Causes of Guna (गुण हेतव)
The 11th Skanda of Srimad Bhagavatham has a discourse known as Uddhava Geeta उद्धव गीता instructions of Lord to his friend Uddava. In this discourse the 11 causes of Gunas are enumerated. Gunas are meta characters of our nature describing attitudes behind actions. Sattva Rajas Tamas (equanimity, activity, inertia due to extreme ignorance, respectively). Generally speaking we should work towards Sattva सत्त्व attitude to make progress on path.
Lord enumerates the 11 causes that have influence on transforming Gunas.
आगम (scripture)
आप: (water)
देश (where you are born)
काल (times you live in)
प्रजा (society)
संस्कार (duties you perform)
ध्यान (meditations)
दान (charities you perform)
जन्म (family you are born in)
कर्म (your daily actions)
सत् संग (association of noble people)
We cant help our place of birth, how society is, times you live in etc. one can control what response to circumstances that may be beyond control. use scripture as guidepost. Sri Krishna is saying that actions you perform and attitudes you bring to them can potentially transform Gunas. Viveka Chudamani says Human birth is difficult and access to teachings uncertain. make good use of your current station in life in transforming yourself.
Reading of Scripture, Sat Sangha, Sattvik Dana, Meditation etc. transform your personality towards more Sattva. These changes your personality. We should also pay attention to inputs are provided to body, mind. Water is essential to our survival for example and what we feed to body, mind is to be examined. If it is not leading to Sattvik Bhava, it needs to be avoided.
ॐ तत् सत्
