Very simply put, Sattva is one of the three gunas or qualities of nature that permeate this whole existence. The gunas are present in all things and beings in existence, on the subtle and more gross levels of manifestation. They are:

Tamas – rest, inertia, inactivity

Rajas – activity, movement.

Sattva – a state of harmony, balance, also defined as light, purity, clarity. 

They are hard to define adequately in one word. This is the inadequacy of translating directly from such a language as Sanskrit with it’s nuanced meanings.

The essential meaning of guna is  “thread” or that which links materials together to create reality.

And so the gunas operate throughout this existence, binding with each other in varying proportions to create the attributes of all that exists within our world. 

Everything and everyone has all three operating within. We see it in nature at large: there is a time for rest, and a time for activity, and times when cosmic forces momentarily return to a state of balance and harmony. 

Within all things and beings, as the gunas exist in different proportions, it is the mix of the gunas that gives the overall quality to a being or thing. 

If you take a little (honest 😉 ) look at yourself, and the people around you, you will be able to see which guna is predominant:

i) goodness,  balance, peacefulness, calm, forgiveness, kindness IE Sattva

II) restlessness, hyperactivity, drive, over-stimulated IE Rajas.

III) heaviness, stuckness, cloudy thinking, dullness, lack of motivation and activity. IE Tamas

This means, right, that the three gunas describe our predominant psychological traits.

However, this reminds me to mention that each guna is needed and is of value, right? We need rest, stillness and reflection: we also need activity and productivity.  The key is balance. In cultivating Sattva, we have “right living” and we will move into rajas – activity, and tamas – rest appropriately.  

We look to assess dominant guna in Ayurveda consultations, as this tells us much about what might be contributing to symptoms in the body and mind. It helps us to treat on the level of mind with prescription of specific Yoga posture, breath, meditation and mantra practices, as well as dietary, lifestyle and herbal prescriptions becasue these can also support sattva as well as reduce symptoms and balance dosha (Ayurveda humour). 

Both Ayurveda and Yoga advocate cultivating Sattva. When we are in a state of balance, we have clarity of seeing, we have peace of mind and peace and purity of heart and mind.

Sattva supports “dharma” or right living, and “jnana”, self-knowledge. As it brings balance, it supports health, energy, and contentment. All these are prized on the Path of Yoga and in Ayurveda. 

In fac, why wouldn’t we all want to cultivate more Sattva in our lives, right? Who doesn’t want to feel more balance and contentment and health. 

In fact in Ayurveda, mind is said to be “sattva” and so the gunas are a deviation from the essential nature of our minds. 

Interestingly, and I have found this in my teaching, when rajas and tamas are predominant in a psyche, Sattva will not be attractive or desired! Rajasic types may perceive it as boring, limiting and restraining.  Tamasic types will balk at being moved out of comfort zones, and clouded ways of thinking, plus their often addictive patterns – TV, sugar, or any kind of addiction. 

We are all attached to our predominant psychological traits. This is why in the beginning at least, it is so hard to start to make the changes toward Sattva which I believe in our hearts we all long for. In a survey some years ago, when I asked my Yoga students what they are most looking for from classes, they all said “balance”. Perhaps they didn’t know this concept of Sattva but that is waht they were asking me for. 

We are getting something out of our predominant guna, We have moved away from the mind’s natural state for a reason.

Moving towards Sattva requires a process of purification, in the body and the mind, changing old grooves. This is like a passage. We will most likely need to change deep-set ways of living, acting, eating, thinking. 

However, as the Yoga masters have told us: what is poison in the beginning, is nectar in the end, and what is nectar initially is poison in the end. (Think of your favourite sweet, or drink:  wonderful, until you have too much of it in which case you are likely to feel sick, right?  Likewise, many of the potent herbs in Ayurveda are bitter in taste and yet bring wonderful benefits to the being. 

This doesn’t mean that we need to become martyrs to ourselves in cultivating Sattva, but it does mean that there will be some going against the grain if change is to happen. It;s always the case, right?

In Yoga, cultivating Sattva is an essential goal of all the practices. Sadly, we may not see this awareness in many “Yoga” classes these days.  and this is because we are generally a “rajasic” society: our senses are overstimulated by so much input, we are pressured to be productive and to keep going even when the body cries for rest and we do so with stimluating drinks and foods, and it’s like we can’t get off the treadmill: we will choose a rajasic Yoga practice when it’s exactly what we don’t need and teachers will feel compelled to offer it because this is how the minds and psyches of the students, and probably the teachers themselves are wired. 

So traditionally and essentially, Yoga practices – posture, breath, mantra, meditation, enquiry are designed to build Sattva within us: lightness, clarity, peace of mind, balance. And all the practices have the potential to support this, they just need to be offered in the right way and at the right time: according to predominant guna, age, time of day, season, and also Ayurveda type. 

This is the value of a personalised practice, given by a knowledgeable teacher. The teacher will give you a practice that supports balance in you, taking into account your preominant guna and, if the teacher has a knowledge of Ayurveda, your Ayurveda metabolic type and symptoms.

Not only the practices of Yoga on the mat, but also other lifestyle choices can build or reduce Sattva. There are Sattvic (calm and peaceful), Rajasic (noisy and disturbing), and Tamasic (dark, dirty, heavy) environments. There is sattvic music, and there are of course reading and viewing materials that will inspire and uplift the mind, over-stimulate or feed the darkness and ignorance of clouded thinking. 

There are also foods that will cultivate or reduce Sattva. This is why we have such a thing as a Yogic diet and why a sincere teacher will always encourage you to follow a Yogic diet. Yes, due to ethical and moral principles, but also with your best interests at heart. Following a Yogic Sattvic diet is going to support all the heatlh, happiness and well-being that you are looking for and that brings you to class. Actually, the ethrical and moral principles are inseparable from the Sattvic aspect of a  Yogic diet. A Yogic diet is vegetarian. The understanding is that enjoying the fruits of the suffering and death of living being, is not a Sattvic act and dso is not going to build Sattva and all its wonderful attributes. It will build rajas and tamas within us: violence/aggression and dullness (from the enjoyment of dead tissues). Sorry. Harsh, but true. And millions of animals are suffering on our planet every day due the meat industry which is fed by the predominance of rajas and tamas in the collective human psyche. 

A Sattvic diet is a cruelty-free diet of  wholefoods, fresh vegetables, whole grains, pulses, lightly flavoured with spices to support digestion, unleavened breads. Whilst cheese is not Sattvic (-remember the saying that eating chees at night brings bad dreams: it has an effect on the mind), milk has been prized in Ayurveda and Yoga as a Sattvic food bringing much nourishment to the whole being. However, these days, things are different due to the nature of the dairy industry. There is a move towards more enlighteend dairy farming, eg there is an “Ahimsa (non harming Diary” in this country. The waiting list for their products is huge. We ARE waking up. Yay! 🙂

We can cook with and eat wholefoods but they can still be rajasic. They may be to heavily spiced, salty or oily. 

We can cook and eat the best foods, but if they are left in the fridge for any period of time, they become tamasic. Prana (vital force) is gone from the foods and the foods are starting to decay. 

Also, to watch out for is who cooks our food and the enviroment are foods are cooked in. Just as we are advised not to eat when upset, cooking when emotional disturbed will not put good vibes into the food. Think of that extra ingredient in mum’s food! Her love which seems to give the food a different taste which we cannot replicate even when we follow her recipe to the hilt! The energy of a person making our food goes into the food. 

There is a restaurant I used to love to go to. They do takeaways too. When I came back from the ashram in Bahams, I started to treat mysel fasfter friday evening classes, to a weekly treat. I noticed I would have distrubed drames after this food. I found out it is not cooked in the kitchen of the restaurant but in some big city set up – probably busy and rajasic. Look out for any noise and stress seeping out of restaurant kitchens and avoid! Ha ha 

The wonderful thing that Ayurveda to add to all this is the capacity to make all your choices – lifestye, dietary, Yoga, exercise –  Sattvic for YOU indivdiually. So whilst the basic princples may remain the same, it may be appropariate for example where there is tamas in teh system to spcice up the food a little more, to stimluate the system. 

Some wholegrains and legumes may work for your type, and not for others, and vice versa. And it maybe better for you to eat more grain than legume, and another type to eat more legume than grain. The difference can be more balance in the digestion and I think most of us have heard of the gut-brain connection these days. A balanced digestive process will support all round balance in our energy and minds too. 

If you;d like to join a webinar on this topic, please sign up to our mailing list  at the bottom of the home page on this website. 

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And to find out how an Ayurveda diet and lifestyle, with herbs can help you, please to build more balance in mind and emotions, please book a FREE 15 minute discovery call with me. 

I look forward to venturing further with you into the teachings of Ayurveda and Yoga. 

With my love

Sara Shama x