Rajas
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In Samkhya philosophy, one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, there are three operating principles that form the basis of manifest creation or Nature (in Sanskrit: prakriti) and they are called: sattva, rajas and tamas. These are known as the three "gunas" and no single guna can exist without the other two. [1] Rajas guna ( in Sanskrit rajas, or rajoguna) is responsible for motion, energy and preservation.[2][3] and thereby upholds and maintains the activity of the other two gunas; sattva and tamas. Rajas is the force which promotes or upholds the activity of the other aspects of Nature (prakriti) such as one or more of the following: (1) action; (2) change, mutation; (3) passion, excitement; (4) birth, creation, generation. If a person or thing tends to be extremely active, excitable, or passionate, that person or thing could be said to have a preponderance of rajas. It is contrasted with the quality of tamas, which is the quality of inactivity, darkness, and laziness, and with sattva, which is the quality of purity, clarity, calmness and creativity. Rajas is viewed as being more positive than tamas, and less positive than sattva; except, perhaps, for one who has "transcended the gunas" and achieved equanimity in all fields of relative life. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad Gita Translation and Commentary, Arkana, 1990 p. 128
- ^ Autobiography Of A Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, Self Realization Fellowship, 1973, p.22
- ^ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad Gita Translation and Commentary, Arkana, 1990 p. 236
- ^ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad Gita Translation and Commentary, Arkana, 1990 pp. 221-223
