Tamas (philosophy)
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In Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, tamas (Sanskrit tamas "darkness") is the lowest of the three gunas (qualities), the other two being rajas, "passion, activity" and sattva, "purity". It has also been translated from Sanskrit as "indifference". It is a force which promotes darkness, death, destruction, ignorance, sloth, and resistance. The result of a tamas-dominated life is demerit by karma: demotion to a lower life-form. A tamasic life would be marked by laziness, irresponsibility, cheating, maliciousness, insensitivity, criticizing and finding fault, frustration, aimless living, no logical thinking or planning, and making excuses. Tamasic activities include overeating, oversleeping, and consuming drugs and alcohol.
This is the most negative guna because of its rejection of Karmic Law and the central principle of dharmaic religions; that one's Karma must be worked out and not ignored.[citation needed]
The gunas (tamas, rajas and sattva) are defined and detailed in Samkhya, one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Each of the three gunas has its own distinctive characteristics and it is believed that everything is made up of these three. Tamas is lowest, heaviest, slowest, and most dull (for example, a stone or a lump of earth). It is devoid of the energy of the rajas and the brightness of sattva.
Tamas cannot be counteracted by tamas. It might be easier to counteract it by means of rajas (action), and it might be more difficult to jump directly from tamas to sattva.
[edit] Quotes
- "You should know, O Arjuna, tamas as the cause of delusion enslaving all embodied beings born of nescience; by negligence, listlessness and somnolescence." (BG 14:8)
- "O Arjuna, nescience, inertness, neglectfulness and also illusion; when these arise tamas predominates." (BG 14:13)
- "Succumbing to death in rajas one takes birth among those beings attached to fruitive activities; similarly, dying in tamas, one takes birth from the womb of an animal" (BG 14:15)
- "The Fourteenth Day: One who enters into the fourth state, overcomes time, and the three qualities of raajas, taamas, and satva"(SGGS [1])
- "Those who embody the energies of sattva-white light, raajas-red passion, and taamas-black darkness, abide in the Fear of God, along with the many created forms." (SGGS [2])
- "Your Power is diffused through the three gunas: raajas, taamas and satva" (SGGS [3])
- "Raajas, the quality of energy and activity; Taamas, the quality of darkness and inertia; and Satvas, the quality of purity and light, are all called the creations of Maya, Your illusion. That man who realizes the fourth state - he alone obtains the supreme state" (SGGS [4])
- "Raajas, the quality of energetic activity shall pass away. Taamas, the quality of lethargic darkness shall pass away. Saatvas, the quality of peaceful light shall pass away as well. All that is seen shall pass away. Only the Word of the Holy Saint is beyond destruction" (SGGS [5])
