This is part 1 of Our Mental Nature series.
The three doshas, or bioenergies, are the combination of the five elements coming together to create the anatomy and physiology of a human body, but there are three other very important energies in Vedic wisdom that intricately dictate our mental nature.
These energies are a foundational key to our mental wellness. Unlike the mostly fixed bodily constitution that we inherit at birth, we can have a tremendous effect on our mental nature and change it over time. The more aware we are of these energies and the more we know how to cultivate them, the more it allows us to consciously shift our mental state to a more positive nature.
These three mental energies, collectively called the Maha Gunas, always exist within all of us, and in all of Nature, and are constantly shifting and transmuting in an interplay with each other.
Here is a very brief description of the 3 Maha Gunas that make up our mental nature.
As you can see, cultivating Sattva is a sure way to create a strong and stable mind and to promote higher consciousness, but all three of these energies serve an important purpose and are necessary for the existence of life. It’s important to note though that we can experience imbalance in the mind when rajas and tamas accumulate into excess.
Rajas is the stimulating energy that motivates us to accomplish things, where Tamas is the dull energy that allows us to sleep and retire for the night. Sattva is the harmonizing energy that allows us to find balance between the other two energies.
For more details, see my posts on each Maha Guna separately, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, that describe how we cultivate these energies through diet and lifestyle so that we can consciously affect our mental state.