---
type: Concept
bundle: sankhya-darshana
bundle_version: 0.13.0
id: rajas
title: Rajas
iast: Rajas
devanagari: रजस्
description: The guna of activity, motion, and restlessness -- the constituent responsible for change and effort in prakriti, paired here with sattva; tamas is treated within guna-samkhya's body rather than as a fourth standalone file, keeping this tier tight per the concept-lock's distinctiveness discipline.
darshana:
- Samkhya
tags:
- rajas
- guna
- samkhya
- activity
not:
- term: '''passion'' in a purely emotional or romantic sense'
  why: Rajas is sometimes glossed loosely as 'passion,' but it names the activating, motion-producing constituent of prakriti itself -- the reason anything moves, changes, or exerts effort at all, not a specifically romantic or emotional state.
related:
- /concepts/guna-samkhya.md
- /concepts/sattva.md
timestamp: '2026-07-10'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Rajas -- रजस्

**Not:** 'passion' in a purely emotional or romantic sense

## What It Actually Means

Rajas is the guṇa of activity and motion: it is what makes prakṛti's equilibrium unstable enough to evolve at all, and what drives ongoing change, effort, and restlessness at every level from cosmic manifestation down to an individual's agitation of mind. Rajas is neither good nor bad in itself -- without it nothing would move, including the very process that eventually leads toward viveka-khyāti -- but an excess of rajas relative to sattva produces distraction and turbulence rather than clarity.

## Audience Metaphor

Rajas is the engine's throttle: necessary for any motion at all, but if it dominates every other system in the vehicle, the ride becomes a straight line of noise rather than a controlled, purposeful drive.

## Citations

1. Samkhya-Karika 12-13 -- see [references/samkhya-karika.md](../references/samkhya-karika.md)
2. Tamas (inertia, restraint) is treated within this concept's sibling file guna-samkhya.md rather than as a standalone fourth file, per the v0.13 concept-lock's tight-scope discipline
