​Is truth different for people in different modes?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so is truth different for people in different modes and if there is overlapping we say that somebody worship Devatas they are in Rajoguna, Tamoguna but can a person in Satoguna also be worshipping the Devatas yes it is definitely possible that people in Satoguna can also worship say Kali or Shiva we have to understand that the modes themselves are very complex consider the color theory say in in in electronics usually they are considered three main colors RGB or RYB whatever in different modes of analysis they are different so now using these three colors many different colors appear on the screen so now sometimes depending on the percentage of the kind of the way the three primary colors are combined we can have a result which is entirely different so for example if we consider RGB as the three main colors then how do I get pink? how do I get sapphire? how do I get whatever colors how do I get purple? it’s a combination so the just as the combination of three colors can lead to a color which does not seem to be at all like any of the three colors it seems to be quite distinct in its own so like that the three modes lead to distinct individualities in different people and based on that understanding of individuality or variety in individuals we need to move forward from whatever study understanding we have had earlier of the analytical framework see when we say people in sattva guna say we worship Brahma, Tamoguna, we worship Durga, we worship Kali or Shiva we may say that today practically there are no temples of Brahmaji and here the majority of the people are in Rajoguna so what is happening? where are people in Rajoguna going? so as far as people are defined in terms of the characteristics of the three modes, Rajoguna is analyzed from various phases, from their lifestyle, from their mentality, from their diet, it’s also from their mode of worship so the mode of worship and the the object of worship and the mode it’s not an absolute one to one correspondence the the object of worship is one indicator of the mode of nature that a particular person is affected by so that means a person who has a largely a Rajasic conception of the object of worship they will worship a particular devata those who have a Tamasic conception of the object of worship, they will worship a particular concept, particular devata now that does not mean that their whole lifestyle has to necessarily be Tamasic people gravitate towards their objects of worship because of various reasons so for example, a person might be worshipping a particular goddess or a particular god because of a traditional upbringing and they never invested a lot of thought in it because of their tradition always in their family tradition they worship a particular devata so they continue worshipping that particular devata but in terms of their individual nature or their individual lifestyle, their lifestyle may be quite different so some people by their past life karma may be born in a particular family where so they themselves may be Sattvic in terms of their mentality and in terms of their lifestyle but they may be born for some reasons some karmic complications they may be born in families where say the goddess is being worshipped and they may well continue to worship the goddess so if we look at the prayers, just like we have the Alwars in Vaishnavism there are the Nayanvars in Shaivism and many of the Nayanvars they actually write prayers of fairly exalted devotion to Shiva and they are actually offering prayers of selfless love so there can of course be devotees who are at a very exalted level worshippers of devatas who may be at a very exalted level of consciousness so broadly speaking the people of a particular mentality will be attracted to a particular conception of divinity but that does not mean that there is an absolute one to one correspondence between mentality and conception of divinity in all cases further can reality be different for people in different modes? Yes certainly just like a person who is wearing red spectacles will see everything as red similarly a person who is in the mode of passion will see things in a particular way. The question here is not whether that particular thing is like that or not. The question is see there is a reality which is there out there absolute truth but there is also the conception of reality and one of the biggest philosophical issues in philosophy in general and in philosophy of science also in particular is that actually we never contact reality we only contact our perception of reality we only contact our reality as it is perceived by us now I am not talking from a person who is getting some spiritual vision or is having some scriptural hmm scripturally guided understanding I am simply talking about normal operational way we don’t know what is out there we only know how what is out there relates with our senses and based on that only we can perceive so reality in absolute sense is the same for everyone but that reality in absolute sense is unknowable to us in our present state of consciousness so reality as it is observed by us is very different depending on our individual mentalities and there are many different examples given in scripture itself for that there is a traditional I think it comes from Chanakya it comes in other places also that the same object a woman is seen as a object of lust by by a man by a young man as a display of illusory energy by a sage and as a as food by a tiger say so like that the relativity of perception is a this is a simple example to illustrate this but the fact is that we have no contact with reality we have only contact with our perception of reality and our perception of reality is definitely shaped by the mode that we are in so just as a red color spectacle makes us see everything as red similarly the modes shape our conditioning and they shape our perception of reality so in operational sense yes reality can be different for different people and different people may therefore consider different forms of divine to be supreme or to be the supreme for them so we don’t have to make what is ultimately a subject of faith and revelation into a interminable argumentative discussion