Behavior Of The Man Who Has Gone Beyond Gunas

The river makes a noise as it is moving, but this noise comes to an end when it joins the ocean. To the pillar in the house, the passing of the night and the dawning of the day are both the same. Similarly are happiness and misery to the Soul inside the body.

To the man, who is fast asleep, it does not matter whether his bed companion is a fair beauty or a serpent.

To him, who is absorbed in Brahman, happiness and misery do not matter. Cow dung and gold are the same to him. A jewel and a stone are the same to him. His sight has found equanimity.

Even if heavens were to walk to his door or a tiger came on his threshold to eat him, his absorption in Self will not be disturbed. A dead body cannot be made alive again. A dead seed cannot sprout.  So is his steady intelligence, which cannot be detracted.

If he gets homage from people in the belief that he is Brahman or if he gets insulted by them in the belief that he is unclean, he is indifferent.

Praise and insult appear the same to him, just as in the house of the sun, there can neither be a lamp nor darkness.

Whether he is worshiped as a deity, imprisoned as a thief, elevated to the throne as a king, his friends and relations come to him, or enemies trouble him, he is indifferent like the sun.

His equanimity is never broken, just as the sky remains the same during the six seasons.

Whatever he does, he knows in his heart to be equivalent to zero. He never starts an action through desire. The desire for fruits never remains in his heart, because the fire of Jnana (wisdom) burns it away. He has no ambitions in this or in the other world. He accepts whatever comes to him of its own. His heart is like a stone, incapable of happiness or misery. He is neither contented nor discontented. He neither takes nor gives. Such is the behavior of the man, who has gone beyond Gunas.

Source – Gita as Explained by Dnyaneshwar Maharaj

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What is Guna in Hinduism?

Hinduism teaches us that energy has three qualities. In nature, these three qualities exist in equilibrium – Sattwa (calm/peaceful/pure), Rajas (activity/attachment/desire), and Tamas (darkness/inertia). The three Gunas also govern human beings.

Chapter 14 of Bhagavad Gita on Gunas

Purity (Sattva), passion (Rajas), and inertia (Tamas) – these Gunas born of Prakriti bind fast in the body the embodied, the indestructible.