Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-14
The Three Qualities
O Arjuna, if the lamp is taken to another hamlet, it continues to be a lamp there and so when the sattva of a person becomes pure, his knowledge increases and his intellect floats on that knowledge. Then thinking over the order in which the world has sprung from the Great Principle, he becomes merged in the Self, along with his thought. When the sattva increases, he takes birth and assumes the best body in the family of those, who have got an access to the Self which is the thirtyseventh principle in Vedanta (13.5-6) or the twenty-fifth principle of the Sankhayas or the fourth which transcends the gunas (221-225). In the same way, when the rajas increases, overpowering sattva and tamas, he runs riot in the terrain of the body, by his actions. Then he is possessed of the following characteristics. Just as when the whirlwind gathers all things from the earth and whirls them high in the sky, so he allows a free hand to the senses, to indulge in sensual pleasures. He does not think it against the scriptures to cast a lustful eye on another’s wife and so his senses indulge freely in sensual enjoyments, as sheep graze wherever they want. His greed becomes so inordinate, that only things escape his clutches, which are beyond his reach (226-230). And he does not flinch from undertaking any business. He develops an extraordinary fancy to build a temple or perform a horse sacrifice. He undertakes huge works, like establishing townships or constructing reservoirs or planting forests. But even then, his desires for happiness in this or the next work remain unfulfilled. |
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