In plain words
The tāmasika. In the beginning Ratnākara was a highway robber, and for his own selfish ends, with no kindness or compassion, he went on living his life harassing and tormenting travellers and robbing them of the money they carried. Because he had no kindness or compassion, he was tāmasic. Ratnākara, who was in such a state, was transformed into a great tapasvin by the sight, the touch and the conversation of the seven ṛṣis. Not merely tapas: he took shape as a great poet. He shaped this poetry of his into something that belongs to God. Who is a poet? The true poet is he who has recognised his own nature in all three times. He alone who has recognised past, future and present is a poet. Today, by the power of the Kali age, a man becomes a poet merely by rolling out a few words. None of these are poets. Vālmīki and Vyāsa, all of them, saw the three times by the power of their tapas, saw the Divinity whose very form is the three guṇas, and so took shape as poets. The chief reason that Vālmīki, who was steeped in tāmasa, changed into a sāttvic man was satsaṅga itself. So we must not grow weak, thinking that the tāmasika cannot be changed. For everything, God's grace is the root cause. Who knows when, where, at what minute God's grace may come to us! This tāmasika does not stay tāmasika for ever. The tāmasika enters the sāttvika direct. There is no need to change class by class like this, the tāmasika into the rājasika and the rājasika into the sāttvika. This tāmasika too can enter the sāttvika direct, by God's grace and by the teachings of the elders. Ratnākara, a tāmasic man, practised tapas, and by the teachings of the maharṣis he was transformed into a man of pure sāttvika.
The second is the rājasika. This, joined with qualities such as the warrior's temper, hatred, envy, ostentation, Ahaṅkāra and anger, is the rājasika. Viśvāmitra, for example. Viśvāmitra, who lived in the rājasika, was transformed into a great maharṣi. He bore hatred for Vaśiṣṭha and criticised Vaśiṣṭha in many ways; the root of it was envy, the feeling, "He is held to be a brahmarṣi, and I remain merely a rājarṣi." How far this hatred went! He set about it determined that he would not give up his vow until he had destroyed Vaśiṣṭha, the brahmarṣi.