Triguņa and chitta bhũmike in Yoga practitioners

Pages:33-37
Jayasheela, S. and Kiran Kumar K. Salagame (Department of Studies in Psychology, University of Mysore, Karnataka)

According to Indian thought, triguņa represents essential energies of the mind and individual’s personality is determined and dependent on triguņa viz., satva, rajas and tamas. The three guņa influence the physical and mental activities of every individual. Vyasa in his commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra distinguishes between five states of mind viz., kshipta, mũdha, vikshipta, ekāgra and niruddha. Each of these states of mind involves certain cognitive and personality characteristics, which are associated with satva, rajas and tamas. It is stated that yoga practices lead to enhancement of satva and regulation and decline of rajas and tamas. To examine this 60 YP and 60 normal controls (n=120) were studied using Vedic Personality Inventory and Chitta bhumike Inventory. The scores on the two inventories were correlated. The obtained correlations in both the groups indicate that kshipta and mũdha states of mind are negatively correlated with satva and positively correlated with tamas, as discussed in Yogic literature. Only in yoga practitioner group kshipta and mũdha shows positive correlation with rajas. Scores of Vikshipta, ekāgra and niruddha sub-scales do not show significant correlations with the three guņa. The t-tests show that the two groups differed significantly on chitta bhumike but not on the three guņa.