05/09/2026
Where does our happiness actually come from?
Yoga philosophy describes three qualities of nature and mind, known as the three gunas: tamas, rajas and sattva.
Tamas is associated with heaviness, inertia and dullness. Rajas with activity, desire and constantly seeking. Sattva with clarity, balance and contentment.
We all experience these three qualities in different ways and at different times.
When happiness seems to come from something outside us, from money, position, achievement, relationships, possessions or experiences, there is rajas.
Something happens, I receive something, I achieve something, and then I feel happy.
But in sattva, happiness begins to reveal itself differently.
It doesn’t feel like happiness is coming from somewhere. It begins to arise quietly from within.
This is where meditation becomes so important. As the mind becomes quieter, sometimes we experience a sense of contentment without any particular reason. Nothing has happened. We haven’t gained anything. Nobody has praised us. There is nothing to achieve in that moment.
And still, there is sukha, a quiet happiness within.
When our happiness depends on a vishaya, an object, person or circumstance, we also become dependent on that source. As sattva grows, this dependency slowly begins to loosen.
Maybe this is one of the beautiful shifts that happens through yoga.
We slowly move from searching for things that will make us happy, towards discovering a happiness that was never really outside us in the first place.
सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति
Sattva binds through happiness.
