Why people engage in crimes even when they know that it is to be avoided and that it brings nothing but misery and sorrow? Hinduism explains crimes, sin, virtue etc by reading the human nature. There is no external force but it is ignorance of people that results in crimes and sins.
Crimes are committed not because an individual is forced to commit it even against his will. But a crime is committed by succumbing to desire and anger. These are two deadly enemies within each one that are nurtured by rajas guana. The state of mind in which a person acts according desire, passion and anger is referred as rajas.
The three gunas – sattva (transcendence), rajas (activity), and tamas (inertia) – are present in all living beings in the world. Character is formed based on their percentage in a person. Through proper understanding and practice we can control the percentage of the three gunas in us.
The three gunas prompt people to do either good or bad deeds, and there is no external instigator. One should try to overcome the rajas and tamas and avoid being victimized by them.
Desire fulfillment is associated with Rajas. One may think that desires can be quelled by fulfillment, that is, enjoyment of the objects of desire. But sadly it is not the case. Desires only rise again with greater vigor and attack the individual even when one keeps them well fed just as the fire to which fuel is added blazes.
Sri Krishna provides three illustrations in the Bhagavad Gita to show how wisdom is enveloped by desire which is the only perennial foe. Just as the smoke and soot can hide the fire, or the mirror laden with dust cannot reflect objects and the fetus is enveloped in the womb, the rajas and tamas nurtured in one’s mind prevents the recognition of one’s pure being within each one.
Additional Inputs with A Modern Twist on this Ancient Teaching
The Great Guna Game: Why We Act Like Fools When We Know Better
Ever wondered why your perfectly rational friend decides to text their ex at 2 AM, or why you find yourself yelling at traffic when you know it won't make the cars move faster? Welcome to the ancient Hindu understanding of human nature, where our ancestors figured out thousands of years ago what modern psychology is still trying to decode: we're all running on a cocktail of three fundamental forces called gunas, and sometimes this cocktail makes us do spectacularly stupid things.
The Cosmic Remote Control: Understanding the Three Gunas
Picture your personality as a TV with a cosmic remote control operated by three invisible forces. Sattva is like the nature documentary channel - peaceful, wise, and occasionally boring. Rajas is your action movie channel - full of passion, desire, and explosions. Tamas is that static-filled channel you accidentally land on at 3 AM - confused, lazy, and destructive. We're all constantly channel-surfing between these three, and unfortunately, we don't always have great taste in programming.
The Hindu scriptures tell us that crimes and sins aren't committed because some external devil is whispering in our ear (though your mother-in-law might disagree). Instead, it's our internal programming gone haywire. When rajas and tamas team up, they're like that friend who convinces you that buying a motorcycle at midnight is a brilliant investment strategy.
The Dynamic Trio: Character Studies from Ancient Times
Vidura: The Sattva Superstar
Meet Vidura, the ultimate embodiment of sattva guna from the Mahabharata. This guy was like that friend who always gives you sound advice that you ignore until it's too late to follow it. Born to a palace maid but blessed with divine wisdom, Vidura consistently chose righteousness over personal gain.
When the Kauravas were plotting against the Pandavas, Vidura was the voice of reason trying to prevent the catastrophic war. He was like a moral GPS system constantly recalculating the route to righteousness, even when everyone else seemed determined to drive straight into a ditch. His sattva-dominant nature made him immune to the temptations of power and wealth that corrupted those around him. In today's terms, he'd be that colleague who actually reads the terms and conditions before clicking "accept."
Arjuna: The Rajas Rollercoaster
Arjuna represents rajas guna in its most complex form - not purely evil, but driven by intense emotions and desires. He was the ultimate action hero: skilled, passionate, and occasionally having existential crises at the worst possible moments. His rajas nature manifested as both his greatest strength (unmatched archery skills and warrior spirit) and his biggest challenge (emotional turbulence and attachment to outcomes).
The entire Bhagavad Gita exists because Arjuna's rajas guna went into overdrive right before the biggest battle of his life. Standing on the battlefield, he suddenly realized he'd have to fight his own relatives and teachers. His emotional attachment (classic rajas territory) paralyzed him with doubt. Fortunately, Krishna was there to provide some divine therapy, helping Arjuna channel his rajas constructively rather than letting it consume him.
Duryodhana: The Tamas Train Wreck
If Vidura was the moral GPS and Arjuna was the sports car, Duryodhana was the vehicle that somehow ended up driving in reverse on the highway of dharma. Dominated by tamas guna, he represents how ignorance, jealousy, and ego can transform someone with potential into a walking disaster.
Duryodhana wasn't born evil - he was raised that way, nurtured by advisors who fed his tamas tendencies like a destructive echo chamber. His inability to see beyond his own desires and his willful ignorance of dharma led to the devastating Kurukshetra war. He's the perfect example of how tamas guna doesn't just make you lazy - it can make you actively destructive while convincing you that you're the hero of your own story.
The Desire Trap: Why Fulfillment Never Fulfills
The ancient texts compare desire to fire - the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets. This isn't just poetic language; it's a practical observation about human psychology. That promotion you thought would make you happy? Suddenly you want the corner office. Got the corner office? Now you want the CEO's job. It's like being stuck in an endless game where every achievement just unlocks a harder level.
Krishna's three metaphors for how desire clouds wisdom are brilliantly simple. Smoke hiding fire represents how our immediate wants obscure our inner wisdom. A dusty mirror reflects how accumulated desires prevent us from seeing ourselves clearly. The fetus in the womb shows how desire can trap our true nature in a state of perpetual immaturity. In modern terms, desire is like having 50 browser tabs open while trying to focus on important work - theoretically possible, practically disastrous.
Modern Day Guna Spotting
Walk into any office, and you'll see the gunas in action. The sattva person is the one who actually listens during meetings and gives constructive feedback. The rajas-dominated colleague is checking emails while simultaneously planning their next career move and stress-eating energy bars. The tamas-influenced teammate is the one who somehow makes every project more complicated than it needs to be while complaining that nothing ever works.
Social media has become the ultimate guna amplifier. Sattva posts are those thoughtful articles you bookmark but never read. Rajas posts are the passionate rants about everything from politics to pizza preferences. Tamas posts are... well, most of the comments section.
The Feelings Revolution: What Makes Us Human
The beauty of being human lies not in suppressing our emotions but in understanding them. Unlike animals, who act purely on instinct, we have the capacity for self-reflection. The key isn't to become emotionally numb robots but to recognize when our feelings are driving us toward wisdom or folly.
Untamed emotions make us authentic, but wisdom helps us express them constructively. It's the difference between throwing your phone when angry (tamas) versus using that anger to fuel positive change (rajas guided by sattva). The goal isn't to eliminate passion but to channel it wisely.
Practical Guna Management for the Modern Age
The ancient wisdom offers surprisingly practical advice for contemporary life. Recognizing your dominant guna pattern is like understanding your personal weather system. Are you prone to rajas storms of impulsive decision-making? Schedule important choices for your calmer moments. Struggling with tamas fog of procrastination? Create systems that make good choices easier than bad ones.
The scriptures suggest that through conscious practice - whether through meditation, ethical living, or selfless service - we can gradually shift our guna balance toward sattva. It's not about perfection but about progress, like upgrading your internal operating system one mindful choice at a time.
Life Lessons from the Guna Game
The ultimate message isn't that rajas and tamas are evil forces to be eliminated. They're part of the human experience, providing energy and even necessary destruction of outdated patterns. The wisdom lies in not being victimized by them. Instead of being unconsciously driven by these forces, we can learn to consciously work with them.
Crime and sin, in this framework, aren't moral failings requiring external punishment but symptoms of internal imbalance requiring conscious correction. It's a surprisingly compassionate view that sees the criminal not as fundamentally evil but as fundamentally confused - operating from ignorance rather than malice.
This ancient understanding offers hope: if our problems stem from internal imbalance rather than external circumstances, then the solution lies within our power to change. We're not helpless victims of our circumstances but conscious participants in our own character development. The three gunas aren't our masters but our tools, and wisdom lies in learning to use them skillfully rather than being used by them.
In the end, the greatest crime might be living unconsciously, allowing these powerful forces to drive our lives without our awareness or consent. The greatest virtue? Waking up to the game and learning to play it with both skill and humor.
Egoless Living In Hinduism