Rajas it is the active, stimulating and positive force, which places the beginning of the dimensions and this way brakes down the old balance. Tamas is the passive, obstructing or negative force, which maintains the currently achieved by the previous activity. Sattva is the neutral or balancing force, which harmonizes the positive and the negative, it observes and oversees. All the three forces are necessary for the regular activity, but they also have psychic dimensions. Sattva is a quality of the light, love and the life, the high or spiritual force, which gives an opportunity of the conscious to develop itself. It gives virtues of the faith, dignity, self-control, conciliation and truthfulness. Rajas is a quality of the passion excitement, the medium or living force, which lacks stability and consistency. It creates emotional fluctuations of the attraction and disgust, of the fear and desire, of the love and hate. Tamas is the quality of the darkness, unconscious and death, of the low or material force, which brings us to ignorance and attachment. It cause dullness, inertness, heaviness, emotional attachment and stagnation.
The Laws of the Gunas
There are two general laws of the gunas, which determine the meaning of the work with them. The first is “The law of the turns”. The three gunas are always in dynamic interaction. There can be rarely seen pure tamas, pure rajas or pure sattva. We always have to be ready for the changes in the gunas. The second law is: “The law of permanence”. The gunas are trying to keep hold on to their particular nature for a certain period, when a one gains an advantage. The substances are stabilizing on the level of one of the three gunas. Even though it is hard for tamas to turn into rajas or rajas to become sattva, once they do it, they continue to keep the same quality. We can observe the both laws in each movement in time. The night as darkness belongs to tamas, the sunrise and the sunset as transition periods belong to rajas, and the days as light belongs to sattva. These three parts always have to turn. The night gives a way to the dawn, which at its turn gives a way to the day, which at dusk gives a way to the night again to an unceasing cycle. This is “The law of turns”.
Once a certain phase is formed, it will suffer small changes in certain period. During these certain periods, the particular condition keeps prevailing. For example: We are active during the day and we sleep during the night.
In this regard tamas and sattva differ from rajas with higher permanence. Rajas as a nature is unstable and can not keeps its condition long time and has to turn into tamas or move forward to sattva. Rajas is transiting and governs the interaction between the gunas. Despite of this it is possible some people to remain in rajas as a quality in a larger part of their life. This is the condition of the modern society, which is most of the time rajasic – active and variable.
Due to the gunas are relative conditions, we have to remember, that what sattva is on a certain level, can become rajas or tamas on another level. Each thing which enlightens the mind of a man is sattva for him/her. That what brings him down is tamas. This means as much as we evolve in the spiritual way, that what has been sattva or something useful has to be thrown away, when we move on another level.
Sattva is the key to the ayurvedic healing. Ayutveda teaches us that the sattvic body will less probably suffer sickness and has higher abilities to keeps a balanced condition. The sickness especially the chronicle one is tamasic condition. Tamas causes heaping of toxins and waste products on the physical level and collection of negative thoughts and emotions on a psychic level. The health is a sattvic condition of balance and adoption, which prevents all quitting out of the norm. Rajas is the movement form health to sickness, or from sickness to health depending on its direction of development.
