On this auspicious day of Ramanavami , Please extend your support for our Temple In Canada , Let us Spread our glorious Sanatana Dharma Everywhere !
-Contributed by Smt. Shubha Krishnamurthy
THE GUNAS, ATTRIBUTES OF LIFE :
The Sanskrit word “guna” means attribute. These “attributes” serve as a powerful indicator and formulator of the physical principles of the earth. The concept of guna, is one of the more important teachings from India. These attributes provide powerful insight into our spiritual growth, worldly manifestations, and the formation of matter from the subatomic level into more dense levels of matters manifestation. But most importantly they provide a powerful tool to accelerate personal and planetary transformation.
Within the yoga tradition, the focus is on three primary gunas:
Sattva
Rajas
Tamas
Sattva is balance, harmony, peace and similar qualities. Rajas is activity and movement. It is dynamic. Tamas is inertia, non-moving, and sometimes lethargy. Of these three gunas yoga embraces the cultivation of sattva. Though it realizes that one may embrace other gunas at times. As an example, if a person were stuck in a rut (tamas) they would need to embrace some form of activity (rajas) to move from their position of immobility.
Our society is largely a tamasic-rajasic society. We are “on the move”, active, dynamic, and changing, but at the same time moving very slowly spirituality, and consumed by decay oriented activities. While this is not initially a problem as life is a journey, it is leading to a variety of disorders due to over work, and various strains on our nervous system. Even our yoga systems are often more Rajasic than Sattvic. These are the more dynamic yogas common in western society. These are systems such as the power yoga systems, some kundalini systems, and various aerobic type yogas. Though they clearly serve their purpose. They importantly and primarily serve two types of people:
1) Lethargic or tamsic people that require the intense activity to help them break free from their daily patterns.
2) Rajasic people that are stimulated, active, and don’t know how to slow down. This can eventually become unbalancing to this group of people unless it is tempered with relaxing meditation.
While this rajasic yoga is initially important for these two groups of people, it is often overlooked that they must eventually embrace a more sattvic approach to their yoga practice.
In the yoga and ayurvedic tradition, everything is made up of complex interaction between the three gunas. This leads to several basic guna types:
1. Sattvic
2. Rajasic
3. Tamasic
4. Sattva/Rajasic
5. Rajasic/Tamasic
6. Tamas/Rajasic
7. Rajasic/Sattvic
Numbers 4-7 indicates complex interactions between the gunas involved. As an example, someone might be very active and dynamic, but they may begin to experience more balance within their life. The ratios between rajas and sattva would change over time as they grew as a person.
These gunas and complex interactions between gunas would be applied to all manifestations in life. In an over simplification, a whitewater river would be rajasic, but the erosion would be tamasic or decaying for the banks of the river. In other parts of the river it would be balancing by building up sand bars. The foods we eat are considered balancing (sattvic), stimulating (Rajasic), or decaying (tamasic) to the body and mind. The entire science of Ayurveda is built around this basic concept. To explore these concepts more, it is highly recommended to read “Ayurveda and the Mind” by Dr. David Frawley.
Serious practitioners of spirituality should develop a solid and expansive understanding of the gunas and their application to all facets of life. They should consciously apply this science to all actions and interactions in their daily life. This will reinforce the appropriate gunas within one’s spiritual life; and in reality this is what each of does through habit whether we are conscious of it or not.
The root to Guna is “Grah” which means to ‘seize”, additionally it means a thread or strand. It seems that on a more mystical level the Nirguna is the absence of this thread or impersonal deity and Saguna is the presence of the thread, which is the personal deity. And of course the thread is the same material as the non-thread from a non-dualistic standpoint, as the material (thread) in a static state becomes dynamic and leads to the creation of the thread. It seems that this thread concept permeates Hinduism from yoga through Nyaya philosophy and numerous other writings. It is the thread that links the lower mind with the infinite essence.
THE GUNAS, ATTRIBUTES OF LIFE :
The Sanskrit word “guna” means attribute. These “attributes” serve as a powerful indicator and formulator of the physical principles of the earth. The concept of guna, is one of the more important teachings from India. These attributes provide powerful insight into our spiritual growth, worldly manifestations, and the formation of matter from the subatomic level into more dense levels of matters manifestation. But most importantly they provide a powerful tool to accelerate personal and planetary transformation.
Within the yoga tradition, the focus is on three primary gunas:
Sattva
Rajas
Tamas
Sattva is balance, harmony, peace and similar qualities. Rajas is activity and movement. It is dynamic. Tamas is inertia, non-moving, and sometimes lethargy. Of these three gunas yoga embraces the cultivation of sattva. Though it realizes that one may embrace other gunas at times. As an example, if a person were stuck in a rut (tamas) they would need to embrace some form of activity (rajas) to move from their position of immobility.
Our society is largely a tamasic-rajasic society. We are “on the move”, active, dynamic, and changing, but at the same time moving very slowly spirituality, and consumed by decay oriented activities. While this is not initially a problem as life is a journey, it is leading to a variety of disorders due to over work, and various strains on our nervous system. Even our yoga systems are often more Rajasic than Sattvic. These are the more dynamic yogas common in western society. These are systems such as the power yoga systems, some kundalini systems, and various aerobic type yogas. Though they clearly serve their purpose. They importantly and primarily serve two types of people:
1) Lethargic or tamsic people that require the intense activity to help them break free from their daily patterns.
2) Rajasic people that are stimulated, active, and don’t know how to slow down. This can eventually become unbalancing to this group of people unless it is tempered with relaxing meditation.
While this rajasic yoga is initially important for these two groups of people, it is often overlooked that they must eventually embrace a more sattvic approach to their yoga practice.
In the yoga and ayurvedic tradition, everything is made up of complex interaction between the three gunas. This leads to several basic guna types:
1. Sattvic
2. Rajasic
3. Tamasic
4. Sattva/Rajasic
5. Rajasic/Tamasic
6. Tamas/Rajasic
7. Rajasic/Sattvic
Numbers 4-7 indicates complex interactions between the gunas involved. As an example, someone might be very active and dynamic, but they may begin to experience more balance within their life. The ratios between rajas and sattva would change over time as they grew as a person.
These gunas and complex interactions between gunas would be applied to all manifestations in life. In an over simplification, a whitewater river would be rajasic, but the erosion would be tamasic or decaying for the banks of the river. In other parts of the river it would be balancing by building up sand bars. The foods we eat are considered balancing (sattvic), stimulating (Rajasic), or decaying (tamasic) to the body and mind. The entire science of Ayurveda is built around this basic concept. To explore these concepts more, it is highly recommended to read “Ayurveda and the Mind” by Dr. David Frawley.
Serious practitioners of spirituality should develop a solid and expansive understanding of the gunas and their application to all facets of life. They should consciously apply this science to all actions and interactions in their daily life. This will reinforce the appropriate gunas within one’s spiritual life; and in reality this is what each of does through habit whether we are conscious of it or not.
The root to Guna is “Grah” which means to ‘seize”, additionally it means a thread or strand. It seems that on a more mystical level the Nirguna is the absence of this thread or impersonal deity and Saguna is the presence of the thread, which is the personal deity. And of course the thread is the same material as the non-thread from a non-dualistic standpoint, as the material (thread) in a static state becomes dynamic and leads to the creation of the thread. It seems that this thread concept permeates Hinduism from yoga through Nyaya philosophy and numerous other writings. It is the thread that links the lower mind with the infinite essence.