The three gunas Satva, Rajas and Tamas- are the three essential components or energies of the mind. Ayurveda provides a distinct description of people on the basis of their Manasa (psychological) Prakriti (constitution). Genetically determined, these psychological characteristics are dependent on the relative dominance of the three gunas.
The psyche is of three types - Pure or Satva, Rajas and Tamasa
While all individuals have mixed amounts of the three, the predominant guna determines an individual's mansa prakriti.In equilibrium, the three gunas preserve the mind (and indirectly the body), maintaining it in a healthy state. Any disturbance in this equilibrium results in various types of mental disorders.
Satva characterised by lightness, consciousness, pleasure and clarity, is pure, free from disease and cannot be disturbed in any way. It activates the senses and is responsible for the perception of knowledge.
Rajas, the most active of the gunas, has motion and stimulation as its characteristics.All desires, wishes,ambitions and fickle-mindedness are a result of the same.
Tamas is characterised by heaviness and resistance.It produces disturbances in the process of perception and activities of the mind. Delusion, false knowledge, laziness, apathy, sleep and drowsiness are due to it.
Rajas and Tamas as with the dosas, can be unbalanced by stress and negative desires as kama (lust), irshya (malice), moha (delusion and hallucination), lobha (greed), cinta (anxiety), bhaya (fear) and krodha(anger).
Creation is a dance of the five elements guided by the three eternal attributes:
Sattva - Spiritual energy
Rajas - Action
Tamas - Inertia