Sattva (Sanskrit: सत्त्व, meaning goodness) is one of the three guṇas or "modes of existence" (tendencies, qualities, attributes), a philosophical and psychological concept understood by the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy.[James G. Lochtefeld, "Sattva", in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A–M, Vol. 2, Rosen Publishing, , p. 608] The other two qualities are rajas (passion and activity) and tamas (destruction, chaos). Sattva is the quality of goodness, purity, positivity, truth, serenity, balance, peacefulness, and virtuousness that is drawn towards Dharma and jñāna (knowledge).[Ian Whicher (1998), The Integrity of the Yoga Darśana, State University of New York Press, pp. 86–87, 124–125, 163–167, 238–243 ][Carus, Paul. "Karma and Nirvana. Are the Buddhist Doctrines Nihilistic?" Monist 4 (1893-94): 417-439.] The act or a person who bears this is called Sattvik.
Hinduism
Samkhya Philosophy
In Samkhya philosophy, a is one of three "tendencies, qualities": sattva, rajas and tamas. This category of qualities has been widely adopted by various schools of Hinduism for categorizing behavior and natural phenomena. The three qualities are:
-
Sattva is the quality of balance, harmony, goodness, purity, universalizing, holistic, constructive, creative, building, positive attitude, luminous, serenity, being-ness, peaceful, virtuous.
[Joseph Alter, Yoga in Modern India, 2004 Princeton University Press, p. 55]
-
Rajas is the quality of passion, activity, neither good nor bad and sometimes either, self-centeredness, egoistic, individualizing, driven, moving, dynamic.
[Ian Whicher (1998), The Integrity of the Yoga Darśana, State University of New York Press, pp. 63, 124–129, 138, 188–190]
-
Tamas is the quality of imbalance, disorder, chaos, anxiety, impure, destructive, delusion, negative, dull or inactive, apathy, inertia or lethargy, violent, vicious, ignorant.
[Ian Whicher (1998), The Integrity of the Yoga Darśana, State University of New York Press, pp. 63, 110–112, 124–126, 163, 188]
In Indian philosophy, these qualities are not considered as present in either-or fashion. Rather, everyone and everything has all three, only in different proportions and in different contexts.[James G. Lochtefeld, "Sattva", in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A–M, Vol. 2, Rosen Publishing, , p. 265] The living being or substance is viewed as the net result of the joint effect of these three qualities.[
]
According to the Samkhya school, no one and nothing is either purely sattvik or purely rajasik or purely tamasik.[ One's nature and behavior is a complex interplay of all of these, with each guna in varying degrees. In some, the conduct is rajasik with significant influence of sattvik guna, in some it is rajasik with significant influence of tamasik guna, and so on.][Alban Widgery (1930), "The principles of Hindu Ethics", International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 234–237]
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita describes sattva as a path to liberation.
It causes bondage, as explained in verse 14.9, by attachment to happiness.
Vishishtadvaita
According to Ramanuja, the divine realm (Vaikuntha) is composed of pure, immutable sattva, or shuddha sattva. In liberation, the individual self transcends its material body and attains a pure form composed of shuddha sattva.
Buddhism
Sattva, or satta in Pali, is found in Buddhist texts, such as in Bodhi-sattva. The sattva in Buddhism means "a living being, creature, person or sentient being".
See also
Further reading
External links
