© Rami Bleckt

© Publishing Company «Blago-Darenie»

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"Rami is a professional psychologist, astrologer, yoga instructor and Ayurveda practitioner, with vast practical experience and knowledge. This book is not merely an academic research, it is a result of many years of Rami's practice as a lecturer and a consultant. He managed to adapt ancient Eastern science of Gunas to the practical application in the modern world, and to deliver it to the present-day readers in a clear and simple form. As well as Sattva Guna is a key to the mind and psychological healing, Rami's book is significant for those who are seeking practical and spiritual approach to understanding of the mind and emotions."

Professor David Frawley, the author of many bestsellers, world-wide recognized Master of Oriental Astrology and Auverda

The book "Three energies" by Rami Bleckt, PhD, is highly valuable for the readers. It makes it possible to get in touch with practical application of the following principles of ancient wisdom. The readers can see the world through the prism of the author's view and perceive something they have never seen before. This material is a world of Universal laws of Love, Harmony and Justice in action. The practical experience of the author turns dull theory into vibrant reality, and inspires us to follow, apply and hands out Rami's life philosophy. This will help all readers to become happy and teach how to make others happy around them as well."

V. Tuneev [BV Gosvami], one of the best experts of the ancient Indian philosophy and psycology

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all Teachers, through whom I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of how truly the highest knowledge is.

The English version of this book was published only due to the tremendous work that my friends have done, Zulfat Khismatulin – he translated this book and Patricia Raferty – she edited the book.

Many thanks to them!

I hope that their belief that this book will bring a lot of good into lives of readers, will come true.

Also I would like to thank Shmuel Rabin, Julia Verba, Elena Skomorohova, Boris Shitikov, Olga Shiryaeva, Elena Korotaeva and Sergei Medvedev for their great help. The book would not have become a reality without their assistance.

Special thanks to my wife, Marina, for she, by just using some of our lecture notes, has written several important chapters instead of me.

Also, would like to further thank Professor David Frawley, for the important recommendations that he has given me and for the wonderful introduction that he wrote.

Inspiration for writing this book

Life itself is neither good nor bad: it is a reservoir of both good and bad, depending on what you make of it.

Michel de Montaigne

In September 2006 we travelled around South India. It was extremely interesting. We undertook a full panchakarma course (cleansing the body of slugs and toxins) and met incredible people – astrologists, yogis, gurus (spiritual teachers)… But the most amazing of all was that we met one well-known Ayurvedic doctor. He was 80 years old and looked incredible, full of happiness and peace.

All his life he studied and practiced Ayurveda and became very successful. Many awards and photographs with government letters of appreciation were around his office. He would look into men’s eyes, check their pulse, sometimes press different pressure points on the body and then give a correct diagnosis of the condition of different internal organs. Then he would give recommendations about diet and lifestyle. Some of us were given special Ayurvedic medicine. The doctor spent more time with the youngest member of the group, and found several very serious diseases, about which the young man knew. Other (Western) doctors had recommended a surgery for this young man. This Ayurvedic doctor told our young friend that if he followed the prescribed instructions, he would be cured in a few months. He prescribed some kind of herbs from the Himalayas which needed to be taken after boiling for several hours. The young man followed all the instructions and as a result the benign tumour, gastritis and urine-genital problems disappeared. The Ayurvedic doctor gave him not just herbs but also the knowledge by which the herbs miraculously worked. If one follows this system from birth then there will be no need for any medical treatments.

After few days we met one famous astrologer that prominent politicians and businessmen come to consult with. Meeting him was possible only due to a recommendation from a Maharaj we knew. Meeting this Master was of great significance for me because he agreed to become my teacher. Over the next few days he taught me many important lessons. He amazed all of us by his deep understanding of life and different karmic situations and also by his psychic abilities. He also spoke about the knowledge with which the inauspicious influence of planets can be neutralized and even how to become liberated from the laws of karma. For ordinary people such knowledge can eliminate disease and suffering and shed light on how one can be happy, healthy and harmonious.

Both teachers looked effulgent because they had applied this knowledge in their lives; despite their old age they radiated health and happiness. They inspired me to write this book in a way that people living outside of India can access this knowledge. In the past, Indian sages had this knowledge but nowadays few people know about it and even fewer realize how important and practical this knowledge is. I have seen so many times the phenomenal changes in people’s lives when they start using this knowledge: eradicating different physical and psychological diseases; eliminating problems from their personal lives; achieving social success; developing powerful intuition; progressing rapidly in spiritual life. The most important transformation is the overwhelming contentment that develops independent from external circumstances. If you want these miraculous changes in your life too you should read this book at least once.

Foreword by Pr. David Frawley

Yoga is not just a physical discipline but contains a wonderful practical philosophy of life and healing. For this it is connected to Ayurvedic medicine, the traditional natural healing system of India, and to Vedic astrology, India’s science of the stars and of karma.

Yoga philosophy has contributed many profound insights to world spirituality. Yoga sees the universe as a play of two primary forces, the power of consciousness or what is called the Purusha in Sanskrit, our inner being, and the forces of nature or what is called Prakriti or the primary power of creation. One of the main insights of yogic thought is its understanding of all the forces of nature according to three gunas or primary qualities. The term guna means what binds the soul as the forces of nature easily become powers of attachment to the external world of time and space and draw us away from resting in our deeper eternal nature of the Purusha.

Each of the three gunas called Sattva, Rajas and Tamas has its particular qualities and roles in the cosmic order:

Sattva, which means the quality of truth or being, is identified with light, mind, consciousness, goodness, virtue, harmony and balance. Rajas, which means turbulence and agitation, is identified with energy, life, emotion, manifestation, assertion, disequilibrium and change. Tamas, which refers to darkness, is identified with matter, inertia, the unconscious, dullness, resistance, entropy and stability.

All three qualities have their necessary place in the world of nature starting with the three great cosmic forces of light (sattva), energy (rajas) and matter (tamas). Everything in the universe consists of various interrelationships and intertransformations of these three powers of light, energy and matter, as the great scientist Einstein revealed in his equation E=MC² or energy equals matter times the speed of light squared. The forces of nature are constantly moving back and forth between all three qualities, which are not separate states but related modes of nature’s workings.

All three qualities also have their place in our own human nature as body (tamas), vitality (rajas) and mind (sattva), which make the three levels of our functioning. The body is the material component of our being, the mind our inner light, and our vital energy or life-force (prana in Sanskrit) the energy between the two ones. These three forces are not separate but rooted in each other and mixed together. Body, life-force and mind are part of a single continuum and constantly influencing one another.

Here Yoga introduces another important aspect of this science of the guans. The mind itself is the natural domain of sattva, requiring light, harmony, balance and clarity for its proper function. This means that when we take the standpoint of the field of the mind, then tamas and rajas, or the influences of the body and vital energy, can become factors of disturbance, with the bodily influences having the capacity to dull the mind, and the vital energy having the ability to disturb it. Rajas and tamas become ‘doshas’ or factors of disease at a psychological and spiritual level. Rajas and tamas allow factors of agitation and dullness, or wrong imagination and wrong judgment that cloud how our intelligence works. This in turn leads to the main difficulties, maladies and pain that life can bring us, as well as preventing us from gaining the wisdom (sattva) to handle with all these.

For this reason, yogic thought always emphasizes the development of sattva guna as its primary principle of inner growth and development. Yoga urges us to resort to those types of foods, impressions, ideas, expressions and associations that promote sattva guna and avoid those that promote rajas and tamas. The prime principle of spiritual development through Yoga and Ayurvedic medicine and the proper understanding of karma in Vedic astrology is this science of the three gunas and the need to promote sattva guna as the prime value for the human mind and soul.

The three gunas provide us a wonderful and practical system for both classifying our activities and learning to promote those actions that lead us to higher awareness. Its emphasis on sattva guna is the basis of the yogic recommendation of a vegetarian diet, for example, and on ahimsa or non-violence as a prime behavioral principle. Indeed nonviolence is the foundation of sattvic living and thinking, meaning that we should not wish harm to others in any way not just to avoid violence but to foster peace and light within ourselves.

Yoga provides a system of values, exercises, emotional states, mental conditions, and practices of mantra, pranayama and meditation according to the three gunas. Even Yoga asanas are designed to promote sattva guna or the quality of peace and stillness at a physical level. Ayurveda, Yoga’s complementary medical system, similarly provides us with a detailed classification of foods, herbs and therapies according to the three gunas. Vedic astrology provides an understanding of the influences of the planets according to the three gunas. An understanding of the gunas is central to all the Vedic sciences.

It is important for students of Yoga or of any spiritual sciences to learn, and apply this system of the three gunas in their own daily lives. However, there are few books that deal with the subject of the gunas and show us how to use them in a practical way. Most examinations of the gunas are content to list a few common characteristics of the gunas and do not go beyond that. It often leaves the students in doubt how to apply the gunas really in a meaningful manner.

In this regard Rami Bleckt has brought out an important new book on the gunas in the Russian language that brings them into a clear perspective for the modern reader. His book serves a vital need and offers many useful tools of self-healing, self-understanding and self-realization that can be of great transformational value for their lives and for their awareness. Rami is a trained psychologist, yoga teacher, Ayurvedic teacher and astrologer, who brings to this study much experience and knowledge. It is not just an academic presentation but the result of many years of personal practice, teaching and counseling. He has learned how to adapt this eastern science of the gunas to life in the modern world and can relate it to the reader accordingly in a clear and simple manner.

As developing sattva guna is the key to the mind and, therefore to psychological healing, his book has a great relevance for all those looking for a more practical and spiritual approach to dealing with the mind and emotions. How we feel in our minds cannot be separated from the food we eat, how we use our senses, our breathing patterns and our associations. In this way the science of gunas can add many new dimensions to psychology in all of its forms. All psychologists should examine this approach and see how our emotional well-being can be changed by shifts in behavior that are in our control to develop and do not necessarily require drugs or chemical interventions.

As an author of thirty books in the yogic field over the last more than twenty years, it is heartening to see this deep knowledge spread to a larger audience in different countries in the world. I hope that the book meets with a heartfelt reception and that through it many more individuals can benefit from the tools of yogic knowledge, which are of relevance to everyone. We must thank Rami for his service and can only wish that he continues with additional contributions to the cause of the greater well-being for all.

Sattva guna has not only the ability to heal but to promote world peace and understanding. This is the need of our times. We cannot have peace unless we have a life-style that promotes peace. Peace must be rooted in our moment by moment action and awareness and in all our interactions with the world. It cannot be just an occasional concern or a mere political expediency.

Sattva leads us to Sat, which is the principle of pure existence allied with Chit, pure consciousness, and Ananda, Divine love and bliss. Trough promoting Sattva we prepare ourselves to become a vehicle of the higher powers of the universe. May this publication increase that wonderful quality of sattva guna for all those who delve into its pages!

Professor David Frawley

Author: Yoga and Ayurveda, Ayurveda and the Mind etc., Santa, Fe NM USA (HYPERLINK "http://www.vedanet.com"), June 2008