the gunas

In Sankhya, matter is said to have three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. These terms are translated in a variety of ways by different scholars, usually something like “harmony,” “mobility,” and “inertia.”

Sattva, is a nominal form of sat (being) with a suffix which is equivalent to English “-ness” or “-hood,” hence sattva implies a thing’s essential being.

Rajas, from the root rañj (colored, especially reddened), is associated with vapor or mist, desire, menstrual discharge, etc. and in the context of Sankhya philosophy implies exciting emotions motivated by desire.

Tamas, from the root tam (choke, be exhausted, become immobile), has the general meaning of darkness, obscuration, heaviness, or ignorance, hence implies a condition of dullness, habituality, or stupidity.

According to the folks at Theosophy.World, "There is a temptation to identify these three gunas with properties of physical matter. For instance, it is claimed by physicists that all laws of matter involve at the very least three undefined variables, usually identified as resonant frequency, energy, and inertia. That sounds very much like sattva, rajas, and tamas. But one cannot eliminate any of the three physical variables in the way that the Gita urges you to eliminate, or at least minimize the influence of, rajas and tamas. So that cannot be what they mean. A more plausible interpretation would be to equate the three gunas with the theosophical idea of the elementals of the three lower planes of matter: tamas with the physical elemental which seeks repetition of past actions, rajas with the emotional (or “astral”) elemental which seeks excitement and is mainly driven by desire, and sattva with the mental elemental which seeks harmony among ideas, thus is sometimes equated with knowledge, happiness, and illumination.

Helena P. Blavatsky grapples with the task of explaining the nature of the gunas when she writes, “What are the ‘producers’ evoluted from this universal root-principle, Mula-prakriti or undifferentiated primeval cosmic matter, which evolves out of itself consciousness, and mind, and is generally called ‘Prakriti’ and amulam mulam, ‘the rootless root,’ and avyakta, the ‘unevolved evolver,’ etc.? This primordial tattwa or ‘eternally existing “that,”’ the unknown essence, is said to produce as a first producer (1) Buddhi — ‘intellect’ — whether we apply the latter to the sixth macrocosmic or microcosmic principle. This first produced produces in its turn (or is the source of) (2) Ahankara, ‘self-consciousness’ and Manas, ‘mind’” (CW IV:580-81). In other words, she follows the general outline found in Sakhya. I. K. Taimni, in his book, Man, God and the Universe, explains the gunas thus: “Here then we have really another example of integration and differentiation not at the level of matter or vibration but at the level of the mind, for perception of properties is a function of the mind though the stimulation comes from matter and vibrations. The conception of Prakti as an integrated state of the gunas, which contains all gunas in a potential state and from which any guna or property can emerge if the proper conditions (the particular combination of the three gunas based on harmonious motion, irregular motion and no motion) are present will thus be seen to be in perfect accord with our scientific ideas regarding the nature of integration and differentiation. In the conception of Prakti as the integrated state of the gunas (dharmas — depend upon different combinations of the three gunas) we have gone up from the level of matter or vibration to the level of the mind which is the product of the interaction of Spirit and matter” (pp. 204-5).

In our modern Yoga-Coffee-Shop world today where Yoga is a form of light exercise for the body, the mind, and the "Spandex" ego, the popular definition (as found in YogaBasics.com) can be summed up as:

"All three gunas are always present in all beings and objects surrounding us but vary in their relative amounts. We humans have the unique ability to consciously alter the levels of the gunas in our bodies and minds. The gunas cannot be separated or removed in oneself but can be consciously acted upon to encourage their increase or decrease. A guna can be increased or decreased through the interaction and influence of external objects, lifestyle practices and thoughts.

"To reduce tamas avoid tamasic foods, oversleeping, overeating, inactivity, passivity and fearful situations. Tamasic foods include heavy meats and foods that are spoiled, chemically treated, processed or refined. 

"To reduce rajas avoid rajasic foods, over-exercising, overwork, loud music, excessive thinking and consuming excessive material goods. Rajasic foods include fried foods, spicy foods, and stimulants. 

"To increase sattva reduce both rajas and tamas, eat sattvic foods and enjoy activities and environments that produce joy and positive thoughts. Sattvic foods include whole grains and legumes and fresh fruits and vegetables that grow above the ground. All of the yogic practices were developed to create sattva in the mind and body."

As you might have guessed, there are a lot of ways to correct your gunas as mentioned above, things like Sweat Yoga and/or purchasing cool Yoga items on Amazon.com -- which you won't find here.

The bottom line is that there is a lot of hype about gunas today, put in a nutshell; however, there are three forces within us we must understand, and though the ancients teachers tried to leave us with  definitions, gunas do vary by end person. In other-words, know your gunas, know thyself, and if that doesn't work, there is always ayahuasca.


~~ Eso Terry