Sattva, Rajas and Tamas Guna

 

Let me tell you what I learned in this week's Ayurveda course. It's definitely useful.

I don't think I needed to say that food influences our mood, but how exactly, Indian sages teach us by defining the three fundamental tendencies of nature: sattva, rajas and tamas.

Guna is a term that is translated in several ways, but in principle it means fundamental factor of creation.

Sattva guna is the conscious element, the ascending force, that is, the element that helps us evolve, to be better, the factor of balance between energy and matter. It corresponds to the divine nature in man, it represents light, serenity, expansion of consciousness, liberation from suffering, knowledge, happiness, clarity, enlightenment, self-knowledge, power, health.

Rajas guna is the force that holds us in place, the horizontal force. It is a powerful force, it represents passion, desire, energy in motion, vitality, emotion, activity, concrete actions, passion that can sometimes turn into violence, suffering, oscillation between joy and suffering, stubbornness, anger, manipulation. It is a force that holds us in place, although it emanates a lot of energy because it determines us to be obsessed with something we want and does not allow us to evolve, to ascend in consciousness. We seek fulfillment not within ourselves but in the external world, we desire many material things.

Tamas guna is a force of a descending nature, a force that brings us down, that takes us lower than we are, a force that means laziness, stagnation, inertia, non-activity, neglect, darkness of the mind, indecision, ignorance, opacity, limited, animal nature.

Ayurveda describes rajas and tamas as the source of diseases.

Okay, okay, and how do I apply the above in my life?

The foods we eat give us one or more of the above states. Sattva is the ideal one. Rajas and tamas not so much.

Sattvic foods are those that we feel give us energy, strength, power, joy, liveliness, have a pleasant natural taste (natural, remember, not with additives), have a naturally oily texture, do not spoil. In general, ripe fruits, natural vegetables, fresh sweet milk, ghee butter and in general everything that is tasty, natural and little processed fall here.

Rajasic foods are those that are bitter, sour, salty, too hot, spicy, tasteless, that burn, give suffering, anger and illness. Foods with taste enhancers or those that stimulate us too strongly also fall here. These foods give us states of anger, unhealthy passion, obsessive desires, anger, nerves.

Tamasic foods are those that are stale, have lost their taste, those that have waited too long in the refrigerator for us to eat them, those that are not fresh, spoiled, smelly, improperly stored, which tend to deteriorate. Overly processed foods are in the same category because they are depleted of nutrients and in turn deplete us. These foods give us feelings of fear, worry, anxiety, restlessness. Improperly frozen and thawed fruits and vegetables also fall into this category. Those that are quickly frozen are OK.

And a concrete example - this morning I wanted to drink some tea. It was too hot and it instantly made me nervous. So clearly a rajas food, although it was a good ginger tea with honey. It was much better to drink moderately warm.

So choose carefully what you eat because it influences your mood every day. Try to feel how each food you eat influences you and choose those foods that are good for you in the long term, that support your health, vitality and growth in consciousness.

Kisses,

Geo