"Be Ye Therefore Perfect"

The long journey of the soul to the state of Bliss is the subject of Chapter 8 of God is for Everyone. It is, as the chapter’s title suggests, a process of the “Refinement of Awareness.” It takes numerous incarnations even after the soul at last attains the human state. The first stage of awakening is, in the teachings of the rishis, called tamas, or tamo guna. Guna means quality and tamas could be translated as mental dullness or inertia. In this phase the ego (the soul mis-identified as the body) is passive. It only reacts to outward circumstances and never considers itself responsible for them. Creativity and initiative are unknown. Someone should “do something about it” would be a typical complaint. Physical suffering is more common in tamo guno because mental suffering implies (disappointed) expectations. Tamasic people, lacking initiative and desire for self-understanding, are mostly helped only by uplifting influences and the slow passage of time and the effects of hardship.

 Driven by ego-motivated desires for pleasure, avoidance of suffering, and improved material circumstances, tamas eventually begins its search for a better life. It is then that rajo guna, the activating, restless quality of nature, emerges. Desire after desire arises to entice the ego to action. Over time, the mounting waves of desires crash against each other, lashing to foam the desire bubbles of rajasic people. The nerve searing restlessness of rajas inflicts emotional suffering such that in time the desire for the peace of sattwa guna rises to the surface.

Rajasic and sattwic people can be inspired by good company. One’s companions have a strong influence upon the images of happiness one forms in his mind. Whether our friends revel in the thought of fame and fortune, or instead, employ themselves in helping and serving others, can make the difference between whether we aspire towards rajas or sattwa.

Whereas a rajasic person suffers when he loses a prized possession, a sattwic person suffers with an excess of possessions! Rajas equates freedom with material security; sattwas seeks security within. For a sattwic person, issues of conscience inflict the keenest suffering. Between rajas and sattwa it is just as possible the soul will sink back towards tamas rather than struggle on towards the higher state of true, inner peace. It requires refinement of awareness to understand that inner peace is the product of victory, not passive relief.

Sattwa is less inclined to pay heed to the demands of ego. In fact ego transcendence is the final stage of refinement. At last there is nothing to be transcended, only satchidananda (ever-conscious bliss) realized as the only reality there ever was or is.

Each level brings inspirations appropriate to it: tamas is motivated by stimulation of animal appetites; rajas is fed by emotional excitement and self-aggrandizement; sattwa seeks inner peace and truth within. At last there dawns the ultimate reality of Conscious Bliss. “Through many lives I’ve sought your cup of sweetness!”

Joy to you!