Each one caught in this world automatically experiences the right to like or dislike from early childhood. So strong is this impulse that it is next to impossible not to maintain an indifferent attitude to people, places and objects. Besides, the world is always in a flux and we are also changing.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches the method to make an honest self-appraisal when it enumerates the three Gunas or mental temperaments that inhere in each individual in varying combinations, said Swami Parthasarathi in a lecture. All the three Gunas — Satva, Rajas and Tamas — pertain to mental states that constitute human personality. The Satvic trait is manifest as tranquillity, saintliness, purity, an objective approach to life, calmness, etc. Rajas is defined as passion, restlessness, excitement, activity, etc. Tamas is characterised as stupidity, sleepiness, sloth, reckless state of mind, laziness, procrastinating frame of mind, etc.
All work is accomplished because of five reasons — the body which is the seat of action, the ego-sense which is the agent, the sense organs, the different and manifold efforts, and the presiding deity. Actions, whether good or bad, are the united efforts of the body/mind/complex.
In the context of giving up action, Tyaga, three types of renunciation are possible. For instance, when one abstains from the obligatory duties by mistake or due to sheer confusion/delusion/ignorance about its value, one is driven by the Tamasic temperament. If one refrains due to fear of bodily pain or the hardship associated with the work, one is in the grip of the Rajasic nature. But he who does the work only because it has to be done, and does it with no sense of ego while also not desirous of the fruit of the action, exemplifies a man of Satva.
Similarly, three kinds of effects accrue to one's acts — agreeable, disagreeable or mixed. Depending on the result, one may exult or be agitated or disappointed.
But these are not to be felt by one who is of Satvic nature. In the manner of a true renouncer, he merely acts and is not affected by the results. This is the ideal to be aimed for.
