PART 1: The Three Robbers – Happiness vs. Peace
In spirituality, Peace is often mistaken for happiness, by both students and teachers, so that elevated feeling states become the goal and are taken as evidence of liberation.
And while Peace can give rise to happiness, happiness is not Peace. They belong to different orders of reality and are fundamentally different. Happiness describes a dualistic feeling state within experience, while Peace points to the nature of Reality itself.
The following parable told by Sri Ramakrishna addresses this common misconception.
The Parable
A traveler was making his way through a dense forest when he was suddenly attacked by three robbers who took away all his possessions.
The first robber said, “Why keep this man alive?” and raised his sword to kill him.
The second robber stopped him. “No,” he said. “Why kill him? Let’s just tie him up and leave him here.” So they tied the man’s hands and feet and went away.
After a while, the third robber came back. “I am sorry,” he said. “Are you hurt?” He untied the man and said, “Come with me. I will take you to the main road.”
After a long walk, they reached the road. The man said, “You have been very kind. Please come to my house.”
The robber shook his head and stepped back toward the forest. “No,” he replied. “I cannot go where you are going. If I do, the police will find me.”
The Three Gunas
The forest is the world, or duality. The three robbers are the three gunas, which are different modes of being or experiencing the world.
- The first is tamas (confusion): it distorts or shuts down awareness of ultimate Reality entirely.
- The second is rajas (restlessness): it binds us to duality through desires and action.
- The third is sattva (harmony): it calms the mind and produces states of clarity and bliss.
The Two Contexts
Reality can be described in two contexts: what is real, Absolute Reality, and what is false, Relative Reality.
What is real does not come and go and exists in its own right. What is false comes and goes and does not exist in its own right.
Relative Reality therefore is the domain of change, experience and duality — the world as it appears through perception and the mind.
Absolute Reality then is not another layer on top of that, but that in which the world of appearances arises and disappears. It is therefore not an object of experience, but the ground as which all experience is known.
Dualistic Feeling States vs. Peace
Dualistic feeling states — anger, confusion, contentment, happiness, bliss, etc. — do not exist in their own right. They are defined in relation to each other, and they come and go.
Because of their intensity, depth or refinement, certain states can be mistaken for Peace. Nevertheless, they remain experiences within duality, dependent on conditions, and are therefore false.
Peace, in the absolute sense, is not a dualistic feeling state. It is not an experience within Consciousness, but the unchanging, underlying reality in which all experience appears. It is therefore not something that can be achieved or lost — it is the Natural State, which can only be re-cognized.
Alignment vs. Liberation
Within Relative Reality, sattva represents alignment — mental clarity, harmony and stability. It is the highest expression of conditioned existence, and can be cultivated through the four great yogas: selfless action, devotion, meditation and self-enquiry.
This alignment is a major achievement on the spiritual path, as it reduces distortions in perception and creates the conditions for deeper insights into Absolute Reality.
However, no matter how deep and profound alignment becomes, it remains within the domain of Relative Reality. Because it is a state, it comes and goes, and is therefore false.
Liberation, therefore, is not the perfection of alignment, nor is it the cultivation of sattva. It is the recognition of what is already the case prior to all states — the Absolute Reality in which even alignment appears, but which itself is not a state.
Alignment and Peace are therefore not two consecutive stages on the same path, but refer to two different contexts altogether.
Decoding the Parable
The three gunas (the robbers) bind our awareness to duality (the forest) — to what is false. Alignment (sattva, the third “helpful” robber) loosens this grip and points the way to Peace (home). Peace is our natural state, and the spiritual path (the main road) is supposed to eventually lead us out of the forest (what is false) back home (what is real).
So while alignment is a major accomplishment on the spiritual path, it is not Peace and therefore not the end of that path. As the parable suggests, Peace is further down the road, and alignment cannot take us there.
Sattva (alignment) can get one out of the thick brush of tamas and rajas onto the clear path of spiritual practice. But because sattva is still a guna (a relative state), it cannot enter “home” (the Absolute). The robber must step back and remain in the forest (Relative Reality).
So if liberation and Peace are the goal, sattva — so-called “higher” or blissful states — must be seen clearly for what they are: not as the destination, but as part of Relative Reality. It is a helpful condition that reduces misconceptions and points further, beyond itself, but it is still an appearance within Consciousness, not Consciousness itself, and belongs to a different order of reality.
So liberation is not about cultivating a state, that which is false (sattva), but recognizing What-Is, that which is real (Peace).
