Manas, the mind and sattva, rajas, andtamas

Manas the mind

Sattva, raja and tamas the gunas mind is significantly affected by sattva. True nature of mind
is sattva only but raja and tamas cloud it. When we clear them, sattva can reach Brahma Sattva
highest level of sattva.
Bodys prakruti cannot change it is fixed at birth due to conception. Manas prakruti however
CAN change it is not fixed and is therefore called Maha Prakruti. Anything can happen in a
lifetime, it is very changeable. Never talk about Vata Pitta Kapha in reference to the mind. They
do not exist there. You cannot say vata pitta in body, kapha in mind. You can say Tamas in mind.
Everyone has all 3 gunas, but basic nature of manas is sattva our beginning and end always is
sattva. As baby grows raja and tamas increase. You need tamas guna to sleep.
Atmagnan (self knowledge), guru, bhakti (devotion to god) all these things can help change the
mind. Anyone who has more rajas/tamas than needed is diseased. We need some in order to
function to support sattva but when those take over gives suffering and is disease. We dont
have to hate the mind, sattva gives us true pleasure.
Sukha gets amrita, not temporary pleasure. Desire brings temporary pleasure. The sattvic
pleasure is very different than temporary pleasure.
Manas or Mind prakruti can change. Food and lifestyle change doshas and that can have affect on
the mind, but we never say we have vata mind. All the combinations of gunas change. The state of
the mind can change in a second but it isnt very common for that to happen.
Ex. The story of Angulimala tells of a fearsome bandit was tamed by the Buddha.
Example in the Ramayana Maharishi Valmiki was born as Ratnakara to sage Prachetasa. As his
family grew larger, Ratnakara took to robbery and began looting people passing from one village
to another. One day, the great sage Narada, while passing through the jungle, was attacked by
Ratnakara. He asked Ratnakara whether the family, for whom he was robbing others, will partake
in his sins also. Ratnakara went to ask the same question to his family and on being refused by all
his family members, he went back to sage Narada. Narada taught him the sacred name of Rama
and asked him to sit in meditation, chanting the name of Rama, till the time Narada came
back.Ratnakara followed the instructions and kept sitting in a meditative posture for years, during
which his body got completely covered by an anthill. At last, Narada came to see him and
removed all the anthills from his body. Then, he told Ratnakara that his tapasya (meditation) paid
off and the God was pleased with him. Ratnakara was bestowed with the honor of a Brahmarshi
and given the name of Valmiki, since he was reborn from the Valmika (the ant-hill). Sage Valmiki
founded his ashram at the banks of River Ganga. One day, Valmiki had the fortuity of receiving
Lord Rama, His wife Sita and brother Lakshman at his ashram. Narada visited Maharishi Valmiki
in his ashram once and there, he narrated the story of Lord Rama. Thereafter he received a vision
from Brahma in which the Lord instructed him to write Ramayana in slokas, which the sage
readily followed.


Sattva can go into 7 layers of refinement. Japa, mantra, mala practice, atmagnanam (knowledge of
self). Many people notice with japa (mantra practice) vrata/tapas food tapas. Atmajnana
giving medicine and love is not enough, the most important isself knowledge. There is no room
for emotions, to waste time on emotions around unworthy people just sucks one down into tamas.
Suppose someone is only doing japa and doesnt have atmajnana, wont work to change the
manas. If you have self knowledge, but no food, will fall asleep during practice.
Japa mantra practice
Vrata tapas like fasting
Atmajnana self knowledge
Charaka Samhita, Shariristhana, chapter 4, shloka 36 3 kinds of manas:
Sattvic means Kalyana beneficial, auspicious, beautiful, right, beneficial to all, not just self.
Truly beneficial. Kalyaana buddhi the mudra of the hand held up palm out thumb and first
finger touching. Your whole life becomes an agent of right action. Beneficience.
Arosha anger passion excitement, anger is the leader though. Action
Moha not just attachment, but blind attachment and addictions. Sensual stickiness. Cant
get away from it. You dont even have ability or desire to get away. Mostpeople live in this
state. Stuckedness.
Trividham Khalyu Sattvam 3 conditions/dimensions, entirely of mind. No chakras, no
devas, no deities come here, just these 3 conditions form the complete mind. Every mind
needs all 3 but in holy person, the sattva component is very high, and the rajas and tamas are
smaller but still necessary for speech and sleep.
Acharya Sushrut explains further:
Sattvic mind denoted by:
1. Daya/compassion kindness, ability to have pity. The person without this will hurt animals,
no pity. The person who has this ability will have lots of compassion, but must have clear
boundaries as well. Truthful compassion is at the bottom of their being. Forgive them for they
know not what they do. Its hard for us who have all this compassion, but keep letting them be
that way. Most people that are in a state of compassion come from it from a place of what is
being done to them. Think for a minute of what they do to themselves. Think of how what
they do affects others. To go to that darkness is the only place that real compassion comes
from.
2. Non-accumulation of material things no obsession about material goods. Sattvic mind will
stop having interest in accumulating material wealth. Want to distribute and share what they
have. You can still go and buy things, but you may find you give them away. No attachment
or build up around these things. Tamas people concerned with how big a car or house they
have. Sattvic people may live in big house because they are abundant, but they are not about
it. These so called gurus that have these huge foreign tourist ashramas, how big is their bank
 balance? In America there has been a huge growth in the number of gurus as well. Just sit and
think for a moment. Really. A real sadhu has nothing. Any material properties is just karma.
Everything you own means that it comes with more responsibility and accumulation of even
more karma. How naive we are.
3. Equitable not homophobic or racist. Just not their nature. Cant hurt anyone. When you
become equitable, sattva increases. Must be able to see the opposite side and have
discernment. Discernment is born out of knowledge. The more you know the larger the view
of what life is as well as the discernment of what is beneficial and what is not. Understanding
this much more subtle is to realize that a satvic person is not going to be hanging around a
group of people that are excessive, rajasic and tamasic, party and do drugs and intoxicants.
This is just not in anyway conducive to a life that is in a higher path. Judgement of them is
not there either but discernment is. The more satvicthe life, the more discernment there is.
4. Satya attachment to truth telling. A preference for speaking truth not so that you hurt
someone, but a calm way of expressing truth. Also will speak truth not militantly. When
people tell the truth just to avoid ones own discomfort it is not satya. Better to say I need
time to think about the right words, than speak anger. Compassion and fairness coexist with
truth.
5. Titiksha a vedantic concept of compassion, satya, desire to understand concept of dharma
and then desire to live it, faith almost a religious faith. Even to have a religious faith is
better than no faith at all, because to have a belief in something outside of yourself is
absolutely necessary for sattvic mind. Sattva increases the love affair with god. Sattvic people
cry for God. because they have belief, in vedic sense, understanding beyond a concept in/of
Moksha. People who dont have that will have this inner guilt that causes them to attack
(atheists etc.) Many times rajas tamas people will really hound the sattvic people.
6. Faith/Belief reincarnation. We are all here because we want the truth, and we are here to
improve our karma.
7. Grantha attachment, joy and knowledge of the granthas. Have memory of granthas big
concepts stick with you. People who are not sattvic, are not interested in knowledge of self.
Lack of emphasis around sadhu knowledge, granthas. This shows our sattva. Similarly, when
you read this knowledge it increases sattva. Will never take you off the path. Will only lead
you further along.
8. Like Atmajnana enjoy meditation, reflection, walking in nature
9. Buddhi of special kind investigative and interested in learning more about their buddhi.
Curious, open, investigative
10. Good memory memory starts increasing in Sattva. Important for smrutti memory for
discrimination. Otherwise you go on and on in the same path of rajas and tamas. Very
important so that you can remember discernment. A sattva person has a memory of 10
lifetimes. Raja tamas will have short memory of immediate pleasure. No permanent memory
for a tamas person
11. Dhrutti/Endurance increases we should endure problems. As we are learning to endure,
it makes us stronger. The quality of rajas people are always complaining about body mind
soul society etc. a sattvic person endures. Open your mouth like kali and eat the experience.
Calmness. If something happens that is more difficult, sit with it. Not repression or
 suppression, but consciousness and experience.
12. Nishkambhavana dont work only for the desire for phala/fruit. This is an extremely
interesting one. The goals and achievement dont exist in a stavic person. No focus on karma
phala. Dont work to receive incentive to do it. Doesnt mean they wont receive money for
their efforts, but the state of mind is just to keep working, not to become saint or famous or
rich. Desire makes it difficult to receive the knowledge that comes to you. It is a blockage.
Learn with nishkambhavana/un-attachment to reward. That attachment will cause distraction.

Rajas
1. Athidukha excessively having difficulties. Sometimes Tamas doesnt know that there isnt a
problem but Rajas knows there is a problem therefore they suffer more. Dukha often. A lot
of time rajas feels its too much everything. Mind fluctuating too much. Physical wandering
too much from this place to that one, from this teacher to that one. Many many workshops
in different things trying to become better and so not present to them self. Like a lost soul
always on the move. No stability and dont even know what they want when rajas has
increased so much. Ex. People suddenly showing up at your house and grabbing you because
they dont want to be alone. Constant visiting, constant socializing, constant movement. To
another person may feel like the person is compulsive, loose, strange, suffering, sorrowful,
complaining, mental wandering, physical wandering, too much change going on. Cant master
anything, cause they are going from one to another to another. Another place you find this is
in the trying to fix everything world, new age healing.
Only one natural state of mind is sattva, any other state is rajas or tamas is vikruti. First we clear
our minds, then we wonder why we are here. That is where the curiosity of self knowledge comes
in. It takes stillness to get anywhere near that. When we diagnose we can say current start state is
prakruti sattvic, rajasic, tamasic. But when we view from a state of true health, there is only one
healthy state sattvic.
2. Very little endurance, quickly get overwhelmed and anxious. Little endurance, can be some
tendency towards lying its necessary not because they are corrupt.
3. Ahamkara egotism, sense of pride, sense of ME. In advanced situations it is a bloated
concept of self. These are the people who talk a lot about themselves. Too excited about
country, religion etc. pride, pride, pride. Excessive commitment to self-identification. I am a
yogi. My country, my husband, my religion.
4. Excessive material desires love, lust, money/artha, food I want this, I want that. Even
This is action-oriented desire from sense of discontentment and lack of completion. Desires
are like the gnats we see in spring in summer that surround us. Let go of desires be present
in the moment. What you will see in time is that those desires are only in that moment and
later there will be others and the previous ones dont matter if even exist anymore. Desires are
confusing and make us become like a blind person running all around. Followed by rosha/
generic term for all rajas emotions that come up like anger because nobody can fill all those
desires. We hold onto things because we have a desire, but everything we have is by the grace
of god. Have the small desire to have an open buddhi so we can connect with god. Desire can
mislead us. Desires dislocate us. What we have to be, nobody can stop, but our desires lead us
 nowhere, only buddhi leads us anywhere. Slowly desires become weak when we focus on our
discrimination and buddhi. Viveka pravritti and nivritti marga -> towards and away from
consciousness. It is interesting how everything always takes care of itself when there are no
desires. Desire is also the cause for all rebirth.
If our relationships do not meetour desires then we create resentment, which creates disharmony,
and then lying and so on and so forth. Krodha anger desires lead to this anger when they
arent met.
Money in itself is not a bad thing when earned in support of right action. Do it in a dharmic
way. If you only obsess about money, rajas prakruti. Money for moneys sake. Overemphasis on
lust, sex, money, etc.
5. Excessive happiness desires constantly being filled, createstemporary happiness.

Tamasic
1. Mudhata not showing intelligence or thought. Ignorant, unconsciousness unintelligent
behavior. Hurting someone knowingly or ourselves knowingly, this is unintelligent behavior
and tamas is dominant.
2. Nobody achieves moksha, no one is good, god is fake. Not intelligent enough to see the
sunrise and see that there is something more to this existence. No belief in dharma. Dharma is
a universal value that people all over the world understand in different words. Denying. Their
excuse for not being dharmic will explain in this yuga that you cant followany dharmic laws
due to culture or being cheated or. The Saddhus have said that in satyoga everyone is 4/4 of
dharma, now kaliyuga we are in dharma the rajas person agrees with dharma when in
satsang and not other time. But in tamas will not agree to dharma ever.
3. Buddhi cannot differentiate between mithya and amithya eternal and temporary. Sat/Asat
truth and untruth.
4. Laziness complaining
5. Excessive sleep
6. Agnanitam ignorance. You could teach granthas but they wouldnt appreciate nor
understand.
7. Cannot make decisions also. Will stay in a pattern abuse, addiction, subjugation pattern etc.
Atamas person will stay locked in those patterns.

Sushrut further clarifies the kinds of mind into 7 Sattvic categories, 6 Rajas categories,3 Tamas
categories.