Rajas
Rajas, “activity, passion; dust”
Grammar: neuter noun, from the root rañj (to colour): “that which colours”. It also means dust, and in compounds takes the form rajo-, as in rajoguṇa (the guṇa of rajas).
Meaning: the second of the three guṇas, the quality of activity, passion and desire, between sattva (purity) and tamas (darkness); the guṇa that moves creation. Its colour is red.
In the scriptures: at the pralaya, when the whole universe had become one ocean, the Supreme slept in it for a thousand years. At the end of that night he took a rājasa form, a form of rajas, and created the worlds. From that creation arose the one in whom rajas predominates, five-faced, master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, creator of the moving and unmoving: Brahmā. Likewise there came out Rudra, made of tamas (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 2).
When Bhagavān Śiva, whom Brahmahatyā would not leave, reaches Kurujāṅgala and has darśana of Garuḍadhvaja, he praises Bhagavān Vishṇu: “Rajoguṇī, eternal Brahma-mūrti, you who in rajas take the form of Brahmā! This whole world of moving and unmoving beings is your creation.” In sattva, the stotra goes on, he protects all beings (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 3).
The word in use:
- In the devāsura battle the dust raised covered earth and sky. In that darkness of dust (rajas-andhakāra) father could not recognise son, nor son father (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 9).
- Blessing Skanda, Bhagavān Vishṇu says: “May Viriñci, the lotus-born, who has rajoguṇa, give you well-being” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 32).
- Of the manifest forms of the Paramātmā, the fourth, mixed with rajas, is red, with four faces and two hands: the radiant Ādipurusha who carries out creation (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
- Before stringing his bow, Indra bows in his mind to the Trimūrti, who are of the guṇas sattva, rajas and tamas (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 43).
- Of the four young women Hari brought forth, the second has rajas predominant, is red in lustre, in red garments, on a red horse, and was given to Indra and Manu. She tells Bali: “I am Jayaśrī, in whom rajas predominates” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 49).
- In the Vishṇu Sārasvata stotra: “May all the pāpas that came from me, made of rajas, sattva and tamas, be destroyed” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 59).
- Brahmā, waking after a thousand yugas to an empty world, was moved by rajoguṇa and thought to create. The guṇa of creation is rajas, and at the time of withdrawal tamoguṇa acts (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22).
Related terms: Guṇa · Sattva · Tamas · Rajoguṇa · Trimūrti
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 3, 9, 32, 35, 43, 49, 59
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22