The Three Gunas - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas

1. 3 Gunas, Sattva Rajas Tamas: What are Gunas? When you are learning about the yoga, you must have heard about the three Gunas, sattva, rajas, and tamas. According to yogic knowledge, the three Gunas are the three elements of the energy. A guna is an element that has the power or the ability to impact on your emotional psychological and energetic states. Guna is a word from the ancient Sanskrit that means the quality, attribute, or tendency. According to yogic vidya, there are three Gunas and they are responsible for everything that we do. These Gunas have a strong influence on our bodies. These three Gunas are also linked with the yoga and the “SankhyaPhilosophy”. Here are the details of these three Gunas. 1. Sattva: It is the first guna, the word sattva means goodness, harmony, and balance. This is the first among the three Gunas and it is more important among all three as well. It is also a representative of the joy in human life as well. It has many other qualities that are linked to the happiness, and goodness. Sattva is the positive one so it must be encouraged and enhanced. 2. Rajas: It is the 2nd Guna, this is a representative of love, passion, and confused feelings. It is also the state of energy and changes with the movement. It is linked to many human qualities such as fear and longing for someone. This must be decreased through the yoga as it is not a good guna. 3. Tamas: This is the opposite of the sattva; this means destruction and negativity. It is the sole representative of the negativity. It is a state of darkness without change and any movement. It is still and it is linked to human states such as anger. This is the most destructive one, and it must be lowered through the practice of yoga.

2. Influencing three Gunas: All of these your psychological abilities or the powers and you can influence them through your behavior and yoga. Yoga is very helpful in controlling these Gunas and reducing them or increasing them according to your choice. These three Gunas are influential in your life and the way you behave so they are very important. Importance of Gunas: Each guna has its own importance in your life. Among these three the tamas should be decreased as it is the destructive one. You can decrease by practicing the defined poses of yoga. Tamas is the one that is linked to darkness and it is linked to bad characters as well, such as anger and hate. The Rajas also must be decreased, it is not the destructive one, but it takes you to a state where you become depressed due to your passion or the feelings. You can also reduce it through yoga. Now the last one Sattva is the positive one so it must be encouraged and enhanced. It is an important one because it brings balance and joy in life. This can be increased through diet control and through yoga.