The Three Gunas - VanderWilt, Jeff | Library

Watch the following video and answer the questions as best you can while you listen.

Take your time. Pause as needed.
Reflect and rewind or replay as needed while you work through the video and the questions.

The concluding question requires a very high level of reflection. So think hard before you attempt to answer it! There are multiple good answers, but dozens of bad answers to that question.

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1

What are the three gunas?

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The student asked a question:

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The preliminary understanding explored by the teacher is:

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Describe a person who is "tamas." Give an example from fiction or literature.

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The teacher compares the "tamas personality" to a physical object and to a state of being. What physical object does he compare the person to? What word does he use to describe the person and the thing's "state of being?"

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What is the metaphysical claim that underlies the concept of the gunas?

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Why do you suppose it is impossible and even undesirable to exhibit only ONE guna in one's way of being or character? (sattva, rajas, or tamas) Why must everything exhibit all three in different proportions depending on their character or way of being?

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Describe a person who is "rajas." Give an example from fiction or literature.

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Describe a person who is "sattva." Give an example from fiction or literature.

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Drag and drop the following adjectives to the correct guna using the descriptor terms the teacher used in his talk.

things at rest remain at rest
heavy
lazy
dull
ignorant
moving
forces
active
ants in the pants
balance
equal and opposite reaction
sober
content
darkness
illumined
things in motion stay in motion
intertia

tamas
rajas
sattva

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2

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says "Action is better than inaction." Why does this make sense in light of the teacher's discussion of the gunas in this video?

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4

You have seen these quotes before from a homework assignment.

1. Restate your understanding of the quotes from the Bhagavad Gita (the words are from the god, Krishna) in light of the explanation of the teacher in this video.
2. Why should we not be attached to the gunas (sattva, rajas, or tamas)?
3. What is an advantage found in detachment?
4. Why do you think Krishna say we only "dream" that "we" are the "doer?"

(Krishna will later claim that only GOD, HE (Krishna) himself, is the ONLY true "Do-er" in the universe. Thus, when we think that "we" are "doing," we are deceived and living in maya, "illusion.")