Interplay of Triguna on human personality

“True knowledge exists knowing that you know nothing- Socrates”

Introduction –
From the time when man stepped in the age of Civilization he has
made continuous attempt to explore and understand his nature and
utilise this knowledge to improve his quality of life. This process soon
made him realize that understanding one, s nature was incomplete
without understanding of one’s own self.
This realization made him confront a formidable problem – “who am
I”. This question Leeds ancient philosophers, both East and West, to
spend a lot of time speculating on the nature of human mind and
soul.
In West, Socrates says- “ Know thyself “
अपने आप को जानो
In East, Upanishad says - “see the Self”
आत्मा वा अरे द्रष्टव्य
In the West philosopher like Pluto , Aristolte, and others created
theories attempting to explain how the mind works and what causes
human behaviour.
In the East, philosopher in Upanishad and Shaddarshary discussed
the nature and function of mind and differentiated it from
consciousness
Human personality is the prime concept in modern philosophy.
Psychic is a Greek term which means- life, soul spirit mind etc. Thus
psychological means the study of soul or in Modern Times it means “
the study of mind and behaviour”
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In the beginning psychology was a part of philosophy. It moves away

from philosophy and become an independent discipline in 1879,
when German professor Wilhelm Wundt founded the first
experimental psychology lab at the University of Leipzig.
The Indian approach to personality rooted in ancient philosophy
system and spiritual tradition, offers a unique perspective on
understanding the complexities of human nature.

Personality
 Personality refers to unique can relatively stable qualities that
characterize on individual behaviour across different situation
over a period of time
 Derive from “ persona” ( Latin ) the mask use by actors to
represent characters during a theatrical play
 An understand of personality allow us to deal with people in
realistic and acceptable way

Characteristics of personality

1. Personality has both physical and psychological components

2. Personality reflects individual differences
3. It is a distinctive combination of inner characteristics
4. No two individuals are exactly alike.
5. Personality is study and permanent.
6. It's main features do not easily change with time.
7. It is dynamic in the sense that sum of its features may change
due to internal for external situations, demands adaptive to
situations.
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Approaches to study Personality

Type approaches

(1) Hippocrates – (Greek physician 460-370 BC) proposed a

typology of personality based on fluid or humour, classified
people into four types

Type humour
Choleric - Yellow bile
Melancholic - Black bile
Sanguine - Blood
Phlegmatic - Phlegm
Characterized by Special features.
(2) Charak Sanhita - (Treatise on Ayurveda)
Classified people into three categories of Vata, Kapha and pitta
on the basis of 3 human elements called Tridosha,
Each refers to a type of temperament called Prakriti (basic
nature) of a person
(3) Trigunas topology - Indian model of personality
Classified the people on the basis of Triguna, Sattva, Rajas and
Tamas.
(4) Sheldon
(i) Endomorphic – ( fat, soft and round)
- relaxed and sociable
(ii) Mesomorphic – (strong, muscular, rectangular, strong
body built)
- energetic and courageous
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(iii) Ectomorphic - ( Thin, Long, Fragile )
- Brainy, artistic and introvert

(5) Carl Jung –

Grouped people in two types
(i) introverts (ii) extroverts

Trait Approaches
 A traits is considered as a relative enduring attributes on quality
on which of one individual differs another.
 They are relatively stable overtime.
 Generally consistent across situations
 Their strength and combination very across individual leading to
individual differences in personality

(1) Allport’s Trait theory ( Garden Allport)

- Individual posses a number of traits , dynamic in nature and
determine behaviour, He identified nearly 4500 traits divided
into 3 category in a hierarchy
i. Cardinal Traits : Master controller of personality ,
Ex - Honest M.K.Gandhi
Altruism – Mother Terasa
ii. Central Traits : Easily Noticed, every person poses 5:10
Central traits
iii. Secondary Traits : Less relevant traits of personality
circumstances Traits
- Shyness , anxiety
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(2) Raymond Cattel : - Personality features
o source tracks or primary traits
o surface traits - result out of the interaction of source
Trraits
(3) Eysenck’s Theory
i. Extraversion - Vs - introversion
ii. Neuroticism - Vs - emotional stability
iii. Psychoticism - Vs - Sociability

Psycho dynamic approach

Sigmund fraud

Humanistic approach
(1) Abraham Maslow : Hierarch of needs
(2)Carl Rogers - focus on self

Indian model of personality

or
Triguna model of personality

Triguna
Guna is it technical terms appear in many ancient and medieval
Indian text. The word Guna primarily means a thread, cord, string
etc . In Indian tradition the term personality is translated as Svabhava
(स्वभाव) or Prakriti (प्रकृति )

Sankhya system of philosophy talks about the concept of triguna,

Sankhya is a dualistic system accepted to fundamental reality, -
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Prakriti - material unconscious principle

Purush - conscious principle

Trigunas are the constituents of Prakriti and three in numbers

(i) Sattva Guna
(ii) Rajas Guna
(iii) Tamas Guna
These Trigunas are the essential part of conception of personality and
play an important role to shape up an individual personality.

Characteristics and nature of Triguna

Sattva Guna : Sattva Guna is that element of Prakriti which is nature

of pleasure ( pretty ) and its attribute is buoyant and illuminating.
(सत्यम लघु प्रकाशकम्)
Pleasure in its various forms such as- satisfaction joy happiness
contentment bliss etc.
Rajat Guna : Rajat Guna is the nature of pain( अप्रीति ) and its
attribute is exciting and mobile (इष्टम् उपष्टम्भकम्)
Rajas is the principle of activity in things. It helps the element of
Sattva and Tamas, which are inactive and motionless in themselves
unable to produce their effect, derive their driving force from Rajas
and Excite than to their own respective effects produces
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Tamas Guna : Tamas Guna is the principle of positivity and

negativity in things. It is opposed to sattva in being heavy (Guru),
sluggish and it obstructing ( varanakam) the manifestation of object.
It is of the nature of delusion ( Vishadmak)
The Rajas keeps the three gunas in a continuous state of activity but
this mobility getting restricted by the sluggish and obscuring qualities
of tamas and it induces sleep, drowsiness, laziness etc.
These trigunas are the nature of pleasure pain and delusion and seves
the purpose of illumination (Prakash) action (pravritti) and restraint
(niyaman). They are mutually dominating and supporting productive
and cooperative.
When the Sattva Guna dominate, Rajas and Tamas suppressed with
its characteristics and sattva manifest itself as pleasure and
illumination.
When Rajas dominate, the Sattva and Tamas are suppressed, and it
manifest itself as pain and activity.
When Thomas dominate the sattva and Rajas are suppressed and
Tamas manifest with its characteristics of delusion and restrain.
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They produces their effects resting up on the others two. They are
mutually concomitants (sahachari) and never exist separated from
one another. Gunas are said to be extremely fine and subtle. Their
existence is inferred from their effects on human personality .
Human lives are an interplay of Triguna. On the basis of the
preponderance of particular Guna the human personality can be
classified as: -
1. Sattivic personality : - sattva guna predominant.
2. Rajasic personality : - Rajas Guna Predominant.
3. Tamsic personality : - Tamas Guna predominant.

These Gunas having a several Traits

Sattva Guna Rajas Guna Tamas Guna
Purity Greed Torpid
Honesty Restlessness Sluggish
Seriousness Anxious Laziness
Dutifulness Selfishness Careless
Mental Equilibrium Goal Oriented Sloth
Intelligence Authoritative Revengeful
Sense of control Aggressive Lust
Strong Anger Covering
Determination
Detachment Hatred Ignorance
Satisfaction Jealousy Misery
Joy, Happiness Grief Drowsiness
Bliss Distress
Separation
The role of yoga in shaping personality
Yoga plays a significant role in shaping personality and promoting
overall wellbeing. Yogic preaches offers transformative tools for self
e development enhancing self awareness and nurturing positive
psychological traits. These preaches allowing individual to develop a
deeper understanding of their thoughts, emotions and behavioural
patterns. By the preaches of Yama and Niyam purify the mind with
negative tendencies, asana and pranayam make individual more
aware to their physical sensation breath and bring attention to the
present movement. Preaches of meditation bring the stability of
mind calmness concentration of the mind.

Conclusion
The Triguna theory of personality represent a comprehensive
understanding of human nature and behaviour in terms of an
independent set of three qualities,

Researchers have noted that Sattva domain of personality showed a

link with positive life outcomes as mental health wellbeing and
positive experiences. Whereas the Tamas dimension showed negative
association with these measure and the Rajas shows mixed
relationship
(Khanna Singh singla and varma 2013 )
References :-
Research papers
 Triguna personality model and Two factor conceptualizations of
self comparisons :- A new insight to understand achievement
goal orientation : ( Gyanesh Kumar Tiwari)
 Characteristics of Triguna that are inevitable parts of the entire
universe : - (Vishal Sharma )
 Dr. Kiran Kumar salagame :- University of Mysore
 SamkhyaKarika :- Dr. Rakesh shastri
 SamkhyaKarika :- Swami Virupakshanand
 Theory of Personality :- T. E. Jayankosh
 Theory of Personality :- CBSE Notes