I came across an interesting topic in Hinduism recently that helped me better understand Swedenborg’s account of spiritual influxes that govern our lives. The topic is the observance of the ‘Gunas’ i.e. the predominant qualities that dominates one’s mind at any given time.
As we go about our daily lives; be it listening to music, hanging out with our friends, watching movies, visiting the shops or eating our meals; we’ve been conditioned to think that any activity we engage in, only has an effect on us while we are engaged in it and thereby its effect on us ceases shortly after we end the activity.
The ancient Hindu sages studied these effects on the mind and classified them into three core categories: Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic.
Satvic – One’s mind is satvic when one feels a calmness with the world. It lives in the present. It is a state where one longs to be in harmony and peace with all around. The mind witnesses the world but has no desire to take from it or shape it. The satvic joy is derived from simple ego-less observation and interaction with something else.
Rajasic – The rajasic mind is driven to interact with the world and leave a mark on it. It desires a reward or an end goal and the joys are derived from how close one is to achieving an outcome. It is characterised by passion and high energy. One oscillates between the past, present and future.
Tamasic – the tamasic mind longs to slow down and extract away one’s mind from the world around. It’s joy lies in ignorance, separation and de-coupling. It seeks freedom from the outside and to be passive. To negate people, culture, society, routine, feelings, time and space.
If we consider the state of our minds with the following examples, it may make more sense
Satvic – Think of working in a room surrounded by clean white walls, soft and calm piano music, the freshness of the mind in the early hours of the morning, a light salad for lunch, watering the plants, feeding the dogs, walking around in nature, the reading of the Psalms, etc.
Rajasic – Think of love songs, adventure movies, sport, a heavy meal, listening to a passionate sermon, the presence of friends with strong extroversion, planning a holiday, street art, preparing for an event, etc.
Tamasic – Think of black metal and punk songs, movies with gore and horror, vulgar stand-up comedy, the dulling of the mind with alcohol after a long day, hell-fire gospel preaching, angry involvement in social justice causes, reading of political scandals, dealing with shame, sadness and discord in the family, hanging out with friends who engage in profane conversation, the observation of vandalism and graffiti in our neighbourhood, etc.
Notice how the mind in Satvic activities is not drained. In fact these activities enliven the mind and provide it with impetus to do other things.
In Rajasic, the mind is in movement and is expressive. One is deeply rooted in the activity either physically or mentally and rises and falls with the outcomes and the passage of time.
And finally in Tamasic, one wants to release and let go of repression. It wants to slow down by either running away, obstructing or diminishing the world. Its negating effects extends far out into other areas of life. For example, you may notice that when you’ve had an argument at home, you are more likely to engage in road rage because the mind is predominantly Tamasic.
The sages though did not condemn or promote any of these activities as sinful or blissful. In fact they saw it as natural for emotions like anger to be expressed in a limited manner. They campaigned for adherents to observe one’s mind and to keep each of the modes in their right balance e.g. it is normal to be more satvic in the morning and more tamasic as one slows down at night.
But they did warn against the imbalance, wherein the effects of negativity, passiveness, dullness and workaholism would drastically erode away one’s quality of life.
I must add that the nihilism in our modern societies is not a surprise given our heavy tamasic engagement especially if you notice the catalogue of movies these days on streaming services like Netflix. I think these ‘gunas’ flow well with what Swedenborg wrote of the different angelic and hellish societies that have influx on man through the activities we are led to engage in.