Essay On Sattva

Sattva means ‘real or existent’.
It is the principle of illumination or manifestation. It is responsible for manifestation of objects in the consciousness – concentration, knowledge, awareness, etc..
It produces pleasure of all shades.
It is light (laghu) and bright, buoyant and illuminating (prakashak). Luminosity of light, power of reflection, upward movement, pleasure, happiness, contentment and bliss are due to it. Its colour is White.
Rajas Guna
Rajas means ‘foulness’.
It is the principle of Activity. Restless activity, feverish effort and wild stimulation are its results. Fire spreads, wind blows, all because of rajas. It helps sattva and tamas, which are inactive and motionless in themselves, to perform their actions.
It is mobile

Thus, we can say that the animal is higher than plants on the evolutionary scale and plants in turn are higher than stones or so-called inanimate things on the evolutionary scale. Human beings are higher than animals because here a paradigm shift takes place in that consciousness is not measured by what it can do more in human beings than animals but here there is the advent of ‘awareness’. Awareness as we have seen is the capacity of consciousness to be conscious of itself. This is the witnessing principle or the sakshi bhav that is popularized by in spiritual sadhana. When this awareness is harnessed and disciplined, the human being has the potential of attaining to pure awareness – a total witness even to himself / herself. This is the state of the Buddha or the Mahavira or a Ramana Maharshi. This is the state that is referred to Self-realization or Nirvana or Kaivalya or Moksha or Liberation or Salvation. This is the state which is ultimately free, once for all permanently free, from miseries and sufferings of life. So, the progress on the path of health and happiness, the progress on the path of evolution, is on the path of consciousness. From a non-conscious or less conscious state, one must become more and