THE THREE GUNAS.
In the Ayurvedic medicine and philosophy, a guṇa is one of three "tendencies":
tamas, sattva, and rajas.
These categories have become a common means of categorizing behavior and natural phenomena in Hindu philosophy, and also in Ayurvedic medicine, as a system to assess conditions and diets.
Guṇa is the tendency of the mind and not the state.
For instance, sattva guṇa is that force which tends to bring the mind to purity but is not purity itself.
Similarly rajas guṇa is that force which tends to bring the mind to perform some action but is not action itself.
Sattva (originally "being, existence, entity") has been translated to mean balance, order, or purity. This typically implies that a person with more of Sattva has a positive or even orderly state of mind. Such a person is psychologically kind, calm, alert and thoughtful. Compare also the bodhisattvas in Buddhism.
Indologist Georg Feuerstein translates sattva as "lucidity".
Rajas (originally "atmosphere, air, firmament") leads one to activity. This type of activity is explained by the term Yogakshem. Yogakshem is composed of two words: Yoga and Kshem. Yoga in the present context is acquiring something that one does not have. Kshem means losing something that one already has. Rajas is the force that creates desires for acquiring new things and fears for losing something that one has. These desires and fears lead one to activity.
Feuerstein translates rajas as "dynamism".
Tamas (originally "darkness", "obscurity") has been translated to mean "too inactive", negative, lethargic, dull, or slow. Usually it is associated with darkness, delusion, or ignorance. A tamas quality also can imply that a person has a self-destructive or entropic state of mind. That person is constantly pursuing destructive activities.
Feuerstein translates tamas as "inertia".
The Sanskrit word guṇa has the basic meaning of "string" or "a single thread or strand of a cord or twine". In more abstract uses, it may mean "a subdivision, species, kind", and generally "quality".
In classical literature (e.g. Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana and Bhagavad Gita), a guṇa is an attribute of the five elements, five senses, and five associated body parts:
· Ether, associated with the guṇa śábda ("sound") and with the ear.
· Air, associated with the guṇa sparśa ("feeling") and with the skin.
· Fire, associated with the guṇa rūpa ("appearance", and thus color and tangibility) and with the eye.
· Water, associated with the guṇa rasa ("taste", and thus also flavor and tangibility, as well as shape) and with the tongue.
· Earth, associated with all the preceding guṇas as well as the guṇa gandha ("smell") and with the nose.
//
Sattvic guna
Etymologically, the word sattva is derived from “sat”, which conveys the meaning of being or existing. It also has the sense of real or true.
In a secondary sense, sat means good or virtuous.
The suffix “tva”, corresponding to the English suffix "-ness", by addition gives a word the sense of a state or a quality. Thus sattva literally means “existing-ness” or goodness.
Sattvic creatures:
A person or creature can be called sāttvika if the creature has predominantly sāttvika tendencies.
An sāttvika individual always works for the welfare of the world. He is always hardworking, alert and lives life moderately.
He leads a chaste life. He eats moderately. He speaks the truth and is bold.
He never uses vulgar or insulting language. He does not feel jealous nor is he affected by greed and selfishness.
He does not cheat or mislead anyone. He does not even allow any evil tendencies to enter his mind.
He has good memory and concentration. He also has keen interest in improving his spiritual knowledge, and spends time worshiping God or meditating.
In the extreme state he may even perform penance or uninterrupted meditation.
A satvic individual can be recognized if his mind, speech and actions synchronize. Manasa, vacha, karmana are the three Sanskrit words used to describe such a state.
Some of the people considered by Hindus to be sāttvika are:
· Holy men and bhaktas like Tulsidas, Tyagaraja, Tukaram
· Ancient rishis like Vashishta, Kashyapa
· Modern day sages like Ramana Maharshi, Aurobindo, Vivekananda
· Divine beings in heavens
· Some flora and fauna like lotus (symbolizes purity), cow (symbolizes mother)
It is that constituent of the nature of pleasure and contentment.
It is pure, externally, in the sense of freedom from dust, dirt or taint, and internally, as a state free from moral fault.
Sattva-guna is healthy, free from disease, weakness and malfunction.
It embodies soundness and balance. When sattva-guna is predominant, its distinctive feature is illumined awareness or knowledge.
One experiences clearness of thought, a broad yet focused attention.
One becomes free from ignorance and experiences spiritual and intellectual enlightenment.
When the influence of sattva-guna increases in a person he feels a sense of lightness in his limbs and that his senses become clear and capable of easily grasping their objects.
Concerning the character of one in the mode of sattva, the following qualities can be enumerated:
Such a person is calm and peaceful as he does not strive to satisfy the incessant flow of desires within the mind.
He is self-controlled and does not use his senses for exaggerated enjoyment, beyond his basic needs.
He is tolerant of the offences of others and discriminates between good and bad.
He remains true to his responsibilities.
He strictly follows his duty with great determination and enthusiasm, without bragging or boasting about his achievements.
He remains unperturbed and unwavering in success or failure. He maintains truthfulness and in this way does not distort the truth for some personal interest.
He is sympathetic and is intolerant of others' unhappiness.
He is mindful of the past and future, and does not forget his identity as separate from matter.
He is satisfied in any condition and is not eager to gather increasingly more material possessions.
He is instinctively religious, generous, and feels embarrassed at acting improperly.
He is gentle, patient, clean and steady. He is sensible, conscientious and able to think in a clear and intelligent way.
For an object or food to be sāttvika, it must be uncontaminated and should not spread evil or disease in the world.
On the contrary its presence must purify the surroundings. Thus when an individual consumes such a food, he must feel that he is eating pure food.
The food should be healthy, nutritious and clean.
It should also not weaken the power or equilibrium of mind.
This idea disallows aphrodisiac or other drugs and intoxicants that can affect the mind.
It also disallows food or objects obtained after killing or causing pain to a creature.
This is because the object would then have source in an evil act.
It also excludes stale and pungent-smelling food.
Some objects that are considered sāttvika are:
· Flowers, fruits, and living food, all that are allowed as offerings to God
· Neem tree
· The milk of a cow which has grown in good surroundings, is healthy and has been obtained after the calf of the cow has been fed well. In cases when the cow has been ill treated, it becomes sinful or evil to drink such milk. It must be remembered that the cow is sacred for the Hindus.
Satvic items, energies, qualities and personalities:
· Morning, vata, solar, forest.
· Brahmanas (class of intellectual people)
· Increases power of demigods.
· Purest in the material world, illuminating without sinful reaction.
· Knowledge.
· Pure. Full of happiness, virtue, knowledge, and other good qualities.
· Devotee offers the results of activities in order to free himself from defects.
· Regulated activities, performed without attachment, without love or hatred and without desire for results, without consideration of the fruits.
· Unbreakable, sustained by steadfastness in yoga practice, control activity of mind, life force and senses.
Sattva (originally "being, existence, entity") has been translated to mean balance, order, or purity. This typically implies that a person with more of Sattva has a positive or even orderly state of mind. Such a person is psychologically kind, calm, alert and thoughtful.
Compared also to the bodhisattvas in Buddhism.
Satvic quality of mind:
· One undivided spiritual nature seen in all living beings.
· Concerns the spirit soul beyond the body.
· absolute knowledge
· All the gates of the body illuminated by knowledge.
· Consciousness becomes clear, senses detached from matter.
· One experiences fearlessness in the body and detachment from the mind.
· One has the opportunity to realize Krsna.
· Mind and sense control, tolerance, discrimination.
· Sticking to one's prescribed duties, truthfulness, mercy, careful study of the past and future.
· Satisfaction in any condition, generosity.
· Renunciation of sense gratification, faith in the spiritual master, being embarrassed at improper action.
· Charity, simplicity, humility and so on.
· Satisfaction within oneself.
· By which one knows what ought to be done and not to be done, what is to be feared and not to be feared, what is binding and liberating.
· Not influenced by the modes, without false ego, with determination and enthusiasm, without wavering in success or failure.
· Free of attachment.
· With loving devotion, by prescribed duties without material attachment.
Satvic food:
· Juicy, fatty, wholesome, pleasing to the heart.
· Increases longevity, purifies existence, gives strength, health, happiness, satisfaction.
· Pure, obtained without difficulty.
A sattvic diet is a diet based on foods which are strong in the sattva guna, according to Ayurveda and Yoga, and lead to clarity and equanimity of mind while also being beneficial to the body.
Such foods include:
water, fruit, germinated cereals and seeds, most vegetables, beans, nuts, grains, ghee, honey.
A sattvic diet is also referred to as a "yoga diet" or "sentient diet."
Rajas guna
The word rajas is derived from the verbal root “raïj-” whose spectrum of meaning ranges from “being coloured”, to “being affected or attracted”.
The word is used to denote things which color or partially darken the sky, such as mist, clouds and dust. In a more abstract sense it refers to emotion and powerful and controlling feelings.
Rajasic creatures:
They are characterized by passion, or intense and ungovernable emotions compelling one to action.
They are mobile and stimulating.
Hence the predominance of raja-guna is inferred from the presence of desire and hankering, restlessness and the undertaking of actions.
A person under the influence of rajas becomes driven and has to be on the move all the time. He wants to get bigger and better and increase.
The end result of this type of over activity and feverish enjoyment is misery and thus raja-guna is said to be of the nature of pain and dissatisfaction.
When the influence of raja-guna increases in a person he becomes fickle in mind and erratic in action.
(”I’ll go to the town; I’ll court a woman; I’ll practice austerity...”)
His mind is in a state of constant anxiety.
Regarding the character of one in the mode of rajas, the following qualities can be found:
He possesses many mundane aspirations, and with great effort endeavors to fulfill them, yet remains dissatisfied even in gain, always hankering for more.
He is attached to his work and the fruits thereof, are subject to joy and sorrow and lacks purity both in a moral and a physical sense.
He is bold and arrogant and is falsely pride, claiming exaggerated personal importance and stature.
He is envious of other’s achievements.
Desiring rapid success in his own enterprises he depends on and beseeches people of influence and power.
He considers himself different and better than others.
Being hostile and violent by nature, he has a rash eagerness to quarrel and fight, though his courage is simply based on self-conceit.
He has a fondness for hearing himself praised and has the tendency to ridicule others.
He has a strong sense of masculine pride with an exaggerated sense of power, often justifying his actions by his strength.
Originally "atmosphere, air, firmament", leads one to activity. This type of activity is explained by the term Yogakshem.
Yogakshem is composed of two words: Yoga and Kshem. Yoga in the present context is acquiring something that one does not have. Kshem means losing something that one already has.
Rajas is the force that creates desires for acquiring new things and fears for losing something that one has. These desires and fears lead one to activity. (Rajas is etymologically unrelated to the word raja.)
In Samkhya philosophy, one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, rajas (Sanskrit rajas, or rajaguna) is the quality (guna) of activity.
If a person or thing tends to be extremely active, excitable, or passionate, that person or thing is said to have a preponderance of rajas.
It is contrasted with the quality of tamas, which is the quality of inactivity, darkness, and laziness, and with sattva, which is the quality of purity, clarity, and healthy calmness.
Rajas is a force which promotes one or more of the following:
(1) Action;
(2) Change, mutation;
(3) Passion, excitement;
(4) Birth, creation, generation.
Note that passion is a feeling (often) associated with the act of generating something new.
Rajas is viewed as being more positive than tamas, and less positive than sattva; except, perhaps, for one who has "transcended the gunas".
The (eventual) fruit of rajas is pain, even though the immediate effect of rajas is pursuit of pleasure.
Rajasic items, energies, qualities and personalities:
· Afternoon, pita, prana, town, misery, active.
· Ksatriyas (class of administrators) Vaisyas (class of farmers and merchants), warriors, and kings.
· Increases power of asuras (demons)
· Born of desire or lust.
· Arises from hankering.
· Greed
· By a separatist mind with a motive for material enjoyment, fame and opulence.
· Works hard to acquire prestige and fortune.
· Experiences anxiety and struggle.
· Perform with big effort by one seeking to gratify desires, enacted from a sense of false ego, with a desire to enjoy the results.
Rajasic quality of mind:
· Sees a different type of living being in every different body.
· Produces many theories and doctrines by dint of mundane logic and mental speculation.
· Knowledge based on duality.
· Great attachment, intense endeavor, uncontrollable desire and hankering.
· Distortion of intelligence because of too much activity, inability of perceiving senses to disentangle themselves from mundane objects.
· An unhealthy condition of working physical organs, unsteady perplexity of the mind.
· Material desire, great endeavor, audacity.
· Dissatisfaction even in gain, pride, praying for material advancement,
· Considering oneself different and better than others (separatist mentality).
· Sense gratification.
· Rash eagerness to fight, courage based on intoxication, a fondness for hearing oneself praised.
· the tendency to ridicule others, advertising one's own prowess,
· Justifying one's actions by one's strength.
· Cannot distinguish between religion and irreligion, between actions that ought to be done and ought not to be done.
· Attached to work and the fruits, desiring to enjoy the fruits, greedy, always envious, impure, moved by joy and sorrow, blinded by personal desire
· Practice prescribed duties with the hope of gaining material benefit.
Rajasic food:
· Bitter, sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry,
· Burning, causes distress, misery, disease.
· Gives immediate pleasure to the senses.
Tama guna
Originally "darkness", "obscurity", has been translated to mean "too inactive", negative, lethargic, dull, or slow.
Usually it is associated with darkness, delusion, or ignorance.
A tamas quality also can imply that a person has a self-destructive or entropic state of mind.
That person is constantly pursuing destructive activities.
In Hinduism and Buddhism, Tamas, or tamo-guna, is the lower of the three gunas.
It is a force which promotes one or more of the following:
(1) Darkness.
(2) Death.
(3) Destruction.
(4) Ignorance.
(5) Sloth.
(6) Resistance.
The nature of this third guna is opposed to that of both sattva and rajas. It is opposed to sattva in being heavy and in causing ignorance, by obscuring knowledge and the ability to know.
It also resists raja-guna as it restrains the motion of things and produces the state of apathy and indifference.
The predominance of tama-guna thus results in indolence, sleep and confusion.
In the extreme case it can even lead to insanity. When the limbs of the body feel heavy and the senses become slow and incapable of grasping their objects properly, one then knows that tama-guna has increased in influence.
Tamasic creatures:
Such a person is wrathful and lacks in generosity, being unwilling to share what he has with others.
He is untruthful, violent-natured and apt to quarrel.
He depends upon others for survival and lives as a parasite.
He is hypocritical, pretending to be what he is not.
He is chronically fatigued, always feeling tired and weak.
He constantly laments and is under delusion.
He is depressed and habitually sleeps too much.
He has a self-destructive or entropic state of mind.
He indulges in false and groundless hopes and expectations and is fearful and paranoid.
He is lazy and procrastinating.
Though he has the capacity to work, he makes no endeavor. He drags on forever that which can be done in a short amount of time.
Note that sloth is related to death by analogy, and likewise, ignorance is related to darkness.
Tamas is viewed as being more negative than either rajas or sattva.
Tamas has also been translated as "indifference", this the most negative guna because its rejection of Karmic Law, and the central principle of dharmaic religions' that one's Karma must be worked out and not ignored.
tamasic items, energies, qualities and personalities:
· Night, kapha, lunar, gambling house, foolishness.
· Vaisyas (class of farmers and merchants) and Sudras (class of workers)
· Helpless/dull.
· Increases power of the most wicked.
· Born out of ignorance.
· The delusion of all embodied living beings.
· Foolishness, madness, illusion.
Tamasic quality of mind:
· A person who is envious, proud, violent, angry and has a separatist nature.
· Falls into lamentation and illusion, sleeps excessively, indulges in false hopes, and displays violence to others.
· Cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion.
· By which one is attached to one kind of work as all in all, without knowledge of reality and is very meager.
· Concerned only with keeping the body comfortable, materialistic knowledge.
· Darkness, inertia, madness, illusion.
· Failure and disappearance of higher awareness, inability to concentrate. (short attention span)
· The mind is ruined and manifests ignorance and depression.
· Intolerant anger, stinginess, speaking without scriptural authority (false speech)
· Violent hatred, living as a parasite (begging), hypocrisy, chronic fatigue.
· Quarrel, lamentation and delusion, depression, unhappiness and false humility, sleeping too much, false expectations, fear, laziness.
· Under spell of illusions and darkness considers irreligion to be religion and vice versa and strives always in the wrong direction.
· Engaged in work against injunction of scripture, materialistic, obstinate, cheating, expert in insulting, morose and procrastinating.
· Completely forgotten how to tell right from wrong.
· With the desire to commit violence against others.
Tamasic food:
· Old (over three hours after preparation)
· Tasteless.
· Overcooked.
· Decomposed, putrid, consisting of remnants and untouchable things.
· Unclean, causing distress.
To sum it up:
Every type of food we are attracted to reveals a correspondent character tendency.
For example, if we are predominantly attracted by alcohol, or overcooked, stale, preserved food that means that we are more of a tamasic character.
Freshly cooked, hot, salty food tendancies reveals a more rajasic temperament.
To start evolving we can chose consciously to change the kind of food we eat.
If we decide to eat a diet composed exclusively of sattvic food (or Living food), respecting the food combinations, eaten at the right moment of the day, in pleasant and peaceful surroundings, and prepared with Love, a simple and deep “thanks to the Universe” expressed in one’s Heart before eating, we will climb the spiritual ladder with increasing speed and comfort.
Interestingly enough, the ayurvedic food classification can be closely paralleled to the Living food classification, as used by the Essenes, and compiled by the late doctor Edmond Bordeaux Szekely (see THE BIOGENIC SOCIETY), as follows:
-BIOGENIC FOOD = Sattvic food
(Fathering life)
*germinated seeds
*sprouted seeds
*lacto-fermented nuts
*lacto-fermented vegetables (sauerkraut)
-BIOACTIVE FOOD = Sattvic food
(Fitting life)
*fresh and raw (organic) fruits.
*fresh and raw (organic) vegetables.
*Seaweed (raw, fresh or dried)
*green and root condiments.
*spirulina.
*bee products.
-BIOSTATIC FOOD = Rajasic food
(Slowing down life)
*cooked dishes (Over 40 Celsius degrees-about 100 Far.)
*tinned and canned food
*dry nuts
*raw and cooked pulses
*brown sugar
-BIOCIDIC FOOD = Tamasic food.
(Killing life)
*all types of meat
*all types of dairy products
*peanuts (raw, cooked, buttered, oil…)
*cooked cereals and oil-yielding seeds
*white sugar
*salt (all types, soy sauce, tamari…)
*alcohol
*tobacco
*coffee, tea, chocolate
*refined oils (all types)
*flour (all types, and all uses)
*food processing additives
*irradiated food
*genetically modified food
In the same order of idea, when we like to eat is a way to determine whether we are predominantly sattvic, rajasic, or tamasic.
TIME TABLE
-------------------
(Sun hours)
· 4 am to noon: sattvic
Detoxification
(Please drink plenty of water and fast
to avoid cutting the detox)
· noon to 8 pm: rajasic
Digestion
(The best time for some meal(s)!)
· 8 pm to 4 am: tamasic
Assimilation
(During this time, the immune system
is distributing nutrients, so please no food too!)
Body/Mind/Spirit are inter-related, and can’t be separated from one another.
What we do with/to the mind will have repercussions on the body.
for example if we chose to focus our thoughts exclusively on positive, kind, peaceful, spiritual matters, our physical body will lighten up, lose weight if needed, as we will be longing more and more regularly for sattvic-Living food, and with increasing pleasure!...
As a consequence of our releasing of addictions, and after a while, we will feel no longer attracted by rajasic and tamasic food.
On the other hand, we can use our body to alter negatively the mind.
For example by drinking alcohol, our mind will be heavily disturbed.
Rudolph Steiner used to describe alcohol as “the “Me”s great diluent”, for it is weakening resolve, will power, interest in Life and spiritual evolution.
(Alcohol is one of the most tamasic product human beings can ingest.)
When we meditate regularly, especially when using pranaymas, we soon lose appetite for rajasic and tamasic food; though sometimes after a period of adaptation, whilst we can experience a recrudescence in compulsive consumption…
Compulsions that can be mastered by the strong resolve coming from the Mind!
And to decide to eat sattvic-Living food will help the Mind to strengthen the resolve to pursue a more spiritual Life…
