Philosophy
The three gunas of nature
The three gunas are sattva, rajas and tamas, the qualities that Samkhya philosophy says make up all of nature. Sattva is clarity and lightness, rajas is activity and desire, and tamas is heaviness and inertia. The idea is central to the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, and it still shapes how teachers describe a practice.
The three gunas are sattva, rajas and tamas, the qualities that make up all of nature in Samkhya philosophy. Sattva is clarity and lightness, rajas is activity and desire, and tamas is heaviness and inertia.
Every thing, every action and every state of mind is said to be a mix of the three, with one usually stronger than the others.
What does each guna describe?
| Guna | Core sense | In the mind |
|---|---|---|
| Sattva | Light, clarity, balance | Calm, clear understanding |
| Rajas | Movement, energy, passion | Restlessness, wanting, drive |
| Tamas | Heaviness, inertia, covering | Dullness, confusion, sleep |
The Samkhya Karika, a short verse text by Ishvarakrishna usually placed around the fourth or fifth century CE, describes sattva as light and illuminating, rajas as stimulating and moving, and tamas as heavy and obstructing. It compares their working together to a lamp, which commentators explain as oil, wick and flame combining to give light.
Where does the idea of the gunas come from?
The gunas belong to Samkhya, one of the oldest schools of Indian philosophy. Samkhya divides reality into purusha, pure awareness, and prakriti, nature or matter. Prakriti is made of the three gunas. While they rest in balance, nothing unfolds. When the balance is disturbed, the world of mind and matter evolves out of it.
Hints of the idea appear in the Upanishads, and the later Maitri Upanishad names the three gunas outright. Samkhya then gave them their classic form.
What does the Bhagavad Gita say about the gunas?
The Gita gives the gunas a whole chapter, chapter 14. It says that sattva binds through attachment to happiness and knowledge, rajas through attachment to action, and tamas through heedlessness. All three bind. The ideal it describes is the gunatita, the person who has gone beyond the gunas and is not shaken by them.
Chapters 17 and 18 apply the scheme to everyday life, sorting faith, food, gifts and kinds of action into sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. The page on the Bhagavad Gita and yoga covers the wider text.
How do the Yoga Sutras and Ayurveda use them?
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras take over the Samkhya picture. Sutra 2.18 describes the seen world as illumination, activity and inertia, and the final chapter describes liberation as the gunas returning to their source.
Ayurveda borrows the scheme for the mind. The Charaka Samhita describes sattva as the quality of a clear mind and names rajas and tamas as the faults of the mind, beside the bodily doshas, vata, pitta and kapha.
In Vedanta, the gunas are tied to maya, the power that makes the world appear, which is described as made of the three gunas.
Do Buddhist and Jain traditions use the gunas?
Not in this sense. Buddhist analysis of mind uses its own categories and does not adopt the Samkhya gunas. In Jain philosophy the word guna has a different technical meaning: the lasting qualities of a substance, set beside its changing modes.
How do the gunas show up in a modern yoga class?
As a way of describing the feel of a practice. A teacher may call a quiet, steady class sattvic, a fast and fiery one rajasic, or warn against the tamasic slump at the end of a long day. Some explain the three straight fingers of gyan mudra as the three gunas, a modern teaching image.
The idea is useful as a mirror. Notice whether your mind feels clear, restless or heavy when you arrive on the mat, and let that guide how you practise.
Questions
Is one guna good and the others bad?
Not quite. Sattva is usually valued most, because it is linked with clarity, but all three are part of nature, and every thing and every mind is a mix of them. The Bhagavad Gita goes further and says the free person stands beyond all three, including sattva.
What does guna literally mean?
Guna means a strand or a thread, like the strands twisted together in a rope. From that it came to mean a quality or attribute. The image fits the theory well: the three gunas are pictured as three strands woven through everything in nature.
Which chapter of the Gita is about the gunas?
Chapter 14 is devoted to them and is traditionally titled the yoga of the division of the three gunas. Chapters 17 and 18 then apply the same threefold scheme to faith, food, sacrifice, gifts, knowledge, action and the person who acts.
Do the Yoga Sutras mention the gunas?
Yes, several times. Sutra 2.18 describes the seen world as having the nature of illumination, activity and inertia, which are the three gunas, and the final sutras describe liberation as the gunas returning to their source once they no longer serve the seer.