Questioner: One of the chapters is on Sattvik and Tamasik action. So how do you distinguish? And you keep saying in the book that there is a fine line between Sattvik and Tamasik actions.
Acharya Prashant: You see, Tamasik action is when you’re conditioned; when you’re in bondage, yet you feel untroubled by your situation. You say, “I am confident, I am doing the right thing. I am at the right place. I know, I understand. I am just all right.” That is Tamasikta. Like a fellow who cares not at all about the world because he is drunk. And then there is the fellow who cares not at all about the world because he realizes the intrinsic nature of the world. This is Sattvikta.
I said, 'There is a fine line between the two because there is a great apparent commonality, similarity.' What is that? Both these fellows are confident of their situation and do not worry too much about the world. But one is confident because one is totally deluded and the other is confident because he is liberated.
Tamasikta has been taken as the lowest of the three Gunas in Prakriti, precisely because it keeps one comfortable. When one is Rajasik then one is restless, but when one is Tamasik, one is at rest—a very dangerous kind of rest.
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