Meditation do it your self

Meditation

Namaste

Wishing you Health Happiness and Success in your life

Continuing with the previous blog, today we will discuss about Gunas (Quality) & how it shapes our lives. We will also discuss in detail the characteristic of gunas & how to balance & live the life to fullest

Gunas

Understanding how Life works with gunas

The universe were we  live in is divided into Prakriti (Illusion) & Purusha (Reality, cosmic being or self, consciousness). Everything which is changeable, which is not infinite, is  prakriti. Purusha on the other hand is the only reality, it is the universe’s only unchangeable element the self the soul. 

Everything within Prakriti world, consists of three gunas (qualities). 

Gunas (Quality refers to “binding force. The three qualities of material nature bind the living entity The material universe is referred to as prakriti, every aspect of prakriti is shaped by the three gunas.

The three gunas are 

• Sattva
• Rajas 
• Tamas

These three qualities are present in all in various degrees, one quality is always more present or dominant then the others. The three gunas are Sattva (purity), Rajas (activity) and Tamas (darkness, destruction). Gunas are present in everything; humans, food, animate and innate objects.

Only the soul is eternal whereas Maya or Prakriti are changeable and illusionary (unreal). The difficulty lies in being able to discriminate between the real and the unreal. That is the ultimate goal of Meditation to see beyond the illusion and see the reality. Only a person who is able to see the reality can reach the stage of  Enlightenment.

These three gunas form the basis of all our experience. They are always at play in our lives and their influence is reflected in our physical, mental and emotional states.

People equally can be more or less dominated by one of the three gunas, while we all experience a mix of all three, some of us lean more toward rajas, tamas, or if we’re lucky, sattva.

Sattva is experienced as stillness, balance, harmony, and clarity. Emotional states associated with sattva include happiness, joy, peace, love, freedom, friendliness, openness, creativity, fulfillment and inspiration.

Rajas is movement, activity, agitation and desire. Rajasic states include passion, alertness, determination, self-centric, anxiety, restlessness, anger, greed and worry.

Tamas is the densest of the three qualities and experienced as inertia, obscuration, inactivity and fear. Tamasic states include laziness, doubt, sadness, hurt, shame, boredom, apathy and ignorance.

Tamas is responsible for sleep, so it serves a necessary function. Too much tamas, however, and we experience inertia, laziness and apathy. It makes us dull physically, mentally and emotionally. It obscures the mind and makes it difficult to think clearly. Even the simplest action can become an inordinate struggle.

People with excess tamas tend to suffer depression. It can be a deadening state and one that’s very hard to get out of.

To get going with our day and burn off the tamas, we require some rajas.

Rajas is the mode of action, movement and activity. We need it to function in the world. It’s what drives us to get things done. Too much rajas stirs up desire, greed and anger. We end up anxious, agitated and stressed. We’re always in conflict with people and find it very hard to control one self easily & hardly get sleep.

People with primarily rajasic natures can be exhausting to be around. Restless, over active and manic, they have endless to-do lists and frequently suffer stress and burnout. Rajas is responsible for our of stress, anxiety, greed & anger .

Rajas and tamas are rarely far apart. Most people cycle between the two during the course of the day.

That’s why, at the end of a long & stressful day, physically and mentally exhausted . unable to even think & decide, we reach for a drinks, eat unhealthy food & watch television for several hours until, we eventually fall asleep.

Excessively rajasic people find it hard to sleep. They’re constantly wired and unable to sleep. Tamasic people, on the other hand, might want to sleep all day and night.

Both rajas and tamas can be a source of great suffering.

Sattva manifests itself as purity, knowledge and harmony. It is the quality of goodness, joy, satisfaction, nobility and contentment. It is free of fear, violence, wrath and malice, calmness, peace, well-being, creativity and inspiration. Sattvic quality is pure and forgiving. It is the guna that people want to increase in order to reach the state of  Liberation. Increasing sattva is possible by reducing rajas and tamas, both in your mind and in your body. You can do this by eating sattvic food, receiving  positive energy from the sunlight. By practicing meditation and living a non-violent lifestyle, surrounding yourself by positive people and performing activities that bring you and others joy you increase the sattvic elements in your mind and body.

Rajas compels us to chase all kinds of goals, objects and acquisitions. But what is it we’re really after? It’s never the actual object of our desire that we’re really seeking.

It’s the feeling of relief, satisfaction and peace we get when we attain it. This is caused when rajas (desire) gives way to sattva (contentment), and we experience a natural sense of happiness and joy.

The problem is our mind becomes conditioned to rajas. Our happiness is short-lived and soon the mind is busy seeking other things to attain. Either that or when the sattva wears off, we slip into tamas and get depressed and discouraged.

Sattva isn’t something we need to seek or acquire, its already there the mind is sattvic by its very nature. All we need to do is learn to manage excess rajas and tamas. By balancing rajasic restlessness and tamasic dullness, we can enjoy the natural peace and well-being of sattva.

We as human beings, have the possibility to consciously change the levels of the gunas in our body and mind. By altering the presence and influence of external objects, lifestyle and thoughts we can increase or decrease the gunas. Whichever guna is predominating will affect how we perceive the world around us. It will affect behavior, attitude, actions, attachments and so on. For example a person who is predominantly tamsic will see everything as negative and destructive. A person who is more sattvic on the other hand will perceive the universe as positive and will find joy and happiness in everything. However the mind is very unstable and can fluctuate very easily from one predominant guna to another.

To be continued in next blog

In the above discussed topic you may find common words in many articles discussed above, as the topic is general and many people have discussed in the near past, but over all view expressed by my blog is of my observation.