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Sattva, Rajas and Tamas
That food which is healthy, wholesome, pure and obtained without efforts is considered Sattvic; that which gratifies the senses or the palate is Rajasic; that which is impure and injurious to health is Tamasic.
Happiness which arises from his own Self is Sattva; that which arises from the objects of sense is Rajas; that which arises from ignorance and delusion is Tamas; and that which arises from realising Me is beyond the Gunas.
Substance, place, the fruit (Svarga and the like), time, knowledge, action, agent, faith, state form, goal—all these are affected by the three Gunas.
O bull among men, all things that are pervaded and regulated by Purusha and Prakriti, as also what ever is seen, heard or thought by the intellect are the products of the Gunas.
O gentle one, these are the courses of Samsara (births and deaths) for the man. They are caused by the Gunas and his Karma. He who has conquered these Gunas which arises in his mind, and who is attached to Me by means of devotion becomes fit to attain Moksha or enter into Me.
Therefore let wise men, having obtained this body which is the means of attaining Jnana (knowledge) and Vijnana (Self-realisation), shake off their attachment to the Gunas and worship Me.
The wise should worship Me with alertness, with control over his senses, and without attachment to anything else. He should conquer Rajas and Tamas by developing Sattva and should overcome Sattva also by means of desire lessness and by concentrating the mind on Me. By such means he goes beyond the Gunas, abandons his body and attains to Me.
Such a man, released from the body and from the Gunas which arise in his mind, being full of Myself, the Para Brahman, shall not do anything external or internal i.e., leading to Samsara or Moksha. He will have nothing to do with the objects of sense either external, through actual contract or internal through thought.”
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