III: 37

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 3, Verse 37

 

Krishna says,

 

"Rajas Guna has two faces,

Lust and rage,

The ravenous, the deadly.

Recognize them well.

They are your enemies."

 

Sri Aurobindo:

 

“Within our nature lies our wholeness and each one of us is to strive for that wholeness along the lines of our personalities, our Swadharma, in the midst of life and action.  But if we seek this wholeness only in life’s externals, we will never find it, for we shall be subject to the pairs of opposites: liking and disliking, pleasure and pain, and especially to Rajas Guna and its snares of worldly longing, grief, and wrath.”

 

Paramahansa Yogananda:

 

"All of us will have to face circumstances in which we will be sorely tempted.  Even Jesus was not free from these great temptations and the Buddha as well.  When cravings propel us, when we find ourselves almost helpless before them, the battle is so intense that no victory in the worldly sphere can compare with it.  We need to cut through the stifling cocoon of delusion to emerge as the butterfly of omnipresence.  Voracious desire and frustration spring from nature's activating quality [Rajas Guna], which spawns illimitable variety and enticement, exciting us into unskillful, habit-forming actions. 

 

The soul, having descended into the senses from the sphere of unvaried calm, becomes feverishly active.  The Self is motionless, unfluctuating joy.  But once we get caught up in the activating attributes, there is the tendency to exclusively identify with the ego; and we proceed, sometimes unwillingly, whirling and swirling, blindly awash in a revolving door.  The wise learn how to establish and maintain an inner oasis of poise in the midst of activity."

 

Srila Prabhupada:

 

“If the mode of passion [Rajas] is elevated to the mode of goodness [Sattwa] by prescribed methods, then one can be saved from degradation by spiritual attachment.”

 

[Swami Shivananda used to say to his students:  “Detach…Attach…Detach… Attach.”  The meaning was, “Detach yourself from the tentacles of unskillful desire, and attach yourself to God.”  Unskillful desire is fueled by Rajas Guna, while skillful desire fueled by Sattwa Guna.]