Tamas
Tamas · tamas, “darkness”
Rajas has other meanings too: see all meanings of Rajas.
Grammar: neuter noun, from the root tam (to be exhausted, to faint): “darkness”.
Meaning: darkness; the third of the three guṇas of prakṛti, with sattva and rajas: the guṇa of inertia, delusion and ignorance, by which the world is withdrawn. It is also called tamo-guṇa, and one of the five kinds of avidyā bears the name.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa speaks of tamas in creation and pralaya, in the births of beings, and in the teaching on the guṇas.
In creation and withdrawal. Śuka tells Parīkshit that Śrī Hari takes up rajas, sattva and tamas in order to create, sustain and withdraw the world (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 4), and Brahmā tells Nārada the same of the guṇātīta Parameśvara, who has māyā as his upādhi; the root of all substances is tamo-guṇa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 5). Kāla disturbs the balanced state of sattva, rajas and tamas in prakṛti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10). At the end of his day Brahmā takes up a trace of tamo-guṇa, withdraws from creation and stays still, and by kāla all merges in him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11). Kapila tells Devahūti that Rudra, the abhimānī of tamas, carries out the dissolution in each kalpa under the sway of kāla (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 29). Vasudeva, at the birth of Śrī Kṛshṇa, says that he takes the tamas form of Rudra at pralaya to withdraw beings; white is the sign of sattva, red of rajas and black of tamas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 3). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Nanda that sattva causes sthiti, rajas sṛshṭi and tamas pralaya (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 24). In the stuti of Hiraṇyakaśipu to Brahmā, at the end of the kalpa the world was covered by tamas, and the self-luminous Parameśvara made it manifest by his consciousness (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 3).
Tamas as avidyā. Maitreya tells Vidura that Brahmā first created the five vikāras of ajñāna: andhatāmisra, tāmisra, mahāmoha, moha and tamas; tamas is avidyā, not knowing one’s own svarūpa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12). Elsewhere the five divisions of avidyā are named tāmisra, andhatāmisra, tamas, moha and mahātamas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 20).
In the births of beings. Śuka tells Parīkshit that a body in which sattva predominates is a deva body, rajas a human body, and tamas a naraka body (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10). Tamas predominates in Rudra’s bhūtagaṇas, who dwell in the antariksha (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 6). In plants tamas is chief and the inner sense small; the animals and birds of the eighth sarga, with much tamas, have no sense of time, know by smell alone and feel pleasure but cannot reflect (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 10). By pāpa come bodies in which tamas rules, such as trees (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 14). Prahlāda says that he took a birth of rajas in the line of the asuras, where tamas rules (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 9). Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira that sattva, rajas and tamas are guṇas of the māyā-śakti, not of the ātmā, and do not all grow or decline at once; in the time when tamas grows, Bhagavān Śrī Hari favours the yakshas and rākshasas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 1).
Śrī Kṛshṇa’s teaching. To Uddhava Śrī Kṛshṇa says that the three guṇas belong to the buddhi, a product of prakṛti, and not to the Ātmā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 13). Prakṛti is the balanced state of the three guṇas; from sattva comes knowledge, from rajas karma, and tamas is ignorance; when tamas predominates the jīva is born as a piśāca, an animal or a bird (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 22). The marks of tamas are anger, greed, untruth, hiṃsā, begging, hypocrisy, weariness, quarrel, grief, delusion, dejection, sleep, greedy hope, fear and laziness. When tamas overpowers the others, the powers of knowing and resolving vanish, one sinks into sleep, and grief, delusion, hiṃsā and craving grow; the rākshasas grow strong, and through tamas beings reach low births down to trees and shrubs. One who serves Śrī Kṛshṇa seeking hiṃsā, such as the destruction of enemies, is tamas-predominant; food painful to the body and impure is tāmasa. The sādhaka conquers rajas and tamas relying on sāttvika things, then conquers sattva itself by acting without desire (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 25). Nārada too says that rajas and tamas are conquered by sattva (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15). As the qualities of the elements and seasons do not touch space, the good and bad of the guṇas do not touch the Paramātmā beyond prakṛti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 28).
Śuka tells Parīkshit that when deceit, untruth, sloth, sleep, violence, sorrow, weeping, delusion, fear and wretchedness arise in a person, that is Kali, with tamas foremost (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 3).
Related terms: Sattva · Rajas · Guṇa · Prakṛti · Avidyā · Moha
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 4–5, 10; Skandha 3, Chapters 6, 10–12, 20, 29; Skandha 5, Chapter 14; Skandha 7, Chapters 1, 3, 9, 15; Skandha 10, Chapters 3, 24; Skandha 11, Chapters 13, 22, 25, 28; Skandha 12, Chapter 3