There was a thought in the Vast Consciousness and this brought about Creation. Since nothing existed apart from Consciousness, all creation is made up of consciousness. Life in form of plants, insects, animals, birds, fishes, man, etc., came into being when forms were created with matter. These forms had a mix of the three gunas and a spark of the Supreme Soul and Universal Shakti entered the matter to give it life. When the eternal living entity – the soul – comes in contact with material nature, goodness, action and sloth bind it. The soul which is contained in the body is conditioned by the three modes and governed by it.
The Eternal Power is the Purusha. The created is the Prakriti. Purusha is beyond the gunas of satwa, rajas and tamas – goodness, action and sloth. Our actions in this material world are dictated by the mixture of the three gunas within us. At any point of time, one of the gunas is more and the other two are less. At that point of time our thoughts, action and reaction are governed by the guna which is prominent. That is why we find ourselves to be a mixture of contradictions. There are times when we are very kind, loving and peaceful. There are other times when we are passionate, enthusiastic and zealous and want to take action, do work and achieve results. Yet there are also times when we are lazy, sleepy and could not care less about anyone and we have no second thoughts about inflicting pain on others verbally or by action. We have to reduce the tamas in us steadily and then the rajas and let the satwa be prominent at all times. This makes us good and spiritual people. But when we wish to realise God and be one with Him, we have to go beyond the three gunas- that is into our original state of Consciousness from which we were created. Then only we can merge with the Eternal Consciousness.
Sri Ramakrishna illustrates the qualities of the three gunas in this little story he used to tell: Once, a rich man was travelling with a lot of treasures and wealth. He had to pass through a dense forest which was inhabited by robbers. As expected, he was surrounded by three robbers, attacked and all his wealth and possessions were seized from him. The first robber said: We have taken everything from this man. Let us kill him so that he does not go to the police and complain about us. Saying so, he lifted his sword to kill the rich man. The second robber stopped him and said: It is of no use killing him. Let us bind him with a rope and leave him here. Then he will not be able to go to the police and we can escape and be safe. So the robbers tied the rich man with a stout rope and left him and went away. After a while the third robber returned back to the rich man and untied his ropes and released him. He led him out of the forest to the highway and said: Follow this road and you will reach home easily. The rich man was grateful and offered shelter to the third robber. The third robber refused as he was on the wanted list of the police. Once again, he pointed the right direction to the rich man to reach home and went away.
The first robber who said : We have taken everything from this man. Let us kill him so that he does not go to the police and complain about us – is tamas. It harms and destroys. The second robber who suggested tying up the rich man with topes is rajas. Rajas entangles us in a variety of activities and we forget God. The third robber who set the rich man free from the entanglement of the rope and guided him out of the forest and set him on the way to his home is Satwa. Satwa shows us the way to God. Satwa is full of goodness, love and compassion. But the rich man had to leave even Satwa behind and go home alone.
The path to the House of God has a long flight of stairs. Satwa is like the last step of the stairs. Next to it is the doorway to the House of God. To enter the House of God, we have to leave the flight of steps behind, even the last one and enter in. Only when we are beyond the stairs made of tamas, rajas and satwa, can we enter the Home of God. We cannot attain knowledge of Divinity unless we transcend all the three gunas.
