DETOX - Day 11

PHASE TWO

The Three Gunas

In the philosophy of Yoga, all matter in the universe arises from the fundamental substrate called Prakriti. From this ethereal Prakriti the three primary gunas (qualities of energy) emerge creating the essential aspects of all nature—energy, matter, and consciousness. These three gunas are:

tamas (darkness & chaos), rajas (activity & passion), sattva (beingness & harmony), and they also apply to nutrition. The awareness and conscious manipulation of the three gunas are a powerful way to reduce stress, increase inner peace and lead one towards enlightenment.

Ayurveda teaches that the foods you consume not only provide you with physical energy and satiety but also shape your mind, affecting your emotions and ability to think clearly.

• Rajastic foods are stimulants, such as coffee, fast and processed foods robbed of prana, hot spices, alcohol and excessive salt, all of which aggravate the mind and imbalance the body.

• Tamasic foods may cause harm to the body and mind, and include canned, frozen, stale, overly fried and heavy foods characterized by diminished prana. To reduce tamas avoid tamasic foods, oversleeping, overeating, inactivity, passivity and fearful situations. Tamasic foods include heavy meats and foods that are spoiled, chemically treated, processed or refined

• Sattvic foods are the ones to opt for if you hope to amplify your energy and enhance your vitality. They are light, easy to digest and rich in prana.

Sattvic foods carry the most prana, revitalizing energy, and include fresh seasonal fruits, vegetables and herbs that are in alignment with the cycles of nature and locally grown without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Nuts, raw honey, ghee, grass-fed butter and whole grains are all considered sattvic, and enrich the body with strength and vitality.

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All gunas create attachment and thus bind one’s self to the ego.

“When one rises above the three gunas that originate in the body; one is freed from birth, old age, disease, and death; and attains enlightenment” (Bhagavad Gita 14.20).

While the yogi’s goal is to cultivate sattva, their ultimate goal is to transcend their identification of the self with the gunas and to be unattached to both the good and the bad, the positive and negative qualities of all life.

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