nor the brahmana or the king; not I or you; not Lakshmi or the mind. God is without form and undivided (not in the objects); that splendor which is not made and which has neither beginning nor end is known as god, or Lord Shiva, which is pure consciousness. That alone is fit to be worshipped; that alone is all. “” Sage Vasishtha in the Maha-Ramayana