Beyond the Gunas: A Journey to Becoming Chivam

Every human being possesses three qualities: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas Guna. These qualities shape our daily experience and spiritual journey.

Sattva Guna relates to the brain and brings clarity, focus, and the capacity to learn and absorb knowledge. Through Sattva, we gain understanding and develop wisdom.

Rajas Guna relates to the mind and is reflected in our activity, energy, and engagement with the world. It enables us to work, create, and bring our intentions into reality.

Tamas Guna is often mistaken for inactivity or laziness, but it holds deep spiritual significance. It is related to the soul and represents calmness, rest, and silence, where the body and mind are rejuvenated.

How Gunas Shape the Journey of Life

According to Hindu philosophy, the ideal human life spans 120 years, divided into two equal and complementary halves, with the three Gunas guiding our growth through each stage.

The first half of life, the first 60 years, is dedicated to material achievement and worldly engagement. During childhood and student years, Sattva Guna helps with learning and intellectual development as we gain education and skills. As we move into professional life, Rajas guna becomes more active, empowering us to implement knowledge, establish careers and financial security, accumulate wealth, build stability, form relationships, and fulfil social obligations. We engage fully with the external world, seeking success, comfort, and the satisfaction of our efforts.

The latter half of life represents a fundamental shift in focus—from outer to inner, from acquisition to renunciation, from doing to being. Particularly after retirement, Tamas Guna grows in importance during this phase, offering the rest and inner quietude necessary for deeper reflection. It is Tamas guna that enables us to withdraw from compulsive activity, settle into stillness, and cultivate the peace required for spiritual realisation. This ideal progression, however, depends on one critical factor: balance.

Beyond Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas — dissolving into the stillness of Nirguna, the state of becoming Chivam.

What Happens When Gunas Are Imbalanced?

While the Gunas guide us through life's stages, their influence must remain balanced. Each guna, when excessive, creates a problem. Sattva guna in excess cultivates pride and ego, creating barriers to further progress. The light that should illuminate becomes blinding, and knowledge becomes a source of arrogance rather than wisdom.

Rajas Guna in excess creates restlessness and compulsive activity. The person becomes trapped in workaholism, unable to rest. This constant activity drains both mental and physical energy, leaving the body and mind exhausted.

Tamas Guna in excess during youth or working years creates stagnation. Growth stops, and potential remains unfulfilled.

Which Guna Helps After Death?

A crucial question emerges: which of the three gunas serves us not only in this life but also beyond death? The answer reveals an important truth about spiritual preparation.

Sattva and Rajas guna certainly help us live well in this world. They bring happiness, achievement, and fulfilment while living. However, their usefulness ends at death. In the afterlife, there is no knowledge to gain, no work to accomplish, no goals to pursue.

When Sattva or Rajas Guna remains dominant at death, the soul continues to pursue its unfulfilled work. Without a physical body, it cannot study or work. This creates a tragic condition; the soul wanders restlessly, driven by unfulfilled desires, unable to satisfy them, and experiencing immense suffering.

Tamas Guna, by contrast, serves us both in life and after death. In life, it provides the rest and rejuvenation essential for health and balance. But its deeper significance lies in its spiritual dimension.

Practising to keep quiet, without doing anything, creates a state of deep calmness and silence. This quality cultivates Nemmadi. When Nemmadi is achieved deeply during life, it continues beyond the physical body. This is the peace that death cannot disturb.

This naturally evolves into Yoga Nidra, the divine sleep exemplified by Lord Ranganatha. Most significantly, Tamas Guna leads toward Nirguna—the doorway to self-realization. But what exactly is this state that lies beyond all qualities?

What Is Nirguna?

Nirguna is a state without any qualities (Guna), where only bliss (Ananda) is experienced. The ultimate goal of spiritual practice is to become Chivam, the pure spirit. Chivam is described as Nirguna, Nirakara (formless), and Achanchala (unchanging). Understanding this intellectually is valuable, but the real question remains: how does one actually reach this supreme state?

Becoming Chivam

The journey requires a specific process, guided by one who has already transcended.

The Master, who exists beyond all Gunas, guides seekers toward the same Nirguna state by allowing his Chivam energy to work within the practitioner. He serves as both guide and catalyst.

Initially, all three gunas: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, must be balanced so that none dominates destructively. Through remembrance of the Master and the practice of Silentation, all qualities (gunas) are gradually dissolved. Ultimately, the practitioner transcends all gunas entirely and becomes Chivam. A condition of absolute stillness, bliss beyond experience, consciousness beyond subject and object. It is Nirguna, the stateless state, the goal of all seeking, the end of all journeys.

Here, the soul finally rests in its true nature, free from the cycle of birth and death, established in eternal peace, realised as the infinite awareness that was always present.