Rajas

(“passion”) One of the three fundamental qualities (gunas) believed to be present in all things, the other two gunas
being sattva (“goodness”) and tamas
(“darkness”). According to this model,
differing proportions of these qualities
account for differences in the properties
of concrete things, and in the range of
individual human capacities and tendencies. Unlike sattva and tamas, which,
respectively, carry exclusively good and
bad associations, rajas and its effects can
be either positive or negative, depending
on context. Rajas is negative, for example,
when it leads to an enslavement to the
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Raidas
passions that may blind one to careful
and conscious thought. Alternately, the
energies derived from passion can also
engender useful activity and industriousness. The notion of the gunas originated in the metaphysics of the
Samkhya school, one of the six schools
of traditional Hindu philosophy, and
although much of Samkhya metaphysics connected with the gunas has
long been discredited, the idea of the
gunas and their qualities has become a
pervasive assumption in Indian culture.