Up to this point we have considered the kleshas and the vrittis, but we have not mentioned the gunas. Patanjali says it is essential to get freedom from the conflicts within and without that arise from the gunas and the vrittis. Even in your longing for the highest purpose, you will have conflicts. To know the nature of your mind, you have to study the various vrittis or modifications of the mind, which are described in the first pada, and also be able to recognize which particular guna is influencing and controlling your mind and life. Guna is a Sanskrit word which means “quality.” There are three gunas or qualities of the mind: rajas, tamas and sattva. You can easily determine which of the three gunas is predominant if you sit quietly and study the state of your mind. Sometimes in meditation you may see waves of colors. The colors you are visualizing indicate which guna is predominant or active.
When your mind is very active in doing things or trying to attain something in the world, it is under the influence of rajas. Your mind remains very active the whole day, trying to fulfill mundane desires without understanding why it is doing so. The mind can be negatively active or positively active when it is rajasic. If you are selfish and working for yourself, the mind is considered to be negatively active. When it is positively active, you can successfully do what you want to do. The color of rajas is always red. If you want to know if you are under the influence of rajas, just sit down and close your eyes. If rajas is dominant you will immediately have an image of red light.
Tamas means “overcome by inertia in habits, thoughts, speech and behavior.” When tamas is excessive you tend to do negative things that hurt yourself or others. Under the influence of tamas, mind is controlled by sloth and laziness and finds excuses to avoid doing anything. Everyone has the quality of tamas to some extent, but when it is excessive it can be very harmful. When this is the case your animal nature surfaces and you become selfish, inconsiderate, get angry easily and tend to hurt and harm others. You prolong your sleep to eight to ten hours, wake up and work only for yourself, not for others. This is the way animals behave. Tamas is associated with darkness and the color black.
Karma is a law. You cannot live without it, no matter how lazy you are. If you are tamasic, you will receive the fruits of tamas; if you are rajasic, you will receive the fruits of rajas; and if you are sattvic, you will receive the fruits of sattva.
If you find you are too rajasic or tamasic, there is no need to cry or condemn yourself. The purpose of studying the qualities of the mind is to make you aware of what you need to do to train yourself. Whether the mind is overactive or too passive, it needs training to overcome all negative habits.
Sattva gives tranquility, equanimity and peace to the mind. Under the influence of sattva guna, your mind is peaceful, and you feel love for everybody. The sattva guna is associated with light and its color is clear white. A tranquil, sattvic mind is the highest of minds and is never disturbed no matter what happens.
At this point I would like to clarify that those who meditate or pray frequently are not all sages and are not necessarily sattvic. For example, two characters of the Ramayana, Ravana and Rama, were both considered great persons and great devotees, but they were very different. Ravana was a very learned Brahmin king and Rama was a prince. Ravana was acceptably a greater scholar than Rama and came from a Brahmin family, while Rama was not from a Brahmin family. He did not have that traditional background where mother and father educate the child from the very beginning. Though they were both great devotees of Lord Shiva, Ravana used to spend many hours in meditation and had attained many siddhis (supernatural powers) as a result of his devoted practices. Rama had not attained siddhis.
But nobody loves or remembers Ravana today. It is Rama who is the object of everyone’s devotion. This is because Ravana was very selfish. He wanted to be supreme and even resorted to killing others so he could attain that status. This is why he was known as the king of demons. He prayed to Lord Shiva with great devotion and sincerity and therefore received many boons from him, one of which was to become a great warrior. The devas (bright beings), who were the highest beings during that time, did not know how to deal with him. On the other hand, Rama was known as the prince of peace, truth and happiness. The nature of his mind was pure sattva, and so he was beloved by all, and still is today.
The goal of humanity is to attain that culture where the whole universe becomes a family, and everyone feels love for each other. To feel love for each other means to feel love for the Lord. In order for this to happen, everyone will have to acquire a state of mind in which the quality of sattva is predominant. To be spiritual means to awaken sattva in your life.
Reprinted from “Sadhana the Path to Enlightenment,” by Swami Rama