Guṇa : गुण) which means string, a
strand of a cord or twine.
There are considered to be three
Gunas:
·
Sattva - सत्त्व -creation - purity - Liberating thoughts,
feelings and actions
·
Rajas - रजस्) – preservation - responsible
for motion, energy and preservation – actions which include the ego and so bind
us – this binds us to desire and selfish action binding us to the material
world
·
Tamas - तमस् - destruction - darkness - laziness and
lethargy – this kills our spiritual life
.•*ॐ*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..
This morning as I drove on to the temple
grounds I arrived just a little early so I could have a bit of time to meditate before
the lecture service. As I
was parking my car I had the thought: maybe I should go to the children’s class and see if the teacher needs any help.
The thought to see if help was needed
- was immediately followed by: if I am really needed, I may miss not only the
meditation time but the morning service presentation also – I don’t want to
go!!! Then, in guilt, I tried to
rationalize the thought: time in prayer/meditation and listening to service are
also very important. I pointed out to
myself the story of Mary and Martha from the Christian Bible as an example of
why I should use this time for prayer rather than service (Mary who stayed at
the side of Christ focused on eternity and Martha who served in the kitchen
focused on the moment).
Because I still felt guilty about not
wanting to help when it might mean giving up meditation/lecture time, I
did go check at the classroom to see if I could help but no one had arrived yet. If I am being honest I felt, ‘phewwww – off
the hook’ – ouch - guilt bit me a second time!!! Choices were becoming muddied by the
intertwining of positive and negative motivations.
It is not surprising, the morning
talk was on the three gunas: Sattva -
Rajas – Tamas. The Brother speaking
shared the story of King Yudhishtara and The Mongoose. Before telling the story, he shared that the
mongoose is honored in India as he has saved children from dangerous snakes by
killing the snakes:
Once the Mahabharatha war was over, the victorious
King Yudhishtara of Hastinapura performed a yagna for the wellbeing of all his
subjects. The yagna was conducted lavishly. Precious and expensive gifts were
given away to everyone. The yagna was so grand that people would not stop
singing praises of it. The king who had
initially had pure intentions when preforming the Yagna began to feel
pride. After the celebration the king
was walking thru the area where the celebration had been held and cleanup was
underway. The king came upon a mongoose
eating some of the food offerings from the celebration. It was
the strangest mongoose ever. One side of the mongoose looked plain and normal
like any other mongoose. However much to the astonishment of everyone, the
other side gleamed of pure gold!
The mongoose looked at Yudhishtara and spoke: ‘Please....!'
It said disdainfully. 'I can’t even imagine why people insist of calling this a
great yagna! Why? This is just a mockery...a show!’ The mongoose shook his head
angrily. ‘This is not a yagna!’
Yudhishtara asked, '...why are you saying these
things?’
And so the mongoose told him a story. He told of a poor Brahmin family who gave a
sacrifice with great humility and love.
He told how it was in eating the pure offering that his body had turned
to gold. He sadly stated, ‘your offering
did not have the purity to change me to gold.’
The king knew the mongoose spoke the truth. He knew he had let pride come in during the
offering and sullied what had started as a pure offering.
It was then the king looked up and across the
field. He saw his Guru – Krishna. Running to Krishna he took the dust of his
feet. He saw the error of his ways.
.•*ॐ*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..
Just so, during the lecture I saw the
twisting of the gunas in my personal life - - -the twisting of good intention
into selfishness.
I continue to learn about the nature
of this twisting which twines issue/thought/intention together. Even in the seemingly small personal
situation this morning there is clearly the gunas at play. Immediately
I saw the corollary of the story with my little personal ‘drama’ this morning
before the service. In my heart I saw
The Master looking at me just as the King saw his Guru looking at him across
the distance after the mongoose had spoken with him.
.•*ॐ*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..
·
.•*ॐ*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..
It is not the actual choice I made
but rather the attitude motivating that choice which twists the twine - - - Raveling / Unraveling the karma of
lifetimes. I am told the direction to
Creator is the one which unravels - so that we might set ourselves free. How subtle is this twisting and un-twisting. How I lie to myself and then to others trying
to convince of the virtue and purity of my choices. How boring I find this drama which is self - created.
So, I spin one way and then the other
– raveling and then unraveling. Sometimes
moving slowly and sometimes quickly towards that place of STILLNESS.
.•*ॐ*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..*•.. .•*ॐ*•..
Always moving
Always moving
Until perfect
homeostasis found
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