________________
VIVEKACUDAMANI
making for grief by their terrible nature, their causing the series of human activity ultimately ending in bondage.
कामः क्रोधो लोभदम्भाभ्यसूयाऽहंकारेर्ष्यामत्सराद्यास्तु घोराः । धर्मा एते राजसाः पुंप्रवृत्तिर्यस्मादेतत्तद्रजो बन्धहेतुः ॥। ११४ ।।
kāmaḥ krodho lobhadambhabhyasāyā
'hamkarerṣyamatsarādyāstu ghorāḥ |
dharma ete rājasāḥ pumpravṛttiḥ yasmādetat tadrajo bandhahetuḥ 11
133
Desire, anger, avarice, pride, jealousy, egoism, envy, niggardliness etc., these are terrible characteristics of rajas and are inducements to actions of men. This rajas is the cause of bondage.
Kāma is desire for objects. Krodha is the mental change that ensues when a desired object is not obtained. Lobha is the thought of safeguarding a thing obtained. Dambha is ostentatious display of one's qualities. Abhyasuya is intolerance of the prosperity of others. Ahamkāra is consciousness of one's superiority. Irsya is interpreting good qualities as bad. Matsara is the tendency not to part with things which are inexhaustible like preventing a person from drinking from a well dug by the king.
The word adi in matsarādi is to include lust and insolence.
These are said to be ghorah, terrible as they are the cause of danger both in this world and in the next. These characteristics are called rājasāḥ, because a man subject to desire, anger etc., does not refrain from action at any time, but always keeps on ever doing something or other. That even a little of a man's actions is to be attributed to rajoguņa is borne out by the Gītā which says: rajaḥ karmani Bharata sañjayati: 'O Bhārata, rajas triumphs in action.' The Nyaya Sūtra says: pravartanālakṣaṇā doṣaḥ: "The rājasic qualities are stimuli to activity". Sukha issues out only from desisting from action. In the case of a person affected by rajoguna there is no place for desisting from action. The Gītā also says: lobhaḥ pravṛttirārambhaḥ karmaṇāmasamaḥ spṛhā || rajasyetāni jāyante vivṛddhe Bharatarṣabha "Greed, activity, involvement in work, unrest, desire these arise when rajas is predominant, O! best of the Bharatas". Therefore, this activity which is a fact of the experience of all persons which springs from the rajoguņa and spoken of as a quality of māyā is the cause of bondage. The superimposition produced by combination of cause and effect makes for bondage; with
