''Rajas'' (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
: रजस्) is one of the three ''
guṇas'' (tendencies, qualities, attributes), a philosophical and psychological concept developed by the
Samkhya school of
Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy or Vedic philosophy is the set of philosophical systems that developed in tandem with the first Hinduism, Hindu religious traditions during the Iron Age in India, iron and Classical India, classical ages of India. In Indian ...
.
[James G. Lochtefeld, Rajas, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 2, Rosen Publishing, , pages 546-547] The other two qualities are ''
sattva'' (goodness, balance) and ''
tamas'' (lethargy, violence, disorder). ''Rajas'' is innate tendency or quality that drives motion, energy and activity.
[Ian Whicher (1998), ''The Integrity of the Yoga Darśana'', State University of New York Press, pages 86-87, 124-125, 163-167, 238-243]
''Rajas'' is sometimes translated as passion, where it is used in the sense of activity, without any particular value and it can contextually be either good or bad.
[ ''Rajas'' helps actualize the other two ''guṇa''. In simply it is the mixture of both '' sattva'' and ''tamas''.
]
Description
In Samkhya philosophy, a is one of three "tendencies, qualities": '' sattva'', ''rajas'' and '' tamas''. This category of qualities have been widely adopted by various schools of Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
for categorizing behavior and natural phenomena. The three qualities are:
* '' Sattva'' is the quality of balance, harmony, goodness, purity, universalizing, holistic, constructive, creative, building, positive attitude, luminous, serenity, being-ness, peaceful, virtuous.[
* '' Tamas'' is the quality of imbalance, disorder, chaos, anxiety, impure, destructive, delusion, negative, dull or inactive, apathy, inertia or lethargy, violent, vicious, ignorant.
In ]Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy consists of philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. The philosophies are often called darśana meaning, "to see" or "looking at." Ānvīkṣikī means “critical inquiry” or “investigation." Unlike darśan ...
, these qualities are not considered as present in either-or fashion. Rather, everyone and everything has all three, only in different proportions and in different contexts.[James G. Lochtefeld, Sattva, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A–M, Vol. 2, Rosen Publishing, , p. 265.] The living being or substance is viewed as the net result of the joint effect of these three qualities.[
According to Samkhya school, no one and nothing is either purely ''sattvic'' or purely ''rajasic'' or purely ''tamasic''.][ One's nature and behavior is a complex interplay of all of these, with each ''guna'' in varying degrees. In some, the conduct is ''rajasic'' with significant influence of ''sattvic guṇa'', in some it is ''rajasic'' with significant influence of ''tamasic guna'', and so on.][Alban Widgery (1930), The principles of Hindu Ethics, International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 234–237.]
In the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...
, ''rajas'' is described as being of a passionate nature, driving desire, attachment, and action. When rajas is dominant, it manifests as greed, restlessness, agitation, and constant engagement in actions, which obscure wisdom and keep one bound to the cycle of worldly pursuits.
Discussion
''Rajas'' is that quality or attribute in a substance ( prakriti) or individual which promotes or upholds the activity of the other aspects of nature ( prakriti) such as one or more of the following:
# action;famous
# change, mutation
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...
;
# passion, excitement;
# birth
Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...
, creation, generation.
If a person or thing tends to be extremely active, excitable, or passionate, that person or thing could be said to have a preponderance of ''rajas''. It is contrasted with the quality of ''tamas'', which is the quality of inactivity, darkness, and laziness, and with '' sattva'', which is the quality of purity, clarity, calmness and creativity. ''Rajas'' is viewed as being more positive than ''tamas'', and less positive than ''sattva'', except, perhaps, for one who has "transcended the gunas" and achieved equanimity in all fields of relative life.[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad Gita Translation and Commentary, 1990 pp. 221–223]
See also
* Samkhyakarika (verses 12 to 14 discuss Sattva, Rajas and Tamas)
References
{{Indian philosophy
Guna