In Sanatan philosophy, which finds its clearest exposition in the Samkhya darshan and is also mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, all of nature (prakriti), even our own minds, are composed of three gunas:

• Sattva - clarity, illumination, balance, peace

• Rajas - energy, action, ambition, restlessness

• Tamas - inertia, grounding, rest, material stability

None of the gunas are 'bad.' They are not moral categories but states. A life well lived, and perhaps a civilization well run, is one that knows how to flow between all three with awareness, instead of being held captive by one.

Saffron tops the tricolour, and one can easily understand why it responds well to Rajas guna, which comprises energy in movement, action, willpower, and valour. Rajas are nothing but fire. It is the energy that pulls you out of bed, ignites the hunger for creating a freedom movement, and makes one stick to a particular task without being lazy. More importantly, Rajas are the colour of renunciation in the Sanatan tradition and that is why it is seen in the ochre robe of a sannyasi.

This is the contradiction that needs to be considered and appreciated: Saffron has both of these attributes of fierce action and detachment. Freedom fighters and ascetics wear saffron robes. Rajas in its purest form is not an expression of restlessness, but rather action devoid of any desire for fruits, just as defined by Shri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Thus, the uppermost strip of the flag represents more than just the valour in war.

The white band lies at the center, the literal and symbolic pivot of the flag and it reflects perfectly the nature of the Sattva guna: clarity, truth, balance. Sattva is the guna of enlightenment (prakasha) which allows for seeing objects in their true colors without any interference from the desire (rajas) or inertia (tamas).

There is definitely no randomness in the positioning of the white band in the context of the structure of balanced living as proposed by Sanatan tradition. The purpose of sattva as the governing principle is not to dominate rajas and tamas, but rather to give a person (or a nation) a choice when to take action and when to stand still.

Sattva provides the capacity for discernment and learning and civilization grounded in sattva places the same value on ambition as on self-reflection and peace of mind. The white band makes one question: clarity should always be at the center of power, not on its periphery.

Green is normally interpreted as simply fertility and prosperity, and it is both of those things. However, when interpreting the gunas, green stands for Tamas, which should be defended rather than ignored, as tamas gets an undeserved bad name. Tamas is not just about darkness and laziness; it also stands for stability, form, and the very earth itself. Without tamas, there will be no soil in which to plant anything. As is evident from the Bhagavad Gita, all three gunas are equally important and indispensable; without tamas, there will be no earth for Rajas and Sattva to stand upon.

As the earth-colored strip of the flag, green represents exactly this: the harvests of the land, the very connection of a civilization with its land, its rivers, its agriculture. Green is the indispensable complement to Rajas and Sattva.

Right at the center of the white band lies the Ashoka Chakra - 24 blue-spokes forming a spinning wheel. This is no recent creation. This is an ancient and sacred symbol in Sanatan and other Dharmic traditions, predating the Indian Republic. The symbol has made its appearance on the Lion Capital built by Emperor Ashoka in Sarnath, using an even more ancient symbolism - the Vedic rita and the notion that dharma is not just a set of rules, but a wheel that needs to keep spinning.

This is the essence of the symbol, which is inherently Sanatan movement, not stasis. A wheel that does not spin has failed its very purpose. Although the 24 spokes have always had associations with virtues, self-control, love, courage and other qualities, the more profound lesson is in the very act of the wheel spinning, rather than in any one spoke of the wheel. Like the rising of the sun and the coming of the seasons, karma has to keep being practiced everyday.

Located where the sattva band resides, the chakra teaches us an important lesson for our lives: clarity is a journey rather than a place to arrive. In the instant that you feel like you have reached enlightenment, your sattva nature has fallen into tamasic laziness.

The beauty of the design of the tricolour lies precisely in its lack of arbitrariness. It is built from the top downwards, as a hierarchy of Rajas (yellow-orange saffron at the top), through the medium of Sattva (white at the centre), to Tamas (green at the base). The structure conveys an extremely Sanatan understanding of what energy flow should look like in a well-ordered individual life.

It is no different from the Vedic way of structuring the individual’s life - act with rajasic energy, discipline it with the sattvic way of seeing things, and ground it firmly in tamasic stability to ensure that nothing is lost. All this applies to nations too, which must have all three aspects in continuous circulation, none isolated by itself.

None of which is to say that the designers of our flag had the Samkhya Karika open on their desk before them. Such is merely a metaphorical reading of our national emblem in the spirit of darshan - of seeing old things in a new light from a Sanatan perspective. And such has indeed been the greatest strength of Sanatan thought throughout the ages, of finding cosmic order in the mundane, and the mundane in the cosmic.

For the next Independence Day, as the tricolor flag is hoisted, take a few moments to engage in some dekho, socho - look, then think. Where are your rajas, the energy that you pour into your goals? Does your sattva still occupy the middle, or has it started moving to the periphery because of either excess effort or lethargy? And is your tamas strong enough to ground your efforts?

More than just a historical artifact to be hoisted once a year, the flag when seen through the tri-gun becomes a small lesson in balancing courage at the top, clarity in the middle, and stability at the bottom.

Jai hind. Jai bharat