Fighting and killing a person will not be regarded as sattva guna right?Then how come Rama being Sattva guna person killed Ravana. Based on circumstances, can one change from sattva guna to rajas and tamo?
Else is my understanding wrong, that a sattva guna person cannot kill a rajas or tamo guna person?
How can a 21st century sattva guna person mingle with rajas and tamo guna people around him? Are there any suggesions from anywhere?
Don't confuse Lord Rama with ordinary jivas. Rama is an incarnation of God. The Lord is not subject to the laws of karma. He takes birth through His sweet Will, not from the effects of past karma.
All people have a mixture of the three gunas in them. Killing is subject to your duty. Krishna says to Arjuna in Gita Chapter 2 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):
Considering also, your own dharma, you should not waver; for a kshatriya nothing is better than a righteous war.
Happy indeed are the kayatriyas, O Partha, to whom comes such a war, offering itself unsought, opening the gate to heaven.
But if you refuse to wage this righteous war, then, renouncing your own dharma and honour, you will certainly incur sin.
..37. If you are killed in the battle, you will go to heaven, if you win, you will enjoy the earth. Therefore arise, O son of Kunti, resolved to fight.
- Regarding alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, success and defeat, prepare yourself for battle. Thus you will incur no sin.
Whether an action is good or bad, sattvic or tamasic, depends upon your dharma. If you are a soldier in the army, it is your duty, your dharma to defend your country. As such your dharma may include killing. On the other hand, a sadhu who has renounced the world, has a duty to not kill. A householder has a duty to defend his family. If someone enters your house to do injury to your family, it is your duty to defend them, to strike blows if necessary; to not defend them is tamasic. On the other hand, a sadhu cannot raise his hand in defense of himself, to do so for him is tamasic. One's actions to be judged as tamasic, rajasic, or sattvic, depends upon your personal dharma. As Krishna says in the last verse quoted, the secret is to regard the outcomes of your dharmic duties without attachment.
First let us know that "there is no entity on earth or again in heaven among the Devas that is devoid of these three gunas ( sattva, Rajas and tamas) born of prakriti. " Geeta ch 18 sloka 40. Na tadasti.......... Syaat trivirgunaih. The nature of each one of us ia a combination of these three gunas. It is the dominance of a particular guna that decides a man ' nature. As regards to a person with predominant sattvagun indulging in fighting and killing ,a most befitting statement is given in sl 17 ch 18 of Geeta . Yasya nahamkrito bhavo budhhir yasya na lipyate! Hatvapi sa imanlokan na hanti na nivadhyate !! One who is free from the notion of egoism, whose intelligence is not tainted though he kills these people he kills not nor is bound ( by the action). The quality trait mentioned here is that of a sattvagun rich person. . Lord Ram killing Ravan is in fact deliverence of justice. A true judge is never considered as a sinner for awarding death penalty to a killer or rapist nor, a judge so thinks of himself. It is perhaps ,out of this vision that right of private deffence has been given in law. One behaves according to ones nature. Prakrityaiva cha karmaani kriyamanani sarvasah ! Geeta ch 13 sl 29 .One can not alter his nature now and then according to his wish and will. The nature of sun is to deliver heat and light. No one has ever heard of sun accidentally delivering Cool. It s only through sustained practice that some one become predominant in sattvagun. A sattvaguna endowed person happens to be a highly evolved one, endowed with the virtue of true knowledge, humility, love and harmony, free from ego, desire fear, anger etc as such he can move anywhere and freely, even with person of rajsic and tamasic nature because nothing can taint him. Through its light the Sun help spread the fragrance of flowers and it also falls on the dirty stinking human remains, but nothing taints the sun. It keeps on shining in its pristine glory. Same with sattva predominant person. Keeps on doing karma for the sake of karma. Any other blessed soul may like to add clarity wherever needed. Regards, Hare Krishna.
