Three Gunas and Beyond - Uddhava Gita, Bhagavat Purana

|| Hari OM ||

In bhAgavat purANa (BP), canto 11, chapter 25, bhagavAn kruShNa teaches us about three guNa-s and tatvam beyond them. Here we have taken some verses from this chapter BP 11.25.1-36. 

This chapter is also a part of uddhava gItA, Chapter 20, verses (Uddhava gItA a part of BP. It starts with 11.5 (Canto 11, Chapter 5)

11.25.24: The knowledge of the existence of the Self (Sudha AtmaGYAna) is sattvika, that of body, etc is rAjasa, the knowledge of duality (kartA and bhoktA – jIva bhAva) is rAjasika and the knoweldge of only physical body is tAmasika, That [knowledge] which is different from above three, the knowdlge of Me (my nature), svarUpa, is nirguNa (beyond three guNa-s.

11.25.25: Living in forest is sAttvika, living in village is rAjasika, living in gambling-den is tAmasa; but living in Me is nirguNa i.e. established in Me is nirguNa.

11.25.26: To work, do karma, act with a sense of non-attachment is sAttvika, Blinded by the fruits of action, acting in such way is rAjasika, acting (mindlessly) without discriminating between good and bad is tAmasika; the one who acts by taking refuge in e is beyond the guNa-s.

11.25.27: Faith in the Self (AtmaGYAna) is sAttvika, faith in work (karma and it's fruitm kartA and bhoktA) is rAjasa and faith in adharma (athiesim, irreligion) is tAmasa; and faith in service unto Me is nirguNa (beyond guNa-s)

11.25.29: Joy which springs from the Self (by being antarmuktha – introvert mind) is sAttvika, that from sense-objects (extrovert mind) is rAjasa, joy due to ignorance and misery is tAmasa; and that which is based on Me is nirgua (beyond the guNa-s)

11.25.30: Object (vastu, dravya), place, fruit, time, knowledge, work, kartA (agent, doer), faith, state (sthiti), form of demi-gods, gods, humans, animals, etc) and goal – all these verily fall without the range of three guNa-s

11.25.31: O best of men, all emotions (bhAva-s) that are regulated by puruSa and prakriti – whatever is seen, heard, or thought by the intellect – are modifications of the guNa-s. 

11.25.32: All these which make for the transmigration of man are due to the feects of the guNa-s. That jIva (soul) who has conquered these guNa-s which are connected with mind (produced by mind, jIva), is attached to Me through the path of bhakti (devotion), merges in Me or is absorbed in Me svarUpa.

11.25.33: This human body is very rare and it is possible for humans to gain knowledge (GYAna) and abide in truth (viGYAna) with the help of human body, hence after gaining human body, the wise should get rid of three guNa-s and worship Me.

11.25.34: Therefore wise men, with the help of sattva guNa, should conquer rajasa and tamasa guNa-s. The wise should conquer his senses (by being alert and being their witness) and always worship Me.

11.25.35: With the help of [yoga of] meditation (dhyAna), one should stabilze and pacify the intellect and tendencies of mind and should conquer sattva with the help of desirelessness. By this means i.e. conquering sattva or rising beyond sattva, a man is freed from the guNa-s, gets rid of (gives up, renounces) his jIva bhAva (individual existence) and attains Me.

Note: By rising beyond guNa-s, the jIva bhAva is automatically renounced

11.25.36: Such a man (jIva), free from jIva bhAva (individual existence and hence freed from duality), is freed from the guNa-s which springs up [in mind (antakaraNa)] becomes a jivan mukta, a liberated man, such a man, firmly established in brahman, which is Me, has nothing to do with either internal (mental, emotional attachments and longing for fulfilling of sense gratification) or external (sense gratification) as he is absorbed in completeness or as he has attained completeness (pUrNatva)

|| ShrI KruShNa parabrahmapaNamastu ||

Translations adopted from 

Uddhava Gita by Swami Madhavananda of Ramakrishna Mission, Advaita Ashram, Kolkata

Bhagavat Purana, Sanskrit-Gujarati by Gita Press, Gorakhpur.

How to ward off negative thoughts?

Wishing you Happy Gudi Padwa

To ward off negative thoughts, there are two solutions which I can recall:

1. Short term
2. Long term

1. Short term:

Devotional method:

Do what is right at that time. Suppose if there is bursting of anger, then you cant control it. But after the incident is over, forget and forgive all those involved. Pray to God, 'Oh God please take away my anger'. Pray to God to forgive you and and also pray to God to give you strength to forgive those who hurt you. Say, " Oh God, take away all the negative energies, all negative emotions and fill me with divine qualities. Where there is hatred, let there be love, where there is violence, let there be peace.

If you stay too much with negative emotions, you will feel that God is far far away from you. Can you afford it? What do you want, God or world?

Yogic method:

Sit on chair, relax. Have couple of deep breaths. Relax. Be aware of breathing. and let go, just let go. Let yourself loose, you jaws may drop. Recall the person with whom you had a quarrel, 'visualize his face in front of you. Raise your hands to chest level with palms facing outwards (in blessings posture). The face is say 1 ft away from your palms. Visualize divine white light (brilliant white light) coming from above your head (into sahasrahAra chakra) passing through neck, shoulders, hands, palms and then reaching the face of person. Also be aware of anAhata chakra if possible. Let the energy flow for 1 minute. Repeat for other persons involved.

Repeat it 2-3 times in the beginning. If you sincerely surrender to God with full force, then you will immediately feel peace in your heart. You will immediately feel light.

Note: It is necessary to activate anAhat chakra. If it is not activated. Touch the centre of chest with fingers, recall any good incident in your life. For spiritual person, recall name of God, chant it a few times.

Always remember that what has happened, has happened. One cannot continue to live in guilt. So the best is to surrender to ISTa-devatA.

GYAni's approach:

Let the negative thoughts come, do not entertain, be aware of them, soon, thoughts will loose their power. Always remember that you are different from thoughts and mind. Mind gets it's power from Soul, Atman, Brahman. So you, i.e. 'I' can exist without thoughts, but thoughts cannot exist independently without the power of Brahman.

Be aware, stay de-focused (thats what is awareness), do not let yourself get dragged into the incident. Right now you are not fighting with anyone, but you are sitting in your room. What has happened is past, just let go. Right everything is happening in your own mind, so it is entirely your own mental construct. It is like a person shouting on mountain peak hears his own voice as echo. Right now, everything is happening in mind. So be aware. Soon, OM will pop up automatically (or start chanting it) and silently and smoothly shift the focus on OM, surrender to OM, be aware of origin of the sound 'OM'. If you can manage to be aware from where OM originates (and terminates), then thoughts will look to have little power. Brahman is all peaceful, SAntam Sivam advaitam, OM

Honestly, everything is just a construct of mind, it is not what it looks like

2. Long term method

Prevention is better than cure

Daily practice japa. Give more importance to God then world. Always be ready to sacrifice world for God. It is in japa that mind becomes still, one pointed. For sAkAra upAsanA, it gets fixed in one form of God. Later when you can be aware of full form of God, be aware of a part. bhAgavat purANa says, be aware of face (as face has all 5 senses). I am more comfortable with gazing at the holy feet. For advaitins, one can be aware of Guru's feet or even any form of God to felicitate the mind to turn introvert and dive deep within.

After your mind is absorbed in the lotus feet of Lord, the little 'I' does not remain. It is only God. This is bhAva samAdhi. One can feel the image of the Lord in the heart, but at times, the image can disappear and one begins to feel the lord as antaryAmI. Sri Abhinava vidyAtirtha (shringeri SankarAcArya and guru of current SankarAcArya Sri bhArti tirtha ) had this experience when he was meditating on narasimh bhagavAn.

So, when you daily practice japa, you realize that thoughts disturb you and the incident pops up breaking your meditation (japa). This is because you have given too much importance to the incidence. But now you have awareness that you should not have engaged in futile verbal fighting. after regular practice, japa mantra continues even when you are working, you are always aware that a part of mind is always chanting it. As soon as you stop your work, immediately, without any effort to recall God, the mantra pops-up automatically.

This awareness of mantra increases the 6th sense. When any incident happen, a inner voice will whisper, 'Do not hit back, Do not reply'. Just trust it. Or japa mantra will pop up. For a moment there will be no thoughts and you will become conscious and still. This is an indication that should be aware of mantra and only have faint awareness of the incidence (i.e. someone shouting at you) . If you manage to have this experience, then you will stay aloof and after react only that is necessary, else you will have the strength to gulp down the humiliation, as mind is more concerned with staying with God then keep pondering over worldly issue.

Once a person has awareness of japa mantra or the image of God in heart, then such a person will not much care about what the world thinks. s/he can easily reboot and caste away lower emotions. This can happen if one gives less importance to world and more importance to God.

Staying more and more with God like chanting mantra, stutis, bhajans, etc is very effective or do atma chintan (self enquiry). Plese do not be awre of a chakra specially AGYA (ajna) chakra, it may cause headache. Being aware of anAhat for some time is fine, sometimes, one feels too heavy if one is aware of sahasrahAra chakra. You may even have a headache.

Always begin any spiritual procedure with prayer. Pray to God to accept you as his refuge. You can even pray to AmbA or kundalini devi (for yogi-s). Always pray to guide you and show you the correct path. Always end any spiritual procedure with a thanks giving prayer and with a feeling of gratitude for God. There is no harm in accepting that there is a higher authority and that you do not feel ashamed to surrender to almighty.

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Also note that since we live in this society, hence you cannot live like a saint. There are times and situations in which you got to react, as it is necessary. Do not worry too much, just do what is necessary. But dont just keep living with negative mindset and move on with life.

Hari OM

Can a Doer be a Witness at the same time?

Can a Doer be a Witness at the same time?

If one is a doer, then one cannot be a witness. A witness cannot act, as s/he is a witness. In Gita, we are taught to be the witness. Laws of karma are for those who are doers. Hence to break free from the law of karma, one has to disassociate oneself with doership by being a witness of the karma that one does. Atman is a witness and bhagavAn in gItA BG 10.20 says 'aham AtmA ghuDhAkeSa' meaning, 'Oh Arjuna I am the Atman'. bhagavAn in gItA teaches us to be a sthita praGYa. In chapter 13, Atman is called as 'kshetraGYa', the knower of kshetra and is a witness to everything.


The law of karma is only for doer and not for non-doer (witness). bhagavAn in gITa BG 3.28 says ‘गुणा गुणेषु वर्तन्त … ।।3.28।।’ ‘guNA guNeShu vartante …’ which means guNa-s play among themselves.

guNa-s as senses move amidst the guNa-s as the sense-objects, and the GYAnI is is not attached, as he is the knower of guNa and karma vibhAga and is separate from gunas [by being their witness].

Guna-vibhaga means the products of Prakrti which consists of the three gunas.They are the five subtle elements, mind, intellect, ego, five sensory organs, five motor organs and five objects (sound etc.) of the senses.

Karma-vibhaga means the varieties of inter-actions among these.

The verse means:

He who knows the truth that the Self is entirely distinct from the three Gunas and actions does not become attached to the actions. He who knows the truth about the classification of the Gunas and their respective functions understands that the alities as sense organs move amidst the alities as sense objects. Therefore he is not attached to the actions. He knows? I am Akarta -- I am not the doer. (Cf.XIV.23).

In brief, Atman is the witness of everything that is happening and is separate from everything. Atman is akartA, the non-doer. Atman does not do anything.