What is Guna?

Guru (Heavy):

Increases Kapha and decreases Vata and Pitta. Guru promotes growth in the body. Meat, cheese, yogurt, and sugar are heavy. Eating heavy foods can lead to weight gain. Sleep is also heavy, and sleeping for 10 hours can make a person feel heavy all day. Eating and not doing much physical activity are heavy. To a degree, we need the heavy quality for nourishment, grounding, centering, and stability. However, too much of this quality slows down digestion and metabolism and creates dullness.

Laghu (Light):

Increases Vata and Pitta and decreases Kapha. Laghu is the opposite of heavy. This quality makes the body alert and attentive. However, too much of this quality creates emptiness, groundlessness, and instability. It creates insecurity, fear, and anxiety.

Manda (Slow/Boring):

Increases Kapha and decreases Vata and Pitta. Manda creates calmness and quietness, as well as lethargy, slow movement, relaxation, and dullness. Rich and fatty foods cause this quality.

Tikshna (Sharp):

Increases Vāta and Pitta and decreases Kapha. Tikshna is the opposite of Manda. The sharp qualities are present in chili peppers and other spices. The fire is hot and sharp. This quality enhances learning, concentration, understanding, appreciation, and comprehension. Excessive amounts can cause ulcers.

Shīta (Cold):

Increases Vāta and Kapha and decreases Pitta. Shīta creates coldness, numbness, unconsciousness, convulsions, stagnation, fear, and insensitivity in the body. Cold increases Kapha by promoting mucus buildup. The cold quality cools Pitta, slows digestion, and reduces immunity. Exposure to cold air reduces the throat’s natural resistance and can cause a sore throat if your internal fire or agni isn’t strong enough to provide protection.

Ushna (Hot):

Increases Pitta and decreases Vāta and Kapha. Ushna is the opposite of cold. The hot quality stimulates the fire of the stomach, improving circulation, digestion, absorption, and assimilation. It liquefies Kapha like fire melts wax and calms Vāta because Vāta is cold. The hot quality promotes cleansing. If you eat hot curry, your sinuses will start working because heat liquefies Kapha and removes it from the system. Green peppers and chili peppers are spicy. Heat causes Pitta to increase, and since Pitta is hot, it can make a person irritable.

Snigdha (Oily):

Increases Pitta and Kapha and decreases Vāta. Snigdha brings relaxation. It creates smoothness, moisture, lubrication, and vitality. It promotes compassion. Love is oily, liquid, and nourishing because it possesses the quality of snigdha.

Rūksha (Dry):

Increases Vāta and decreases Pitta and Kapha. Rūksha is the opposite of Snigdha. It causes dehydration and leads to constipation by making stool hard and dry. Rūksha invigorates fire, because fire is dry. This quality causes suffocation, constriction, spasms, and pain. Dry air causes the Vāta under the skin to intensify, leading to dry, rough, and cracked skin. Fear, nervousness, and loneliness are dry. Rūksha creates isolation, separation, and rejection. When a person is alone, the dry quality intensifies.

Shlakshna (Smooth/Mucous):

Increases Pitta and Kapha and decreases Vāta. Cheese and fats increase Pitta, while avocados and ghee increase Kapha. This quality lubricates the body and makes it supple. Shlakshna prevents osteoporosis and arthritic changes.

Khāra (Rough):

Increases Vāta and decreases Pitta and Kapha. Khāra is the opposite of smooth. Khāra increases dryness, malabsorption, and constipation. All raw vegetables are rough and provoke Vāta. The rough quality is also present in chickpeas, adzuki beans, black beans, and kidney beans. Even after cooking, they remain rough, astringent, produce gas, and increase Vāta.

Sandra (Dense):

Increases Kapha and decreases Vāta and Pitta. Meat and cheese are dense. Sandra increases the compactness of the body and makes a person more grounded. When Vāta is elevated, this person may crave meat, which gives a sense of stability. Sandra promotes firmness, density, and strength. The hardness and firmness of healthy muscle tissue is Kapha. Overall, Kapha increases with dense quality.

Drava (Liquid, Fluid):

Increases Pitta and Kapha and decreases Vāta. Sandra means dense, highly concentrated, and drava means unconcentrated, diluted. For example, water is drava, liquid, diluted. But if you keep adding salt to water, you reach a stage where the salt stops dissolving. This salty water is highly concentrated and dense. Kapha has dense, liquid, and salty qualities. Drava dissolves and becomes liquid. The liquid quality promotes salivation, compassion, and stickiness. Excessive water intake causes water retention and increases Kapha.

Mrudu (Soft):

Increases Pitta and Kapha and decreases Vāta. Mrudu creates softness, gentleness, relaxation, sensitivity, love, and care. It stimulates mucus in the system and increases Kapha. The soft quality calms Vāta because Vāta is rough. Love is soft, while anger is hot, sharp, and penetrating; fear is dry and hard.

Kathina (Hard):

Increases Vāta and decreases Pitta. (Regarding illness) 

In later stages, for example when a tumor forms, it also increases Kapha. The opposite of Mrudu is Kathina. Kathina increases rigidity, strength, hardness, selfishness, insensitivity, and insensitivity in the mind. It causes pneumonia; the lungs harden. Calluses on the hands or feet are Kathina.

Sthira (Static, Stationary):

Increases Kapha and decreases Vāta and Pitta. Sthira promotes stability and support. Sitting quietly triggers the static quality; it provides stability and healing.

Chala (Mobile):

Increases Vāta and Pitta and decreases Kapha. Chala is the opposite of Sthira. Chala promotes movement, trembling, and restlessness. Our thoughts, feelings, and emotions are mobile. Insecurity comes from the mobile quality. While the mobile quality increases Vāta in the system, the static quality brings grounding. Jogging, jumping, and physical activity are examples of chala.

Sūkshma (Fine):

Increases Vāta and Pitta and decreases Kapha. Many medicines and herbs are Sūkshma, meaning they are fine. For example, marijuana increases Vāta and Pitta. Alcohol and aspirin are also mild and particularly increase Pitta.

Sthūla (Coarse):

Increases Kapha and decreases Vāta and Pitta. Sthūla causes obstruction and obesity. Meat and cheese are coarse and increase Kapha. Sthūla is the opposite of Sūkshma.

Vishada (Clear):

Increases Vāta and Pitta and decreases Kapha. Vishada calms but creates isolation and distraction. Vishada is the opposite of Avila. Too much cleansing, such as excessive enemas or laxatives, can bring out an excess of the clear quality. Too much cleansing increases Vāta and Pitta.

Picchila (Sticky):

Increases Kapha and decreases Vāta and Pitta. Picchila causes coherence in body and mind. Excessive amounts can lead to attachment, a sign of high Kapha. This guna is sometimes called āvila (cloudy). The cloudy quality increases Kapha and decreases Vāta and Pitta. āvila causes both a lack of clarity and perception. All dairy products are āvila and increase Kapha.