The three gunas in daily life

Ever wonder why we seem to have mood shifts from moment to moment? You may be sitting in a very peaceful state of mind, maybe reading a nice book or listening to some soulful music, and suddenly the thought of an event from the past can throw you into an agitated state of mind. There is constant change going on in our minds. All such random fluctuations of the mind are attributed to the play of the three gunas. The gunas represent a central theme in the various philosophies presented in the ancient Hindu scriptures, like Samkhya, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, and the Upanishads.

What are the Gunas?

The Sanskrit word ‘guna’, in common usage, means quality or property. It also means a thread, string or a rope. In the latter sense, it may mean threads by which the very fabric of our material existence is woven. In the ancient Hindu scriptures the three gunas are mentioned as qualities of nature that determine the inherent characteristic of all created entities, both sentient and insentient.

The concept of gunas was initially given in the Samkhya system of philosophy. Almost all other systems of philosophy including Vedanta, Nyaya, Vaisheshika etc. have adopted this concept in delineating their own systems of philosophy.

The three gunas are:

• Sattva: purity, serenity, poise, calmness, discrimination, transparence, compassion, clarity, goodness, altruism, dispassion, contentment, etc.
• Rajas: love of fame, passion, lust, strife, impatience, jealousy, pride, display of power, etc.
• Tamas: anger, lust, greed, ignorance, resistance, inertia, forgetfulness, confusion, darkness, brutality, etc.

Why do we need to understand the gunas?

Anything that we experience through the senses of touch, smell, taste etc. is the result of these three gunas being present in different proportions. Similarly, any emotion like anger, jealousy etc. that bubbles up in the mind whether as a result of input received through any of the five senses or by bringing up memories from the past, is also controlled by the gunas. Gunas are considered to be psycho-physical energy threads that constitute material existence. These are the threads of reality that bind us to the world of change. Since everything is a composite of these gunas, it implies a deep interconnectedness where a certain proportion in the gunas in one entity may influence the proportion in another. For example, we know from our experience that eating a sattvic diet consisting of fresh, light, and healthy food promotes a feeling of physical lightness and mental clarity. On the other hand, consuming rajasic and tamasic diet consisting of fast food or processed meals can make us feel lethargic, mentally foggy, and agitated.

Thus, a deeper understanding of the three Gunas can serve as a powerful tool for living a meaningful and joyous life. In the absence of such knowledge, we may be acting like puppets controlled by the gunas with no control over our thoughts and behaviors.

Gunas and Samkhya

According to the Samkhya philosophy there are two principles, both real and eternal, both independent of each other and yet somehow connected. These two principles are Purusha (pure consciousness) and Prakriti (nature/matter). As per this philosophy, at the beginning of creation the Prakriti was in the unmanifest state with the three gunas in perfect equilibrium. At some point in time, due to the proximity between Prakriti and Purusha, the guna equilibrium was disturbed, rajas became dominant, and the material creation evolved. Everything in this material universe is a composite of these three gunas. The gunas are not to be viewed as individual entities. They are always present in various proportions and their combination results in a unique, continuous process. For example, our state of mind changes constantly depending upon the proportion of gunas at a given moment. It is the very nature of the gunas that they are in a state of constant flux. The gunas are mutually dominant over, dependent upon, generative of, and cooperative with one another. They work together as the wick, oil (wax) and flame operate together to produce light. They dictate our moods, thoughts, emotions, actions, and overall behaviors.

At any given time, one of the three gunas is the dominant one and the other two remain in the subordinate state. There is no state in which one guna can stay without the presence of the other two. Depending upon the dominant guna at any given time, every situation may result in a unique experience. For example, when you decide to come for the yoga class, your sattva guna is dominant. You need rajas to drive to the class. Again, you need more rajas to drive back home after the class; and eventually you need the dominance of tamas to get you a good night’s sleep.

It is the disturbing play of the gunas that keeps the mind in a state of agitation. We do have moments in our life which are dominated by sattva and we feel very peaceful, pure, loving and compassionate. However, these moments are short lived and we are usually overcome by the effects of either rajas or tamas.

Our ancient scriptures state that it should be our endeavor to maintain the state of sattva for longer periods of time so that raja and tamas continue to play a subservient role. With the practice of yoga, we can slowly develop a more dominant sattvika state.

Here is how the gunas are described in the text Samkhya Karika:

Samkhya Karika 12⁷: The gunas are of the nature of pleasure, pain and delusion; they serve the purpose of illumination, action and restraint, and are mutually dominating, supporting, productive and cooperative.

Samkhya Karika 13⁸: Sattva guna is light/buoyant and illuminating, the rajas guna is exciting and mobile, and tamas is heavy and enveloping. Like a lamp, they work together toward a specific end.

Description of the Gunas in the Bhagavad Gita (BG)

The concept of gunas is covered at length in the ancient text Bhagavad Gita. Here is how the Gita defines these three gunas:

Sattva (BG verse 14.6)⁴: Sattva is pure, illuminating and free from sickness. It binds the soul through attachment with happiness and knowledge.

Rajas (BG verse 14.7)⁵: Rajas is full of passion and is born out of intense desire and attachment. It binds the soul through attachment with action.

Tamas (BG verse 14.8)⁶: Tamas is the darkness and the crudeness in man. It is born of ignorance and cause of delusion. It binds the soul through recklessness, laziness and sleep.

Since sattva represent all positive qualities, it is our endeavor to make sattva more dominant compared to rajas and tamas. However, as mentioned in the definition of sattva, even sattva binds the soul through attachment with happiness and knowledge. The ultimate goal of life is to eventually transcend even the sattva guna and go beyond the influence of the three gunas. This state is called “gunatita” (guṇātīta – beyond gunas) and is the state when we have reached the final state of liberation and the three gunas have merged back into their original state of perfect equilibrium.

Here is how the concept of “gunatita” is described in the Bhagavad Gita (BG):

BG Verse 14.23¹: Staying indifferent, one who has transcended the gunas, is not disturbed by them, and, knowing that gunas alone are the cause of action, can stay still and firm. 

BG Verse 14.24²: The wise one (who has transcended the gunas) is alike in pleasure and pain, remaining the same towards a stone, piece of gold, or a lump of clay, towards the pleasant and the unpleasant, equal in defamation and self-adulation.

BG Verse 14.25³: In honor and dishonor, same to friends and foes, without any egoistic effort in performing actions, he is known to have transcended the gunas.

Gunas in daily life

As mentioned earlier, gunas play a dominant role in how we feel, think, conduct our day-to-day life etc. Let’s take a look at a few examples from our lifestyle choices and daily activities to understand better the roles played by the three gunas.

Diet and nutrition

Sattvic: This category includes fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, herbs etc. These foods are easily digestible and do not contribute to accumulation of toxicity in the body. They are known to have a calming effect on the mind as well. Choosing seasonal ingredients and preparing food at home further aligns with sattvic principles as the food will be fresh and highly nutritious. Cooking while maintaining a sattvic mind helps bring the same sattvic quality to the food.

Rajasic: Excessively spicy or salty foods, sugar, chocolate, caffeinated drinks (such as tea, coffee, soda, and cola), and non-vegetarian options like meat and fish are examples of rajasic foods. These foods are known to over-stimulate the nervous system, leading to an agitated, restless mind. They offer poor nutritional value, are difficult to digest and when consumed over a long time can lead to a variety of ailments.

Tamasic: Tamasic food is typically heavily processed, stale, impure, or sometimes even rotten. This category includes meat, fish, poultry, eggs, pastries, bread made with all-purpose flour, sugary foods, and alcohol. Fast foods, same food frequently microwaved , canned foods, and food left for long periods of time are also considered tamasic. These foods have an unhealthy and dulling effect on both the body and mind and lead to serious ailments over time.

Personal Environment

Sattvic: A sattvic environment is clean, uncluttered, orderly, bright and peaceful. For your daily yoga practice, you need to create or dedicate a space in your home which meets these guidelines and is conducive for your practice of asana, pranayama and meditation. This kind of environment will help you even when you want to relax while reading a book or listening to some soulful music.

Rajasic: A cluttered, noisy, chaotic and disordered environment is Rajasic in nature. Such an environment is ill-suited for any creative or spiritual work.

Tamasic: A cluttered, dirty, squalid, smelly, dark space is tamasic in nature. This type of space is unhealthy both for the body and the mind and is totally unsuitable for any creative work.

Thoughts and Emotions

Sattva: Peace of mind, clarity of thought, contentment, state of inner joy, compassionate mind, a sense of purpose in life

Rajas: Restlessness, anxiety, craving for sense objects, anger and other negative emotions, anxiety, ambition, desire to prove you are right

Tamas: Dullness, confused state of mind, laziness, sadness, apathy, ignorance, procrastination

When you wake up in the Morning

Sattva: Waking early naturally, feeling light, ready for the daily yoga practice after morning ablutions, a clear agenda for the day ahead

Rajas: Immediately rushing to the phone to check messages, rushing out of bed with a sense of urgency, constantly worrying about events in the day ahead, worrying about getting late to work

Tamas: Hitting the snooze button repeatedly, lingering in bed, feeling heavy and reluctant to move, feeling lethargic and tired, no clear plan for the day

Attending a Yoga Class

Sattva: staying fully aware of the body, breath and mind throughout the class, listening to the instructor with full attention, never over-stretching

Rajas: Focus on achievement and “perfection” in a yoga pose, letting the ego push the body beyond its limits, aiming for recognition by the instructor and fellow yoga students

Tamas: Going through the class mechanically without awareness, total lack of inspiration, low energy, feeling heaviness of the body and the mind

Same event, different response

Let’s look at a few examples from our daily life wherein the same situation or event can trigger a different response depending upon the guna that is dominant at the time.

Traffic Jam

Sattva: Keeping a calm mind, listening to your favorite music, practicing some pranayama – e.g., alternate nostril breathing (nadi shuddhi) or engaging in a pleasant phone conversation.

Rajas: Feeling agitated and restless with thoughts like, “I’ll be late for my appointment”, “why can’t they build roads with more lanes?”, “why don’t people learn how to drive better?”

Tamas: You just slump in your seat feeling hopeless and with thoughts like, “bad things always happen to me – nothing ever goes right!”, “I am doomed to suffer in every situation”.

A bicyclist in accident

It is late in the evening, and you are going for an evening walk along the roadside. You suddenly notice that on the side of the road, a man is lying on the ground with his bicycle a few feet away. It appears that the man must have fallen from the bike, hit his head on the ground, and lost consciousness. Let us look at the possible reaction and responses:

Sattva: You stop there, call 911 and wait until help arrives. In the meantime, you help reassemble the man’s belongings which may have scattered on the ground.

Rajas: You look around and notice a couple of other people walking in that direction. You convince yourself that, “I am too busy and have to get back home in time for dinner. In any case, one of the other guys walking that way will surely help”. You continue on your walk.

tamas: You look around and see no one in the near vicinity. It is dark enough and you are sure that no one can see you. You check the injured person’s pocket, take out his wallet, take all the cash and possibly the credit card and quietly walk away.

As you can see, all the three responses above are carefully calculated. However, depending upon the dominant guna at the time, each results in a vastly different outcome.

Preparing a Meal

Sattva: Cooking mindfully, choosing fresh and nourishing ingredients, thinking of nourishment for self and others, maybe chanting while cooking.

Rajas: Rushing, having a phone conversation or other distractions while cooking, focusing only on taste with no regard to the nutritional value, focusing on presentation or how to impress the guests.

Tamas: Heating processed food without care, watching TV while cooking without paying attention to the quality of cooked meal, overeating, or cooking mechanically without enthusiasm.

How to cultivate Sattva

As we have seen, our mood, actions and behavior patterns are controlled by the guna that is dominant at any given time. Our goal is to enhance the dominance of sattva so the life becomes more peaceful, joyous and fulfilling. Eventually we even want to transcend the influence of the gunas, including sattva, since even sattva also binds us through attachment with happiness and knowledge. Here are some thoughts on how to first cultivate the sattva guna and then try to go beyond.

Patanjali, in the yoga sutras offers the eight limbs of yoga (Ashtanga Yoga⁹) which, when practiced regularly, can cleanse the mind of all impure thoughts and enhance the dominance of sattva. In sutra 1.14¹⁰, Patanjali emphasizes that this practice must be done on a regular basis without interruptions, for a long time and with a sense of devotion. Please visit here for a brief introduction to the eight limbs of yoga, including the yamas and niyamas.

Of the eight limbs of yoga, the first two – the five yamas and five niyamas – present an excellent approach to cleansing the mind. The yamas provide guidelines for social interactions whereas niyamas offer disciplinary guidelines that apply to oneself. The final three limbs – dharana (focus), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (total absorption) are the most significant limbs of yoga which can help develop the sattva guna. Of course, getting to the final state known as “nirbija (seedless) samadhi” will ultimately take us beyond even the sattva guna, culminating in the state where the three gunas can remain in a state of perfect equilibrium. That is the state that Patanjali labels as “Kaivalya”, or ultimate freedom.

From a practical point of view, practicing all aspects of yoga – asana, pranayama and meditation – on a regular basis, and also understanding the concepts presented in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, will help us cultivate the sattva guna and diminish the influence of rajas and tamas. Of course, as we know, we need all three gunas for us to function in life. It is just that we want sattva to be dominant most of the time while rajas and tamas continue to play a supporting role.

—
[Note 1] BG verse 14.23: उदासीनवदासीनो गुणैर्यो न विचाल्यते | गुणा वर्तन्त इत्येवं योऽवतिष्ठति नेङ्गते || 23|| udāsīna-vad āsīno guṇair yo na vichālyate | guṇā vartanta ity evaṁ yo ’vatiṣhṭhati neṅgate
Staying indifferent, one who has transcended the gunas, is not disturbed by them, and, knowing that gunas alone are the cause of action, can stay still and firm.

[Note 2] BG verse 14.24: समदु:खसुख: स्वस्थ: समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चन: | तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस्तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुति: || 24|| sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ sva-sthaḥ sama-loṣhṭāśhma-kāñchanaḥ | tulya-priyāpriyo dhīras tulya-nindātma-sanstutiḥ
The wise one (who has transcended the gunas) is alike in pleasure and pain, remaining the same towards a stone, piece of gold, or a lump of clay, towards the pleasant and the unpleasant, equal in defamation and self-adulation. 

[Note 3] BG verse 14.25: मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयो: | सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीत: स उच्यते || 25|| mānāpamānayos tulyas tulyo mitrāri-pakṣhayoḥ | sarvārambha-parityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa uchyate
In honor and dishonor, same to friends and foes, without any egoistic effort in performing actions, he is known to have transcended the gunas.

[Note 4] BG verse 14.6: तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम् | सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ || 6|| tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt prakāśhakam anāmayam | sukha-saṅgena badhnāti jñāna-saṅgena chānagha
Sattva is pure, illuminating and free from sickness. It binds the soul through attachment with happiness and knowledge. 

[Note 5] BG verse 14.7: रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् | तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् || 7|| rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛiṣhṇā-saṅga-samudbhavam | tan nibadhnāti kaunteya karma-saṅgena dehinam
Rajas is full of passion and is born out of intense desire and attachment. It binds the soul through attachment with action. 

[Note 6] BG verse 14.8: तमस्त्वज्ञानजं विद्धि मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम् | प्रमादालस्यनिद्राभिस्तन्निबध्नाति भारत || 8|| tamas tv ajñāna-jaṁ viddhi mohanaṁ sarva-dehinām | pramādālasya-nidrābhis tan nibadhnāti bhārata
Tamas is the darkness and the crudeness in man. It is born of ignorance and cause of delusion. It binds the soul through recklessness, laziness and sleep. 

[Note 7] Samkhya Karika 12: प्रीत्यप्रीतिविषादात्मकाः प्रकाशप्रवृत्तिनियमार्थाः । अन्योऽन्याभिभवाश्रयजननमिथुनवृत्तयश्च गुणाः ॥१२॥ prītyaprītiviṣādātmakāḥ prakāśapravṛttiniyamārthāḥ । anyo’nyābhibhavāśrayajananamithunavṛttayaśca guṇāḥ ॥12॥
The gunas are of the nature of pleasure, pain and delusion; they serve the purpose of illumination, action and restraint, and are mutually dominating, supporting, productive and cooperative.

[Note 8] Samkhya Karika 13: सत्त्वं लघु प्रकाशकमिष्टमुपष्टम्भकं चलं च रजः । गुरु वरणकमेव तमः प्रदीपवच्चार्थतो वृत्तिः ॥ १३ ॥ sattvaṁ laghu prakāśakamiṣṭamupaṣṭambhakaṁ calaṁ ca rajaḥ ।
guru varaṇakameva tamaḥ pradīpavaccārthato vṛttiḥ ॥ 13 ॥
Sattva guna is light/buoyant and illuminating, the rajas guna is exciting and mobile, and tamas is heavy and enveloping. Like a lamp, they work together toward a specific end.

[Note 9] The eight limbs of yoga (sutra 2.29) are:

1. yama (restraint, interaction with others)
2. niyama (observance, applied to self)
3. āsana (physical seated posture)
4. prāṇāyāma (regulation of breath)
5. pratyāhāra (Sense withdrawal)
6. dhāraṇā (focus/concentration)
7. dhyāna (meditation)
8. samādhi (total absorption)

[Note 10] Sutra 1.14: स तु दीर्घकालनैरन्तर्यसत्कारासेवितो दृढभूमिः॥१४॥ sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkāra-āsevito dr̥ḍhabhūmiḥ ॥14॥
That (practice) is indeed firmly grounded when it is persistently exercised for a long time, without interruption, and with earnest, reverential attention and devotion. (1.14)