It is 7:30 pm, and I find myself starving for dinner. I worked an 8 hour day in my job as a high school teacher and then had 3 hours of yoga class (lecture and asana). My husband is out of town, so I tended to evening chores on our ranch solo, and now I am hungry and eager to sit down and put my feet up for the night. How do I decide what to do for dinner? And how do the 3 categories of motivation factor into it?
Roga {Satisfaction}
One direct translation of "roga" is "disease", but in terms of motivations we can think of roga as "satisfaction". When roga is the driving force behind our decision-making, we are making our choices with the desire to feel satisfied at the front of our minds. An example of a "roga" decision regarding the above dinner time scenario would be eating something convenient though unhealthy simply to satisfy my hunger -- potentially choosing to make a frozen pizza for dinner. We all make decisions based off of this motivation, but it is important to note that these decisions rarely provide true sustenance to us. Rather, they often lead us to brief moments satisfaction followed by the feeling of some sort of emptiness followed then by the desire to fill the void --> ultimately, rogic decisions often lead to a hard-to-escape cycle of, ironically, dissatisfaction.
Bhoga {Entertainment}
The translation of "bhoga" is quite simply "entertainment", which also fits with how we will think of it in regards to motivations. Decisions made in a "bhogic" manner would be for the purpose of entertainment or fun. An example of bhoga as related to the above scenario: having a meal that is "fun" but not necessarily good for one's health -- maybe choosing to eat enjoyable to make which, for me, would be some sort of baked good like brownies or a sweet bread. It is important to keep in mind that bhoga is not a bad thing; it is perfectly fine to do things for fun. The Buddha himself discovered that torturing oneself doesn't heighten the chances at enlightenment. It is good to spend time laughing and trying new things, but issues arises when we are out of balance. If we have been making primarily bhogic decisions, then we've fed ourselves a lot of entertainment, but are sustenance-deficient, which leads us to the last category of influence: yoga.
Yoga {Nourishment}
Although "yoga" has hundreds of translations such as "unity" or "discipline" or "stability", we will focus on the translation of "nourishment" in regards to motivation. When driven by yoga, a person's choices reflect their awareness of and desire for true nourishment. An example of this regarding the situation I've laid out would be for me to that works well for my constitution -- in this case, maybe something like a meal of rice and beans with some sort of protein. It would be choosing foods that aren't necessarily "fun" or "easy", but rather foods that truly nourish. These yogic decisions are made with the larger, evidence-supported picture in mind whereas rogic and bhogic decisions are often made based on personal, ego-driven preferences. Therefore it is yogic motivation that is holistically healthiest for us.
What This Means for Us
Although we will inevitably make decisions based on all 3 motivations, it is important for us to be mindful and reflective about the balance. If we notice ourselves defaulting to one type of motivation, then we can take measures to counterbalance. For example, during particularly busy moments of my life, I make more rogic decisions; if I am feeling especially stagnant or helpless, I'll more likely make bhogic decisions; and if I am feeling inspired and confident in myself I'll most often make yogic decisions. By monitoring our decisions we can begin to see such trends and work towards better balance. Knowing my tendency for roga when busy, I forecast my week and do things like meal prep, pre-schedule workouts, etc if it looks like the week will be chaotic -- things that help me to remain yogic and nourish myself even when it isn't easy.
Another incredibly powerful aspect of observing motivations is that we can begin to see patterns in others and our relationships with others. I had a "friendship" for years that always felt...icky to me. I could never understand why; we had the same hobbies, we had similar upbringings, and neither of us had kids (something I didn't have in common with any of my other friends). One day it suddenly clicked though: our friendship was truly rogic. It was convenient to have a friend who was into hiking and yoga and who was super reliable to plan with as neither of us had families to work around. But when we hung out, I always left feeling, at worst, like it had been some sort of competition or, at best, like it had all been fake small-talk. Identifying the rogic nature of the friendship helped me see that it needed pruned from my life so that I could tend to the nourishing, yogic friendships I had built instead.
Ultimately, expanded awareness only ever helps, and expanding our awareness of these motivations can help us break habits, build habits, or otherwise revise our lives to be as fulfilling as possible.
Journaling Activity for Further Reflection: In your journal, describe 2 decisions you made recently. These can be big life decisions or small things such as when you set your alarm last weekend. Identify which category of motivation was most prominent in the decision making process, and describe what you might have done had you been drive by either of the other 2 motivators.
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