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Our attitudes, habits and our very outlook of life are governed by the gunas or qualities we are born with. However, we can, if only we will, change them, modify them or even overcome them for the better. If they are detrimental to our march towards perfection we have to subdue them, slay them or sublimate them.
In religion our views are narrow or broad or assimilative, depending upon the gunas we are endowed with, either by nature or by tradition or even by environment.
A frog in the well knows only the well and refuses to believe the words of another frog which has come from the ocean. Not only is the well frog narrow minded but fanatic as well. It tries to throw away the ocean frog. It does not believe in the possibility of an ocean or water anywhere to facilitate a frog to live well and happy. This is tamasic religion of fanaticism.
A few blind people wanted to know how an elephant would be. They know it is indeed a large creature. But they can't see it as a whole. They can feel only its limbs by touching them. Whatever part they come into contact with is presumed to be the elephant by them. To one, trunk is the elephant and to another, its tail is the elephant. Believing their respective parts alone to be true, they accept at the same time that they are but parts of the whole-paths to the goal. Though they do not quarrel with each other, they hold on only to their perceptions. And this is rajasic religion.
The man who is observing the chameleon knows it to be one changing its colours. He knows the truth. He admits everybody's views about the colours of the animal, himself knowing them to be of the same animal. He knows truth and so says "Ekam sat Viprah bahudah Vadanti". This is satwic religion.
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