The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad gita-21-1.

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22/01/2018

21.The Lord Dwells in the Hearts of All Beings-1.

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We have been familiarized with the terms sattva, rajas and tamas many a time through the course of the Bhagavadgita. In fact, these are not independent things external to us. They are not three things that lie outside in space, working in respect of us with an outward impulsion or compulsion.

Actually these three forces are pressures exerted from three different sides, and these being mere pressures exerted upon us by the very law of things, they cannot be regarded as substances in themselves. There is a pressure from within, a pressure from without, and a pressure from above. Thus every event is a threefold concatenation of factors.

Nothing happens independently by itself, as either a subjective element, an objective substance or a supernatural divinity. Three forces work together—sattva, rajas, and tamas—in everything.

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Na tad asti prithivyam va divi devesu va punah, sattvam prakriti-jair muktam yad ebhih syat tribhir gu&naih: There is nothing anywhere—either on earth or in heaven, neither high nor low, whatever be its nature—which is free from the clutches of these three gunas.

This is another way of saying that everything is an expression consequent upon a threefold pressure exerted by the law of nature in any particular point in the space-time complex. There is in every person, to give a gross example, an impulsion from within. Every person, every individual has a propulsive inclination from within oneself in some direction, in some manner, for some purpose.

But it is not an independent propulsion, because it is conditioned by the existence of an external atmosphere. There is an outward world, other people around us, and many other things. The outward atmosphere of the existence of factors other than one’s own self limits the operation of the inward propulsions.

In a similar manner, the effect that the external atmosphere has upon oneself is limited by the outlook that one has from one’s own self. So there is a collision of powers, which may be broadly spoken of as the inward and the outward factors in experience.

But this inward and outward bifurcation of experience is again decided upon and determined by a superintending element, which is often known as the adhidaiva. So in some sense we may say that sattva, rajas and tamas are the propulsive features of adhidaiva, adhyatma and adhibhuta.


To be continued ..

Swami Krishnananda

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