Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Guna

गुण · guṇa

quality; one of the three strands of nature

Literally 'strand', as of a rope. Nature is woven of three: sattva (clarity), rajas (passion) and tamas (inertia). Everything in body and mind is a mixture of them, and they are always shifting. It is the gunas that act, Krishna says; the self only imagines 'I am the doer'. Freedom lies in standing apart from all three.

Appears in

Bhagavad Gita 3.27 · Bhagavad Gita 7.14 · Bhagavad Gita 14.5 · Bhagavad Gita 14.20