TamoGun (तमोगुण)
Tamogun is a quality which plays its role in bringing destruction. It is characterized by darkness, ignorance, inertia, and pride.
When Tamas is dominating in someone’s nature, it brings laziness, wrongful actions, showoff, and ultimately leads to destruction. Under the influence of Tamogun, a person takes actions (to get money, spouse, revenge, etc.) without considering the righteousness of karmas and also does not care about the consequences for himself or others.
Tamasic Behaviour: Seeks luxury and pleasure but does not want to work hard for it. They don’t do anything productive, but prefer Rakshasi/Satan way of getting things like snatching, kidnapping, use of force. He is lazy, narcissist, critic, argumentative, corrupt, and violent. Tamasic person is voluptuous and does not give much back to the society. In fact may consume or destruct all the wealth created by spouse or forefathers.
Tamoguni person never acknowledges his mistake and always blames worldliness or other people or circumstances for doing bad karmas that he did knowingly. No logic can make them accept their mistake. If they are not winning argument, they don’t change their perspective, but may start laughing (under influence of intoxicants), crying or yelling at the other person.
Tamsic way of prayer/sadhna: Tantra, sacrificing animals, offering alcohol etc to god and pitris (पितृ are the spirits of departed ancestors in Hinduism). with the aim to get some material thing or fame. Shiva and Kali are the best god, that a tamasic person should worship as they accepts both the good and the evil. Gods, demons, goblins and all kinds of creatures worship them in different forms and can expect their blessings in return.
Tamsic Food: Packed and processed food, stale food, and intoxicants like alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. Food that makes you feel sleepy, sick, or makes you more violent.
RajoGun (रजोगुण)
Rajogun is a quality which plays its role in the creation(उत्पत्ति). It is characterized by change/creation, energy, activity, and passion. Under this guna, a person works hard for raising standard of living for himself and family. He is passionate for wealth, luxury living, and status.
Rajogun people work hard to achieve their desires (wealth, power, status, etc). However, when rajogun increases out of proportion, then it leads to lots of thoughts, lots of desires, greed, increased workload, and restlessness.
Rajogun people know what is right and what is wrong but they sometimes cross the line to beat the competition, or for convenience, ego, society, or their family. For example, they won’t mind paying bribe (a cut) to get a contract or business approval.
Rajoguni Behaviour: Seeks luxury and works hard to get it. They create wealth not only for themselves but also provide jobs and business to others in the society. They are extremely ambitious, hardworking, work alcoholics, and narcissist. They often ignore their family in the sense that they don’t have time to spend with them. But will ensure that there is no shortage of money and convenience. Yet, peace and calmness is often missing in their life. In case of women, they may refuse to marry, or bear children or stay married for long as marriage and responsibilities often prevents one from staying focuses on career/business.
Rajogun way of prayer/sadhna: Prays to deity of choice, offering sweets, cloths, ornaments, etc. with the motive to get some material things or fame. Ganesha, Lakshmi, Kuber, Vishwakarma, are few examples of popular gods that rajoguni people worship.
Rajogun Food: Tasty food with rich gravy, desserts, lavish buffets, etc. Food that looks and tastes great but causes health issues.
Rajogun Leads To: Rajoguni people and their family often become proud of their importance, achievements, belongings, money, etc and that increases tamogun in them.
SattvaGun (सत्त्वगुण)
It is the most important and righteous gun which plays its role in the preservation of this world.
Sattvagun is characterized by wisdom, truth, purity, harmony, confidence, dedication, and youth. It is the spiritual quality of nature.
Sattvaguni persons does not aspire for materialistic things. They believe in quality of life (living within means, no EMI, husband and wife spending lots of time together in harmony, helping in upbringing of young dependent children, etcetera). They are ready to sacrifice standard of living (big house, expensive car, luxury holidays, kids studying if expensive schools, etcetera) for it. They seek peace and harmony. They do not believe in I, this is me, or this is mine. No showoff, no competition, no bitching, no boasting of status or knowledge. All they give and think about is love.
They will always do the right thing no matter if that results in loss of money, separation from family or society, or inconvenience, or death.
A sattvaguni person won’t be a role model to the large section of society. People may bow after him but won’t aim to follow his life style. They will definitely not like their children to become a sattvaguni person.
Sattvaguni Behaviour: Seeks no worldly pleasure. The only thing they seek is peace and calmness. If they are not rich already, they will work to earn money that is enough to sustain their life and that of those who are dependent over them. They eat less, wear simple cloth, basically lead a simple life even if they have all the money in this world. However, a sattvaguni person usually becomes proud of his knowledge and that brings him close to tamoguna. One, who can continue to stay modest, achieve salvation.
Sattvaguni way of prayer/sadhna: Meditates about the supreme god (Narayana incase of Hinduism), offering nothing but himself. A sattvaguni person eventually gives up wealth, family, and even the pride in his knowledge of dharma and then merges with the supreme god. This happens gradually, you can not become a sattvaguni by choice, it happens step by step, often on its own.
Sattvaguni Food: They intake limited quantity of food that is enough to sustain their life. Prefer simple food with little or no masala/spices.
Sattvaguni Family Life: A sattvaguni person, if married and not divorced, will have a wife who is content with simple life. She will support him and join him in the journey for moksha. If this is not happening, then sattvaguni person will take sanyas.
In Short
| Tamogun | Rajogun | Sattvagun | |
| Present in | Everyone | Everyone | Everyone |
| The God Who Accepted This Guna | Shiva | Brahma | Narayan |
| Purpose | Brings Destruction | Creation/Activity | Dharma / Purity/ Righteousness |
| Motivation | Dark Ideas + Greed + Lust | Hard Work + Standard of Living | Knowledge + Quality of Life |
| Way of Achieving His Needs | Deceit, Theft, Demanding Bribe. | Hardwork, Paying bribe/cut, entrepreneur. | Self understanding, contentment. |
| Food | Stale or pre-cooked, or packed food like processed meat, instant noodles, alcohol. | Food cooked in rich gravy, with spices, onion, garlic, and masala. Dessert, cake, coffee, etc. | Sweet, juicy and palatable fruits and vegetables, preferably uncooked or cooked with minimal ingredients. |
| Side Effect | Proud of Substance (Tamogun) | Proud of Wealth and Knowledge (Tamogun) | Proud of Knowledge (Tamogun) |
| Role in Creation of Universe | Tamas resulted in the creation of Five Elements of the universe and their tanmatras/guna. | Tejas resulted in the creation of 5 gyan senses and 5 karma senses. | Vaikaric resulted in creation of devtas for senses and mind. |
| Examples of People Dominant in these guna | Ravana, Shrupnakha, Andrew Tate | Steve Jobs, Narayana Murthy | Anna Hazare |
What Makes You Tamsik, Rajasik, or Satvik
Your thoughts make you tamsic, rajasic, or satvik. Every person has all three gunas in them. Its the thoughts that act as a manure to nourish a particular type of guna. If your thoughts are negative, Tamogun will get nourished and grow bigger and bigger. Similar is the case with rajasik and satvik thoughts.
That is the reason you should control your mind and think about something good. Like the image of your god, breath, light, or simply chant some mantra. The aim is to keep your thoughts clean, away from greed, lust, politics, ego, jealousy, job, business, disputes, parties, alcohol, and other desires.
Summary
At any given time, one of the three qualities dominates our life. As a person longing for worldly pleasures, we should aim to keep a balance between Tamas and Rajas qualities and try to incorporate sattva gun as much as possible.
A very few people are able to progress to Sattvagun gradually, as they attain understanding of life and achieve control over lasciviousness, greed, ego, and more. It happens when they stop craving for parties, wealth accumulation, lavish dinners, drinks, expensive things, etcetera and start servicing other people out of love. This brings one toward right activity, truth, purity, and enlightenment.
Once you really succeed to purify your thoughts and become sattvaguni, you can expect to receive Shaktipaat which means “descent of divine grace” that allows you to meditate for long hours with ease. This is also called awakening of seeker’s spiritual power, called kundalini. And then you leave all three gunas and merge with the divine.