Doshas & Gunas

Jai Guru.

How is your Kriya meditation?

Good?

Good or okay okay?

Not so good.

Okay okay.

Why sometimes it is good and sometimes it is okay okay?

Why does the mind fluctuate?

Because of everything happening surrounding.

Why does the mind fluctuate?

Loudly.

Because of the thoughts that are going on.

Okay and from where do these thoughts come?

Yeah of course but why even where does it begin?

What is the origin?

Not just the body,

Even the mind.

Everything and everyone,

Every creature,

Every living being,

Even a non-living thing like this chair.

Everything is made up of five elements.

What are the five elements?

Earth,

Water,

Fire,

Air and ether.

Everything is made up of that.

Even the mind is made up of earth,

Water,

Fire,

Air,

Ether.

You can't see it.

Because you only have a certain range of vision.

You cannot see above that range,

You cannot see below that range.

You cannot touch everything.

You have only a certain range of touch.

You have a certain range in which your body can be alive.

95 degrees Fahrenheit under that.

If the body temperature goes will you be alive?

If your body temperature goes above 110 degrees will you be alive?

There is a range for this body to be alive.

So there is a range in which we exist at the physical level.

Does that mean that things do not exist beyond this range?

No,

They do.

They are just not perceptive or I am not perceptive to these things.

Just like that is the mind.

It is subtler than this physical body.

I cannot perceive it through my five senses.

All I can experience is a thought that comes and goes,

Thought that comes and bothers me,

A thought that comes and evokes an emotion in me.

But beyond that I am unable to perceive the mind.

Because I live in a limited range.

This body has that limitation.

But beyond that what exists is the play and display of elements.

So every person has a dominant dosha.

What are dosha?

Vata,

Pitta and kapha are dosha.

Vata means air plus ether are dominant in you if you are a vata dosha.

Vata people will be able to identify themselves as they can never do one thing with focus.

Mind keeps jumping from here to there,

There to there,

There to there.

Even their food habits are like that.

They will not sit down and eat a proper meal.

They pick from here,

Pick from there,

Pick from there,

Pick from there.

Even in the mind it is like that.

You cannot focus.

Productivity is affected.

That is because vata dosha is predominant in you.

You have to find out what is really my dosha and how I can bring about a balance in myself.

Second is pitta.

Pitta is fire plus water.

The fire in such people is very high.

Now what is the meaning of fire being high?

Jealousy,

Hatred,

Anger,

All this is just fire at the mind level.

In the body level there will be lot of burning,

High metabolic rate.

You want to eat again and again.

You want to drink a lot of water.

You don't like the sun because you are already a fire.

So you feel uncomfortable when it becomes even slightly warmer.

Compared to a kapha person,

He or she will prefer the sun because it is water and earth element.

They will be more comfortable in a warm climate.

Pitta people will want to run away from a warm climate.

So observe what happens to you and what is your predominant dosha.

Kapha people because it is water and earth.

What happens when water and earth comes together?

Slush and heaviness.

Kapha people are more on the lazier side.

So if meditation is not happening,

Kriya is not happening,

Check check check check.

Is it laziness?

Tamas is predominant in such people.

You really want to do everything.

You want to get up and move but you are not able to.

Why?

Because kapha is pulling you down.

So not just a good commitment towards doing kriya is required but even working on your prakriti.

So there are certain foods which can bring about balance.

Kapha people should eat more light food,

Should not go for heavy fried food.

Because that only brings the kapha more heavier and heavier.

On the other hand,

A person who is a pitta should never go in for spicy food.

Because there is already fire inside,

That fire only gets ignited.

Are you seeing this?

It is very beautiful how everything is designed.

So first is recognize what is your dosha.

Once you recognize what is your dosha,

You will be able to understand,

Oh this is the reason why I cannot meditate or this is the reason why I cannot have a calm mind.

Or even regular day to day life.

I cannot deal with regular situations in a calm manner compared to somebody else in my home.

Why is this difference there?

Oh maybe because of my particular dosha is dominant.

Then work on it.

So if you don't know your dosha,

Step number 1 or homework number 1 is to find out your dosha.

It is very simple,

Just google it up.

What is my dosha?

This d-o-s-h-a.

And a quiz will come up.

And in that quiz there will be many questions.

Honestly answer,

It will tell you what is your dosha.

That's your homework number 1.

Now do only dosha's affect me and my mind?

No.

The gunas,

There are 3 gunas that affect the dosha's.

This is amazing.

Makes it even more complicated.

Rajas is what?

Lots of activity in the body and in the mind and in the environment.

For example,

Now summer is coming.

Don't you see more people out and about now than you saw 3-4 months ago?

So winter is tamas in the environment.

And summer is rajas in the environment.

Are you getting this difference?

So if it exists in the environment,

Just imagine how much it can affect this body mind.

So if my dosha is anyway scuffled,

Very lazy person.

And it is tamasic environment outside,

What happens?

I am even more lazy.

Are you seeing this?

But on the other hand,

If my dosha is pitta,

I am fiery,

Always up and about,

This I want to do this,

I want to do that,

Like fire.

Then what happens?

Outside if it is rajas,

Summer,

My pitta gets even more aggravated.

Are you seeing this?

So learn to first recognize what is my dosha,

Then learn to recognize what is the guna which is prevalent in the environment,

In the climate,

In the home also.

The people in the home,

Family members make up the environment.

If everybody is fighting,

What is the environment at home?

Very rajasic.

If everybody at home is dull and just lying down in front of the TV,

What is the environment?

Tamasic.

Are you seeing it?

But if everybody in the house is doing healthy things,

Meditating,

Spiritual,

Eating fresh vegetarian food,

Happy mind,

That's a sattvic environment.

So dosha's get affected by the gunas.

So step number one,

Recognize your dosha.

Step number two,

Recognize the changing guna happening in the climate and in my house.

Because that is affecting my dosha.

And then work on it.

And work is,

I have told you what.

Once you Google up the quiz,

It will tell you what is your dosha,

What foods you should eat,

What food you should not eat,

What exercises you should do,

What you should not do.

For example,

Pitta people,

Because the fire is high,

If they do cardio,

What happens?

Pitta goes up.

Pitta goes up,

The heat increases.

So what is better for a pitta personality?

Yoga and meditation.

On the other hand,

A person is a kapha,

Very lazy.

He needs to shake that tamas out of him.

What does he need?

Cardio.

Cardio.

Are you getting it?

Yeah?

Very scientific.

So recognize first what is your dosha,

What is the prevalent guna in the environment and at home,

And let me work on myself.

So vata what they should do.

If you are a vata,

Recognize what is happening.

What is vata?

Air and ether.

Air and ether.

All the time you are around.

It doesn't matter.

The exercise part won't affect you so much.

You should do cardio so that you become tired.

That tiredness will do what to you?

It will settle the air down.

What is the quality of air?

Movement.

Movement.

All the time,

You are there,

You are there.

So vata person,

His mind is also like that.

Suddenly he is thinking this,

Then that,

Then this,

Then that,

Then this,

Then that.

So you are lost.

To calm that down,

You have to first exert the body inner so that the body rest,

Relaxes.

The restlessness in the body,

Once that relaxes,

The restlessness in the mind also relaxes.

Got it?

Understand from the element.

You know these elements,

You understand what is the nature of fire,

What is the nature of water,

What is the nature of air.

That will tell you exactly what you are supposed to do.

So for vita you are fire and water.

Are they not opposite?

They are opposite.

Yes,

Yes.

All the elements are opposite.

It's a combination of fire?

It's a combination of fire and water.

Fire predominant,

Water littleness.

I know fire puts off water,

Water puts off fire.

Yes,

That is the way it works.

Even in water and earth,

Water pushes the earth away.

Earth wants to stop the flow of water.

All these gunas and dosas are actually in conflict with each other.

The skill is to find how they can all be there together.

Yes,

So now the more complicated personalities will be vata-pitta,

Kapha-pitta.

So you will have now four elements dominant.

It gets even more complicated for you.

Now don't start beating yourself up,

You can't do anything about it.

Just learn how to balance it.

That is also there.

So when you do the quiz online,

You will actually find even that.

It will give you your 45% pitta and 55% kapha.

And you are like,

Oh that means I am both.

It tells you,

You are a kapha-pitta.

Only when one is really predominant,

80 or 90% pitta and 5% kapha,

5% vata.

Then they will call you a pitta.

Got it?

You always change right?

With the season,

You have to constantly keep it up.

So your predominant dosas will not change.

But sometimes if you are sick,

Even a pitta person is sick with cold.

So his kapha is high.

Because kapha is what?

Water plus earth.

In cold everything gets congested.

So obviously my kapha is high even if I am a pitta at that moment.

Or suppose I am experiencing lots of gas.

My vata is high even though I will be a pitta at that time.

Got it?

So there is one predominant dosas and current dosas depending on the sickness.

It is really interesting to learn all these things.

It is so easy to balance your body-mind.