Who is Sant or Sattvika Person -The Shrimad Bhagavad Gita

Who is Sant or Sattvika Person -The Shrimad Bhagavad Gita
॥ श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता ॥ ॥ ॐ श्री परमात्मने नमः ॥ ॥ अथ श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता ॥
 
Shree Krishna has explained in chapters 14, 16 17 and 18 of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita about the different personalities of persons which are caused by the root material i.e. Prakriti (nature) having three attributes viz. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas in varying proportion. The different characteristics viz. state of mind, actions & doership, charity, spiritual duties, food habits, true knowledge, intellect, determination, joy and re-birth spell out about the Sattvika person.
 
Sattvika persons are virtuous & kind and are having restraint of senses, regulation of the organs, freedom from enmity, correct judgement, the attainment of knowledge and supernatural powers. The Sattva being clean, is illuminating and flawless, it binds through attachment to happiness and knowledge (14.6). Sattva draws one to pleasure (14.9). Overpowering Rajas and Tamas, Sattva prevails (14.10). Wisdom and discernment in the body, mind and senses, Sattva element predominates. (14.11).
 
Whatever is done without vanity (self-importance), but is motivated by the good of others and has the grace of God in mind, is sattvika. Those who are sattvika desire salvation and cultivate renunciation, divine love without motive, actions dedicated to God etc. and they will be drawn to Divine manifestations that bestow these excellences.

Sattvika has effects like luminosity, peace, knowledge and pleasure and objects with such properties. Knowledge dominated by Sattva leads to understanding of unity in diversity; actions dominated by it tend to detachment and freedom from passionate affiliations; a doer dominated by it is comparatively free from ego-sense and attachment but yet does not lack enthusiasm and interest in the work; the intelligence dominate it is always accompanied by moral sensibility and eye on spiritual side of things; strength of mind is dominated by it expressed as control of senses & the mind and strict adherence to principles; and experience dominated by it is painful in the beginning due to difficulties in discipline, but ends in great bliss.

The main attributes of Sattvika Person (Saint) are listed as under (in bracket, chapter.verse) (the relevant Sanskrit verses of Bhagavad Gita are mentioned at the bottom):

1. Sattvika state of mind:
   1. Sublimity, forgiveness, fortitude, external purity, bearing enmity to none i.e. absence of hatred, absence of fickleness (indecisiveness), Vigour, and absence of self-esteem/pride, perfect purity of mind, uprightness of mind as well as of the body and senses, absolute fearlessness, constant fixity in the Yoga of meditation and knowledge for the sake of Self-realization.
   2. Absence of anger even on provocation, peacefulness/quietude or composure of mind, abstaining from slander or crookedness (17.14).
   3. Cheerfulness of mind, placidity, habit of contemplation on God, control of the mind and perfect purity of inner feelings-all this is called austerity of the mind (17.16).
2. Body & senses: Purity, straightforwardness, continence (self-restraint) and non-violence-these are called penance of the body (17.14).
3. Non-violence: Non-violence in thought, word and deed.
4. Compassion & Charity:
   1. Compassion towards all creatures.
   2. One believes that charity must be performed, is Sattvika in character (17.11).
   3. Charity which is bestowed with a sense of duty on one from whom no return is expected, at appropriate time and place, and to a deserving person (hungry, orphan, sick, patient, beggar, disable etc.) that charity has been declared as Sattvika (17.20).
5. Spiritual duties:
   1. Worship of God and other deities, the Brahmanas, one’s guru, elders and great soul, (17.14).
   2. Performance of Agnihotra (pouring oblations into the sacred fire) and other sacred duties (17.5, 17.6),
   3. Study and teaching of the Vedas and other sacred books (17.5, 17.6),
   4. Chanting of God’s names and glories, suffering hardships for the discharge of one’s sacred obligations. (17.5, 17.6).
6. Actions & Doership:
   1. An action which is ordained by the scriptures and is not accompanied by the sense of doership, and has been done without any attachment or aversion by one who seeks no return, is called Sattvika (18.23).
   2. A prescribed duty which is performed simply because it has to be performed, giving up attachment and fruit, which alone has been recognized as the Sattvika (18.9). 
   3. Free from attachment, not egoistic, endowed with firmness and zeal and not swayed by success and failure-such a doer is said to be Sattvika (18.26).
   4. Gentleness, modesty, a sense of shame in transgressing the scriptures or social conventions, and abstaining from frivolous pursuits;
   5. Sacrifice, charity and penance, and all other acts of duty too, must be performed without attachment and expectation of reward (18.6).
   6. The reward of a righteous act is Sattvika i.e., faultless in the form of joy, wisdom and dispassion etc., (14.16).
7. Food habits: Foods which promote longevity, intelligence, vigour, health, happiness and cheerfulness, and which are juicy, succulent, substantial and naturally agreeable, are liked by person of Sattvika nature (17.8).
8. Speech: Words which cause no annoyance to others and are truthful, kind, agreeable and beneficial (17.15).
9. True Knowledge: One who perceives as one imperishable divine existence as undivided and equally present in all individual beings, is Sattvika (18.20).
10. Intellect: The intellect which correctly determines the paths of activity and renunciation (प्रवत्तिमार्ग – living in family & renunciation of fruits and attachment, like Raja Janak) and renunciation (निवृत्तिमार्ग – Renunciation of doership & oneness with Supreme Being, like Shree Shukdev & Sankadik), what ought to be done and what should not be done, what is fear and what is fearlessness, and what is bondage and what is liberation, that intellect is Sattvika (18.30).).
11. Determination: The unwavering perseverance (determination, persistence) by which man controls through the Yoga of meditation the functions of the mind, the vital airs and the senses-that firmness is Sattvika (33).
12. Joy: That in which the doer finds enjoyment through practice of adoration, meditation and service to God etc., and whereby he reaches the end of sorrow-such a joy, though appearing as poison in the beginning, tastes like nectar in the end; hence that joy, born as it is of the placidity of mind brought about by meditation on God, has been declared as Sattvika (18.36, 18.37).).
13. Re-birth - When a man dies during the preponderance of Sattva, he obtains the clean ethereal worlds (heaven etc.,) attained by men of noble deeds (14).

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