sattva

American  

[suht-vuh] / ˈsʌt və /

noun

Hinduism.

1. (in Sankhya and Vedantic philosophy) goodness or purity, one of the three fundamental qualities of matter said to be present in everything at varying levels.

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Etymology

Origin of sattva

First recorded in 1780–90; from Sanskrit: “entity, essence, reality,” from sát “being, existing, living” ( see also sooth ( def. )) + -tva, abstract noun suffix ( see also -tude ( def. ))

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sattva

The individual aha@mkâras and senses are related to the individual buddhis by the developing sattva determinations from which they had come into being.

From A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 by Surendranath Dasgupta

Now those effects can be connected with their causes only in so far as the internal organ of a person possessing sattva and so on undergoes modifications.

From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja — Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 by George Thibaut

Thus Îs'vara is believed to possess a mind of pure sattva alone.

From A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 by Surendranath Dasgupta

When the sattva is at its height this conglomeration ceases.

From A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 by Surendranath Dasgupta

They are sattva, explained as goodness and happiness; rajas, as passion and movement; and tamas, as darkness, heaviness and ignorance.

From Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2 by Sir Charles Eliot

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