Last week there was a conversation with my colleague at the staff room during lunch break…. The subject was about three gunas.
I was contemplating that conversation. Of course, we had one more conversation in the same subject.
From our discussion, I deducted ( of course, she didn’t quite agree though…)
As I see it….
Heredity, environment in which a person was nurtured or the persons dynamic situations do not make a person Saatvic, Rajasic or Tamasic.
Heredity and the environment that person was nurtured may provide the ‘likelihood’, how that person would react to a given situation. But it is not certain or it does not compulsorily apply to everyone across the board.
So I don’t think a person can be identified as ‘Saatvic’, ‘Rajasic’ or ‘Tamasic’ person. A person is just a person.
I think.. there is no such a thing as ‘Saatvic action’ , ‘Rajasic action’ or ‘ a Tamasic action’…. Every action can be performed in ‘saatvic’, ‘Tamasic’ or ‘Rajasic’ way.
I like to discuss with an example… I am a simple minded person.. I find examples are simple way to express my ideas….
My example is a sniper. ( A sniper can be a girl or a boy. I am going to identify the sniper as a ‘he’ since I am a boy.. )
A sniper kills the ‘enemy’. Kills from a hidden spot. From about 1,500 meters away… After killing, just moves on…. The action here is essentially, killing another person or ‘an assignment’ from a hidden position. So, what would you say? Is it ‘saatvic’, ‘Rajasic’ or ‘Tamasic’?
My friend argued, since a killing was involved in a war situation, that killing would be rajasic….
My arguments as follows ….
Let us say that sniper killed his target with a head shot or a heart shot… the target never knew what hit him.. died before he hit the ground… I would say that was saatvic.
Let us say, the sniper took a head shot… After killing, after moving position ( Remember, it takes 4 to 5 seconds before the rifle report was heard… plenty time to move good 15 to 20 meters away from the initial spot…).. let us say, he makes a notch on the rifle stock or on a note book to keep the tally of the persons killed and feel good about the growing number.. it is a Rajasic action.
Let us say, our sniper carefully aims and takes a gut shot… in the next 4 seconds he moves away and shoots the right upper thigh of the target…. Our sniper likes to enjoy watching the target screams with fear and pain… and the chaos he created around the target… don’t get me wrong.. our sniper would still be a great camouflagic… but only to inflict more pain before actually killing the target… I think that is ‘Tamasic’.
In my opinion, saatvic, Rajasic or Tamasic depends upon the way an action was completed.. it doesn’t depend upon the person or the nature of the action itself….
Discussions are welcome....
I was contemplating that conversation. Of course, we had one more conversation in the same subject.
From our discussion, I deducted ( of course, she didn’t quite agree though…)
As I see it….
Heredity, environment in which a person was nurtured or the persons dynamic situations do not make a person Saatvic, Rajasic or Tamasic.
Heredity and the environment that person was nurtured may provide the ‘likelihood’, how that person would react to a given situation. But it is not certain or it does not compulsorily apply to everyone across the board.
So I don’t think a person can be identified as ‘Saatvic’, ‘Rajasic’ or ‘Tamasic’ person. A person is just a person.
I think.. there is no such a thing as ‘Saatvic action’ , ‘Rajasic action’ or ‘ a Tamasic action’…. Every action can be performed in ‘saatvic’, ‘Tamasic’ or ‘Rajasic’ way.
I like to discuss with an example… I am a simple minded person.. I find examples are simple way to express my ideas….
My example is a sniper. ( A sniper can be a girl or a boy. I am going to identify the sniper as a ‘he’ since I am a boy.. )
A sniper kills the ‘enemy’. Kills from a hidden spot. From about 1,500 meters away… After killing, just moves on…. The action here is essentially, killing another person or ‘an assignment’ from a hidden position. So, what would you say? Is it ‘saatvic’, ‘Rajasic’ or ‘Tamasic’?
My friend argued, since a killing was involved in a war situation, that killing would be rajasic….
My arguments as follows ….
Let us say that sniper killed his target with a head shot or a heart shot… the target never knew what hit him.. died before he hit the ground… I would say that was saatvic.
Let us say, the sniper took a head shot… After killing, after moving position ( Remember, it takes 4 to 5 seconds before the rifle report was heard… plenty time to move good 15 to 20 meters away from the initial spot…).. let us say, he makes a notch on the rifle stock or on a note book to keep the tally of the persons killed and feel good about the growing number.. it is a Rajasic action.
Let us say, our sniper carefully aims and takes a gut shot… in the next 4 seconds he moves away and shoots the right upper thigh of the target…. Our sniper likes to enjoy watching the target screams with fear and pain… and the chaos he created around the target… don’t get me wrong.. our sniper would still be a great camouflagic… but only to inflict more pain before actually killing the target… I think that is ‘Tamasic’.
In my opinion, saatvic, Rajasic or Tamasic depends upon the way an action was completed.. it doesn’t depend upon the person or the nature of the action itself….
Discussions are welcome....
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