The Three Strands (Guṇas: Sattva, Rajas, Tamas)
Clarity, drive, and inertia — three strands woven through everything that changes.
The three guṇas are the basic 'strands' or qualities woven through all of nature: sattva (clarity, balance, light), rajas (energy, drive, restlessness), and tamas (heaviness, inertia, darkness). Every thing and every state of mind is a particular blend of the three, and their constant shifting is what produces change. This Sāṃkhya analysis became common currency far beyond its home school, shaping how the Gītā and much of Hindu thought describe character and the world.
How it traveled
- VivekacūḍāmaṇiŚṛṅgeri (Sringeri) · 1400explains
Key passages(19)
Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas,—these Gunas, O mighty-armed, born of Prakriti, bind fast in the body the indestructible embodied one.
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
But he who is endowed with qualities, and performs works that are to bear fruit, and enjoys the reward of whatever he has done, migrates through his own works, the lord of life, assuming all forms, le
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'He made each of these tripartite; and how these three beings become each of them tripartite, that learn from me now, my friend!
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As rain-water that has fallen on a mountain-ridge runs down the rocks on all sides, thus does he, who sees a difference between qualities, run after them on all sides.
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