The Three Energies. The Forgotten Canons of Health and Harmony

Conscious Choice of Gunas Can Help Establish Successful and Lasting Projects

If we want to create a solid foundation for any successful project, we need to attract the appropriate energy consciously.

To create something we have to be active; any kind of creation in this world requires activity – rajas. Although creating takes effort, it is even more difficult to maintain (sattva) what we have created, because it involves consistent effort on a daily basis.

For us to destroy something, in most cases, little effort is required – destruction (tamas) often comes by itself. To produce a good car countless number of people need to work for many years, but any inexperienced driver can demolish it in just a few minutes. The same applies to our lives; if the guna of ignorance enters, our life can be ruined in a moment. In the Vedas it is stated that Brahma is responsible for creation, Vishnu for maintenance and Shiva for annihilation.

Each type of energy has a purpose and value; by understanding this we can make intelligent choices to help us in whatever situation we are in. We should consciously transfer ourselves to different gunas, to choose the guna whose energy we need at any given moment.

Passion is required for creative work, for example, to develop and start a new business project. This is not an easy task – passion means applying substantial effort. People who are mainly in passion are extremely energetic. Warriors (ksatriyas) must fight, and for battle they need huge amounts of energy. If we were to try to hold an ancient sword in our hand, even for ten minutes, it would be practically impossible. In history books, we read that battles used to continue for many hours or even days. In modern society wars also require great physical and psychological strength, and without passion and energy it would not be possible to endure it. That is why in Vedic culture warriors were allowed to have a few wives, to eat fish and drink wine; all these things gave the warrior the passionate energy he needed.

But after creation comes the most difficult stage: maintenance. For example, if we started a new business which was beginning to operate and develop successfully, we would need to come to sattva to further maintain it. We would have to go to work in time, prepare to meet clients, file regular financial reports, provide good customer service regardless of the kind of people we have to deal with, not let up when the business is going well etc. For modern businessmen, who are mostly under the influence of passion, these things are incredibly difficult. According to statistics, out of the huge number of new businesses created annually, only a few stay afloat after the first five years.

* * *

England is considered to have the most beautiful lawns. Once a foreign journalist wanted to find out England’s secret of success so he enquired from some local gardeners. The answer was, “It is not difficult – the grass should be trimmed every morning at exactly 9 am and if there is no rain, it has to be watered.” “That’s all?” the journalist asked. “Yes, and do this for 300 years.” This is the nature of action in sattva.

How to Create Paradise at Home

If we want to keep our home in sattva, it is necessary to keep it pleasant, tidy and clean every day.

It is essential to make our bed; a bed is considered to be in tamas and therefore if a bed is not made, it spreads ignorance. Even if we are very tired after coming home from work, we need to spend at least twenty minutes cleaning. It is difficult but you will feel how a completely different energy spreads around the home. If we top this of by taking a shower, we will be plunged into a completely different atmosphere. The science of Vastu (the origin of Feng-Shui) states that, “Even if your house is correctly built and organized, if it is dirty (ignorance) inside or outside, the energy of Rahu enters and quickly destroys everything”. The health and relationships of the inhabitants of the house are the first things to be destroyed.

To have family relationships in sattva, it is necessary to cook fresh food at home for ourselves and to come together to eat as a family at least several times a week. Most semi-finished foods contain passion and ignorance. If we want harmonious relationships at home, we must cook our own food, using fresh, high quality ingredients, and do it with love.

Modern marriages are usually established in passion as the main focus is sexual compatibility; as a result of it, they do not last. Sattva means maintenance: spouses respect each other, never complain or argue (particularly in front of children), the husband regularly presents flowers to his wife, and the wife makes herself look attractive for her husband and never directly contradicts him. It is said if there is peace in a family then the Goddess of fortune, Lakshmi, enters into home.

Sages state that a woman is compared to a witch if she does not greet her husband with a smile when he comes home from work, speaks harshly or does not keep their home clean; she is considered to be stupid if she argues and disagrees with her husband rather than taking a more flexible and understanding position. If a woman argues with a man after he has expressed what he thinks is a most intelligent statement, even if she is right, it is a painful stab for his big, delicate ego and he will not forgive her.

This is not only true for marital relationships. A long time ago it was noted that the statement, “The truth comes from arguments”, was concocted by people in passion. As Dale Carnegie has so accurately noticed: “Only enemies come from arguments.” The more intensely emotional the arguments, the more enmity is created.

Questions and Answers

Sattva and Modern Living

An important question to consider is how we can stop our feelings from becoming agitated while living in the big city, driving in our car or going to work. If we live in a city, our first and main priority should be to choose a suitable house or fat; after all, most of our time will be spent at home. Before we make a choice it is good to find out about our neighbours. It is important to follow the basic rules of Vastu-Shastra (the original ancient Indian text and source of Feng-Shui). It is also essential to have a park or natural scenery nearby as that will help to make it more sattvic.

If that is not possible, then we can create a more sattvic atmosphere within our home. We absorb the energy of our surroundings; therefore the atmosphere at home should be sattvic by maintaining high standards of cleanliness, starting with washing ourselves regularly. A home is heavily contaminated by TV; if we have one, we should try to choose shows that will lead to higher consciousness, although these are difficult to find.

When we travel around the city we should avoid looking at billboards, shop displays, etc. We can listen to classes, wish everyone well, be friendly toward others, chant prayers or mantras, even meditate, or think and make plans for the next day. Basically, we should be able to switch ourselves of from external objects. It is good to have an audio player in our car which allows us to listen to classes and audio books.

If we cannot keep our eyes away from advertisements, then in our mind we should at least try to create an objective picture. Try to remember that only two percent of all advertised products are actually useful. Generally it is better to try to avoid watching and listening to adverts; if this is not possible, we can remember that the advertised product in and of itself will not make us happy. For example, when we see cigarette advertisements, we should just visualise how these “happy” people are inhaling the tobacco smoke and how this black energy enters their lungs and entire body. Remember the story of the actor and model, Alan Landers: he was the face of Winston cigarettes during the 1960’s and 1970’s and died from throat cancer. Once his modelling career was over, he became even more famous as an activist for major antismoking campaigns.

A job should be viewed as a way to use our talents for the benefit of the whole world. Regardless of what kind of work we do, we should do it with all our heart.

It is important to carefully choose whom we associate with. It is better to limit how often we spend time with people in passion. We should completely avoid those who are in ignorance, refrain even from answering them and ignore them completely.

Try to be a channel for pure energies in this world and to give it to everyone you meet. Then a balanced and peaceful life is possible, even in a city. But even so it is still important to remember that cities in fact take energy away from us, particularly large ones, as they are manifestations of ignorance and passion. Therefore it is vital to have a source from which the energy of goodness can be obtained. As we mentioned before, it can be from associating with exalted individuals, attending seminars, reading literature that contains wisdom and love, regular visits countryside, etc.

The Guna of Ignorance – Instant Energy of Destruction

Fire, diseases and debts should be dealt with immediately.

    Ayurvedic Wisdom

The guna of ignorance is practically never needed and has to be avoided and ignored.

Why does it have to be avoided? As previously mentioned, this energy is similar to a nuclear weapon: once under its influence, destruction and ruin immediately follow. Just consider how much time and resources are needed to manufacture, for example, a Mercedes or BMW. Huge institutions are involved in this – two hundred and fifty thousand employees work for BMW in Germany only! And now, think of how much energy and time are needed to destroy a new car? One wise Ayurvedic doctor once told me, “Everything bad in this world happens quickly and unexpectedly.”

Recently I had a conversation with one acquaintance that lives in northern Israel. There was some trouble in his family: he had to go to hospital due to a bad cardiogram result, even though for many years he had enjoyed good health and used to work at least twelve hours a day. Even while being in hospital, while receiving phone calls from colleagues, he would talk only about his job. He was completely oblivious to the cause of his illness and had little interest in changing his lifestyle. This is the typical attitude of someone in passion, and if passion is not transformed to goodness it degrades to ignorance.

Ignorance in the form of diseases, scandalous break-ups in relationships, free, burglary and accidents generally come into our lives quickly and unexpectedly. If we are wise and sattvic, we will be able to notice the signs that imply their approach, and avoid them easily through a proactive lifestyle and mentality. Even the situations that come due to karma and are unavoidable, we can accept with gratitude, tranquility and love; thus by the influence of sattva, we can come out from a bad situation as a winner. There have been many great politicians and military leaders who were able to turn their mistakes and losses into great victories.

One of the signs of ignorance is performing useless and meaningless activities: checking emails ten times a day, pointless chattering on the phone, watching the 384th episode of a TV series, as well as any aimless and meaningless activity and inactivity. “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all,” stated Peter Drucker, a management specialist.

Ignorance is dangerous and must be avoided at any cost. Even two minutes of association with an ignorant person can later cause one to unexplainably become aggressive, fatigued or ill seriously.

Despite all this, ignorance is also needed to some extent. For example, correct sleeping (sleep as a state of consciousness belongs to ignorance), demolishing old buildings, etc.

We are composed of an eternal spirit, souls that are beyond the gunas and transcendental in nature, yet we are within material bodies which are tamasic (ignorant) in nature. Some may find this statement offensive: How is it that my body or the body of my loved ones are in ignorance when we have such beautiful eyes, nails and hair? Undoubtedly, the eyes are the mirror of the soul and if a person is spiritually advanced, in sattva, then their eyes are truly attractive. But if they were to be plucked out and put on a plate, it would be impossible to enjoy them anymore. Regarding hair and nails – Judaism says that if a pregnant woman walks on nails, she will suffer a miscarriage. In Vedic culture it is believed that if a hair falls into food, all the food is contaminated and should be thrown away.

Just imagine what would happen to our body if we forgot to brush our teeth or did not wash ourselves for a few days. We would stink and our friends would pray that we keep our mouth closed. Similarly, if we are in tamas (selfish, jealous, greedy), even if we brush our teeth, we will still give of a foul odor when we talk. Modern research shows that if one lives for sixty years, twenty years of these are spent sleeping, four years going to the toilet and even more for eating. Our physical body requires all this time, and usually the lower our consciousness the more it requires; yet as soon as the soul leaves the body, the body begins to rot and decompose.

Chapter 6

Optimum Sleep – The Source of Health and Happiness

Ayurveda states that a woman’s health rests on three key principles: optimum sleep, optimum diet and healthy sex. In my opinion, these are no less important for men.

Sleep is ignorance, yet it is necessary for our body.

The more we are in ignorance, however, the more we want to sleep. When in sattva we require less time for sleeping – it has been proven that even four hours of sleep is enough for our nervous system. If our life is interesting and has a defined goal, then we just will have no need for lots of sleep. Generally people believe that it is necessary to sleep at least eight hours; but if we sleep properly, we will need much less. Sleeping is also affected by the gunas. Sleeping in sattva means to go to bed before 10 pm, or 11 pm at least. Sleep between 9 pm and 1 am is the most valuable, as it is the only time the nervous system rests and the long-term memory is not working. Everything in nature sleeps at this time; only modern tamasic-rajasic people are awake. One interesting point worth noting is that the concept of ‘night owls’ and ‘early birds’ only appeared quite recently. In the past practically everyone was an early bird. Scientists in Canada – a country with one of the highest rates of insomnia – are convinced that most problems with insomnia appeared only because people started to go to sleep later.

Preparing for Sleep

Two hours before going to sleep, it is necessary to prepare by doing the following:

1. Ayurveda does not recommend taking a shower less than two hours before sleeping – it weakens the energy field of the body and aggravates the nervous system, especially if the shower is cold. If it is necessary for us to take a shower, it has to be warm.

2. Before going to sleep we should avoid eating; the food will not be digested and will turn into toxins and fat. It is best to take slightly sweetened warm milk at this time as it calms the nervous system and strengthens the intellect. The first rule for those looking for to put on weight is – eat after 6 pm! And if the food is in ignorance-passion, like white bread or meat, then within a few weeks our friends will start to joke about our huge jelly-belly. In addition to getting fat, we will want to sleep more and more. If we are hungry, it is acceptable to take a small amount of steamed vegetables, nuts or bananas.

3. We should avoid watching or reading anything that causes excitement. It is better to read something spiritual (but not very philosophical), to meditate or say some prayers. Whatever we do or hear before sleeping enters our sub-consciousness; therefore it is extremely undesirable to count money at this time because it intensifies greed. If you lend money to someone at this time, be prepared not to get it back and that they will become your enemy.

4. The room where we sleep should be clean and well ventilated. We need to be especially careful in choosing the type of pictures and even books that are in our bedroom – whatever they represent leaves an impression on our consciousness and enters the sub-consciousness during sleep. It is desirable to have books in sattva, and it is very good to have some holy books near your head. Pictures should depict pleasant, peaceful landscapes. The TV should be in another room or even better, in another house.

Practical Recommendations for Sleeping

In Ayurveda it is stated that the duration of human life is determined by the amount of inhalations and exhalations we take – the more often the breath the shorter the life.