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Seeking to escape the Triple World for moksa is unfortunately for most created beings
out of the question: the gods are too infused by the bliss of sattva; the demons are too intent on
the establishment of adharma in the universe; the animals and plants are too dominated by
rajas as well as by the same immobilising ignorance of tamas which defines minerals.
Humans are unique from the other created beings in that they possess and are pervaded
and influenced by all three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. Knowing both light and dark,
realising the unhappiness caused by tamas as well as the joy of sattva, and having the
motivation of rajas to surpass their mediocre existence, humans are endowed with the unique
potential to attain moksa, or nirvana (Bailey, 105). The fortunate combination of the gunas is
indeed necessary for humans; loss of any one characteristic deprives an individual of the hope
of escaping the birth-death-rebirth-redeath cycle of the Triple World.
Zimmer equates the gunas and other ‘impairments’ of created beings with the Western
concept of ‘personality.’
They are the bundle of life-forces that constitute the individual and implicate
him in the surrounding world. Our clinging to our ego, and our usual concrete
conception of what our ego is; our spontaneous self-surrender to the likes and
dislikes that guide us daily . . . and which are the most cherished ingredients of
our nature—these are our impairments. And through all runs that primitive
craving of the living creature, which is common to both men and worms . . .
and such a will to live is strong enough, according to the Indian theory of
rebirth, to carry an individual across the gulf of death into a new incarnation,
compelling him to reach out again for a new body, another mask, another
costume, in which to carry on. (Zimmer, 1969, 299)
10.3.2. ‘Brutalised’ Characters
D’Alpuget presents a decadent world, heavily influenced by the increasing power of
demons and adharma, where the balance of the gunas in humans is upset and most men are
driven by the darkness of tamas instead of the light of sattva. The Australian vice-consul is
only important enough to be identified by a first name, but his immoral behaviour—
particularly the sexual exploitation of his young female servant who he calls a ‘stupid cow’
(MD, 71)—merits a graphic introduction as the ‘man with the face of a sly pig’ who ‘nosed up’
to Alex (MD, 22). Juan, the Spanish chargé d’affairs, is infamous for the illegal possession of
an orang-utan and for halitosis which he and his pet undoubtedly share (MD, 22). Naida, a
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