A Psychometric Analysis of the Three Gunas- Psychological Reports.rtf

Vedic literature contains knowledge about all fields of human endeavor, from physics and psychology to medicine, art and aeronautics (Goswami, 1977). Empirical validation of the Vedas could therefore open storehouses of knowledge in many areas. According to the Vedas, all material elements are infused with the modes of nature, or gunas-sattva, rajas and tamas. Dasgupta (1961) describes the gunas as " the universal characteristics of all kinds of mental tendencies " (p. 468). Broad based confirmation of the Vedic psychological model would reasonably be grounded on a study of the gunas, as this idea underlies the Vedic conception of nature. From the perspective of the Vedas, our psycho-physical disposition consists of mixtures of the gunas (Prabhupada, 1976). This article describes development of the Vedic Personality Inventory (VPI), an instrument that assesses the validity of the three guna constructs. have devised and utilized similar inventories, with inter-guna correlations that indicate differentiation of the three modes. Since the primary purpose of the present study is to examine the validity of Vedic constructs, it incorporates more extensive statistical analyses towards this end than other research on the gunas. Also, the items of this inventory are derived from a Vaisnava, or personalist, understanding of Vedic philosophy. According to this view, the material personality manifested through the gunas is a covering of the original spiritual personality of the living entity.