05-Oct-15

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

Understanding the gunas is central to understanding
Indian philosophy of leadership and management.
The gunas help us understand what makes us what we
are, our drives and motivations, how to motivate others,
our aptitudes and competencies, performance excellence,
and many other aspects about is.

Satya Chaitanya

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

The Bhagavad Gita, following Sankhya, divides the
world into three gunas.
Prakriti, from which the universe evolves into being,
consists of three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Since
Prakriti itself consists of the three gunas, everything in
creation is made of the three gunas; the whole universe
is a play of the three gunas.

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

The Gita discusses in detail the three gunas, or psychophysical energy forms, that constitute material existence.
Sattva guna is intelligence and goodness.
Rajas guna is the fire of desire or drive.
Tamas guna is dullness or inertia.

05-Oct-15

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

Sattva is the upward tendency which is conformity to
the pure essence of being light, knowledge and
purity.
Rajas, the outward tendency, which constitutes the
natural urge to expansion on any given plane of being.
Tamas, the downward tendency, which is darkness or
ignorance.

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

Sattva means balance, order, or purity. This typically
implies that a person with more of sattva has a positive
or even orderly state of mind. Such a person is
psychologically kind, calm, alert and thoughtful.

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

From the human point of view:
Sattva is that tendency which leads us to higher states.
Rajas is that which urges us to expansion on the
worldly and human plane.
Tamas is that tendency which makes us remain where
we are or sink into lower existences.

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

Rajas leads one to activity.
Rajas is the force that creates desires for acquiring new
things. These desires lead one to activity. Apraptasya
prapti yoga.

05-Oct-15

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

Tamas means inactivity, negativity, lethargy, dullness,
or slowness. Usually it is associated with darkness,
delusion, or ignorance. The quality of tamas also can
imply that a person has a self-destructive or entropic
state of mind. That person is constantly pursuing
destructive activities.

Leadership Excellence and the Gunas

Tamasic people, when they become active, it is out of
fear of losing things they already have: praptasya
rakshanam kshema.
Formore details see: Gita Chapter XIV [guna-trayavibhaga-yoga], XVII and XVII.

Satya Chaitanya