In Eastern philosophy, all entities in nature, including human beings, are made of three qualities or gunas: rajas (passion, activity, change, creation), sattva (goodness, harmony, purity, preservation), and tamas (darkness, chaos, inertia, destruction). In an apple tree, there are three kinds of fruits that denote these three gunas: there are ripening fruits (rajas), there are ripe fruits (sattva) and there are overripe fruits (tamas). In human beings, also there are people full of passion and energy (domination of rajas), people in harmony and purity (domination of sattva) and people who are lazy and full of inertia (domination of tamas). The rajas and tamas domination are often responsible for distress and what is needed is a movement toward sattva which is the harmonious quality. In modern science, tamas is called inertia, rajas is kinesis, and sattva is equilibrium. So, it becomes imperative for a spiritual aspirant to inculcate sattva.
How to develop sattva guna? In Manusmriti (VI-92), the following verse is written:
“Dhirth kshma damo’steyam saucham-indriyanigrahah
Dheer vidya satyam-akrodho dasakam dharma lakshanam.”
This when translated implies that Dharma (or sattvic quality) has ten characteristics: (1) patience, (2) forgiveness, (3) control of mind, (4) not stealing anything, (5) purity (both external and internal), (6) control of senses, (7) knowledge of spiritual literature, (8) knowledge of Self, (9) truthfulness, and (10) absence of anger. We can self-introspect on these ten attributes and rate ourselves as to how we stand on a scale of 0 to 10 in these attributes in our (1) thoughts, (2) words, (3) actions. Then we can ask a trusted and close person to us to rate us in a similar way for our words and actions. They will not know about the thoughts. We should then compare the two ratings with an aim to improve in each attribute both for ourselves and that in the eyes of others. We must repeat this exercise every so often (at least every six months) and aim for continual improvement.
Swami Sivanada in his book, Mind its Mysteries and Control published by Divine Life Society, writes that developing friendliness (maitri), compassion (karuna), sympathy (daya), universal love (visva-prema), forgiveness (kshama), spiritual patience (dhriti), power of endurance (titiksha) are all potent means to evolving a sattvic mind. These should be persevered with enthusiasm and fervor (utsaha). There should be consonance in thoughts, words, and actions. The thoughts are the strongest and must be the backbone of any effort to change and improve. A byproduct of such practice is the relief of stress and anxiety.
So, to sum up, self-introspection on positive spiritual attributes followed by concerted action is vital for liberation from bondages of time, place, person, and material consciousness. Such pursuit should be systematically incorporated into daily life. The benefits that will accrue will percolate not only in spiritual growth but foster physical, emotional, mental, and social harmony.
Dr. Manoj Sharma is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. He is an avid practitioner of Kundalini Yoga.
