The Bhagavad Gita

by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

The three gunas, born of Nature— sattva, rajas, and tamas— bind to the mortal body the deathless embodied Self. Of these three, sattva, untainted, luminous, free from sorrow, binds by means of attachment to knowledge and joy, Arjuna. Rajas is marked by passion born of craving and attachment; it binds the embodied Self to never-ending activity. Tamas, ignorance-born, deludes all embodied beings; it binds them, Arjuna, by means of dullness, indolence, and sleep. [14.9–13] Sattva causes attachment to joy, rajas to action, and tamas, obscuring knowledge, attaches beings to dullness. Sattva prevails when it masters rajas and tamas both; rajas or tamas prevails when it masters the other two. When the light of knowledge shines forth through all the gates of the body, then it is apparent that sattva is the ruling trait. Greed and constant activity, excessive projects, cravings, restlessness: these arise when rajas is the ruling trait. Darkness, dullness, stagnation, indolence, confusion, torpor, inertia: these appear when tamas is the ruling trait.