Ravana, powerful king of Lanka caused his own downfall owing to his extreme arrogance. Duryodhana, another mighty ruler of Hastinapur, ultimately perished as a result of greed and deceit. King Bali was exiled to netherworld by Vishnu because of his egoistic charity.

These characters were no ordinary people, still they were overwhelmed by captivating passion of their characters that they failed to retract themselves even after repeated advice. Although charity is a ‘Guna’, its excessive practice begets suppressed ego in the mind causing the downfall.

Knowing that negative traits are dangerous, yet why do we let ourselves get lured by them? If we look at the physical world the negativity is intrinsically present almost everywhere. A delectable snow-capped mountain melts to bare its black rocky surface. A beautiful palace in course of time gets reduced to a heap of rubble. There is entropy; there is ultimate destruction. The universe itself is expected to get destroyed ultimately. Thus negativity is all pervasive and human mind is no exception, unless detached from the world by self-control.

In Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna says that the human mind is greatly influenced by the effect of three Gunas, viz., Satva, Rajo, and Tamo guna. Of the three, greed, anger and ego are the direct fallout of the influence of Rajoguna. According to Shankaracharya, the rajoguna, is prone to colour everything it comes in contact with. Then it becomes virtually impossible for the doer to detach himself from the mirage-like negativity.

But, unlike the physical world, human mind can still hope to come out of negativity, and ultimate destruction, by evolving to higher level of consciousness. This can be made possible with combined presence of will-power & perceiving divinity in all fellowmen. This is cultivated with sadhana or meditation with the guidance & grace of the Guru, to whom the disciple surrenders. This is THE path for saving oneself from fall due to negativity.