Guṇa
Guṇa (गुण) — Thread, quality, strand. In Sāṃkhya and Yoga philosophy, the three guṇas are the constitutive qualities of Prakṛti (nature): Sattva (clarity, purity, lightness), Rajas (energy, passion, agitation), and Tamas (inertia, heaviness, obscuration). Everything in the material world — matter, the senses, the mind, the intellect, even the ego — is a blend of these three in varying proportions. The Bhagavad Gita devotes an entire chapter (14) to their characteristics and effects, and teaches that the spiritual aspirant should cultivate sattva, then transcend all three guṇas toward the guṇātīta state.
In Brief
- Thread, quality, strand. In Sāṃkhya and Yoga philosophy, the three guṇas are the constitutive qualities of Prakṛti (nature): Sattva (clarity, purity, lightness), Rajas (energy, passion, agitation), and Tamas (inertia, heaviness, obscuration). Everything in the material world — matter, the senses, the mind, the intellect, even the ego — is a blend of these three in varying proportions. The Bhagavad Gita devotes an entire chapter (14) to their characteristics and effects, and teaches that the spiritual aspirant should cultivate sattva, then transcend all three guṇas toward the guṇātīta state.
Thread, quality, strand. In Sāṃkhya and Yoga philosophy, the three guṇas are the constitutive qualities of Prakṛti (nature): Sattva (clarity, purity, lightness), Rajas (energy, passion, agitation), and Tamas (inertia, heaviness, obscuration). Everything in the material world — matter, the senses, the mind, the intellect, even the ego — is a blend of these three in varying proportions. The Bhagavad Gita devotes an entire chapter (14) to their characteristics and effects, and teaches that the spiritual aspirant should cultivate sattva, then transcend all three guṇas toward the guṇātīta state.