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GuNAtita - One who is beyond the त्रिगुण - Satva, Rajas and Tamas

June 12, 2012

ॐ गुणातीताय नमः |
OM guNAtItAya namaH .

This is one of the mantras in Param Pujya Gurudev's Paduka Puja ashtottaram (a collection of 108 mantras). The term guNAtIta - one who is beyond the three guNas of sattva, rajas and tamas is clearly explained in Bhagavad Geeta 14-25

मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः |
सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते ||१४-२५||
maanaapamaanayostulyaH-tulyo mitraaripakShayoH .
sarvaarambhaparityaagii guNaatiitaH sa uchyate .. 14\-25..
He who is the same in honour and dishonour; the same to friend and foe, and who has abandoned all (selfish) undertakings, He is said to have crossed beyond the GUNAS.

It is difficult to understand what this means in everyday life. My doubts disappeared when I came across this beautiful quote from Pujya Gurudev's letter in the June 2012 edition of Tapovan Prasad. The quote is from a letter that was originally published as a letter from Swamiji in the May 1968 issue of the same magazine.
From time to time, whatever I did, from 1952 onwards till now, has been accepted with hesitation, talked about with suspicion, discussed as a sure failure, as a certain madness, as an unnecessary extravagance, or an an unprofitable utopian theory. The more vigorous the criticism, the more insistent I learnt to be, and till this date, I find all of you have accepted all my programmes, and many of you have benefitted by them.

When the Mission was conceived... crash ... came the criticism. This is unnecessary. Why not join the R. K. Mission or similar other Missions?

As Study Groups were inaugurated ... Will we ever get such people?

Devi Groups ... What a plan for a Swami to conceive and start!

Bala Vihar ... Unnecessary, futile, as we have no workers! And what does Swami know of children's training?

Publication of Books ... Is Swami ripe enough to write commentaries upon Upanishads and Geeta? Is he not too young?

Yagnas ... What an old dilapidated word! Why drag India back to the Vedic period?

Talking in English ... wearing silk ... having a wrist watch ... travelling by plane and car ... living with the rich ... addressing Rotary and Lions ... taking part in (anti) cow-slaughter movement ... visiting the war front in Pakistan ... helping the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Construction Scheme ... going around the world ... wearing European dress on occasion ... visiting even night clubs ... interest in music and painting ... starting the construction of a temple for 3-4 lakhs and a hospital with 200 beds for 30-40 lakhs ... in short everything that the Swami did was unorthodox, shocking and suspect first, a discussion later, a long drawn out controversy next ... until all cools off to a recognition and a beaming joyous co-operation.

I am enumerating these, not as a complaint ... In fact, the consciousness that your critical eyes are ever upon me was a great and noble restraint for me upon myself.

Thank you, Gurudev from this Balavihar child & sevak, this study group member & sevak, enlightened by the Yagnas, books, CDs, DVDs of your Geeta and Upanishad talks, from one who has personally witnessed and benefitted from the Ashrams and temples in Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh, Coimbatore, Kolwan, Piercy (in California) and New Jersey.

My prostrations unto that guNAtitA, Śrī Svāmi Chinmayānandaji Maharaj!...


Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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  1. Parvathy RamanJune 17, 2012 at 8:58 AM

    Gurudev is with us now, this moment, a live and vibrant presence, speaking through the spiralling waves of time, in a voice that catapults us into the silence of eternity. He is pulsating in you and me as we connect with him. These are the moments of meditation when he promised to be with us. Who said we have to close our eyes and sit down to meditate!

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