Gita 7.12

Sadhak: "Guruji, I understand the gunas intellectually, but I don't experience this freedom. When I'm in a tamasic state, I can't find any witness separate from the heaviness. It feels like all of me is depressed."

Guru: "Who is saying 'all of me is depressed'? Even in the depths of tamas, something is aware of the tamas. That awareness is not itself tamasic—awareness has no weight, no color, no quality. You're already standing outside the guna even as you claim to be fully inside it."

Sadhak: "But that awareness feels very subtle and distant while the tamas feels overwhelming and immediate. How can that quiet witness help when I'm drowning in darkness?"

Guru: "You're measuring by intensity, but intensity is not reality. A dream can be intensely vivid while the dreamer remains peacefully asleep. The gunas are dramatic, but drama doesn't equal substance. Begin by acknowledging: 'Something knows this darkness.' That something cannot be dark—darkness cannot see itself. Start there, and the space around the state begins to reveal itself."

Sadhak: "Krishna says the gunas come from Him but He's not in them. What does 'not in them' mean exactly? He seems to be everywhere."

Guru: "Consider your body: your hand is in your body, but are you in your hand? If your hand is cut off, are you diminished? The whole contains the part, but the whole's identity doesn't depend on the part. Krishna pervades all gunas as their source, but His identity is not captured or limited by them. He's not 'more present' in sattva than in tamas."

Sadhak: "So God is equally in evil as in good? That seems to justify terrible things."

Guru: "The electricity powering a hospital is the same electricity powering a torture device. The electricity doesn't justify either—it's simply the ground on which both manifest. Divine presence is not Divine approval. Krishna's point is ontological (about the nature of being), not ethical (about right and wrong). The gunas emerge from one source, but that doesn't make them ethically equivalent. Water flows to the sea whether through gardens or sewers—its destination says nothing about the value of gardens versus sewers."

Sadhak: "If even sattva doesn't bring us closer to the Divine, why should I cultivate it? Why not just let whatever happens, happen?"

Guru: "Sattva doesn't bring you closer because you're never apart—but sattva creates conditions where recognition is easier. In a clean, still pool, you can see your reflection clearly. In a turbulent, muddy pool, you cannot. You're equally present either way, but recognition varies. Cultivate sattva not to become spiritual but to see clearly what you already are."

Sadhak: "How do I apply this in daily life? When I'm feeling anxious or dull or even blissful—what do I actually do?"

Guru: "The key phrase is: 'they are in Me.' Practice feeling states arising IN you rather than you being IN them. Anxiety arises—can you feel it as a visitor in your space rather than as your identity? This isn't suppression or detachment but accurate perception. The state is real, but it's appearing within you; you're not appearing within it."

Sadhak: "Won't this make me cold and detached from life?"

Guru: "The opposite! When you know states can't trap you, you can enter them fully without fear. You can feel sorrow completely because sorrow cannot imprison you. You can feel joy completely because you don't clutch it in fear of its passing. The witness position enables full engagement precisely because it removes the existential stakes. You play the game fully when you know it's a game."

Sadhak: "This understanding feels precious. How do I deepen it?"

Guru: "Notice transitions. When tamas becomes rajas, when rajas becomes sattva—what remains unchanged across the transition? That unchanging is you. The gunas come and go; you are what they come and go WITHIN. Every transition is an opportunity to recognize the background that never transitions."