Guṇa
Guṇa · guṇa, “quality, strand”
Rajas has other meanings too: see all meanings of Rajas.
Grammar: masculine noun; guṇa first means a strand or thread, and so a quality, a virtue, a property. Triguṇa is “of the three guṇas”; nirguṇa “without guṇas”; guṇātīta “gone beyond the guṇas”.
Meaning: in the teaching on creation and on moksha, the three guṇas sattva, rajas and tamas, the strands of prakṛti and of the māyā-śakti of Parameśvara. Through them the world is created, sustained and withdrawn, and through identification with them the jīva is bound. In everyday use guṇa also means a quality, as in “the guṇas of Śrī Hari”, or the property of an element, as sound is the guṇa of ākāśa.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa returns to the three guṇas in almost every teaching on creation, bondage and moksha.
Creation, sustenance and pralaya. Nārada tells Vyāsa that Parameśvara creates, sustains and withdraws the world through sattva, rajas and tamas and remains unattached, and asks him to set forth Parameśvara’s līlās for people moved by the guṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 5). Maitreya tells Vidura that by the influence of Kāla movement arose in the māyā-śakti of the three guṇas, presided over by caitanya; the mahat is subject to the cidābhāsa, to the three guṇas that are its material, and to Kāla, which disturbs the guṇas in their balance. The devatās, divided by sattva, rajas and tamas, lacked the power to build the brahmāṇḍa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 5). Śuka tells Parīkshit that the guṇas of māyā create, sustain and withdraw the world only by the saṅkalpa of Parabrahman (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 25). The Yamadūtas tell the Vishṇudūtas that Nārāyaṇa, within his own form, fashions the beings that are products of sattva, rajas and tamas, according to their fitness, with the names and forms of those guṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1). Prahlāda tells the daitya boys that Śrī Hari is present in the three guṇas, in the mahat-tattva born of their imbalance, and in prakṛti, which is their balance (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 6). Nārada tells Śrī Kṛshṇa that by his own māyā-śakti he first created the three guṇas and with them creates, sustains and withdraws the world (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 37). Uddhava tells Nanda that the Paramātmā is beyond the guṇas and unborn, yet takes up sattva, rajas and tamas, plays in this world, and with the guṇas creates, sustains and withdraws it (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 46). Śuka tells that each day Śrī Kṛshṇa meditated on the Ātmā, sat-cit-ānanda-ghana, which is indicated by the māyā-śakti of the three guṇas that cause creation, sustenance and dissolution (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 70). Dattātreya tells Yadu that by his śakti Kāla the Paramātmā brings the three guṇas into equilibrium, and that is pralaya (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 9). In the prākṛta pralaya, Śuka says, the mahat-tattva dissolves into sattva, rajas and tamas, and, moved by time, the guṇas dissolve into the māyā-śakti and come to balance (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 4). Sūta tells the maharshis that Śrī Hari creates, sustains and withdraws the world by rajas, sattva and tamas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 12).
The purusha and the guṇas. Kapila tells Devahūti that the purusha is nirguṇa and not the doer; though he dwells in the body, a product of prakṛti, he is not stained by the puṇya and pāpa, the joy and sorrow, that arise from the guṇas. But when his buddhi is bewildered by ahaṅkāra and he becomes attached to the guṇas, he takes on the sense “I am the doer”. Devahūti asks how the purusha can ever be freed, since the guṇas that bind him are eternal (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 27). Kapila answers that in samādhi the sādhaka is freed from identification with the body, a stream of the guṇas, and sees the undivided ātma-tattva as the ground of all; as one fire seems many through pieces of wood of different lengths, the one ātmā seems many through upādhis with different proportions of the guṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 28). People’s ways of bhakti differ by their svabhāva and their guṇas; the highest, nirguṇa bhakti, frees the sādhaka from saṃsāra, which is made of sattva, rajas and tamas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 29). Devahūti then praises Kapila: of this whole world, a stream of sattva, rajas and tamas, his saguṇa form is the seed, and dividing his śakti by the stream of the guṇas he carries out its creation, sustenance and dissolution (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 33).
The guṇas and bondage. Nārada tells King Prācīnabarhi, in explaining the account of Purañjana, that through sattva in the mind the jīva gains prasannatā, through rajas excitement, and through tamas deep delusion (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 29). Sanatkumāra tells Pṛthu that all beings from the devatās to cattle are born of the guṇas, and Kāla destroys their wishes (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22). Ṛshabhadeva tells his sons to see the activities of the senses, the effects of the three guṇas, as mithyā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5). The Yamadūtas say that because jīvas are attached to the guṇas, one with “I” and “mine” in the body cannot avoid karma; because the mixtures of the guṇas differ, beings show happiness, sorrow and their mixture, and the sixteen-part subtle body is itself a product of the guṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1). Vṛtra tells Indra that the three guṇas belong to māyā, not to the ātmā, and one who knows himself the witness is not bound (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 12). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that his māyā-śakti of three guṇas builds the subtle and gross bodies of the jīva, who through ajñāna identifies with them and is bound. The senses, effects of the guṇas, act, and the ātmā is unattached; yet the jīva enjoys the fruits through identification. As long as the guṇas are in imbalance, that is, as long as there is “I” and “mine” in the body, the ātmā appears many and limited and the jīva is subject to karma (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 10). “Bound” and “freed” are said only because of the upādhi of the guṇas, which arise from māyā and so are not real for him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 11).
The marks of each guṇa. Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches Uddhava that the guṇas are not present in the same way in all beings, and that everything, dwelling, food, knowledge, action, doer and happiness, is of three kinds. Knowledge of the non-dual Ātmā is sāttvika, knowledge of difference rājasa, and knowledge only of food and things of prakṛti tāmasa; steadfastness in Śrī Kṛshṇa is beyond the guṇas. The doer without attachment is sāttvika, the doer for fruit without viveka rājasa, the doer without knowing right and wrong tāmasa; the one who takes refuge in Śrī Kṛshṇa alone is beyond them. Those who die when sattva is strong reach Svarga, when rajas is strong human birth, when tamas is strong naraka; but those beyond the guṇas reach Śrī Kṛshṇa alone. The jīva steadfast in Śrī Kṛshṇa who conquers the guṇas by bhakti-yoga gives up the state of a jīva and merges in him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 25).
Beyond the guṇas. Śrī Kṛshṇa says of Uddhava that he is not shaken by the guṇas within nor by the objects of sound and the rest, and is in no way less than himself (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 4). Ambarīsha, discerning ātmā from non-ātmā, fixed his mind on Vāsudeva and passed beyond the flow of the three guṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 5). Mucukunda told Śrī Kṛshṇa that he gave up wholly the worldly desires mixed with the three guṇas and took refuge in him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 51). Mārkaṇḍeya praised Bhagavān Śiva as nirguṇa: through the upādhi of sattva he is peaceful, of rajas not cruel, of tamas not deluded; to him namaskāra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 10).
Related terms: Sattva · Rajas · Tamas · Prakṛti · Māyā · Nirguṇa · Guṇātīta
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 5; Skandha 3, Chapters 4–5, 27–29, 33; Skandha 4, Chapters 22, 29; Skandha 5, Chapters 5, 25; Skandha 6, Chapters 1, 12; Skandha 7, Chapter 6; Skandha 9, Chapter 5; Skandha 10, Chapters 37, 46, 51, 70; Skandha 11, Chapters 9–11, 25; Skandha 12, Chapters 4, 10, 12