Sattva

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Sattva ( Sanskrit , n., सत्त्व, sattva, lit.: the being, true, transfigured: clarity, goodness, harmony) is one of the three gunas (properties) in Indian philosophy and Hinduism .

The Gunas were originally systematized in the Samkhya philosophy and represent characteristics of the Prakriti (primordial matter). The Guna doctrine later found its way into the Vedanta and is now part of the Hindu common property.

The Samkhya teaching knows three gunas. Sattva embodies purity and balance . It is considered to be the highest of the three gunas, since it gives truthfulness and wisdom to a person and purity to a thing. The color yellow is associated with sattva. Sattva is light (laghu) and illuminating (prakashaka). It causes things to strive upwards and the organs to become active. It drives away the darkness and enables knowledge. If Sattva prevails in the mental states, those appear in their good appearance. Sattva leads to knowledge and redemption.

If sattva predominates in the self-consciousness, which embodies brightness and clarity (prakasha) and thus the ability to cognize , it is called that "based on transformation" (vaikarika) . Sattva prevails with the gods. It has an enlightening and delighting effect.

In yoga the aim is to gain full control of the spirit in the state of immersion and to recognize the difference between the soul (as the true) and the matter (as the illusion). This knowledge forms the basis for salvation.

The other two gunas are rajas (roughly: urge, urge) and tamas (roughly: indolence, entrapment). The three Gunas are always mixed up in this world; but one of them, the sattva, has a direct spiritual source because it is the characteristic of God. About 3000 years ago a Sanskrit verse (12.8.46) was written in the Bhagavatam Purana:

“The place of fearlessness and the eternal (“ Sattvam ”and all its synonyms) is the direct spiritual energy of the Absolute, and the emergence and decay (“ Raja ”exploitative passion and“ Tama ”destructive ignorance) are only its“ indirect ” "Material energies that only exist in this transitory world."

An explanation of this verse was written by Jiva Gosvami about 500 years ago in his Bhakti Sandarba , Anuccheda 103/38:

“In this verse the form and quality of God is described as not different from the mode of appearance of goodness and virtue. What is this mode of goodness and virtue? It is pure goodness and virtue because it is completely free from the slightest touch with destructive ignorance (Tama-Guna) and exploitative passion (Raja-Guna). That is the inner power of God. It is absolutely pure because it does not come into contact with the smallest part of perishable matter. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ pnd: SB 8/12/46. In: www.vedabase.com. July 15, 2011, accessed January 13, 2017 .