| The Gunas, whose natures are pleasure, pain, and indifference,
(serve to) manifest, activate and limit. They succesively dominate, support, activate, and interact with each other. Sattwa is buoyant and shining
Ishvarakrishna
|
Sattwa - Samkhya: accounts for thought and intelligibility,
experienced psychologically as pleasure, thinking, clarity, understanding
and detachment. Classical Yoga: - when sattwa (purity,
illumination through comprehension) predominates, consciousness manifests
itself as prakhya - vivacity, illumination, mental clarity and serenity.
Rajas -
accounts for motion, energy and activity. Experienced psychologically
as suffering, craving and attachment. Classical Yoga: - when
rajas (energy) predominates, consciousness is pravritti -
active and energetic, tense and willful.
Tamas
- accounts for restraint and inertia. Experienced psychologically
as delusion, depression and dullness. Classical Yoga: - when
tamas (obscurity, heaviness) predominates, consciousness is sthiti
- inert, punged into a state of repose and torpor
Gerard J. Larson, Classical Samkhya, pp.244-45
Vyasa, Yoga-Sutras 1:2. as cited in Mircea
Eliade, Yoga Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press,
1969, p.38
As the three primary qualities of phenomenal nature (prakriti) and of embodied consciousness, the concept of the three gunas has had great influence, becaming a basic concept running through Hindu culture.
An analogy can be made with the gunas and the yin-yang polarity of Chinese thought. Sattwa clearly represents Yang, Tamas Yin, and Rajas has qualities of both. The three pillars or columns of the Kabbalistic tree is another example, although the correspondence is less clear. Both the central column of Balance and the right-hand column of Mercy would represent Sattwa, while the column of Severity on the left combines Rajas and Tamas.
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