Material Energy and Its Influence on Human Consciousness
We remind our reader that we look at economics from the spiritual perspective of the Vedic worldview. We understand that most readers of this website will be unfamiliar with this worldview which is why we are presenting this background information. We ask our readers to patiently try to understand this so that they may fully appreciate the value that the Vedic perspective offers to understanding and solving the world’s current massive problems.
What follows is adapted from the first chapter of our book Lessons in Spiritual Economics from the Bhagavad-gita.
In discussing any aspect of human behavior, including economics, we must understand how the spiritual beings that we
Lord Krishna is the controller of the 3 modes of material nature
are, are impacted by the environment we live in. This material world is a foreign environment to the pure spirit soul. Just as in traveling to foreign lands non-natives are susceptible to disease, this material world is infectious for the pure spiritual being. In fact, everything in this material world has an infectious nature for the soul, and simply by contacting the material energy our consciousness is affected or tainted. These influences are known in Sanskrit as “gunas” or “ropes.” As a person bound with ropes can be helplessly pulled this way or that, in the same way, a person’s consciousness is influenced by the gunas.
Lord Krishna explains the nature of the gunas to Arjuna in the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, but before doing so, makes him aware of the tremendous value of this knowledge. He stated: “I shall now declare to you this supreme wisdom, the best of all knowledge, knowing which all the sages have attained to supreme perfection. By becoming fixed in this knowledge, one can attain to the transcendental nature, which is like My own nature. Thus established, one is not born at the time of creation nor disturbed at the time of dissolution.”
Sacred are these words because this knowledge, when used properly, can be extremely powerful. Just as a key that unlocks a prison cell is very important to the prisoner, all of us prisoners in this material world should similarly value this key of Vedic wisdom, for it opens the passages to spiritual freedom that were previously locked by our ignorance.
The gunas are explained by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita (Ch. 14):
Material nature consists of three qualities, or modes—goodness (sattva), passion (rajas), and ignorance (tamas). When the eternal living entity comes in contact with nature he becomes conditioned by these modes. The mode of goodness (sattva) is purer than the others, and it is therefore illuminating and gives understanding. It frees one from sinful reactions through the development of knowledge. By working in the mode of goodness one becomes spiritually uplifted, but also becomes conditioned to the concept of material happiness.
From the mode of rajas (passion) unlimited desires and longings are born. Due to this quality one becomes eager to engage in material activities, eager for the fruits, or results, of activities. Passion however conditions one to continually engage in fruitive activity, with the view of gain and increase. When there is an increase in the mode of passion, the symptoms of great attachment, uncontrollable desire, hankering, and intense endeavor develop. However, work done in the mode of passion eventually results in distress to one’s self and others.
The quality of tamas (ignorance) causes the delusion of the living beings. The result of contact with ignorance is foolish, violent, or wrong behavior, laziness and sleep. Actions performed in the mode of ignorance result in foolishness and misunderstanding. Ignorance binds the conditioned soul and conditions him to working against his own best interests. When there is an increase in the mode of ignorance madness, illusion, inertia and darkness are manifested.
From the mode of goodness, understanding, knowledge and happiness develop; from the mode of passion, greed and grief develop; and from the mode of destruction, ignorance, foolishness, and illusion develop. From passion comes creation, everything is maintained by the quality of goodness, and the influence of ignorance brings decay, dissolution and destruction.
Not accepting the spiritual nature of man, and considering him as the body alone, modern social theory proposes that human beings develop their character through social conditioning. However, the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam add significant dimensions to the understanding of human behavior by explaining the influence of the gunas on the understanding, knowledge and behavior of man. Srimad-Bhagavatam expands on the information available to us from the Gita regarding the nature or character that the living entity attains by association with the individual modes of nature:
Mind and sense control, tolerance, discrimination, sticking to one’s prescribed duty, truthfulness, mercy, careful study of the past and future, satisfaction in any condition, generosity, renunciation of sense gratification, faith in the spiritual master, being embarrassed at improper action, charity, simplicity, humbleness and satisfaction within oneself and detachment from the material mind and of the senses from matter, are qualities of the mode of goodness.
Material desire, great endeavor, audacity, dissatisfaction even in gain, false pride, praying for material advancement, the distortion of the intelligence due to too much activity, the inability to disentangle the perceiving senses from material objects, an unsteady perplexity of the mind, considering oneself different and better than others, sense gratification, rash eagerness to fight, a fondness for hearing oneself praised, the tendency to ridicule others, advertising one’s own prowess and justifying one’s actions by one’s strength are qualities of the mode of passion.
Intolerant anger, stinginess, speaking on the basis of one’s false pride and without scriptural authority, violent hatred, living as a parasite, hypocrisy, chronic lethargy, quarrel, lamentation, delusion, unhappiness, depression, false expectations, fear, laziness and sleeping too much, the failure to attain or disappearance of an awareness of one’s higher (spiritual) self, and the inability to concentrate one’s attention, constitute the major qualities of the mode of ignorance.
All facets of both the material energy as well as human action are influenced by some combinations of the gunas. Sri Krishna explains that everyone living within the material world is influenced by the gunas, and in the last several chapters of the Gita He further explains their influence on faith, worship, penances, sacrifices, charity, austerities, foodstuffs, time of day and night, knowledge, action, understanding, determination, happiness, work or the performance of action, and the worker.
By studying these qualities we can understand how the influence of the gunas manifests in the lives of people.
A PDF paper explaining the qualities and nature of the gunas can be found here. At the end of this paper there is a useful table of the gunas and their associated qualities.
This paper was presented at the Association of Heterodox Economists at their annual conference in London, in July 2013,