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Shifting the Standpoint of Consciousness Beyond the Action of the Three Gunas · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The three gunas of nature control the actions and
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  reactions of the external nature and the response to the
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  dualities that present themselves in nature.
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  As long as we remain fixated at the level of the surface
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  personality, we remain subject to this action of the gunas.
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  The question then arises, is it possible?
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  Is it feasible to enter a psychological state in which the
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  gunas are not dictating our actions and reactions?
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  In the Bhagwad Gita, Sri Krishna devotes considerable time to the
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  description of the action of the gunas.
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  The characteristic types of responses based on whether
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  sattva, rajas or tamas is predominant at any point in time
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  in the individual's nature. Yet he also describes a state of
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  consciousness that is beyond the action of the gunas trigunatita,
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  by which the individual transcends the external being
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  and its subjection to the gunas and the dualities and identifies
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  with the Self, the Atman, and thus the divine consciousness.
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  This is the shift of consciousness from the ego
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  standpoint to the divine standpoint.
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  The dualities still take place. When this occurs, there is still
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  the underlying 'cause that we would interpret under the regime
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  of the dualities, hot and cold, wet and dry, joy and sorrow,
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  pleasure and pain, et cetera. But the individual is no longer
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  suffering under them, can accept them both equally, and can see
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  and relate to their action in a dispassionate manner.
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  Similarly, the external being is still subject to the action of
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  the three gunas, but that action is seen as part of the play of
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  nature. This implies that the seeker,
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  once the shift to the divine standpoint has taken place, sees
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  the role and value of the action of each of the gunas and
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  recognizes that they cannot be eliminated from the world or the
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  action in the world, but their psychological impact need not
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  touch him in his observation. As a witness of the external
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  nature, Srioro Bindu observes quote the subtwick.
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  Nature has always been held to be the most apartment and ready
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  for the spiritual life, while the rajasic nature is encumbered
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  by its desires and passions. At the same time, spirituality
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  is something above the dualities, and what is most
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  needed for it is a true upward aspiration.
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  This may come to the rajasic man as well as to the Sutwick.
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  If it does, he can rise by it above his failings and desires
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  and passions, just as the other can rise beyond his virtues to
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  the divine purity and light and love.
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  End Quote Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother Looking from
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  Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pages 113 to 114.