The three qualities that shape our everyday life

This entire world is made up of five elements, and these five elements have three qualities. These three qualities. There is a broad understanding about what Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are. These three qualities also relate to our states of consciousness, like the waking, dreaming, and sleeping states.

When Sattva dominates in our environment, we feel light, happy, pleasant, joyful, alert, and awake. Our perception becomes very clear. When Rajogun dominates, we feel restless with lots of thoughts, too many desires, and an urge to perform many things at a time. Either we are ecstatic and hyper excited, or sad. When Tamogun dominates, we become deluded, have a wrong understanding, and experience dullness.

And these three qualities are present even in our food. And that can have a bearing on how Sattvik, Rajasik, or Tamasik our mind is. Our attitude and action can be Sattvik, Rajasik, or Tamasik too.

When Sattva dominates in our life, Rajas and Tamas stay in the background. Their effects are minimal. When Rajas dominates, Sattva and Tamas are in the background. And when Tamas dominate, Sattva and Rajas are in the background. If you want to bring more luck and siddhis into your life, sattva needs to rise

This is the whole mechanism of life in the world. Now, animals are governed by this nature. So, there is no imbalance in them. They never overdo anything. They never overwork. They never overeat. They never overindulge in sex. They cannot do these things because they don’t have that freedom.

Human beings are endowed with freedom, free will, and also with wisdom, and the power to discriminate: how much to do, what to do, when to do, whether to do or not. This power of discrimination is given to human beings because human beings possess the freedom of choice.

We can overeat and get sick. We can oversleep and feel dull. And overindulgence in activities can cause restlessness and nervous breakdown in us.

Now, how to balance these gunas? When we meditate and spend some time in silence, the sattva level rises in us.

Usually, a person lives in either slumber or in deep sleep. One is either dreaming in sleep or dreaming when they are awake. Very rarely one experiences clear awareness and clarity of mind. The rest of the time, the mind is all jumbled up. It is all in a mess. The mind keeps thinking about the past and the future. It keeps daydreaming. There is very little awareness and awakening.

So, there is limited happiness and limited joy when the sattva is low. Spiritual practices like meditation, special breathing techniques like Sudarshan Kriya, and listening to knowledge increase sattva levels. Satsang increases sattva in us. Sound is the innermost quality of space. Bhajan helps us share the subtlest elements in us.

And then, we can enhance our sattva level by eating sattvic food in the right amount and at the right time.

We shouldn’t fill our stomach with heavy food before we go to bed or when we wake up in the morning or get ready for yoga and meditation. We should have the right amount of fresh, sweet, and gently spiced food. Sattvic food is easy to digest. People with sattvic tendencies like these types of food.

People with rajasic tendencies like spicy, oily, and salty food.

According to Ayurveda, anything that is overcooked or which is prepared more than 6- 7 hours before is considered to be old.

Then there are three types of intellect. People with sattvic intellect do their jobs joyfully and are unmindful of the results. Whether results go in their favor or not, they don’t lose their enthusiasm.

Rajasic people’s enthusiasm is based on results, and they either feel very high or very low. Rajasic people put in too much effort, too much thinking even into small details.

Tamasic people take too long a time to do even a small thing.

Knowledge is also of three types. That only one big mind is functioning, that divine mind is all that is there in all the embodied beings; this understanding, and not just intellectually but as it is in an actual sense, is sattvic knowledge. Rajasic knowledge is to attribute different qualities to different people. ‘Oh, they are like this, or that.’ Seeing them as good or bad people, this is rajasic knowledge. Tamsic knowledge is all about wrong understanding. People don’t even see one as a living being. People who commit crimes or who are violent, they don’t see life in people whom they harm. Otherwise, they cannot shoot or kill somebody. People with tamsic knowledge are unable to perceive things as they are. The only way to get rid of the two imbalances, i.e., of Rajasik and Tamasik, is to chant, sing, and meditate.

(The author is a global humanitarian leader and spiritual master who founded The Art of Living in1981. As Gurudev turns 70 and The Art of Living steps into the 45th year of making life a celebration on this planet, month long celebrations are underway at The Art of Living International centre with eminent personalities from the sphere of politics, entertainment, arts, academia and faith arriving at the centre for thoughtful conversations, cultural showcases and launch of several service initiatives.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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