KARMA YOGA 25

Tamas, rajas and sattwa --- these are the three gunas that compose Nature. Tamas is inertia, rajas activity and sattwa the quickening impulse of the soul, the balance of forces tending to tranquillity. All bodies in Nature have inertia, so do we have. This inertia will have to be overcome by intense activity and the restless generated thereof pacified by the calmness of detached action in the sattwa. The interplay of these three gunas constitutes the fabric of karma and knits up the web of this world. The interaction of karmic forces is so subtle, so intricate that we find ourselves hopelessly bound in the network of Maya with neither proper understanding of our state of bondage nor having the wherewithal to break free from its mesmeric hold. Born in a dream, we live in a dream to die dream-deaths, then are reborn in dream to repeat endlessly the dream-cycle we call the transmigration of the soul. All this is the work of the gunas, the three modes in which Nature functions. We have to work our way through life after life in this dreary dream-cycle before the buffetings of life disenchant us enough for us to look for sustenance within and herein begins the spiritual quest, the murmuring of the awakening soul, the seed of its first rebellion. Now begins the watchful performance of karma, tamas being conquered by rajas and rajas subdued by sattwa. Every moment is a vigil, every move a wary one, lest the advance of the soul be halted, the spiritual progress impeded. Indolence and inertia are shaken off and the aspirant is established in work. But work binds, causes unrest and snatches the peace of the soul. Analysis follows, the causes of unrest are determined, the solutions sought and the prescription adhered to, that of introspection, detachment and devotion as the aspirant seeks to attain to a settled peace which nothing can disturb. The battle for sattwa begins and now the attached, passionate work of rajas gives way to the quiet, contemplative, detached work of the karma yogi who works in the spirit of worshipful service for self-liberation and world-welfare. But the ascent to sattwa is not easy and requires great spiritual discipline and austerity, renunciation and sacrifice, and above all, perfect unselfishness and an over-abiding love for all that is good and holy. Spirituality begins with the struggle to grapple with the tamasis and rajasic forces within the psycho-physical system and a gradual transformation of these into sattwa. The yogi's body is called the 'bhagavati tanu' or the divine body because his body is composed of sattwa or the divine material. His protracted struggle to conquer the lower nature and elevate his being to the higher spiritual levels gradually sublimates his consciousness and fills it with sattwa particles. He now becomes a fit recipient of higher spiritual realisations. And all along, this spiritual progress has entailed constant karma, detached and dispassionate, devoted and disciplined till the turbulence of the mind has been quietened and the soul has settled into a peaceful repose whence the final assault on the citadels of Maya may be launched. And this is karma yoga.