I have just finished reading the 14th chapter of the Bhagwat Gita as part of my daily reading. It is astonishing that despite this scripture having been written over 5000 years ago, its teachings are as much applicable in today’s times. We can learn and benefit from the age-old teachings and apply in modern life.
This chapter is referring to the three gunas or aspects of our nature. They are satwic or goodness or pure, rajasic or passionate or selfish and tamasic or ignorance or laziness. We are all born with all these three strands of nature in us. However, the proportion or strength of each of the strands varies amongst us. Some have more of satwic and less of rajasic or tamasic. You can identify those who are more satwic when you see them full of wisdom and kindness. Others have bigger portion of rajasic and less of satwic or tamas which you can recognise when those people are concentrating to accumulate wealth for themselves and obtain self-glory. When they start using their wealth for wider human good, they are transitioning from rajas to satwa. We can recognise tamasic natures when you see them abusing their selves, full of laziness and even harming others.
In satwic, our nature is dominated by goodness in life which means good character, considerate to others, wise and willing to help others, doing things with purity, with more spirituality etc.
In rajasic, our nature is more selfish, inclined to profit from situation, doing things for self-glory and passionate towards attractive material things. Even greed can be part of this characteristic.
Tamasic nature involves laziness, lethargy, bad vices, harming others for personal benefit etc.
We all have elements of these three natures in our characters and they also evolve over time. It is essential that we try and identify our character by these characteristics. Sometimes family or friends may have commented about our nature.
It is fair to say that majority of working people and business people will have dominance of rajasic with bits of satwic and tamas. Our aim should be to eradicate tamasic and adopt more satwic activities. If we are conscious of these characteristics, we can begin to start improving our nature over time.
For example, when selling goods or services we do this with a view to making good profit. That is fine. However, we should be more satwic and less tamasic in the way we deliver the goods or service. We should aim to provide more than expected by the customer and for a fair profit instead of excessive profit.
Over time we can improve our character and enjoy peace of mind.
(The columnist is the former Chair of London Chamber of Commerce and Founding Chair of Charity Clarity).
