Did the proportion of the three basic qualities in souls change with time since the beginning of creation?

[Shri Anil asked: Swami, as learned from Your knowledge, I understand that the three qualities namely, sattvam, rajas and tamas essentially indicate the three fundamental traits namely; knowledge & analysis, action that results from the analysis, and the firm determination in executing the action in practice. This means that all the qualities are good, without any superiority over the other. Swami, we would like to know the origin of the three qualities in a person. You mentioned that the three qualities always exist in an equilibrium state. What was the proportion of these three qualities in a person in the beginning of the creation? For argument’s sake, can we say that, in a certain person, it was something like 98% , 1% and 1% respectively (i.e., predominanting in sattvam)? And when yugas passed, did the proportion in that same person change to something like 2%, 30%, 68%? Assuming that this happened, how can the qualities change? Are these qualities still not all good, as far as their basic traits (knowledge, action, and determination) are concerned? You have also mentioned that the qualities can be influenced by right divine knowledge? My doubt is how can the qualities in a person change their % composition through knowledge or through the direction and the habit adopted by the person?]

Swami replied: In the beginning of creation, these three qualities were in equilibrium with each other. Such a creation cannot give entertainment to anybody, unless different personalities result due to the different compositions of these three qualities. This means that a disturbance in the equilibrium of these three qualities took place in the early period of creation. In fact, scholars say that such a disturbance in the equilibrium of these three qualities was the starting point of creation. This means that creation can be said to have actually started only when different roles and different personalities of souls emerge. That is when the movie of creation becomes interesting. When the movie of creation begins, exactly at that moment, the disturbance in the equilibrium has also started. The earlier part of creation, when all souls were in the state of equilibrium of these three qualities, can be considered to be like the advertisements shown before the actual movie-show begins. The spectators show no interest in those advertisements. They say that the movie has not started yet.

When that equilibrium existed, there was no disturbance and perfect peace prevailed. In that state of equilibrium, there is no free will. Souls did not decide anything on their own. They only followed the instructions of God like robots. The souls got bored of that equilibrium and wished for a change, so that they could be entertained. Then, God, the Father of all souls, gave full freedom to the souls so that they could come out of the boredom, which is nothing but unhappiness. The Father always wants to see his children happy. But in giving freedom to souls there is a lot of danger, which is the attraction of souls towards committing sins. In order to protect His children, God took several precautions like giving divine scriptures and preaching spiritual knowledge to souls by descending as Human Incarnations etc.

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| Shri Datta Swami | Did the proportion of the three basic qualities in souls change with time since the beginning of creation? |