The Three Gunas

 

Q105: Swami!  Three gunas or attributes such as rajas, tamas and sattva are said to bind man.  Does a sattvika quality also bind man?  Is that also a bondage?

Bhagawan: These three attributes only bind man.  Your life is conditioned by them.  All your deeds and expressions are governed by them.  They monitor your conduct and behaviour.  Even sattvika qualities also chain you.

For example, you are confined with an iron chain.  Is that not bondage?  You may be confined with a silver chain.  It is also bondage.  It may be now a gold chain this time that binds you.  Is it not bondage?  After all, the three chains differ only in the composition of the metal.  After all, each is a chain and nothing more though its value may differ form that of the other.  Thus, the attributes bind or limit you.

Here the iron chain is compared to that of "tamas", dullness or inertia.  The silver chain is like the "rajasika" quality, active, energetic, passionate and the gold chain is like the "sattvika" nature, pure, steady, good.  But divinity is beyond these three "gunas".  It is, in fact, attributeless.

(From: "Satyopanisad" Vol. 1 by Prof. K. Anil Kumar)