Page 28 - NAMAH-Apr-2021

Namah Vol. 29, Issue 1, 24th April 2021

quarrel to reconciliation and from reconciliation driven by the principle of rajas alternating
to quarrel; sattwic affections last very often from with tamas. Human beings have in addition
duty to the ideal or with some other support to these two the principle of sattva that grows
though they may lose their keenness or intensity with the development of mind, especially the
or brightness. But the true reliability is there only discerning intellect.
when the psychic element in human affection
becomes strong enough to colour or dominate However, even in a highly sattvic human
the rest. For that reason friendship is or rather being governed by a discerning reason, the other
can oftenest be the most durable of the human two remain active on different members of our
affections because there is less interference of complex nature and the bodily instruments.
the vital and even though a flame of the ego The beast remains chained but ready to
it can be a quiet and pure fire giving always jump if the chain of rules and regulations are
a
its warmth and light. Nevertheless reliable slightly let loose. The Asura and the Rakssasa
friendship is almost always with a very few; prowl stealthily at night, ready to pounce
to have a horde of loving, unselfishly faithful with the slightest lowering of guards. The
friends is a phenomenon so rare that it can be enormity of the half-conscious and adverse
safely taken as an illusion. In any case human forces and their power to deceive is too much
affection whatever its value has its place, for the human mind struggling in ignorance,
because through it the psychic being gets the to even understand, let alone counter and
emotional experiences it needs until it is ready control.
to prefer the true to the apparent, the perfect
to the imperfect, the divine to the human. As The result is a disorderly order, a semblance
the consciousness has to rise to a higher level, of outer order and balance while within all is
so the activities of the heart also have to rise in disorder and disarray. When the disorder
to that higher level and change their basis and becomes excess and spills to the surface then
character (2).” we say the person has gone mad because
his outer behaviour begins to show up the
We can readily see these three modes working frank signs. But the inner madness and chaos
in every sphere of life, from the atom to man. in which we live remains unseen with its
In the atom itself, we see these three modes or roots hidden in a soil of darkness while the
forces, — inertia, movement and equilibrium. mad dance of the outside world goes on. We
The trinity of Gods reflect this. The principle of accept this madness by a collective social
tamas tends to drag everything towards an end convention, we accept the imperfection of our
that ever begins again. Tamas is disintegration, state. We succumb to the resistance to change
a tremendous force of destruction to give way and therefore the world goes into cycles of
to the new. Rajas is movement and change; it is ascent and disintegration, the pulling down
the force of all creation. Sattva preserves the of centuries of effort in a moment when the
balance and the order. Again, when we look evil hidden within man surfaces to thwart
at the evolutionary hierarchy, the physical is all existence.
largely governed by the principle of inertia.
It needs an external push to move. Living “But all is there, even God’s opposites;
forms from plants up to animals are largely He is a little front of Nature’s works,

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