The functions of the gunas, while they appear on the stage of the mind-intellect, are explained here.
FROM SATTWA ARISES WISDOM — It has already been explained how Pure Consciousness, of Its own accord, has nothing to illumine or understand. In the Pure, Homogeneous Self, there is nothing other than Itself for It to understand, It being the Undivided and Indivisible One Eternal Truth. Consciousness reflected in the subtle-body is the ‘intelligence’ by which we gain knowledge of the world outside. The knower is the Spirit conditioned by the mind-intellect. Naturally, when the mind is pure and serene, when there is the least agitation in it, the light emerging through it is steady and properly focussed. Therefore, the result of the predominant Sattwa in our mind is ultimately the rediscovery of the Self, the experience of PURE WISDOM.
GREED, FROM ‘RAJAS’ — When the mind is seething with a constant eruption of desires it will be continuously in a state of agitation, and, in its natural anxiety to pacify itself, it has to rush out into the world to procure and fulfil its endless demands; and in doing so it expresses its greed.
HEEDLESSNESS, DELUSION AND IGNORANCE ARISE FROM ‘TAMAS’ — Inertia or indolence, ‘Tamas,’ veils the intellect. The capacity to discriminate between the right and the wrong, and the ability to reject the wrong and accept the right, are the privileges of man and not the impulses of an animal. True manhood comes to manifest only when one’s intellect is clean and free from all shackles of false prejudices and wrong tendencies. Tamas veils the capacity to perceive rightly the world outside, and it also destroys our powers of right judgement.
When anything is not properly understood it is but natural that we will misunderstand it. This misunderstanding of the world outside compels us to expect joys, which are impossible to arise from the miserable state of our imperfections. Can there be even a single cup of sweet-water in the entire expanse of the saline-waters of the ocean? In a world of change and pain, how can there be constant joy, or even one instance of perfect happiness?And yet, he who is under the deluding effects of Tamas in himself, miscalculates the world and expects from it these experiences, which are impossible, and in the delusion, curses the world for its imperfections!
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