The adventures of the Three Gunas and the fibres of life.

A few years ago I was asked to write about the three gunas for a yoga teacher training manual. I like the three gunas, they sound like a little team of friends that go on adventures and get up to no good. I also like to hear and learn the teachings and scriptures of different beliefs and religions. What I notice is they’re all similar, not the same but very similar. I’m in a period where I don’t understand what my faith is, I have my own ethics I do my best to adhere to and I have my own morals that I do my best to adhere to. I hope you enjoy reading about the gunas. Let me know.

In the ancient yogi text the Bhagavad Gita, Pantanjali speaks of three crucial aspects of life. These aspects are called the gunas. Gunas literally translates to strand/rope/fibre and we can think of these fibres as being the material in the construction of the universe. Pantanjali says, that everything, on all levels of this manifestation is made up of different combinations of these three gunas. They lie beneath all matter, life and mind. As the inhabitants of the universe, the gunas can also serve as a lesson and a tool, as the balance of the three gunas are constantly in a dance around and in us. It’s play of the three gunas, starring the three gunas.

Tamas can be seen as heavy and dull energetically, there is a lethargy that obscures the present moment truth with its dark and dense nature. Tamas can really present as a stop sign on life, creating apathy when action is required but also allowing rest, say where rest is needed. A good example of an overly tamasic influenced situation is the modern western life. This lifestyle is typically filled with GMO and chemically treated food, an inability to create change or take action where it’s needed, an ease to disengage from real life by spending time online, on the phone or watching distracting and mind numbing programming. Tamas can be seen as the past, the given, the accepted.

Rajas is the energy to create the momentum of change. It manifests passion, desire, effort, action and pain. The movement of rajas can move both towards tamas (inaction/lethargy) or sattva (acceptance/peace). Rajas can also be seen as erratic and unstable. Rajas can be thought of as the well-meaning, charismatic, energetic, revolutionary wanting to create change and make a difference but only has an idea, not a plan and has only a side kick, rather than a team, a bit like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Too much raja and there will be a burn out, or in the case of Butch and Sundance – gunfire. Rajas can be seen as the future, desire and externalisation.

Sattva is harmonious, knowledge, truth and happiness. Sattva is the present moment in life, the energy felt from good health and contentment. You could think of sattvic food as being a wild and natural uncontaminated fruit orchid. A sattvic situation of feeling of complete peace and wellbeing post yoga practice and smoothie bowl, lying on a Hawaiian beach reading a book before you take it all for granted and pick up your phone to take a selfie. Sattva can be seen as consciousness unfolding, the present moment and awakening to truths.

We might think that the goal of life is to reach the state of sattva but the reality is that life is in constant flux between the three, after all these are the fibres of life. There will be moments of guna dominance and there will certainly be guna tendencies, the gunas will show up in your yoga practice, your interactions, in music, farmers markets, well, everywhere because this is what everything is made from. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (in verse 18.40) ‘There is nothing on the earth, in heaven, or even amoung the gods that is free from these prakriti-born gunas’. So how do we dance this dance of the gunas? Suggestion; by cultivating sattva, relaxing rajasic impulses, and encouraging tamas into movement but taking rest where it’s needed. If we are here in purpose to obtain experience, to grow and understand the self, than the gunas are yet another tool to use and observe for this endeavour.

In help in understanding Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita explains the gunas as;

The food you eat may (17.8–10):

Taste good and promote health,
strength, and a pleasant mind (sattva)

Be oversalted, highly spiced, and
cause illness and depression (rajas)

Be stale, unwanted by others, and not
fit as an offering (tamas)

The gifts you offer to others may be (17.20–22):

Given at the right time, with nothing
expected in return (sattva)

Given reluctantly, or with the aim of
gaining a returned favor (rajas)

Given at an inappropriate time or
place, with disrespect or contempt (tamas)

The steadfastness with which you approach your spiritual path may (18.33–35):

Help you bring your mind, breath,
and senses into harmony (sattva)

Depend on your acquiring something
you want (rajas)