The Gita according to Gandhi 11

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

B. THE GITA VIEW 2. THE GUNAS The Sankhya doctrine of gunas as the constituents of prakriti has been worked out elaborately by the Gita and has been adopted by all the Smriti works, and it has taken such a hold of the Hindu mind that the words sattva, rajas, and tamas and their derivatives sattvika, rajasa, and tamasa are common terms of the Hindu vocabulary in every Indian language and immediately convey their ethical connotation even to an unlettered peasant. Though the word guna literally means "strand" and sattva, rajas and tamas in their non-technical sense mean essence, dust or foulness, and darkness respectively, the word "strand" is hardly appropriate to convey the full ethical and non- ethical content of the word guna. As constitutive stuff of all that exists the three gunas represent the three modes or modifications or moments of being "intelligible essence, energy, and mass" to use Dr Seal's phraseology. As mental states they are the states of purity or clarity, restlessness, and torpidity. Ethically, sattvika state is pure, rajasa is alloyed, and tamasa is impure. The Gita says sattva binds man to his body by conscious happiness and knowledge, rajas by restlessness and misery, tamas by heedlessness, lethargy and sleep (XIV. 5-7). Knowledge,. light, happiness indicate the predominance of sattva; greed, restlessness, yearning indicate the predominance of rajas; dulness, heedlessness, lethargy of tamas (XIV. 11-13).