For dear VC,
Bhgavata Gita
“14:5. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are the gunas originating due to interaction with prakriti. They firmly bind to the body the immortal indweller of it, O mighty-armed.
“14:6. Of these gunas, sattva, thanks to its unstained purity — light and healthy, — attaches by attraction to happiness and by the bonds of relationships (with like-minded people) and by the bonds of knowledge (about the non-important), O sinless one.
“14:7. Know that rajas — the field of passions — is the source of attachment to the earthly life and the thirst for it that binds, O Kaunteya, the indweller of the body by attraction to action.
“14:8. Tamas, born of ignorance, deludes the indwellers of bodies binding them by negligence, carelessness, and laziness, O sinless one.
“14:9. Sattva attaches to bliss; rajas attaches to actions; tamas, verily, destroys wisdom and attaches to carelessness.
“14:10. Sometimes the guna sattva overcomes rajas and tamas; when rajas prevails — then sattva and tamas are defeated; sometimes tamas dominates defeating rajas and sattva.
“14:11. When the light of wisdom shines from every pore of the body, then one can know that in this person sattva grows.
“14:12. Greed, anxiety, urge to act, restlessness, worldly passions — all these qualities arise from growth of rajas.
“14:13. Dullness, laziness, carelessness, and also delusion — all these are born when tamas grows.
“14:14. If at the time of death sattva prevails in man, then he enters pure worlds of men of higher knowledge.
“14:15. If prevails rajas, then he gets born among those attached to action (in the world of matter). Dying in the state of tamas, he will be born again among the ignorant.
“14:16. The fruit of righteous action is harmonious and pure. Verily, the fruit of passion is suffering. The fruit of ignorance is wandering in darkness.
“14:17. Sattva gives birth to wisdom. Rajas — to greed. Carelessness and insanity originate from tamas.
“18. Those who are seated in Sattwa proceed upwards; the Rajasic dwell in the middle; and the Tamasic, abiding in the function of the lowest Guna, go downwards.
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“14:19. When man sees the three gunas as the only reason of activity, and when he cognizes that which is transcendent to the gunas — then he comes to My Essence.
“14:20. When the indweller of the body becomes free from the three gunas related to the world of matter, then such a person becomes free from births, deaths, old-age, suffering, and partakes of immortality.”
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The effect of Tamasa is to stupefy to dullness. Shri Krishna does categorise tamasa as jaghanya -- i.e. detestible quality. Yet we do not see direct correlation of Tamasa with birth of Shudra. What we see is tamasa correlating with the birth of the ignorant. I, like VC, do not understand how shudra (feet of Purusha as per Rig Veda) can be directly correlated with "THE IGNORANT" and "THE UNTOUCHABLE". May be I have missed something.
Om Namah Shivaya
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