रजस्

Rajas (रजस्) is one of the three modes of nature taught in the Gita, and it is also called rajoguṇa. It ordinarily means movement, restlessness, the urge to get and to do. A mind in which rajas is strong finds it hard to sit still; it keeps wanting something.

The most direct occurrence of rajas for this topic is verse 3.37. There Lord Krishna says that desire and anger are born of rajas. This does not mean that they are the vice of some particular kind of person. They are a tendency rising from a mode, and so can rise in everyone in different degrees. Seeing this lessens shame and increases recognition.

Two things are worth remembering when you meet this word. First, the Gita teaches three modes and treats them fully in later chapters; here only the side that connects with 3.37 is in view. Second, activity is not in itself a fault; the question is in which direction and with how much bondage the movement goes.

Common misreading: taking rajas to mean only anger or badness.

Better sense: a tendency to movement and restlessness, from which wishes, and then anger, can rise.

To read more, see the topic "The Enemy Called Desire".