You say that gunas can never be inherited, but then how do we explain some traits, talents, and dispositions that run in the family. Or are major gunas a carry-over from previous lives, and the family to be born in gets chosen accordingly?–Sudhir Jain.

When you talk of inheritance, etc., you talk of genetic inheritance, which is purely scientific. When you speak of gunas, you are talking of a different paradigm. I have never said that gunas cannot be inherited; I have only said that all your gunas are not inherited. Certain gunas can be inherited, certain gunas could be a result of your upbringing also…If you are born in a sattvik home, where people are predominantly sattvik, it’s very easy to imbibe those sattvik values and so the person become sattvik. Similarly, you are also born with some predispositions in life. This will be the guna where you are coming from. Certain traits and talents are gunas inherited from your parents, etc….So there is something you have brought from your previous lifetime, there will be something you have inherited, there will be something that will be a result of your upbringing and environment, and there will be something that you have consciously picked up. All this makes us the complex human beings we are. So there’s no disharmony between what we are talking about and what Science is talking about.