The gunas of nature

Tamas broadly means darkness, lethargy, mindlessness, lack of discrimination, forgetting one’s duty, losing one’s head, making errors. much and then not enough. Sometimes you are contented and patient; at other times you are discontented and impatient; sometimes full of love, other times full of hatred. soul) appears to be moving when the gunas traverse the mind. But atman is always untouched. This phenomenon is a superimposition.

When nature is in darkness, at night, it is time to rest the body and sleep. If the natural rhythm of sleep and wakefulness is neglected too much, tamas is increased. If tamas, or lethargy, dominates the physical body, this condition transfers to the mind and to the intellectual and emotional sheath.

Depression can follow as well as shortness of breath, aggressive behaviour and a feeling of being overtaxed by one’s daily routine. Calmness obtained through the use of mood-changing medication, alcohol, or drugs is tamasic.

Tamas often manifests itself in a subtle way: you are happy and unhappy in succession; sometimes you sleep too much and then not enough. Sometimes you are contented and patient; at other times you are discontented and impatient; sometimes full of love, other times full of hatred.

Swami Vishnudevananda’s key points of yoga — proper exercise, breathing, relaxation, diet, positive thinking and meditation — are a well-proven method to rid the system of accumulated tamas.