Gospel | Chapter 6: Oct 28, 1882 (Part 2) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

As worldly people are endowed with sattva, rajas, and tamas, so also is bhakti characterized by the three gunas.

So this is a Vedantic framework, very common from the Upanishads itself.

But primarily, you will see a lot of it in Sankhya.

From a Vedantic perspective, the ultimate reality is existence consciousness bliss, sat, chit, ananda.

There is enormous variety in this universe of people, of kinds of people, of different kinds of creatures, of the physical universe.

And what is the material which constitutes this variety? Vedanta answers it as, says it's Maya or Prakriti.

Maya, Prakriti literally means nature.

But what's this nature, this Maya made of? What's it made of? It's made of sattva, rajas, tamas, the three qualities or aspects of Maya or Prakriti.

You find this very predominant in the Bhagavad Gita, for example.

Sri Krishna uses this sattva rajasthama paradigm to explain almost everything.

Sri Ramakrishna is doing the same thing here.

He will first tell us what is sattva, rajas and tamas and he will not give us a philosophical or academic introduction.

He'll give us a very practical introduction like what does it feel like in life and then he will tell us how do you see this in spiritual life.

In spiritual life also there are people with sattva, there are rajasic devotees, there are tamasic devotees and then he will talk about gurus So there, see normally Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, Sattva is supposed to be really the one to aspire for.

This is what is helpful in spiritual life.

But when you come to the devotees and the guru, then, you know, Rajas and Tamas are not seen in a pejorative or a critical light.

The Rajasic and Tamasic devotees are also devotees.

They are genuinely devoted to God.

And the Rajasic and Tamasic gurus you'll talk about, they're also gurus.

So there are different kinds of Their difference is more of Bhava, the kind of attitude one has.

We'll see, we'll see.

First he gives us a very simple introduction to what does Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, what do they feel like.

So first, ordinary people with Sattva, Rajas and Tamas and then devotees with Sattva, Rajas and Tamas and then the Guru.

Do you know what a worldly person endowed with sattva is like? Perhaps his house is in a dilapidated condition here and there.

He doesn't care to repair it.