guans. The mind itself is the natural domain of sattva, requiring light, harmony, balance and clarity for its proper function. This means that when we take the standpoint of the field of the mind, then tamas and rajas, or the influences of the body and vital energy, can become factors of disturbance, with the bodily influences having the capacity to dull the mind, and the vital energy having the ability to disturb it. Rajas and tamas become ‘doshas’ or factors of disease at a psychological and spiritual level. Rajas and tamas allow factors of agitation and dullness, or wrong imagination and wrong judgment that cloud how our intelligence works. This in turn leads to the main difficulties, maladies and pain that life can bring us, as well as preventing us from gaining the wisdom (sattva) to handle with all these.
For this reason, yogic thought always emphasizes the development of sattva guna as its primary principle of inner growth and development. Yoga urges us to resort to those types of foods, impressions, ideas, expressions and associations that promote sattva guna and avoid those that promote rajas and tamas. The prime principle of spiritual development through Yoga and Ayurvedic medicine and the proper understanding of karma in Vedic astrology is this science of the three gunas and the need to promote sattva guna as the prime value for the human mind and soul.
The three gunas provide us a wonderful and practical system for both classifying our activities and learning to promote those actions that lead us to higher awareness. Its emphasis on sattva guna is the basis of the yogic recommendation of a vegetarian diet, for example, and on ahimsa or non-violence as a prime behavioral principle. Indeed nonviolence is the foundation of sattvic living and thinking, meaning that we should not wish harm to others in any way not just to avoid violence but to foster peace and light within ourselves.
Yoga provides a system of values, exercises, emotional states, mental conditions, and practices of mantra, pranayama and meditation according to the three gunas. Even Yoga asanas are designed to promote sattva guna or the quality of peace and stillness at a physical level. Ayurveda, Yoga’s complementary medical system, similarly provides us with a detailed classification of foods, herbs and therapies according to the three gunas. Vedic astrology provides an understanding of the influences of the planets according to the three gunas. An understanding of the gunas is central to all the Vedic sciences.
It is important for students of Yoga or of any spiritual sciences to learn, and apply this system of the three gunas in their own daily lives. However, there are few books that deal with the subject of the gunas and show us how to use them in a practical way. Most examinations of the gunas are content to list a few common characteristics of the gunas and do not go beyond that. It often leaves the students in doubt how to apply the gunas really in a meaningful manner.
In this regard Rami Bleckt has brought out an important new book on the gunas in the Russian language that brings them into a clear perspective for the modern reader. His book serves a vital need and offers many useful tools of self-healing, self-understanding and self-realization that can be of great transformational value for their lives and for their awareness. Rami is a trained psychologist, yoga teacher, Ayurvedic teacher and astrologer, who brings to this study much experience and knowledge. It is not just an academic presentation but the result of many years of personal practice, teaching and counseling. He has learned how to adapt this eastern science of the gunas to life in the modern world and can relate it to the reader accordingly in a clear and simple manner.
As developing sattva guna is the key to the mind and, therefore to psychological healing, his book has a great relevance for all those looking for a more practical and spiritual approach to dealing with the mind and emotions. How we feel in our minds cannot be separated from the food we eat, how we use our senses, our breathing patterns and our associations. In this way the science of gunas can add many new dimensions to psychology in all of its forms. All psychologists should examine this approach and see how our emotional well-being can be changed by shifts in behavior that are in our control to develop and do not necessarily require drugs or chemical interventions.
As an author of thirty books in the yogic field over the last more than twenty years, it is heartening to see this deep knowledge spread to a larger audience in different countries in the world. I hope that the book meets with a heartfelt reception and that through it many more individuals can benefit from the tools of yogic knowledge, which are of relevance to everyone. We must thank Rami for his service and can only wish that he continues with additional contributions to the cause of the greater well-being for all.
Sattva guna has not only the ability to heal but to promote world peace and understanding. This is the need of our times. We cannot have peace unless we have a life-style that promotes peace. Peace must be rooted in our moment by moment action and awareness and in all our interactions with the world. It cannot be just an occasional concern or a mere political expediency.
Sattva leads us to Sat, which is the principle of pure existence allied with Chit, pure consciousness, and Ananda, Divine love and bliss. Trough promoting Sattva we prepare ourselves to become a vehicle of the higher powers of the universe. May this publication increase that wonderful quality of sattva guna for all those who delve into its pages!
Introduction
Major problems that face us cannot be resolved on the same level of consciousness on which they were created.
This book is about how to attract the energy of happiness, health, success and harmony into our lives, and how to simultaneously eliminate the energy of destruction, diseases and unhappiness. Everything in this world consists of different energies; modern science has also come to this conclusion. Thousands of years ago enlightened sages taught how to attract correct energies into one’s life. The term Ayurveda is currently associated with an ancient medicine that can improve one’s health through the use of herbs, massage, cleansing procedures and diet. Although this is correct, it is also a limited perspective that is convenient for advertising and business purposes. Today, only few know that Ayurveda is primarily a system of psychology that can free one from diseases quickly and simply at various stages of development.
In “Ashtanga-Hridaya Samhita” (one of the main Ayurvedic texts written by enlightened sages thousands of years ago) it is stated that there are six stages of illness:
1. Psycho-physiological (gunas).
2. Energy-informational, Ethereal (imbalance of energy, sensory and knowledge acquiring channels).
3. Neuro-endocrinal (aggravated doshas).
4. Endo-toxic (accumulating of the products of weak metabolism, toxins).
5. Manifested, symptomatic (appearance of clinical symptoms of diseases).
6. Terminal (death of an infected organ).
It is understandable that in the first two stages a disease can be cured easily, at stage three and four it is also curable, at the fifth it is difficult to cure and at the sixth it is incurable.
Modern medical systems usually deal with stage five and even stage six. Most Ayurvedic clinics function at stage three and four and the majority of purgative programs deal with stage four.
A well-known Russian researcher and author of the series, “Diagnostics of Karma”, S. N. Lazarev, by seeing a person’s energy field can successfully diagnose at the stage two. But his system would not help a person who is blocked at the first stage due to a predominance of ignorance and passion (Tamas and Rajas). For accuracy I should also mention that Ayurveda also describes the karmic stage which underlies all of the above six stages; it can be seen on the energy-informational, ethereal field of a person. How to change the karmic stage will be explained in the second chapter of this book.
This book explains the first stage and to some extent the second one. On these levels everything can be changed and improved and if one applies this knowledge, depression and disease will be forgotten.
I remember how amazed I was when I discovered that in ancient India and China people were astonished when someone became ill and doctors would be disgraced