#157 Exploring Rajas, Tamas And Satva With Dr Vignesh Devraj

A very warm welcome to all of you to Ayurvedic Healing and Beyond Podcast and this is your host, Dr. Vignesh Devraj. In today's episode, I will be discussing about Manogunas, that is the qualities of our mind. In Ayurveda, there is a special mentioning about the three qualities of the mind. Those are Satva, Rijas and Tamas. So I will be discussing about what each of these qualities stand for, whether one is better than the other or not, and how to work with these qualities, and how that can contribute to a healthier life and also having a better emotional well-being. I hope you enjoy this podcast. So Satva, Rijas, Tamas, these are considered as the three Guna's of the mind, like three qualities of the mind. And in Ayurveda, there is a special slope of it says, Rijas and Tamas are the two dosas of the mind also. They are also considered as Guna's and dosha's just Rijas and Tamas, but Satva is not, Satva is only a Guna, it's not a dosha ever. So let's deconstruct these words. Rijas, what it means? Rijas means your ability to be aggressive, active, you know, ability to do the action at the right place, at the right time. And Tamas means, the word Tamas actually means darkness, and it can also be correlated with heaviness, laziness, inertia. Like there is even a mantra like, Tamasoma, Jyotirkamaya, take me from darkness to light. So, Tamas means heaviness sometimes just inactivity. So, we get into when you read some certain spiritual books, people come with an impression that we should not be tamasic. Yes, we should not be tamasic in nature, but we need tamas at some, at lot of times in our life. For example, at night, I should be tamasic and go to sleep. And in the day time, I should be regency, and I should be very active in life. So, people think, Regis means just anger and Tamas means cow's potato, we don't do anything. Now, that is the extreme version when it completely dominates you. And Satva actually means purity or is, so when you look at it from the perspective of the Manogunas of Satva. So, when you cultivate more of this Satva-Guna inside of you, you are able to understand word to use Regis and word to use Tamas. So, Satva is the ability to discriminate, word to use Regis and word to use Tamas. Sometimes you are in a situation, maybe speaking up and standing up and being aggressive is the best thing that you can do for the long term. Sometimes in certain situation, it's best to ignore what is happening. Like I said, you know, for the health matter. In the day time, we should be active and at night, we should be asleep. But the moment that switches, when people are very active at night and very lazy during the day, it completely derails our hormonal imbalances will happen. And that can lead to many other conditions later on. So, having to know, ability to know, word to do Regis and word to do Tamas, that is what is Satva. And how do I cultivate Satva? It is step by step, surrendering to Sir Karyan Tratham, reading more about spirituality, doing lot of spiritual practices, and avoiding foods that will make you heavy and that will make you very aggressive. That doesn't mean if you don't eat that, you will not be able to be aggressive. Sometimes, depending on the nature of your job, if you are into a lot of creative creativity, you need to have a lot of knowledge. Then, if you eat foods that will make you very thermosic and derail you, maybe alcohol, it immediately gives you a Rajas and it puts you into the Thomas. So, sometimes people feel, I just want that kick. So, let me go and do that, but immediately it puts you down. Like that, when you eat certain foods, it will give you that high and it will also go down. That's why certain people limit certain foods, depending on how it's going to impact their body. So, a few things that can done, as I will mention it again, surrendering to Sir Karyan Tratham is fantastic, because it will give you an anchor to the movement of the Sun and the Earth's magnetic field. So, when you go to sleep on time and wake up on time, not naturally, your Thomas is used when the body requires the most and the Rajas is used when your body requires it. So, then you will have the ability to use your Sattva better, and then eating healthy, eating fresh, avoiding processed food, and then reading positive books that talks about, in Ayurveda, there is a Suthra, the Dairium, Atma, the Vithyanam. That means spiritual knowledge, knowledge about yourself, about the spirit that is beyond the body, Dairium, you know, reading things that gives you courage. And the, it is about intelligence and also your ability to discriminate what is good, what is bad. So, that more and more you cultivate, there is also a Suthra, Vidya, Tharpanam, like good wisdom is also a kind of nutrition and nourishment to your body and soul. So, the more and more you indulge in this, naturally your Sattva will be cultivated. So, you are able to understand, word to use Rajas and word to use Thomas. It's not that we should not have Thomas, it's not that we should not have Rajas. We should have the Rajas and Thomas, where it is required, and having cultivating the Sattva-guna is your ability to know word to use what. So, also to understand little more how to cultivate Sattva and what is Sattva. One of the best examples is the quote from Victor Fangle, he wrote the book, "Man's Search for Meaning". He talks about between stimulus and response, there is space and in that space is the growth. And expanding Sattva is like expanding the space between stimulus and response. You know, we have this word, knee jerk reaction. The moment they tap on the knee, the knee jerks without your logical thinking, without your conscious of it's an involuntary response. Same way, if we get Rajasic for everything that is happening, like being involuntary and having a knee jerk reaction, you are losing your ability to use your intellect in the right space. So, Sattva is also about slowing down. You know, we have this saying, we slow down to go faster, so that we know where we are going. Just by going fast in the wrong direction, you will just get the sense of feeling that I am going somewhere, but maybe you are not going the right way. So, sometimes it is good to slow down. And you see in nature, everything appears to be slow, but everything is achieved, the right space at the right time. So, that's why in order to cultivate Sattva, we also need to learn the art of awareness in everything that we do, mindfulness in everything that we do. And today it's becoming more and more relevant than any other time, because everything is so instant. Like the food is coming to your door step instantly, the entertainment is coming so instantly. Whatever your mind wants, at an instant, you know, the press of your button on your phone, things are coming to you. And that sometimes is limiting the ability for people to cultivate this Sattva, quality in them. So, that is why also Pranayama, you know, being aware of your breath, or even just 15 to 20 minutes, a daily practice of just being aware of your breath and sitting without doing anything. All these things will add more to that space between stimulus and response. And that is the best example to how to understand Sattva, because that is the space where you know what should my response be. Should I have a Rajasic response or a tamasic response? Should I just be aggressive and stand up for myself? Or should I just ignore it? Sometimes ignoring is the best, sometimes standing up is very important. So, in certain situation, procrastination, it's a tamasic approach. Somewhere, I am worried I don't have the energy to deal with it, so let it happen some other time. So, at that period of time, Rajas will be very powerful to you. So, this Sattva is where it gives you the power to choose the right thing. And that gives you clarity. And the clarity happens better when you slow down, when you become aware of your breath, when you slowly take things one step at a time. Thank you for listening to Ayurvedic Healing and Beyond.