How To Reach Sattva — Selfless Bliss

There are three levels of spiritual energy. Here’s how to reach the highest one.

In the introduction to Eknath Easwaran’s translation of the Bhagavad Gita, he mentions three levels of spiritual types, or energies. Much like matter can exist in three types of states — solid, liquid, gas — the spirit exists in a state of tamas, rajas, or sattva.

Everyone has a mixture of these three forces acting in their life. But one usually dominates.

The purpose of spiritual practice is to move from tamas, spiritual deadness, into rajas, spiritual activity, and then from mere activity into sattva, spiritual harmony.

Here, I’ll explain each state in more detail and share with you how to raise your spirit through each of these states into the third one, which represents bliss.

Tamas: Frozen Spirit

The average person is dominated by this spiritual state. It’s a state of inertia, deadness, like water that has been frozen into unmoving ice. This person’s dominant emotion is apathy, especially with regard to their spiritual life.

A person in the tamas state is stuck in unhealthy patterns, suffering without really understanding or even caring how they got there, or how they’re going to…