Traits or Gunas

God is the supreme source of all that exist in the universe. Life and death, Beginning and End, Rebirth and Recycling of all do take place in Him only. Innumerable shapes and bodies are conceived in the Mother earth, and God is the provider of the seed for these activities.

Three qualities/ traits or gunas  namely Satva, Rajas and Tama that originate from this Nature bind the soul (Atma) to the body.

Satva denotes the quality of purity and selfless thoughts; essential for the spiritual upliftment of  a person. The desires from this quality also make the soul bound to the body. Due to this Guna, a person is enabled to ascertain the wisdom namely, secret of life.

Rajas guna leads to actions in fulfilling earthly aspirations, material, and selfish welfare. Owing to these wishes, the Atma is enmeshed in the actions and the consequent effects. Greed and Superiority expressions are the outcome of this guna.

The Tama type produces the ulterior and selfish motives which always hinder the path of the righteous people. Because of this nature, Atma is bound to the useless actions and the bad habits of laziness, excessive sleep, etc. Carelessness and waywardness are the chief characteristics of this guna.

Generally, Satva suppresses and rules over the other two gunas Rajaz and Tama. In other words, the wishes for action for selfish and ulterior motives are overtaken by the pure and selfless nature of Satva guna. Likewise, the other two gunas control and rule the remaining other two traits in their own ways depending upon the dominant Guna.

All three gunas manifest outwardly as the Best, Good, and Bad nature of human beings.

When satva-natured person dies, he is destined to reach the heaven, Rajas type is reborn as a human being as it binds to the humanly pleasure, and the Tama soul is ordained to be born as lower order creatures like animals, insects, worms, etc., depending on the degree of actions done in the   last birth.

The fruits from Satvic actions are known as purity, wisdom, and bliss while that of Rajas are sufferings and misery since the rebirth as human beings make you face the ills and wills of earthly life again. Those of Tama are ignorance as they are reborn as life forms inferior to human.

A person or soul realizes God as the only Supreme being of Universe when he or she sees nothing other than God in various forms and shapes of cosmos. After person or soul perceiving the omniscient God, it seeks nothing more than the blessing to remain with God.

What are the ways to attain the Mukthi (freedom from the cycle of life and death)?

Due to the effects (Karma) of the previous births, the departed souls are subject to experience the combination of three gunas in various situations of their life. However, the one who never gets afflicted by these gunas (which cause the good and bad, the trivial pleasures of Praise and Insults, material happiness from Land, Gold ,etc,), but remains balanced and firm in belief that any soul is the property of God, will get absolved of the carry-over effects of Karma of the past births.

(Extracts from Chapter 14Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga)

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