Essays on the Gita

Above the Gunas 427glimpse of it in the symbolic idea of Indian religion which attributeseach of these qualities respectively to one member ofthe cosmic Trinity, sattwa to the preserver Vishnu, rajas to thecreator Brahma, tamas to the destroyer Rudra. Looking behindthis idea for the rationale of the triple ascription, we mightdefine the three modes or qualities in terms of the motion ofthe universal Energy as Nature’s three concomitant and inseparablepowers of equilibrium, kinesis and inertia. But that isonly their appearance in terms of the external action of Force.It is otherwise if we regard consciousness and force as twinterms of the one Existence, always coexistent in the reality ofbeing, however in the primal outward phenomenon of materialNature light of consciousness may seem to disappear in a vastaction of nescient unillumined energy, while at an opposite poleof spiritual quiescence action of force may seem to disappearin the stillness of the observing or witness consciousness. Thesetwo conditions are the two extremes of an apparently separatedPurusha and Prakriti, but each at its extreme point does notabolish but at the most only conceals its eternal mate in thedepths of its own characteristic way of being. Therefore, sinceconsciousness is always there even in an apparently inconscientForce, we must find a corresponding psychological power ofthese three modes which informs their more outward executiveaction. On their psychological side the three qualities may bedefined, tamas as Nature’s power of nescience, rajas as her powerof active seeking ignorance enlightened by desire and impulsion,sattwa as her power of possessing and harmonising knowledge.The three qualitative modes of Nature are inextricably intertwinedin all cosmic existence. Tamas, the principle of inertia,is a passive and inert nescience which suffers all shocks andcontacts without any effort of mastering response and by itselfwould lead to a disintegration of the whole action of the energyand a radical dispersion of substance. But it is driven by thekinetic power of rajas and even in the nescience of Matter ismet and embraced by an innate though unpossessed preservingprinciple of harmony and balance and knowledge. Materialenergy appears to be tamasic in its basic action, jaḍa, nescient,