Heavy, Restless or Clear: Which One Are You Today?

One way of looking at this world is that it is a play of just 5 elements.

Earth, water, fire, air and space. Can you imagine that?

The trees you see, the mountains you see, the millions of different species on this planet, and your own body too.

All of it is made up of just these 5 fundamental elements.

It is just as mind-blowing as watching a movie on a screen.

You see the entire spectrum of colours, the whole rainbow, every shade you can think of.

But all of it is nothing but a combination of 3 colours: Red, Green and Blue.

Even when you know this, it is still baffling and astounding to feel it.

This entire spectrum is just a play of 3 colours.

It doesn't matter how astounding it feels, that's the reality.

In the same way, the entire world around you is made up of just these 5 elements. And look at the phenomenal variety that comes out of it.

Now there is another way of looking at this same world.

Not what things are made of, but how they are, how they behave.

If you look carefully, everything in nature, and everything in your own body and mind as well, carries 3 basic qualities.

1The first is a quality of inertia.

It's heavy, dull, resisting change, just holding things where they are. Think of a rock, or the heaviness you feel after a very big meal, when you just want to lie down.

2The second is a quality of movement.

It's activity, restlessness, always wanting to go somewhere and do something. Think of a river rushing down a mountain, or the wind, or your mind when it's racing with plans.

3The third is a quality of clarity.

It's lightness, brightness, a state where there is less confusion, and things are seen as they are. Think of the clear light of early morning, or a still lake so clean you can see the sky in it.

Notice that the rock is still and the lake is also still, but it's not the same stillness. The rock's stillness is heavy and dull. The lake's stillness is clear and bright. The former is inertia. The latter is clarity.

These three are not separate boxes that things fall into.

All three are always present in everything, as a mixture. It's only a question of how much of each.

You can see it in the food you eat. You can see it in nature, in the materials and objects around you, and you can see it in people. The proportion of this mixture is different from person to person, and even in the same person it keeps changing from one time to another.

Now, let us understand this with an example of a small oil lamp, like the one you light during Navratri.

The oil and the wick are inert in themselves.

The flame is burning, moving, flickering, always active and dynamic.

And the light that comes out of the lamp gives you clarity. Because of that light, you can see the whole room.

In one small lamp, you can see all three of these qualities working together.

In spiritual frameworks, these three qualities are known as Tamas, Rajas and Sattva.

Anything that shows the quality of inertia, of heaviness, of holding things together, comes under Tamas.

Anything that shows movement, activity and passion comes under Rajas.

And anything that shows clarity, lightness and illumination comes under Sattva.

Now look at your own self, and you will see the same thing.

Your body and mind keep going through these three qualities, and at different times a different one is more dominant.

When you are super active in the world, running through your day, achieving things, rajas is leading your life and the inertia is very little.

When you are fast asleep, you are totally inert, and tamas has taken over.

And when you have done your yoga and meditation, and you feel bright, clear and light within, still but fully awake, joyous and loving, that is sattva.

None of these three ever goes away completely. Even in deep sleep, where inertia is the most dominant, the other two qualities are there in a dormant way. When the sleep is over, they come up again.

In fact, without all three there can be no physical entity at all.

Without tamas nothing would hold together. Without rajas nothing would move or live. Without sattva nothing would shine.

Everything you see is held together by these three, and it is only a question of to what extent they are mixed.

One beautiful way of understanding the importance of Navratri follows these three qualities. The 9 days are arranged according to these qualities.

This worship of the divine feminine is designed in a very beautiful way.

In the first three days, you work on tamas, and the form of the goddess you worship in these days is Durga. She stands for that grounded, earthly power, the strength that holds and protects.

In the next three days you work on rajas, on action, and that is represented by Lakshmi: energy, abundance, the activity of life.

And in the last three days you work on sattva, which is represented by Saraswati: knowledge, clarity, purity.

You move through all three. But even when you have worked on all of them, even when you have some mastery over them, the goal is still not reached.

The goal is to go beyond these 3 gunas: Tamas, Rajas and Sattva.

The aim of all meditation, of all spirituality, is to be free within from the physical, from its manifestation and its hold on you.

That is what the tenth day means. You have moved through these three qualities, and on the tenth day you win over them and you transcend them within.

That is why it is called the day of victory, Vijayadashami.

And if you look at your own life, you will see this very clearly. It doesn't matter which quality is dominant. Something is still missing.

If you are inert all the time, it is very apparent that your life is not moving anywhere.

When you are active all the time, an achiever, a go-getter, always on the run, it feels incredible and empowering for some time.

But after a while, if that is all there is in your life, you start feeling that you are going in circles, you are just running on a never-ending treadmill. So that is also not the ultimate.

The third quality is a bit different. When you are steeped in clarity, in knowledge, in purity, it empowers you in a different way.

It brings clarity on a much deeper level. But once you settle in that, you realise this is also not the last stop. Even the luminosity of sattva is part of the play of the physical, so even that has to be transcended.

But as a seeker, you have to strive hard for sattva, because without that clarity it is practically not possible to go beyond the three.

That is why there is so much emphasis on sadhana, on inner work aimed at cultivating sattva.

From tamas or rajas you cannot make that jump. They pull you back, they suck you in. When you are lazy and heavy, or restless and running, you can't even sit with yourself.

But from sattva, the step beyond becomes possible.

So as a seeker, a large part of your sadhana is to cultivate and empower sattva as much as you can.

That doesn't mean fighting the other two. You need tamas to stay grounded and rajas to act in the world. You keep them in their right proportion and let sattva grow.

So this Navratri, let us strive to cultivate sattva, while keeping in mind the vision of becoming free from all the gunas one day. To become gunatit, beyond the three.

May you be victorious in your inner journey.

Wishing you a blessed Vijayadashami.

Pranam, Yash from Yog Prachar