MAYA OR WILL WORLD CHANGE
In most cases they introduce the three gunas through “pure
Vishuddha”, i.e. by means of different metaphors. For instance, the
Krishnaites prefer emotional metaphors: sattva is the loftiness and
nobleness, rajas is the passion while tamas is the ignorance; the followers
of Ayurveda are prone to describing it in physiological manner, for
instance tamas is the sleepiness. Even the Indology experts use the
metaphors, though their metaphors come close to notions of humanities. Bg.
4.13
चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः ।
तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम् ॥ १३ ॥
cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁguṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ
tasya kartāram api māṁviddhy akartāram avyayam
According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated
with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And
although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the
nondoer, being *unchangeable.*
First and foremost, we shall immediately find the category of guna in
Mahabharata since it is numerously referred to in the sections of Moksha
dharma, Anugita and – of course – the Bhagavad Gita. The whole 14th chapter
of the last one is dedicated to this category, so that it even has the
respective title – “The yoga of liberation from the three gunas”. Being the
basic categories of Samkhya, the gunas can be found in Samkhya Karika and
its classical commentaries. Buddhism according to Radhakrishnan had one
fundamental difference from Samkhya, that is, the Buddhists did not use the
categories of Prakriti and the concept of three gunas. Here it is probably
the Samkhya that comes as the most ancient darshana, being even older that
the Buddhism so we can suppose that it was Samkhya that has introduced the
category of gunas into common usage; however, it is still interesting to
search for their prototypes in some even more ancient cultural layers. The
earliest Upanishad that mentions the three gunas as they are is the
“Shvetashvatara
Upanishad”.
अजाम् एकाम् लोहितशुक्लकृष्णम् बह्वीः प्रजाः सृजमानां सरूपाः
अजो ह्येको जुषमाणोनुशेते जहात्येनां भुक्तभोगाम् अजोन्यः
ajām ekām lohita-śukla-kṛṣṇām bahvīḥ prajāḥ sṛjamānāṁ sarūpāḥ
ajo hy eko juṣamāṇo ‘nuśete jahāty enāṁ bhukta-bhogām ajo ‘nyaḥ
There is one *beginningless entity* (PRAKRITI) who is clear-white (SATTWA)
when she transmits conscious perception, reddish-hued (RAJAS) when she
inspires creativity, and dark-blue (THAMAS) when she coagulates and
destroys. There is another beginningless entity who wants to procreate with
her. Yet another beginningless entity forsakes her after enjoying her. [
The verse mentions three “beginningless entities.” The first is prakṛti —
nature, the original form of the external world. The second is a
baddha-jīva — a living entity who wants to enjoy her. The third is a
mukta-jīva — a living entity who forsakes her after enjoying her.]
Prakṛti is so attractive. She has many “colors.” These three colors
are her guṇa (attractive qualities): sattva, rajas, and tamas. Sattva is
characterized as white and clear. Its purpose is to allow consciousness to
interact with inert, extrinsic materials. Rajas is characterized as reddish
and hued. Its purpose is to inspire creativity and expansion. Tamas is
characterized as dark and blue-black. Its purpose is to allow things to
cease, rest, and contract / coagulate. The jīva is also beginningless, it
becomes attracted to enjoy prakṛti’s beautiful qualities. The connotation
is sexual (the word anuśete literally means “what happens after lying down
together”). The verse describes two types of jīva – one is lying down in
the arms of prakṛti, another is getting up and walking away after enjoying
her. The implication is that the second type will achieve mokṣa – and
existence not limited within the three qualities of prakṛti.
The irony is that only Bhagavān is truly the puruṣa (male). All three other
beginningless entities are prakṛti (female). The jīva is prakṛti, and the
thing she wants to lie-down with is also prakṛti…. In other words, the soul
loses her inherent female beauty to adopt the costume of a male-ego (which
expresses itself as feeling worthy of being the focus of pleasure and
service, and is at the root of all material life-forms, regardless of their
temporary external physical gender).You can see that the jīva headed
towards mokṣa is intentionally not painted in a flattering light. “After
enjoying her, he gives her up.” Such a jīva is heartless and cold. So the
verse subtly indicates that mokṣa is not the true glory of the jīva. Bhakti
is the only condition that is not an embarrassment for the jīva, for only
in Bhakti does the jīva recognize herself as prakṛti and invests herself
into the internal-prakṛti which serves to delight the true Puruṣa,
Bhagavān. There is one unborn being (female), red, white, and black,
uniform, but producing manifold offspring. There is one unborn being (male)
who loves her and lies by her; there is another who leaves her, while she
is eating what has to be eaten
Interpretation of this piece given by Shankara: the triple colour of the
female being symbolizes the three gunas while the female being is the
Prakriti. These very symbols Shankara sees in “Chāndogya Upanishad” (VI, 4)
that states that the world consists of three elements: the fire, the water
and the food [or the earth in the English translation of Mueller –
translator’s note]. All things consist of red (lohita), white (çukla) and
black (krischnaj).
Chandogya Upanishad Verse 6.4.1
यदग्ने रोहितंरूपं तेजसस्तद्रूपं यच्छुक्लं तदपां यत्कृष्णं
तदन्नस्यापागादग्नेरग्नित्वं वाचारम्भणं विकारो नामधेयं त्रीणि रूपाणीत्येव
सत्यम् ॥ ६.४.१ ॥
yadagne rohitaṃrūpaṃ tejasastadrūpaṃ yacchuklaṃ tadapāṃ yatkṛṣṇaṃ
tadannasyāpāgādagneragnitvaṃ vācārambhaṇaṃ vikāro nāmadheyaṃ trīṇi
rūpāṇītyeva satyam || 6.4.1 ||
1. The red colour of gross fire is from subtle fire, the white colour is
from subtle water, and the dark colour is from subtle earth. Thus that
which constitutes the ‘fire’-ness of fire is gone. All changes are mere
words, in name only [i.e., fire is only a name indicating a certain
condition]. The three colours are the reality.
Verse 6.4.2
यदादित्यस्य रोहितंरूपं तेजसस्तद्रूपं यच्छुक्लं तदपां यत्कृष्णं
तदन्नस्यापागादादित्यादादित्यत्वं वाचारम्भणं विकारो नामधेयं त्रीणि
रूपाणीत्येव सत्यम् ॥ ६.४.२ ॥
yadādityasya rohitaṃrūpaṃ tejasastadrūpaṃ yacchuklaṃ tadapāṃ yatkṛṣṇaṃ
tadannasyāpāgādādityādādityatvaṃ vācārambhaṇaṃ vikāro nāmadheyaṃ trīṇi
rūpāṇītyeva satyam || 6.4.2 ||
2. The red colour of the sun is from fire, the white colour is from water,
and the dark colour is from earth. Thus that which constitutes the
‘sun’-ness of the sun is gone. All changes are mere words, in name only.
The three colours are the reality.
Verse 6.4.4
यद्विद्युतो रोहितंरूपं तेजसस्तद्रूपं यच्छुक्लं तदपां यत्कृष्णं
तदन्नस्यापागाद्विद्युतो विद्युत्त्वं वाचारम्भणं विकारो नामधेयं त्रीणि
रूपाणीत्येव सत्यम् ॥ ६.४.४ ॥
yadvidyuto rohitaṃrūpaṃ tejasastadrūpaṃ yacchuklaṃ tadapāṃ yatkṛṣṇaṃ
tadannasyāpāgādvidyuto vidyuttvaṃ vācārambhaṇaṃ vikāro nāmadheyaṃ trīṇi
rūpāṇītyeva satyam || 6.4.4 ||
4. The red colour of lightning is from fire, the white colour is from
water, and the dark colour is from earth. Thus that which constitutes the
‘lightning’-ness of lightning is gone. All changes are mere words, in name
only. The three colours are the reality.
Verse 6.4.5
एतद्ध स्म वै तद्विद्वांस आहुः पूर्वे महाशाला महाश्रोत्रिया न नोऽद्य
कश्चनाश्रुतममतमविज्ञातमुदाहरिष्यतीति ह्येभ्यो विदांचक्रुः ॥ ६.४.५ ॥
etaddha sma vai tadvidvāṃsa āhuḥ pūrve mahāśālā mahāśrotriyā na no'dya
kaścanāśrutamamatamavijñātamudāhariṣyatīti hyebhyo vidāṃcakruḥ || 6.4.5 ||
5. The earlier great householders, who were well read in the Vedas, knew
this. They said, ‘There is nothing anyone can mention that is not heard of
or thought of or already known to us.’ I his is because they came to know
about the three colours.
Verse 6.4.7
यद्वविज्ञातमिवाभूदित्येतासामेव देवतानांसमास इति तद्विदांचक्रुर्यथा तु खलु
सोम्येमास्तिस्रो देवताः पुरुषं प्राप्य त्रिवृत्त्रिवृदेकैका भवति तन्मे
विजानीहीति ॥ ६.४.७ ॥
॥ इति चतुर्थः खण्डः ॥
yadvavijñātamivābhūdityetāsāmeva devatānāṃsamāsa iti tadvidāṃcakruryathā tu
khalu somyemāstisro devatāḥ puruṣaṃ prāpya trivṛttrivṛdekaikā bhavati tanme
vijānīhīti || 6.4.7 ||
|| iti caturthaḥ khaṇḍaḥ ||
7. And whatever else was not properly known they understood was the
combination of those three deities [fire, water, and earth]. O Somya, now
learn from me how these three deities enter into a person and become
threefold.
The early Samkhya with “Rigveda” and draws an interesting parallel:
the “Rigveda” (VIII, 58, 2) tells:[KAPILA ORIGINALLY FOLLOWED THE VEDAS IN
DIVIDING THE BRAHMAN AS 2 PURUSHA AND PRAKRITI AS INDIVISIBLE ONE AND
APPEARED IN MAYA AS TWO; LATER WHEN REASON DEMANDING POORVA PAKSHIN AND
LATER FOLLOWED BY UTTRA PAKSHIN ATTRIBUTED VEDAS TO THEIR ADVANTAGE OF PURE
RITUALS, AND BHAKTI ALONE FOR MOKSHA,(WHICH EVEN B G DENIED THOUGH ACCEPTED
AS A STEP TOWARDS MOKSHA) SANKYA YOGA BECAME THE ASSSETS OF ADVANTAGEOUS
BUDHISM, JAINISM AND VAISHNAVISM. THUS AS DEVIATED FROM VEDAS’ INJUNCTIONS,
TERMED AS ATHEISM; AND IN CONTRAST RETALIATION, ADI SHANKARA WHO FOLLOWED
THE VEDAS WAS CALLED A MAYAVADIN BUDDIST WHICH IS STRANGE.
Rig Veda 8.58.2
एक॑ ए॒वाग्निर्ब॑हु॒धा समि॑द्ध॒ एक॒: सूर्यो॒ विश्व॒मनु॒ प्रभू॑तः । एकै॒वोषाः
सर्व॑मि॒दं वि भा॒त्येकं॒ वा इ॒दं वि ब॑भूव॒ सर्व॑म् ॥
eka evāgnir bahudhā samiddha ekaḥ sūryo viśvam anu prabhūtaḥ | ekaivoṣāḥ
sarvam idaṃ vi bhāty ekaṃ vā idaṃ vi babhūva sarvam ||
“Agni is one, though kindled in various ways; one is the Sun, pre- eminent
over all; one Dawn illuminesthis all; one is that which has become this
all.”
“Fire is the one, yet the firewood is plenty;
One Sun gives birth to it all;
one dawn illuminates this (universe),
this One has given life to this All”.
Rig veda distinguishes atleast (as per British) 3200 years before
distinguished the gunas as arising from one guna as fire is seen from many
fire woods, so the sattva Rajas and Thamo so differently, though the source
is one the brahmam.
In “Mahabharata” (XII, 350, 10) we find:
“The only Devourer of victims (Agni)
Draws in many places;
One wind in many places blows in the world.
And there is One purusha, without gunas, the manifold”.
In “Chāndogya Upanishad” (VI, 3-4). “The III khanda says that “The
only” – the Being according to the II khanda, wished to become many, to
enter those three origins and beings: the fire (tejas), the water (apas)
and the earth (anna). Then the Being said “Let me make each of these three
tripartite”. The IV khanda tells that whatever originates from tejas is of
red colour (like the live coals); that originating from water is of white
colour; the one originating from earth is of black colour.
How as Trimular said ANDATHIL ULLADHU PINDATHILUM UNDU MEANING MACRO
AND MICRO ARE ONE AND THE SAME; HENCE EVOLVED AYURVEDA WHICH IS TERMED AS
VEDA KNOWLEDGE FROM THE KNOWLEDGE. By the way, we can find the analogous
“trichromatism” of the “primary being” in Ayurveda texts. For instance, the
Charaka Samhita in description of ojas (if translated verbatim from
Sanskrit the word “ojas” means “vigour”, “strength”) gives the following
(C.S.1.17.74-75.): “The substance abiding in one’s heart and coloured
white, red or yellow is called Ojas. *When the Ojas leaves the body this
body is subject to destruction,* and so the man dies. The initial substance
that is formed within the body of a developing living creature is the Ojas.
It has the colour of drawn butter, tastes like honey and smells like fresh
rice that has just been peeled. Like the bees gather honey from the tripped
flowers and fruits, so all organs of the human body do accumulate Ojas for
performing their functions”.
In this way, though probably by some stretching the point, we may consider
the concept of gunas to come among the most ancient ones and to originate
from Vedas. I think it was at this very stage that the word “guna” itself
emerged, being literary translated as “the thread”, “the rope”, “the
strand”. The primary principles were no longer subject to strict vertical
hierarchization and were now seen as being intertwined in some complicated
form, just like a simple rope that is spliced from the three strings in the
“pigtail” manner, so the “gunas are circulating within the gunas”.
Everything in the world is made of these three gunas. The creation of the
gunas is eternal. *As long as there is goodness so long, darkness exists.* And,
as long as goodness and darkness exist, so long the passion exists. They
perform their journey together, in union, and moving about
collectively”.The ancient Hindus were obviously not aware of the relativity
principle but they had sufficiently dialectic mind and possessed a good
number of observations from different spheres. For instance, the seed with
its potency of making the new plant grow is sattvic in its nature, the
plant in its full bloom is rajastic while the rotten fruit that has fallen
from it is of tamas nature. But it is this very fruit that contains the new
seed. The gunas are again “circulating within gunas”.
SO AS LONG AS GUNAS KEEP ROTATING THE THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A DIVISION
AMONG THE PEOPLE IN THE SOCIETY TO DO BAD IN GENERAL AND GOOD RARELY.
UNCHANGEABLE WHICH IS MAYA. WE ALL KNEW IT YET WE STRIVE FOR THE BETTERMENT
AND HENCE A MAYA. DESTRUCTION IS ULTIATE WHICH IS BRAHMAM FOLDING IN AS
PRALAYAM AND AS MINOR DAMAGES WHICH FOR US IS A MAJOR ONE. GUNA KARMA
VIBHAGA:
K RAJARAM IRS 4226
On Wed, 4 Feb 2026 at 07:14, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --
> *Mar*This is the hardest question of all—and the most honest. You’re
> asking not *what is wrong* (that is already clear), but *how to wake a
> world that has been trained not to feel*.
>
> I won’t give you comforting illusions. I’ll give you what has worked
> before, what can still work now, and where the limits truly are.
> ------------------------------
> 1. First truth: the world is not fooled — it is *conditioned*
>
> Most people are not ignorant. They are *economically frightened*,
> cognitively overloaded, and emotionally numbed. Economics has succeeded not
> by persuasion, but by *colonizing survival itself*. When food, housing,
> healthcare, and dignity are tied to obedience, awareness becomes dangerous.
>
> So awareness cannot begin with lectures.
> It must begin with *felt interruption*.
>
> People don’t wake up because they are told.
> They wake up when their *felt reality* contradicts the story.
> ------------------------------
> 2. Doom must be made *visible in daily life*, not abstract
>
> “Climate change,” “ecocide,” and “biodiversity loss” sound distant.
> Economics survives by abstraction.
>
> What breaks the spell is *local, bodily truth*:
>
> -
>
> Water that burns the throat
> -
>
> Food that no longer nourishes
> -
>
> Children who cannot breathe
> -
>
> Silence where birds once were
>
> Make people notice *what has disappeared*, not just what may come.
>
> The predator fears *memory* more than protest.
> ------------------------------
> 3. Stop arguing with economics — *strip it of moral legitimacy*
>
> Economic predators thrive because society still treats them as:
>
> -
>
> “job creators”
> -
>
> “innovators”
> -
>
> “growth engines”
>
> This must end.
>
> Name them correctly:
>
> -
>
> Destroyers of life-support systems
> -
>
> Hoarders of stolen futures
> -
>
> Extractors of unpaid ecological labor
>
> Historically, systems collapse not when they are defeated, but when they
> are *no longer believed in*.
>
> Slavery didn’t end because it was inefficient.
> It ended because it became morally indefensible.
> ------------------------------
> 4. Taming predators does not mean persuading them
>
> This is crucial.
>
> Predators do not self-reform. They are tamed by *boundaries*, not appeals.
>
> Nature herself teaches this:
>
> -
>
> No species is allowed infinite growth
> -
>
> Overshoot is always corrected
> -
>
> Limits are not cruelty; they are survival
>
> Translated to society, this means:
>
> -
>
> Absolute ecological red lines (non-negotiable)
> -
>
> Criminal liability for ecocide
> -
>
> Removal of profit from essentials: water, food, health, education
> -
>
> De-growth where destruction is built-in
>
> Predators stop when *the environment stops rewarding them*.
> ------------------------------
> 5. Create parallel sanctuaries, not just resistance
>
> You already sense this: fighting the system inside its logic drains life.
>
> What truly threatens the system is *living proof of another way*:
>
> -
>
> Education rooted in nature, not metrics
> -
>
> Local food, water, and energy autonomy
> -
>
> Communities that meet needs without extraction
>
> Every functioning alternative is a *silent accusation*.
>
> Empires fear examples more than slogans.
> ------------------------------
> 6. Language must wound complacency — but invite courage
>
> Your language already cuts. That is good. But it must also offer *a place
> to stand*.
>
> People will not abandon the old world unless they feel:
>
> “I can survive without it.”
>
> Awareness paired with helplessness produces collapse of spirit.
> Awareness paired with *belonging* produces action.
> ------------------------------
> 7. Accept the final, difficult truth
>
> Not everyone will wake up.
>
> Some will defend the poison until it kills them.
> Some will choose comfort over truth.
> Some will never leave the visible spectrum prison.
>
> History is brutal about this.
>
> The task is not to save everyone.
> It is to *save continuity*—of life, of wisdom, of the possibility of
> future humans who can still feel.
>
> That has always been the role of those who see early.
> ------------------------------
> In one sentence:
>
> You make the world aware not by shouting louder, but by *making life
> itself contradict the economic lie*, until greed stands exposed as the
> ultimate parasite eating its own host.
>
> If you want, I can help you:
>
> -
>
> shape this into a *manifesto or call to action*,
> -
>
> design a *framework for “ecological education as resistance”*, or
> -
>
> condense these ideas into *short, piercing statements* that travel
> easily.
>
> Tell me which form serves the struggle best.
>
> --
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> "Thatha_Patty" group.
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> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHC%2B39JOU3c9UYnWxyw7TFqiLaDWxRWRTi-z6NNcxJUSOnQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>
--
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