---
type: Concept
bundle: ayurveda-consciousness
bundle_version: 0.11.0
id: prana-tejas-ojas
title: Prāṇa-Tejas-Ojas
iast: Prāṇa-Tejas-Ojas
devanagari: प्राण-तेजस्-ओजस्
description: 'The vitality triad: prāṇa the animating vital current, tejas the metabolic and perceptual brilliance, ojas the sustaining essence, taught as the refined counterparts of vāta, pitta, and kapha; NOT subtle energy in the New Age sense, NOT the yogic prāṇa treatment of dharma-foundation v0.1, NOT three supplements.'
darshana:
- Āyurveda
text_source: Charaka Sūtrasthāna 30
tags:
- prana
- tejas
- ojas
- vitality
- ayurveda
not:
- term: 'subtle energy in the New Age sense'
  why: 'Aura-and-vibration language detaches the triad from its physiological base. Each member is anchored in the classical system: prāṇa in the vāyu physiology and the ten seats of life, tejas in the fire of transformation, ojas in the essence of the dhātu sequence.'
  instead: 'Render the triad as the refined expressions of the three doṣas, vitality stated at its subtlest level, and keep the Sanskrit terms.'
- term: 'the yogic prāṇa of dharma-foundation v0.1'
  why: 'Cross-bundle boundary. The foundation bundle treats prāṇa in the yogic frame of breath discipline and the vital sheath. Here prāṇa is medical: the lead vāyu governing intake and the vital functions a physician protects first.'
- term: 'three supplements'
  why: 'Wellness marketing sells the triad as stackable products. Classically these are states of a well-run organism, cultivated by digestion, conduct, and discipline, not ingested.'
related:
- /concepts/vata.md
- /concepts/pitta.md
- /concepts/kapha.md
- /concepts/ojas.md
- /concepts/ayus.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Prāṇa-Tejas-Ojas -- प्राण-तेजस्-ओजस्

**Not:** subtle energy, the yogic prāṇa of dharma-foundation v0.1, three supplements

## What It Actually Means

The triad states the doṣa system at its refined pole. Prāṇa is the vital current that animates: the master vāyu whose ten seats Charaka lists and whose failure is the first emergency of medicine. Tejas is the brilliance of transformation: metabolic fire showing up as perceptual clarity, courage, and radiance. Ojas is the sustaining essence: the reserve that lets body and mind hold their form under stress. Where vāta, pitta, and kapha describe everyday regulation that can vitiate, the triad names the same three functions in their most refined, health-constituting expression. It is the vocabulary Āyurveda uses when the question is not which doṣa is deranged but how much life the person has to work with.

## Textual Basis Note

Prāṇa and ojas are thoroughly classical: Charaka names the ten seats of prāṇa (Sūtrasthāna 29) and treats ojas at Sūtrasthāna 30; Suśruta gives para and apara ojas. Tejas as a named third member is textually thinner, rooted in the fire vocabulary rather than in a fixed triadic doctrine. The triad AS A SYSTEM, presented as the subtle counterparts of the three doṣas, is a later systematization made standard by modern teaching lineages. The bundle records the triad because contemporary discourse uses it constantly, and records honestly where the classical anchors are firm and where they are reconstructive.

## Audience Metaphor

A lamp needs a current of air, a burning flame, and oil in the reservoir. Prāṇa is the draft, tejas the flame, ojas the oil: cut the air and the lamp dies now, run the flame too high and it gutters, exhaust the oil and nothing anyone does with air or flame will keep it lit.

## Citations

1. Charaka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 29 on the ten seats of prāṇa -- see [references/charaka-samhita.md](../references/charaka-samhita.md)
2. Charaka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 30 on ojas as the essence sustaining life -- see [references/charaka-samhita.md](../references/charaka-samhita.md)
3. Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 15 on para and apara ojas -- see [references/sushruta-samhita.md](../references/sushruta-samhita.md)
