[ SANSKRIT TERM ]
गुण· guna
The three qualities every action, mind, and moment is made of.
MEANING
Guna means "quality" or "strand." The Gita teaches that all of nature (prakriti) is woven from three gunas: sattva (clarity, light, intelligence), rajas (activity, passion, restlessness), and tamas (inertia, darkness, ignorance). Every action you take, every food you eat, every mood you're in is a mix of these three. The Gita's practical teaching: you can't escape the gunas while embodied, but you CAN tune which guna dominates. Sattva is the doorway to higher states; rajas is the engine of getting things done; tamas is the gravity that needs to be acknowledged but not fed.