THREE GUNAS

Hello Learners !!

Welcome to the session on Three

Gunas

Dr. Sonal Sidana

Assistant Professor
Department of Business Administration,
School of Business & Commerce, FoMC,
Manipal University Jaipur
Email ID:
sonal.sidana@jaipur.manipal.edu
THREE GUNAS

Contents

Introduction
Meaning of Gunas
Types of Gunas
Overcoming Tamo Guna
Summary
Reference Books
THREE GUNAS

Learning Objectives

At the end of this session, you will be able to:

Acquaint with the concept of three gunas.

Understand the meaning of gunas.
Identify the types of gunas.
Understanding the functioning of gunas.
THREE GUNAS

Introduction
 Life is full of duality- life and death, creation and
destruction, pleasure and pain, peace, and
disturbance etc.
 We live in a magical universe filled with great
forces of life and death, creation, and destruction.
Divine powers can be found everywhere to lift us
into a greater peace and understanding.
 But undivine forces are also ever present, working
to lure us down further into confusion and
attachment.
 Truth and falsehood, ignorance and enlightenment
form the light and dark, the illumination and
shadow of the world.
 In this basic duality of creation, we struggle not
merely to survive but to find meaning in our lives.
THREE GUNAS

Introduction
 We must learn to navigate through these contrary
currents so that we can benefit by the ascending spiritual
force and avoid the descending unspiritual inertia.
 Nature herself is the Divine Mother in manifestation and
the universe is her play of consciousness.
 Nature possesses a qualitative energy through which we
can either expand into wisdom or contract into
ignorance.
 Ayurveda provides a special language for understanding
the primal forces of Nature and shows us how to work
with them on all levels.
 According to Yoga and Ayurveda, Nature consists of
three primal qualities, which are the main powers of
Cosmic Intelligence that determine our spiritual growth.
 These are called gunas in Sanskrit, meaning “what
binds” because wrongly understood they keep us in
bondage to the external world.
 Happiness
THREE GUNAS
• Where / how do we
seek fulfillment?

Who are we and what do we

want?

Success
• What ways do we
choose to achieve
success?
• Desirable /
undesirable ways
 THREE GUNAS
Sato
Rajo
Meaning
Tamo

Three Gunas (attribute/qualities/virtues/traits/inclinations)

that define Human Nature
THREE GUNAS

Types of Gunas

Tool for understanding and mastering

mind, body and emotions, and
transforming every aspect of your life.
THREE GUNAS

Types of Gunas

 Sattva – intelligence, imparts balance

 Rajas – energy, causes imbalance
 Tamas – substance, creates inertia

 The three gunas are the most subtle qualities of

Nature that underlie matter, life and mind.
 They are the energies through which not only
the surface mind, but our deeper consciousness
functions.
 They are the powers of the soul which hold the
karmas and desires that propel us from birth to
birth.
 The gunas adhere in Nature herself as her core
THREE GUNAS

Types of Gunas
 All objects in the universe consist of various
combinations of the three gunas.

 Cosmic evolution consists of their mutual

interaction and transformation.

 The three gunas are one of the prime themes

of Ayurvedic thought.

 They form a deeper level than the three

biological humors and help us understand our
mental and spiritual nature and how it
functions.
THREE GUNAS

Meaning of Sat is Truth

Truth is Prakash (Light), clarity and
knowledge.
 That helps us to observe inside,
Sato THREE
promotes clarity of thought and love for GUNAS
knowledge.

That makes us sensitive, full of

empathy, courteous and selfless.
Types of Gunas

That inspires us to do good, be good

and strive for noble causes.
THREE GUNAS

Types of Gunas
 Sattva manifests itself as purity, knowledge, and
harmony.
 It is the quality of goodness, joy, satisfaction,
nobility, and contentment.
 It is free of fear, violence, wrath, and malice. Sattvic
quality is pure and forgiving.
 Sattva is the quality of intelligence, virtue and
goodness and creates harmony, balance, and
stability.
 It is light (not heavy) and luminous in nature. It
possesses an inward and upward motion and brings
about the awakening of the soul.
 Sattva provides happiness and contentment of a
lasting nature. It is the principle of clarity, wideness
and peace, the force of love that unites all things
together.
THREE GUNAS

Meaning of Raj is mitti / soil / sand

It is the basis of life’s (our and
natural world’s) existence.
 That helps us to be extrovert, action –
Raj driven, dynamic and ambitious. THREE GUNAS
o
That makes us aspire for power,
luxury, wealth, fame and supremacy.
Types of Gunas

Desire to organize, win, rule, capture

grows.
THREE GUNAS

Types of Gunas

 Rajas represents itself by passion, action,

energy, and motion.
 Rajas is characterized by a feeling of
attachment, a longing for satisfaction and
desire.
 Rajas is the quality of change, activity, and
turbulence.
 Rajas is motivated in its action, ever seeking
a goal or an end that gives it power.
 It possesses outward motion and causes self-
seeking action that leads to fragmentation and
disintegration.
THREE GUNAS

Meaning of Tam is darkness /

ignorance.
Tamo Excess of that makes us selfish, cruel,
THREE GUNAS
destructive, rigid / obstinate. We live
with a flawed, unclear direction.

That makes us sleep every night. But

excess turns us into lazy, callous, Types of Gunas
ignorant, dull / inactive human being.

If its stronghold continues, that drives

life towards downhill. Eventually, if
not initially.
THREE GUNAS

Types of Gunas

 Tamas manifests itself as impurity, laziness,

and darkness.
 It is the consequence of ignorance, and it
prevents all beings from seeing the reality.
 Tamas is the quality of dullness, darkness,
and inertia and is heavy, veiling or
obstructing in its action.
 It possesses a downward motion that causes
decay and disintegration.
THREE GUNAS

Types of Gunas

 Tamas brings about ignorance and delusion

in the mind and promotes insensitivity,
sleep, and loss of awareness.
 It is the principle of materiality or
unconsciousness that causes consciousness
to become veiled.
Sato
RajoTamo
• APJ
• Abdul
THREE GUNAS
• Steve Jobs
Kalam
Adolf Hitler

Each one of us has all three gunas

present in us all the time, one of them
dominates over the two.
Sustained dominance of one becomes
our identity!
THREE GUNAS

Gunas always require a base to

reflect themselves!

I n t e l l e c t / E m o ti o n s /
A c ti o n s are the bases that reflect
which Guna is ruling us.
We sleep because of Tamo Guna
If we get up timely, pray, do some
pious activity; we are under Sato
Guna.
We indulge ourselves in worldly
affairs afterwards, that is Rajo
Guna.
THREE GUNAS

Let’s think logically…

 If we make (construct / design / build)
something with adequate knowledge,
outcome would be superior
than if do it with inadequate knowledge.

Tip: Rajo Guna residing in us would

always lead to action, but we have
options to choose how best can we live
our life and plan a dream future.
 THREE GUNAS

Option A: When we are governed by

Sato Guna
We gain
knowledge and
We act / enhance self –
study / keep discipline to
We do not ourselves fit / walk on a track
oversleep, participate / that takes us to
indulge in spend time cherished
destructive with friends. goals.
activities, keep
us clear of – Rajo Guna – Sato Guna
negativity as keeps us in becomes
much as we action mode. stronger and
can. guides us
- Tamo Guna
is under
control. Note: Remember that all three Gunas are present in all
of us, one of them rules over the two.
 THREE GUNAS

Option B: When we are governed

We oversleep,
indulge in
by Tamo Guna
We act / study / destructive
participate / activities,
We lack self – keep ourselves acquire
discipline, fit not to the negativity, and
honesty and best of our refuse to be
therefore find abilities Too open to
short cuts to much rajas stirs knowledge –
success. up desire, greed find neither
- Sato Guna is and anger. happiness nor
weak. Cannot - Rajo Guna success.
take us to right gets affected by - Tamo Guna
path. Tamo Guna rules our
decisions. We
might suffer
badly!
Note: Remember that all three Gunas are present in all
of us, one of them rules over the two.
THREE GUNAS

Overcoming Tamo
Guna
 Through practicing Sato Guna….i.e.,
 Reading good literature / inspiring
biographies* / scriptures.
 Choosing one’s friends carefully (a man is
known by the company he keeps!).
 Living closer to nature.
 Focusing on one’s positive aspects and
practicing them regularly, that fortifies
WILL POWER.
*preferably of those, who lived for a great
cause
THREE GUNAS

Summary
According to Yoga and Ayurveda, Nature
consists of three primal qualities, which are the
main powers of Cosmic Intelligence that
determine our spiritual growth.
These are called gunas in Sanskrit, meaning
“what binds” because wrongly understood they
keep us in bondage to the external world.
Sattva – intelligence, imparts balance
Rajas – energy, causes imbalance
Tamas – substance, creates inertia
The three gunas are the most subtle qualities of
Nature that underlie matter, life and mind.
They are the energies through which not only
the surface mind, but our deeper consciousness
functions.
THREE GUNAS

Reference Books
• R.1 Gaur R.R., Sangal R. and. Bagaria, G.P: ”A
Foundation Course in Human Values Professional
Ethics,” Excel Books, 2010
• R.2 Sadri S & Sadri, J Business Excellence Through
Ethics & Governance, 2nd edition, 2015
• R.3 Mathur, U C Corporate Governance and
business ethics, MacMillan India Ltd, Latest Edition
• R.4 Baxi, C V: Corporate Governance, Excel Books,
Latest Edition
• R.5 Sadri S, Sinha A K and Bonnerjee, P: Business
Ethics: concepts and cases, TMH, Latest Edition