The World as It Is

A Vedantic View on Change, Chaos, and the Nature of Duality

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History moves in waves. Some eras shine with clarity and creativity—periods of scientific discovery, spiritual flowering, and social harmony. We look back at the early Upanishadic period, the Axial Age, the European Renaissance, or even fleeting modern moments of civil progress as evidence that human beings are capable of beauty, order, and higher vision. Other times burn with agitation—revolutions, industrial booms, empires expanding at breakneck speed. There is movement, invention, and drama, but often with little reflection. And then there are eras where confusion reigns. Civilizations collapse and corruption festers. Nihilism, escapism, and cruelty seem to fill the air.

 

Why does the world cycle through such extremes?

 

According to Vedanta, the answer lies in the play of the three gunas—sattva, rajas, and tamas—which govern all of nature, including the human mind and society. These forces are always present, shifting in dominance. The world appears chaotic not because it is broken, but because it is functioning exactly as prakriti (nature) functions—through the dynamic balance of the gunas.

 

This essay explores what it means to see the world through the lens of the gunas. Drawing from scripture, psychological insight, and the turbulence of our current age, we will examine how the gunas shape history, morality, and personal growth—and how true freedom lies not in fixing the world, but in understanding it.

 

Nature’s Blueprint

 

According to Vedanta, the entire universe is made up of three fundamental qualities or forces of nature, known as the gunas. These are:

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•  Sattva – knowledge; that which provides nature’s instructions. For example, sattva is how an acorn knows how to become a towering oak, or a tadpole a frog.

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•  Rajas – energy; that which enforces constant change cycling through creation, maintenance and destruction. Rajas is what powers nature.  

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•  Tamas – inertia and matter. Tamas is the material which nature uses like a lump of clay to shape the world. 

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Our physical body is also made up of the gunas as is our subtle body, which Vedanta defines as mind-intellect-ego. It might seem strange that Vedanta categorizes thoughts, feelings and emotions as material objects. In short, the outer world reflects our inner one.

 

The gunas affect our mental condition as follows:

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•  Sattva – the principle of clarity, balance, harmony, and knowledge. Sattva is reflective and revealing.

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•  Rajas – the force of activity, desire, ambition, and restlessness. Rajas is a projecting power.

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•  Tamas – the quality of inertia, ignorance, delusion, and lethargy. Tamas is obscuring or concealing.

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The gunas, as experienced mentally, are not static substances like the elements. They are better defined as subtle psychological and existential tendencies, constantly interacting, shifting, and combining in various proportions to shape every experience in the apparent world. Nothing in prakriti is ever free from them—not individuals, not societies, not even the course of history itself.

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As Swami Paramarthananda says:

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"The activities that we engage in, the environment in which we find ourselves, the food that we eat and the thoughts that we think all influence the gunas at play in our bodies and minds."

 

One guna can be dominant in any given moment, but all three are always present in varying degrees. A calm meditation may be mostly sattvic, but tinged with rajas (the effort to concentrate) or tamas (a flicker of drowsiness). A political movement might appear rajasic, but may be powered by underlying tamas (ideological blindness) or contain flashes of sattva (genuine idealism).

 

What’s important to understand is that the gunas are impersonal like any principle in nature, such as gravity.​ Our inner experience of them is often compared to the weather. If sattva is a clear sky, then rajas would be high winds, and tamas would be fog. One is not necessarily “better.” Their value depends on context and proportion—just like the weather.

 

While the gunas are rooted in Indian metaphysics (Samkhya) to help explain duality, they resonate strongly with insights from modern psychology:

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•  Sattva mirrors what Western psychologists call mindfulness, flow states, or even self-actualization (Maslow).

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•  Rajas aligns with sympathetic nervous system activation, anxiety, ambition, or dopaminergic drive.

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•  Tamas shares features with depression, denial, or even trauma responses like freeze or dissociation.

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The difference is that where Western psychology tends to pathologize and fix, Vedanta offers a non-judgmental, cyclical view. There is nothing “wrong” with tamas or rajas—but when they dominate the mind, suffering tends to follow. This is why the Bhagavad Gita emphasizes cultivating sattva—not as an end in itself, but as a foundation to Self-inquiry. Technically, the gunas belong to maya, the power of appearance. They form the interface between pure awareness (true self) and the manifest world (prakriti). The gunas, in a sense, are the code that runs the program called “world.”

 

The World as Theater of the Gunas

 

If the world often appears turbulent, irrational, or unjust, it is not because something has gone wrong—but because the gunas are expressing themselves as they must. According to Vedanta, duality cannot exist unless all three gunas are allowed to move freely across the spectrum of expression.

 

In this view, suffering and disorder are features of the manifest world, not bugs. They arise when rajas and tamas dominate, just as clarity and peace arise when sattva prevails. But none of these are stable, because the gunas themselves are always in motion.

 

History provides countless examples of this rhythm:

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•  Periods of sattva, like the spiritual flourishing of the Upanishadic age or the ethical clarity of certain peace movements

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•  Waves of rajas, such as the expansionist zeal of empires, the industrial revolution, and the digital gold rush of the dot-com boom

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•  Collapses into tamas, including the fall of Rome, the descent into global wars, or the current rise of nihilism and misinformation

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These aren’t isolated occurrences. They reflect the lawful unfolding of prakriti, much like seasons or weather systems. The Bhagavad Gita doesn’t portray this as something to fix—it offers understanding as a way to disentangle oneself from the drama.

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Whereas, Arjuna, the mighty armed, the knower of the truth of guṇas and actions is not bound, knowing that the guṇas express themselves in the gunas (body-mind).

—Bhagavad Gita, 3:28

 

Just as light and shadow are needed to give shape to a painting, the gunas—each in their full range—are needed to create the rich texture of life. If tamas and rajas were erased, there would be no birth, no death, no change, no story. And if sattva were the only mode, we would not be here as apparent separate individuals—we would be merged in the Self.

 

This teaching does not call for indifference. Seeing the gunas at play is not an excuse to ignore injustice or suffering. But it frees us from reacting blindly. When we know that nature is doing what nature does, we can respond with clarity—not reactivity.

 

Good and Evil: A Guna-Based View

 

To speak of good and evil is to speak from within duality. But Vedanta invites us to look deeper: not to deny duality, but to understand what gives rise to it.

 

From the standpoint of the gunas, what we call “evil” is not the result of some independent demonic force—but rather an extreme or imbalanced expression of rajas and tamas. Rajas expresses as aggression, greed, manipulation, or possessiveness. Tamas expresses as cruelty, ignorance, apathy, or delusion. When the two combine, they can produce acts and systems that we rightly experience as horrific, senseless, or heartbreaking.

 

In contrast, sattva is the guna closest to what we typically call “good”: it brings peace, compassion, clarity, and understanding. Yet even sattva is not absolute good—it is still part of the changing world, and can become binding if one becomes attached to it.

 

The word guna literally means “strand,” “thread,” or “quality.” Just as threads combine to form a rope, the gunas are the strands of prakriti that bind the individual (jiva) to the world of experience. For this reason, they are sometimes compared to different ropes or chains, where tamas is a heavy iron chain, rajas is a silver chain, and sattva is a gold chain. In the end, sattva may be gold—but it’s still a chain.

 

To understand evil as a guna expression is not to condone it. It is to see it without confusion. Arjuna’s dialog with Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita teaches us that we must act to uphold dharma, even when that action involves difficult choices. Krishna, speaking as Ishvara (God), tells Arjuna that he must go to war—not for ego, but to uphold order. This illustrates a key Vedantic principle: dharma is not the same as avoiding violence or discomfort. Dharma is always acting in accordance with the whole.

 

In contemporary life, moral outrage often arises from emotional rajas—not wisdom. Social media, political movements, and even spiritual communities are often caught in a cycle of reaction, blame, and outrage that produces more heat than light. Western moral psychology increasingly affirms this: what we label as “good” or “evil” often depends on cultural bias, personal conditioning, or tribal affiliation—not clear reasoning. Vedanta offers a sobering alternative: rather than react impulsively, one must understand what guna is acting, and then respond from sattva and dharma, not rajas or tamas. Understanding the guna basis of evil doesn’t remove our humanity—it deepens it. It allows us to act where we must, grieve when we must, and still see clearly.

 

The Gunas and Dharma

 

While the gunas govern all aspects of nature, they do not determine how one ought to live—that’s the role of dharma. Dharma is often translated as “righteousness” or “duty,” but at its core, it means that which upholds harmony, order, and truth. It is the intelligent structure within the Field of Experience, and it operates within the world of the gunas. But to know dharma, one must see clearly—and for that, sattva must dominate.

 

The Bhagavad Gita repeatedly emphasizes that right action requires discernment (viveka) and dispassion (vairagya). These arise only in a sattvic mind—one that is calm, reflective, and free from egoic distortion.

 

That which knows the pursuit of action and renunciation, what is to be done and what is not to be done, what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, and bondage and freedom, that mind, Arjuna, is sattvic.

—Bhagavad Gita, 18:30

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•  Rajas obscures dharma with agitation, self-interest, and emotional impulsivity.

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•  Tamas hides it beneath delusion, apathy, and confusion.

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•  Sattva, however, reveals dharma like a still lake reflecting the moon.

 

In Chapter 18 of the Gita, Krishna teaches that a person’s svabhava (innate nature) arises from their guna composition—and from that nature, svadharma (personal duty) unfolds.

 

The duties of the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and śūdras, Arjuna, the scorcher of foes, are divided according to qualities born of svabhāva.

—Bhagavad Gita, 18:41

 

A person in whom rajas predominates may be suited to dynamic, leadership-based service. A person steeped in sattva may incline toward teaching, contemplation, or healing. Someone with more tamas may do best with simplicity, structure, and supportive work. All of these, when performed without ego or comparison, can be dharmic. Dharma is not about the nature of the action, but whether the action aligns with one’s nature and contributes to the whole.

 

Whatever our guna composition may be, it’s still our responsibility as individuals to manage the gunas in a way that follows dharma. We can do this by:

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•  Reducing tamas through structure, clarity, and healthy habits

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•  Channeling rajas into service, learning, and purposeful action

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•  Cultivating sattva through discipline, self-inquiry, and detachment

 

Ultimately, sattva prepares the mind for knowledge of the true Self. It cannot remove ignorance, but it creates the conditions in which ignorance can be removed. Vedanta teaches that living in accordance with dharma is not merely ethical—it is instrumental in gaining moksha (lasting freedom). Swami Dayananda wrote a short book called “The Value of Values,” which underscores the point that we don’t just practice good values for the sake of society, but to experience our own inner peace and clarity. Without values, an individual will be always agitated and unfit for Self-inquiry.

 

Reading the Modern World Through the Gunas

 

Once we begin to see the world through the lens of sattva, rajas, and tamas, what seemed chaotic begins to look patterned. The guna model doesn’t just explain internal moods or ancient cosmology—it offers a clear-eyed view of the cultural and global forces shaping our era.

 

Today’s world is not uniquely broken—it is simply in a rajo-tamasic phase of the larger cycle. We are living through a time marked by constant stimulation, ceaseless ambition, moral confusion, and widespread fatigue. These are not isolated symptoms—they are the predictable outcome of a culture governed by rajas and tamas, which often work in tandem. Rajas, in particular, may be the scourge of our time.

 

Examples of rajas in overdrive:

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•  Endless activity, distraction, and desire dominate much of modern life.

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•  Social media, hustle culture, personal branding, and the drive to optimize everything reflect a hyper-rajasic mindset—always seeking, never still.

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•  The tech race for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the gig economy, and geopolitical power struggles are fueled by rajas: energy without rest, speed without direction.

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Examples of tamas in disguise:

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•  Beneath the surface energy lies a growing sense of exhaustion, disconnection, and despair—a tamasic undertow.

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•  Tamas appears in the form of willful ignorance, misinformation, escapism, and apathy toward long-term consequences.

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•  Modern nihilism, addiction to entertainment, and widespread disengagement from deeper values all reflect tamas disguised as freedom.

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Sattva Still Shines—But Quietly:

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•  In all of this, sattva remains—not always loud, but always present.

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•  Acts of compassion, ecological stewardship, meditation, simplicity, and sincere inquiry are sattvic responses to an agitated world.

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•  True sattva isn’t trendy. It doesn’t perform. It simply aligns with truth.

 

Contemporary psychological models increasingly echo these patterns:

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•  Overstimulated minds (rajas) flip into burnout and dissociation (tamas)

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•  Only through stillness and reflection (sattva) can integration occur

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•  But unlike psychology, Vedanta points beyond: You are not your state of mind at all, you are that which is witness to it.

 

Ultimately, Vedanta advises that the key to managing the gunas is to disidentify with them. To live in the modern world wisely is not to fix it all—but to understand what guna is playing and refuse to become it. If rajas is stirring anxiety, see it. If tamas clouds the mind, name it. If sattva is present, rest in it—but even then, know: you are not that.

 

Guna-Atīta: Freedom Through Disidentification

 

The Bhagavad Gita doesn’t simply describe the gunas to help us understand the world—it describes them to free us from mistaking ourselves for them.

 

In Chapter 14, Krishna describes a rare kind of person: the guna-atīta, the one who has transcended the gunas—not by eliminating them, but by knowing. To transcend the gunas is not to suppress rajas or tamas or to cling to sattva. It is to recognize all three as part of the play of prakriti, while remaining established in the Self—the unchanging awareness in which all three arise.

 

He who, remaining as though indifferent, is not shaken by the guṇas; and he who abides in himself, remembering that the guṇas alone are acting, the one who does not move (from the vision of the self)…he is called the one who is beyond the gunas.

— Bhagavad Gita 14.23-25

 

This is not stoicism. It is stillness grounded in knowledge, not in effort.

 

Even in the guna-atīta, the gunas will still function at the level of the body and mind. Emotions will arise. Energy will vary. Sleep and fatigue will occur. But the wise know: I am not these conditions. I am the light in which they are seen.

 

This idea finds a rough parallel in modern therapeutic frameworks like:

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•  Mindfulness: observing thoughts without becoming them

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•  Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): disidentifying from mental content

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•  Internal Family Systems (IFS): recognizing mental patterns as “parts,” not the Self

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Yet Vedanta goes further: you are not the observer within the mind—you are the unchanging awareness in which even the observer appears. To transcend the gunas is not to transcend life—it is to stop suffering over its changing nature. The guna-atīta lives fully, feels deeply, but no longer clings to outcomes or identities. He acts, but knows he is not the actor. The gunas do everything.

 

Guna Management in Daily Life (Triguna Vibhava Yoga)

 

Understanding the gunas isn’t just an intellectual exercise—it’s a tool for living with clarity and balance. Once we see that sattva, rajas, and tamas are constantly shaping our moods, habits, and decisions, we can begin to live consciously within their play, rather than be unconsciously driven by them.

 

Throughout your day, ask yourself: Which Guna Is Operating Right Now?

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•  Do you wake up feeling heavy, dull, resistant? Tamas

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•  Are you frantically working, obsessing, multitasking, or scrolling? Rajas

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•  Is your mind quiet, attentive, reflective? Sattva

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By simply naming the dominant guna, you create space between the experience and your identity. That space is freedom.

 

Cultivating sattva is not the ultimate goal in Vedanta—but it is the launching pad for clarity and inner freedom. You can develop sattva by:

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•  Eating clean, light, nourishing food

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•  Choosing company that uplifts rather than agitates or numbs

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•  Reading or listening to wisdom literature

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•  Living simply and ethically

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•  Taking time for quiet reflection or meditation

 

You don’t need to “eliminate” rajas or tamas—you can’t. But you can work with them skillfully:

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•  Channel rajas into purposeful action, service, or learning

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•  Use structure, sleep hygiene, and discipline to gently overcome tamas

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•  Avoid fueling these gunas through overstimulation, junk media, toxic relationships, or escapist behaviors

 

When making a choice, ask:

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•  Am I acting from clarity (sattva), or reactivity (rajas), or fear/laziness (tamas)?

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•  What kind of mind state will this action reinforce?

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•  Will it move me closer to stillness and truth—or deeper into conditioning?

 

This form of inner honesty is both spiritual practice (yoga) and psychological hygiene.

 

Ultimately, you are not here to perfect the gunas. You are here to see them, understand them, and stop mistaking them for yourself. You are the sky. The gunas are the weather. Let them move. Watch them change. But know that you remain—clear, unmoved, aware.

 

Seeing the World as It Is

 

In conclusion, the world does not need to match our preferences to make sense. When seen through the lens of the gunas, what once appeared chaotic or unjust reveals itself as lawful, patterned, and predictable.

 

Rajas drives ambition, innovation, and restlessness. Tamas pulls toward decay, apathy, and delusion. Sattva brings peace, clarity, and insight. From the micro to the macro, these forces shape civilizations, drive political cycles, affect cultural values, and dictate our moods, thoughts, and habits.

 

They are not moral—they are mechanical. And because they belong to prakriti, they will never stop shifting. The world is not malfunctioning—it is doing exactly what nature does: cycling, expressing, unfolding. From this standpoint, the world can be heartbreaking, beautiful, inspiring, absurd—and still perfectly in order. The world remains as it is. But you, seeing it for what it is, are no longer caught in it.