Three gunas

These are the three fundamental properties underlying the manifest world. Rajas, or activity, and tamas, or stability and inertia, are balanced by sattva, cognition and harmony, the aspect of purity and neutrality, literally "being-ness". The action of the gunas is said to have to produced the entire cosmos: disturbance of the balance of the gunas in prakriti first produces buddhi, with a predominance of sattva; from this arises ahamkara under the impact of rajas; then a prevalence of tamas starts the branching off, with development of the mind and senses on the one hand and of the five potentials, tanmatra, and their material elements on the other. The whole creation is also said to be powered by a combination of these gunas, all being present all of the time but in different circumstances different gunas predominating. This is the nature of the phenomenal world, providing purusha, through the organs of sense and the elements, with experience and liberation. The aim of yoga (and of many paths of self realization) is to reduce the rajasic and tamasic elements of the citta, or heart, by increasing the sattvic element and allowing the citta to reflect purusha or consciousness most clearly.