from about around 4 a.m. until noon, and
rajas from approximately noon to 8 p.m.
Those who have cultivated the quality of
goodness will retire from activity and will be
summoned by sleep during the influence
of tamas. They often like to go to bed early
and get up early as well. But those who
have become conditioned by tamas are just
coming to life around 9 p.m. They think of
themselves as “night persons” and are often
active all night until sattva begins to make
its influence felt around 4 a.m. When the
mode of goodness begins to show its influence, these night-owls will want to retire
from activity and go to sleep, while in the
early morning those who have cultivated
goodness are waking-up to begin their
day. Sattva and tamas are actually polar
opposites ~ what is attractive to the sattvic
person is disliked by the tamasic person,
and vice-versa. As these groups of people
continue to behave in their respective ways,
their conditioning and expected responses
become more consistent and predictable.
But all the while, unconscious of these influences, people generally think that they are
acting on their own volition.
What about the people in rajas? Being
driven by activity they often stay up late and
get up early. With too much to do they are
often sleep-deprived, and they take stimulants to keep going. Still, the main influence
of rajas is during middle of the day when
people are moved to action and work. Each
of the gunas has its predominance and
then wanes as another predominates.
According to how we have become conditioned by the gunas we will similarly be