THE ONTOLOGY OF THE GUNAS
Constituents of material nature
The gunas are the ultimate constituents of prakrti or material nature. They are its very substance. Prakrti is the undifferentiated and unmanifested stage of material nature. Prakrti is the state of equilibrium amongst the guëas. Prakrti is thus pure potentiality. When the state of equilibrium is disturbed, creation takes place. The three gunas then produce all the building blocks of the manifested universe. The three-guna scheme is thus very fundamental.
The three gunas encompass everything within our experience, the totality of our environment, with the exception of consciousness, which is something distinctly different from matter. In Çrémad-Bhägavatam we find the following statement,
All states of material being, whether seen, heard of or conceived by the intelligence, are constituted of the gunas.
The gunas are thus all-pervading within the universe. This can be illustrated by the analogy of the threads in a piece of cloth. To create a piece of cloth, threads are woven lengthwise and crosswise. The cloth is made of hundreds of strands of such threads going in both directions. Thus the threads pervade the entire cloth. One could imagine a soul so minute that it lived in the universe of that piece of cloth. Everywhere it would experience the threads.
To continue the analogy, the threads composing the piece of cloth can be of different colors and qualities. In a similar way the three constituents of material nature, which make up this whole material creation, also possess their individual attributes. This will be dealt with later on.
The three primary colors – blue, red, and yellow – can serve as another helpful analogy. All other colors are permutations of these three colors. Expert artists know how to combine these colors in varying combinations and proportions to produce any other color in the spectrum. Three times three gives nine. Then nine times nine gives eighty-one. Then eighty-one times eighty-one ...and so on. In this way, we have an almost endless variety of colors. Similarly, the three guëas combine, and recombine, and again recombine to produce the seemingly endless variety of sense objects that we find in the material world. All variety can eventually be traced to these three guëas. The manifested world is composed of them. Thus the three guëas encompass the entire range of material existence, whether manifest or unmanifest. They become the “threads” that run through all of ordinary experience and throughout the natural world. They constitute the material sphere.
The interaction of the gunas
The three gunas never occur individually, they are always combined. They are never separated from one another. Between them there is a perpetual competition for supremacy. Later when we will speak of a person or thing as being in a particular guëa, we mean that the particular guëa is dominant in that person or object, but it is never alone. In reality in this world there is no pure tamas, or pure rajas or pure sattva.
The gunas are the ultimate constituents of prakrti or material nature. They are its very substance. Prakrti is the undifferentiated and unmanifested stage of material nature. Prakrti is the state of equilibrium amongst the guëas. Prakrti is thus pure potentiality. When the state of equilibrium is disturbed, creation takes place. The three gunas then produce all the building blocks of the manifested universe. The three-guna scheme is thus very fundamental.
The three gunas encompass everything within our experience, the totality of our environment, with the exception of consciousness, which is something distinctly different from matter. In Çrémad-Bhägavatam we find the following statement,
All states of material being, whether seen, heard of or conceived by the intelligence, are constituted of the gunas.
The gunas are thus all-pervading within the universe. This can be illustrated by the analogy of the threads in a piece of cloth. To create a piece of cloth, threads are woven lengthwise and crosswise. The cloth is made of hundreds of strands of such threads going in both directions. Thus the threads pervade the entire cloth. One could imagine a soul so minute that it lived in the universe of that piece of cloth. Everywhere it would experience the threads.
To continue the analogy, the threads composing the piece of cloth can be of different colors and qualities. In a similar way the three constituents of material nature, which make up this whole material creation, also possess their individual attributes. This will be dealt with later on.
The three primary colors – blue, red, and yellow – can serve as another helpful analogy. All other colors are permutations of these three colors. Expert artists know how to combine these colors in varying combinations and proportions to produce any other color in the spectrum. Three times three gives nine. Then nine times nine gives eighty-one. Then eighty-one times eighty-one ...and so on. In this way, we have an almost endless variety of colors. Similarly, the three guëas combine, and recombine, and again recombine to produce the seemingly endless variety of sense objects that we find in the material world. All variety can eventually be traced to these three guëas. The manifested world is composed of them. Thus the three guëas encompass the entire range of material existence, whether manifest or unmanifest. They become the “threads” that run through all of ordinary experience and throughout the natural world. They constitute the material sphere.
The interaction of the gunas
The three gunas never occur individually, they are always combined. They are never separated from one another. Between them there is a perpetual competition for supremacy. Later when we will speak of a person or thing as being in a particular guëa, we mean that the particular guëa is dominant in that person or object, but it is never alone. In reality in this world there is no pure tamas, or pure rajas or pure sattva.
Comments