Bhagavagd Gita - Session 24- Track 2405

Now, there is still something further.

Question: Please give an example of how to rise from Rajas to Sattwa?

I think, in our human life, everyday…sleep is one of the most important examples of Tamas; any movement over sleep is a result of the predominant influence of Tamas. When we wake from the sleep, there is still the influence of Tamas very powerful on us. It takes a little time for us to awake from sleep, and to get into the movement of action, or activity. You also know that when you are very active, to get sleep is very difficult. When you are very active, very often people suffer from insomnia, because the mind is so active, to bring the mind to some quietude, and to put it down to some kind of a slumber becomes difficult, because there is too much of an activity.

So, usually there is a conflict between Tamas and Rajas; when you are in one condition, the other is difficult to obtain. In this way if you examine our activities, we shall be able to find out. Each one has his own rhythm of Tamas and Rajas; every one of us has his own tempo of entering into action, and having entered into action to come down again to Tamas becomes difficult, and vice versa. For a human being who is either in the Tamasic condition or in Rajasic condition, to enter into activities of Sattwa is very difficult: for example, even to listen quietly to a dialogue, which is happening is very difficult for the Rajasic consciousness.

You are talking to me; you want me to do something. I would like to do what you want me to do; I know that I am not in a position to do it and I tell you: “No I am not able to do it”. But if you are in Rajasic condition, you are bent on doing it because it is the speciality of Rajas: action, emphasis on action, and re-emphasis on action is the fundamental character of Rajas. Now, the moment I say “I cannot do it”, there is a dislike. You said “I should do it”; I would like to do it, but I am not in a position to do it, and I say: “no, I cannot do it”. But you are so much bent on getting it done that you first of all dislike my saying “no”, even though you may be very polite, and you may not show to me that you have disliked my saying “no”. But you don’t like it. Then you don’t even ask me: “Please tell me why you can’t do it”, because there is not rest: you want thing to be done. You don’t even ask: “Please explain to me why you can’t do it”. You might either go away from me, saying: “all right, you can’t do it; I will find somebody else who can do it”. This is one reaction. Or even if you talk to me, you simply say: “I don’t understand why you can’t do it”. You don’t ask me first to explain why I can’t do it. You simply say, “Well, I don’t want to understand anything from you”.

This is the usual reaction, if you are polite, you may not say all these words; but in your own mind you, your mind explodes, because I have done something that you don’t like. You don’t have the patience that Sattwa requires: Sattwa requires equilibrium. When I am told: “I don’t do it”, it is opposed to my consciousness, it is opposed to my will. You don’t ask me why I have said “I cannot do it”. I may have all the good will to do it; I want to please you very much; but may be that I am in such a condition that I can’t do it. You see, most of the quarrel in the world arise out of what: it is because one is bent on doing it, and the other is not able to do it, or not able to reply in the way in which you want to do; and then the abhimāna, the ahaṁkāra comes into the front. And since Sattwa normally is absent in both the parties, equilibrium is very difficult. If somebody says: “All right, somebody has said something, which is not pleasant, which is not according to my wishes, then what am I to do?” Usually we are told, if you are rightly educated…this where education comes in a very important manner. Education fundamentally is to bring children, when they are pliable to explain that when you have Rajas try to be in a state of equilibrium, do not immediately impose yourself upon the other, try to understand. This capacity to understand, and understand again, and still again is you might say, the most important element in education. If you can tell the child……