Tejas: Your Inner Radiance

Today I’d like to introduce the topic of tejas.

We’ve spoken before about the three doshas. There’s also a subtle essence related to each dosha.

Tejas is the subtle form of pitta dosha. It is the flame of cellular intelligence and creates our inner radiance. Tejas is responsible for the digestion of all our experiences, as well as the ability to digest food. It governs the development of higher perception and allows us to understand and judge correctly. When tejas is strong, our mind is stable and strong, with courage, discernment and determination.  When tejas is weak, we may be gullible, overly impressionable, lack purpose, courage, clear goals, or be mentally dull or passive

At this time of year, as the nights lengthen and the days draw in, maintaining healthy tejas can be a challenge. If we allow the increase of external darkness to dull our inner radiance, we may find ourselves getting moody and irritable. We might become sluggish and oversleep. And in the worst case, we may develop seasonal affective disorder.

 Here are some tips to sustain tejas during this time of year:

• Get 20 minutes daylight out of doors

• Do sun salutations (out of doors is best)

• Burn a ghee lamp while meditating

• Keep up a daily meditation practice

• Chant mantras, especially Gayatri mantra

•   Focus on creating a spiritual life

• Practice awareness in thought, words and action

• Avoid gossip, excessive talking, negative talk

Aside from the effects of the fall season on our tejas, we should also consider that negative thinking can affect tejas. This means that social media could drain your tejas by feeding you a diet of indignation and misinformation. Support your tejas by using social media judiciously, following people who inspire and uplift, have expertise in their field or who see the world in terms of kindness and compassion.

Next week, we’ll talk about ojas, the subtle form of kapha.

Alakananda Ma M.B., B.S. (Lond.) is an Ayurvedic Doctor (NAMA) and graduate of a top London medical school. She is co-founder of Alandi Ayurveda Clinic and Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in Boulder Colorado, as well as a spiritual mother, teacher, flower essence maker and storyteller. Alakananda is a well known and highly respected practitioner in the Ayurveda community both nationally and internationally. 

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