Rajas

Wisdom Teachings
The 3 Gunas

Our life is in a continuous movement. Each moment has another quality and doesn’t return like this, even if it normally escapes our notice. We observe a river; its water is always the same flow for us. We watch the sun rise and we consider it every day the same movement. In truth it is always a new movement process. Our body also changes continuously; cells are constantly formed and dissolve again. We are not so firm and fixed as we seem to be. Energies keep on manifesting while others disappear again from manifestation.

The seeming existence is the result of a dynamic movement of the three qualities of nature, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. On these three qualities the three whirlpools of forces are based, which in Ayurveda are called Kapha, Pitta and Vata. The creative centre Kapha is the outcome of Rajas or dynamism. The combustion centre Pitta is the result of Tamas or inertia, and the pulsation centre Vata is the result of Sattva or poise. They are the correspondences of the Brahma, Siva and Vishnu aspects of the Cosmos.

The first whirlpool conducts the construction of the cells, the second the combustion of food. It decomposes the material tissues to provide the calories for the functions of the body and it excretes again the remains. The third whirlpool produces the poise between the two other functions. It creates the peristaltic motions, the pulsations which make the heart pulsate, the stomach digest and the nerves and muscles or the tissues of the lungs expand and contract. When the three activities are evenly conducted, they produce health. When there is inequality, they cause disease.

There is a statement in Sanskrit which means, “Anything excessive is avoidable.” Any activity that goes beyond balance brings disequilibrium and leads to disorders and ultimately to disease. In general the three qualities aren’t well balanced in our life. Certain aspects are predominant, while others are pushed aside. We move between too much and too little activity, between Rajas and Tamas. If we think too much and don’t act as necessary, this leads to consequences. If we do more than necessary and don’t reflect sufficiently, we get into entanglements. The problem of Rajas is that in our actions we also neglect things.

In all fields of human action there is hyperactivity. In addition, our mind is stimulated in the direction of desire through excessive marketing. Being already hyperactive we are still more stimulated by people with a stronger concrete mind and we are lost. When we walk through the city looking at the shops, immediately the desire increases that we want to buy things though we don’t really need them. We buy just because we like it and although we already have similar things at home. Usually we feel disappointed after having burnt time and money.

The money we spend unnecessarily contributes to our consolidation and we create the attitude of stimulated actions. A dark curtain drops in front of the discrimination which comes from the higher mind. Thus we are unable to receive inspiration from there. The mind burns fast and ferociously and burns up vital energy. Overactive people are restless, anxious and irritated; thus with time their system burns out. Everywhere in modern society quietude loses ground to hyperactivity. Even from childhood on there is a tremendous pressure on the psyche and the nerves. With time this constant pressure can lead to cancer, strokes or other diseases.

Hyperactivity has the inherent tendency that you want to impose your decisions on others. The urge to proselytize of some religions is a method to buy people. Food, medical care and education are given for free to the poor to thus spread one’s own beliefs. Advertising also comes from this kind of aggression. We convince people to accept certain things and don’t bother whether this is good for them or not as long as the business is paying off. Things or benefits are offered for free and thus we are a prey of such attractions. Overactive people don’t do anything without a motive. However, they create around themselves a world in which they make people believe something else to hide their selfish goals. Such a manipulative, possessive attitude is a basic problem of overactive people and nations. But it keeps them in a permanent tension, for consciously or unconsciously they know that they have exploited others and that someone could come to take it back. Every form of aggression is born out of hyperactivity.

The busy mind cannot be open to the suggestions coming from the soul. The spiritual triad, which exists in us as divine will, knowledge and intelligent activity, is prevented to work through the personality. The body consciousness imprisons the soul.

Here relaxation and meditation techniques become important to be able to calmly observe what happens in us. Contemplation and meditation make the lower mind receptive and enable the spiritual energy to pour down into us. This develops in us a healthy psychic energy. And when we don’t chase people and things, but devote ourselves to the immediate tasks, life will bring to us what is due to us. The wisdom is to be able to wait, to do what has to be done right now and also to accept the difficulties of life with inner joy. Then the right people and things come to us and we don’t miss them through our hyperactivity.

The Masters of Wisdom do not propose independently a scheme of action or restrict people of their proposals or instigate them into any act. However, we give advice unasked and expect that others follow them. Even if we interfere unasked in a talk, this is a transgression, a subtle aggression. In yoga it says, “Don’t step into something where you are not invited.” Even if we could give a clue we shouldn’t just do it. If a person needs the advice through us he will ask us. That is how nature arranges. It is difficult for overactive people to accept this.

If, however, we are a hyperactive person, it is better to direct the extra-energies into a good work for the wellbeing of others. And if we do something we should focus on it, so that we don’t lose ourselves in irrelevancies and miss the essential: “Make haste slowly.”

Why shouldn’t we simply just be quiet and in silence for a certain time? But our mind keeps on making proposals arising out of the quality of Rajas in us. When we put them all into action, we get mountains of work. We create unnecessary obligations and would have more program than required. The feeling that we always have to do something is a disease produced by Rajas. Thus, we keep on rotating like in a wheel, and there is always the thought, “What comes next?” We want to know what goes on at other places of the world or what the people are talking about. We quickly feel monotony and crave for changes with our work, with friends or with the apartment.

Even if proposals keep on emerging from us, there is no hurry to realise them. However, we also have to be alert, otherwise we miss an important message which comes to us. We therefore should keep good ideas in a notebook. If something has to be done quickly, the idea will also come to us through someone else. We should listen to it at least a second time.

Even if an idea is good it doesn’t mean that it has to be realised by us. Before we get into something we should also first examine if we have the time, the means and the skills for it. Many ideas abort when we control the Rajas in us.

Proposals might come to us from inside and outside which deviate us from our path. We might get offers for a good position or much money, but it might put us off from our purpose of life. Those who are grand personalities in objectivity tend to get absorbed by the foam of social obligations and get stuck on their spiritual path.

When we stop spending time on the proposals of our own Rajas we don’t get into a state of passivity but of inner silence. Then we can realise THE proposal coming from inside, from the soul. We call this the Will of the Father. When this Will is working through us, we experience it as our own will. Master CVV gave only one instruction for liberation – to submit oneself through the prayer. The presence of the Master works out a process of purification which distils the muddy waters of the personality and rounds off the edges and corners until the light of the soul shines fully forth.

Sources: K.P. Kumar: Sri Suktam / notes from seminars. E. Krishnamacharya: Science of Healing. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.