Questions and Answers

Replacing Ignorance with Passion

Question: What exactly does it mean to “become established in passion”?

Answer: Tamas is inertia, laziness, sleepiness and filth. It has to go away. There is a saying: “A brahman (teacher, priest) is not sorry for the time spent on cleanliness”. First of all, we need to become active and move away from apathy, to arouse curiosity and thirst for knowledge. People in rajas are very curious and active. It means to become established in passion: to replace ignorance with passion and minimize ignorance in our life to a minimum.

Disadvantages of Television

Question: What guna is watching TV?

Answer: TV is predominantly in the mode of ignorance, as it makes a person passive. To a certain degree the same can be told about computers (for the expectation when it is a part of your work). Children in particular should be protected from the virtual world of TV as it gradually saps their intelligence, and they become more dull and stupid. You will never meet a successful, active and happy person who spends more than one hour a day watching TV. One professor told me, “I got everything I have in life because I threw away my TV”. Despite this, some programs and films are in goodness and can be watched, such as those dealing with spiritual or philosophical subjects or about nature.

Chapter 2
Spiritual Life and the Gunas

“People where you live,” the little prince said, “grow five thousand roses in one garden… yet they don’t find what they’re looking for…

They don’t find it,” I answered.

And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water…”

Of course,” I answered.

And the little prince added, “But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Each of us is engaged in various types of spiritual practices to some extent and want to progress spiritually; otherwise we would not be interested in this kind of knowledge. But we need to realize that if we are established in the lower gunas, it is practically impossible to attain higher spiritual levels, regardless of how many years we practice. This is why it is extremely important to understand the gunas.

Religious Practices in the Lower Gunas Do Not Purify

If a priest, Rabbi or Guru is not mainly in sattva, he will neither be able to progress spiritually, nor help his followers to progress. Just consider how the majority of problems and wars in this world have been started by so-called spiritual leaders who were confident that what they did was right. For example, during the Crusades the Christian preachers used theft and violence to convert others to their faith; they did not consider it sinful to throw a pagan child into a bonfire.

If we are in rajas we think, “My religion is the only right one. To bring goodness in the world means converting everyone to my religion”.

In tamas we think, “Violence is required and should be used.”

People in rajas engage in service with the purpose of gaining some result or benefit for themselves. This is why these religious practices are on the level of, “I will pray and God will help me by fulfilling my needs”. This is very common in modern society. We often come across religious symbols being sold for money, with the claim that they can bring happiness. People often come to religion for recognition, power or wealth; people organize pilgrimages to holy places so that they can become rich, establish/improve personal life and so on.

Many people believe that Paganism is another form of worship, a form of Polytheism. Yet at some point it becomes a worship for the sake of material profit – “God, send me this, or save me from that”. In the construct of this type of a mindset, if our desires are fulfilled – we say “God is good”, but if not – “God is bad” or people say that Satan has won. In some cases people ask a question, “What happened to God? What on earth is He thinking? How did He let THIS or THAT happen?” Only the sattva guna can truly inspire us to follow the path of spiritual perfection, helping us to become harmonious and balanced personalities.

A Combination of Passion and Goodness Can Positively Change Situations

If the person is in goodness he experiences happiness, contentment and is able to hear his intuition. If we do not experience these symptoms, it means we are bound by passion and ignorance. If everything surrounding us becomes permeated by goodness, it permeates us as well. Ignorance and passion come easily into our lives, but for goodness to come, we have to work first and input effort into achieving it. In order to become elevated into goodness, we must learn how to act proactively (which includes doing things in advance).

If we are living in ignorance, we will always complain about unfulfilled expectations, but in reality have little interest in changing ourselves. To make changes and progress, rajas and sattva are required. This is important for all of us, not only those engaged in spiritual practices. There is a real life story that illustrates it.

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A bomber of the USSR North Navy crashed due to a failure of the navigation system. The coastal service had sent the airplane in the opposite direction of the coast. When the air crew understood that they had been sent in the wrong direction, they turned around but there was not enough fuel to return to their base. They abandoned the airplane, parachuted and landed in the Barents Sea. They had three rafts. The captain thought they would not make it due to being too far of shore and it was too cold, so he shot himself. The second pilot got drunk and after a few weeks was found frozen to death. The navigator, a young lieutenant, had a dear wife and baby at home. His intense desire to see them again influenced his decision to make it at any cost. He paddled on his raft for two days without any food or water, using only his hands. When he reached the shore he had to walk for many hours, finally losing consciousness within sight of a fisher-man’s cottage. He was found and after regaining consciousness, was brought home to his family without any serious harm. This is the guna of passion (action, determination) combined with goodness (optimism, fearlessness) – together they can become a powerful force that can create miracles in all areas of our life.

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When we are in passion we try to change things; when in ignorance we just complain about our illnesses without a true intention to heal from them. Most sick people on an inner/ energy level actually want to remain as they are.

In passion, one who is sick will try first and foremost to relieve the symptoms by taking powerful Western/conventional medicine. The symptoms can actually disappear (for example, some tablets can eliminate a fever in one hour) but damage is also caused to our body because each tablet has many side effects. In passion we do not consider the consequences of the damage done, and our main concern is “Now that it is gone I can get back to work/partying/etc.”.

I have a relative who is in his seventies. When he was young he once read about how dangerous and harmful almost all chemical medicines are; as a result he stopped taking them completely. After a couple of years all his ailments had gone and today he is still healthy and physically active on his farm.

Chapter 3
How to Raise Children Harmoniously

Child Rearing and the Gunas

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

William Faulkner

According to Ayurveda, it is important to undergo various processes of physical and mental purification for at least one year before conceiving a child. It is also necessary to choose a suitable day for conception, to attract a pure and harmonious soul that will bring happiness to everyone. A pregnancy in sattva can be a source of tremendous happiness and benefit; the mother can receive countless spiritual and psychological realizations.

Unfortunately, modern doctors are not in Sattva in their majority. Western modern medical science – allopathic medicine – in predominantly is in passion (rajas) and ignorance (tamas).

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Recently one lady informed me how doctors had tried to dissuade her from having her child, saying she was too old (thirty-eight) to give birth to, that the child might have deffects such as Down’s syndrome, she would need to have serious medical tests done, and that the best option was to have an abortion. I know many other similar cases.

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In rajas, people are strongly attached to their job. Many women work throughout their pregnancies, and some also return to work as soon as possible after birth, although for a proper child development breastfeeding for at least two years in highly recommended. In the worst cases children may grow up with little love for their parents, and leave them in a sheltered housing as they become older, as a payback.

It is often due to the influence of passion on the mother – rather than spending valuable time with her child, she could immediately return to work, with little concern for their proper feeding or having a sattvic environment. But if children are raised properly they can bring great fortune to everyone. Even very busy parents need to find at least some time each day to focus on their child.

Upbringing in Ignorance: parents consume alcohol or take drugs, physically abuse each other or their child (it is considered that before the age of five, children should be treated like God and should never be subjected to physical violence, especially girls). Ignorance is when parents listen to heavy/disturbing music, watch pornography or horror movies, or the house is dirty. Ignorance is also present when teachers use force on children or sexually abuse them, come to school under the influence of alcohol, use illicit language and so on.

Upbringing in Passion: it is the most popular model of bringing up today. Parents focus on giving stuff to their child, or helping them to achieve some material wealth or power. These days it is extremely common for parents to give their children very little love and warmth; their main goal is to support their kids (and themselves) materially. They send them to prestige schools, buying expensive presents in an attempt to fulfill their duty as parents. This enables them to remain preoccupied with their jobs and social lives, but they forget that children need unconditional love most of all. Their priority is for their child to become externally successful by getting some impressive position, status or rank; it shows that their child has become truly established. Parents are attached to their own children and indifferent to others.

Teachers in passion have no interest in developing the moral qualities of character or spiritual values of their students. Their main concern is to provide as much information as possible to help them achieve better exam results. No one is interested in whether the delivered knowledge is valuable in real life, as long as the students can obtain a prestigious diploma. Competitive models of education have become very popular. Most schools are located in large cities (with rajas predominance). Parents take their kids to multiple extracurricular classes (dancing, sports, etc) which increases guns of passion in children.

Teachers and parents are not aware that early sexual life, pornography, erotics influence the adolescents in a destructive way. If the element of ignorance is added, the child is familiarized with sexuality subjects before puberty, in a visual manner, this closes of their top energy centres, and the child become incapable of studying and processing information well. This way children are taught at early age, they become the slaves of their desires and urges.

For example, in Switzerland there are kindergartens, where children are told that homosexuality is a norm. In Germany they distribute Kama-Sutra for children for free, where they are taught how to have sex. In Canada, in Ontario, where I currently reside, the proposal was approved at the parliament level to introduce graphic sexual education curriculum from the first grade (age 6–7), where a lot is shown in pictures and again, the introduction of “the norm” or homosexuality” and so on.

As of now, this horror starts 3–4 years later. Thus, a relative of my wife in the age of 10–11, after these classes was taught how to put on a condom (on the mannequin) and also that you need to have a condom with you always, just in case (but it won’t be needed if she decides to have sex with a girlfriend).

It was a norm in advanced civilizations to kill those who defile and corrupt children and adolescents, condemning them for a miserable life, and dooming society for extinction, high levels of crime and compete destruction of the institute of family.

We had a nanny from Lithuania, who told us that her close relative who worked in England, shared with her, with shock that there are more than ever bars where a woman can visit with an infant. There is loud music, smoke, they are drinking alcohol, and look for new sexual partners between breastfeeding…

Upbringing in Goodness: it is important for mother to eat fresh and nourishing food – food in goodness allows mother to stay healthy and helps the child develop properly. The best place to live in is in the countryside, surrounded by nature; it makes it easier for mother to remain relaxed and peaceful during the pregnancy. She should also associate with those who are loving and supportive, avoiding those who are heavily influenced by lower or negative energies.

When a child is raised in goodness, the home is clean and located in the countryside with an atmosphere of mutual respect and harmony. Parents, particularly the mother, consider the upbringing of children to be the primary duty. Children receive ample love. When they make a mistake the parent’s reaction is “You have made a mistake”, but never “You are bad”. Parents nurture their child according to their individual talents and desires and not based on their own selfish motives, “My child must become a diplomat, celebrity, doctor, lawyer, etc…” Their prime concern is to make sure that their child becomes a balanced, virtuous person. Parents watch the diet of the child and feed him natural sattvic food, choose his association and communication. Parents develop altruistic mindset from the childhood. They teach him to be generous, not an egoistic consumer. Parents teach to say a prayer before meals, take part in charitable events, help others, be modest. They prepare a child to a happy family life, teaching him that family is a value of utmost importance.

A system where boys and girls are educated separately is a main condition of raising children in sattva especially in adolescence. Schools located near parks, on the nature, in beautiful places are in goodness. The mother, ideally, stays at home, or works part-time for her own pleasure, and this work does not interfere with a child’s upbringing.

I read that minister of education of one of the Canadian provinces admitted that it is best for children’s health and happiness when the mother is staying at home with children.

Raising a child begins even before conception. Approximately one year in advance parents must start cleansing their bodies of toxins, purify their consciousness and subtle bodies from resentment, anger and other negative emotions. The act of conception is performed in a responsible manner – in a clean atmosphere, during an astrologically auspicious time, in an elevated state of consciousness and preceded by prayer.

During the pregnancy everything is arranged so as to allow the mother to stay in a loving and pleasant environment. It is understood that the pregnancy and the first two or three years of a child’s life are essential periods for their physical and psychological development. At this stage it is important to relate properly to the child, giving him plenty of time and affection.

There are special methods for raising a child which we have only touched on here.

From the age of six to fifteen, parents should be somewhat strict with their child, because they know that during this period they need some restrictions. Otherwise, if they are given the freedom to do whatever they want, they would start to eat all kinds of junk food, and may even end up smoking, taking alcohol or drugs, watching pornography, etc…

From the age of fifteen parents should adopt a more friendly relationship with their child. By this point his character has already been formed, so it is generally unfeasible and utterly unnecessary to maintain a strict control over him.

When comparing Western systems of education, the English private school system used to have, and still has to some extent, a substantial element of sattva. For example, such schools were usually located in rural areas, surrounded by nature. Before the age of fourteen boys were disciplined very strictly, but once their individual characters were formed they were treated like gentlemen. Yet once the lament of passion and ignorance was introduced – free sex – the whole system stopped working.