The Three Gunas, Part One: Tamas, Rajas and Sattva

When I was 19 I travelledfor a year through South America with a couple of friends. Early in the journeywe spent 10 days on a rickety riverboat travelling up the Amazon from Manaus inBrazil to  the Peruvian border. The tripof a lifetime, you  might think, and in away it was, because it gave me a story I've told again and again wheneveranyone asks me why I don't eat meat.The meal plan on that boat wasas follows:Breakfast:  cafezinho(black, strong, sweet coffee)  and drycrackers. Lunch:  cafezinho, a slab of meat, beans, macaroni and farinha(cassava powder: pure tasteless starch)Tea: cafezinho andcrackers. Supper: cafezinho, a slab of meat, beans, macaroni and farinha.Every single day, forten days.In all those ten daysnot a single piece of vegetable or fruit touched our lips. By the time wereached Benjamin Constanze we were all gasping for fresh food like landed fishfor water. I can't speak for my friends but I felt as if a shrouded in a darkheavy cloak which only an orange or a slice of pineapple could remove. A short while later wearrived in Lima, and there we stayed with a Swiss guy who happened to be a Yogastudent on a vegetarian diet, a hobby cook. That first night he placed beforeus a dish of  brown rice, braised vegetablesbeautifully spiced, and a dessert of delicious, juicy fresh  fruitsalad. Just two days of this sort of fare and I was reborn. I danced on air; Ifelt light, lucid, jam-packed with energy and full of new life.I never ate meat again. Andwhen people ask me why, that's the story I tell. Mostly, though, I say I justdon't like meat, and I don't, I really don't; and it all began with that Amazon boat trip.Sometimes meat eaters try to trip me up, saying things like "vegetables arealive too!" but that's not the point.

The reasons most Westerners give for turning vegetarian are  usually one of three, or a combination ofthese three: I don't want to kill animals. Or, it's healthy not to eat meat.Or, the eating of meat is not environmentally sustainable.Indian vegetarians have a different reason, and it's anchoredin an ancient Hindu teaching cited in the Bhagavad Gita: the concept of thethree gunas. Guna is a Sanskrit term which can be loosely translated as "energy" or "modeof mind". According to Hinduism, the quality of our life on earth  is determined by the interplay of three distinct energies, or gunas. Part of yoga's goal is to go beyond the limits of seeing life merely as formsand concepts in order to sense and understand the underlying true quality behind those forms andconcepts. This requires the development of an inner sensor finely tuned to pickup energies not normally measurable. Left to itself, the mind is turned outwards, which renders it gross,crude, imprecise; it cannot perceive these energies. With training it can be made as receptive as a highlysensitive radar. By understanding and abiding by the principle of the gunas we learn to sensitize that inner radar; it's like having a map tonavigate one's way through life, for in recognizing which of these energies isat play in one's life it's easier to make the right choices, that is, choices necessary to bring about a state ofspiritual balance, and thus, happiness that is independent of outer circumstances, strength that comes from within. Yoga teaches that there are three gunas: Tamas, Rajas and Sattva. Thereis really no adequate English translation for the gunas, and so I'm going to keep those terms as well as theadjectives that go along with them; with use their meaning will become clear.The first guna is tamas: darkness, ignorance, inertia. The tamasic mind is dull and stubborn, in a state of torpor. It is heavy,lacks energy, strength and courage. It is lifeless. The tamasic person is oblivious to the needs others; he or she lives in acloud of selfish oblivion. Inthe Bhagavad Gita, tamas is describedthus: 14:8. Tamas, born of ignorance, deludes theindwellers of bodies binding them by negligence, carelessness, and laziness, Osinless one.The second guna is rajas: activity, restlessness, acquisitiveness, passion. The rajasic mind is turned outward, to theworld. It's the driving force behind Western capitalist, materialistic society:the need to achieve, to acquire, to conquer. Rajasic people are driven bytheir wants, thirsting for worldly enjoyment, fuelled by competition andambition. The Bhagavad Gitadescribes rajas thus:  14:12. Greed, anxiety, urge to act, restlessness,worldly passions — all these qualities arise from growth of rajas.The third gunais sattva: purity,harmony, bliss. The mind is in tune with its inner source, the Self; it ishappy, in balance, at peace. The sattvic person is calm, centred,compassionate and unselfish, filled with love and compassion to allliving beings. In the Bhagavad Gita sattva is described thus: 14:11. Whenthe light of wisdom shines from every pore of the body, then one can know thatin this person sattva grows.It's important tounderstand that the gunas do notrefer to this or that emotion thatmight be dominant at any given time; it's about the state of consciousness habitual to a person, the particular essenceor level of energy of that person. Weare all made up of different combinations of each guna, but at specific times of our life one guna or the other will be dominant, and a single individualcan pass through this or that guna ina single day. The goal is to be aware of their influenceand learn how to cultivate our inner lifeaccording to our roles, duties and goals in life. It means taking controlof that inner life through knowing which energy is currently at work. When webecome conscious of the dynamic interplay of these energies our lives take awhole new direction; instead of being swept along by mental or emotional powersbeyond our control we take up the reins of our own inner life, and thus of ourouter circumstances. 

And what has all this got to do with not eating meat? Well, I'll get to that later - stay tuned!