THE THREE GUNAS
This is derived from Bhagavad-gītā As It Is Chapters 14, 17 and 18 and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam,
Canto 3, Chapter 29 and Canto 11, Chapter 25. (Both books © Bhaktivedanta Book Trust)
Sattva-Guṇa Raja-Guṇa Tama-Guṇa
Goodness Passion Ignorance
• Ignorance
• Frees one from sinful reactions. • Delusion
• Mind and sense control • Unlimited desires and longings • Darkness
• Gates illumined • Great attachment • Madness
• Sticking to one’s prescribed duty • Fruitive activity • Inertia
• Discrimination • Intense endeavor • Illusion
• Tolerance • Uncontrollable desire • Intolerant anger
• Truthfulness • Audacity • Stinginess
• Mercy • Dissatisfaction even in gain • Speaking without
• Careful study of the past & • False pride scriptural authority
future • Praying for material advancement • Violent hatred
• Satisfaction in any condition • Considering oneself different and • Living as a parasite
Symptoms
• Generosity better than others • Hypocrisy
• Renunciation of sense • Sense gratification • Chronic fatigue
gratification • Rash eagerness to fight • Quarrel
• Faith in the spiritual master • Fondness for hearing oneself • Lamentation
• Being embarrassed at improper praised • Delusion
action • The tendency to ridicule others • Unhappiness
• Charity • Advertising one’s own prowess • Depression
• Simplicity • Justifying one’s actions by one’s • Sleeping too much
• Humbleness strength • False expectations
• Satisfaction within oneself • Lust • Fear
• Self-control • Laziness
• Anger
• Madness
Condi- • Binds due to feeling of
• To material, fruitive activities • Indolence
tioning happiness and knowledge
• Sleep
• Birth amongst those engaged
• Higher planets of great sages • Animal kingdom
Destination in fruitive activities (humans)
• Higher Planets • Lower planets (hell)
• Earthly planets
• In loving devotion
• With desire to commit
• Without material attachment
Devotional violence to others
• Worships the Supreme • For material advancement
service & • Executed by a person
Personality of Godhead and offers • With a motive for material
worship who is envious, proud,
the results of his activities in order enjoyment, fame and opulence
of Kṛṣṇa violent and angry, and
to free himself from the inebrieties
who is a separatist.
of fruitive activities
• Deep sleep with no
Sleep • Alert wakefulness • Dreaming
dreams
Faith • Directed towards spiritual life • Rooted in fruitive works • In irreligious activities
O mighty-armed Arjuna, according to the Vedānta there are five causes for the accomplishment of all action. Now learn of
these from Me. The place of action [the body], the performer, the various senses, the many different kinds of endeavor,
and ultimately the Supersoul—these are the five factors of action. Whatever right or wrong action a man performs by body,
mind or speech is caused by these five factors. Therefore one who thinks himself the only doer, not considering the five
factors, is certainly not very intelligent and cannot see things as they are. One who is not motivated by false ego, whose
intelligence is not entangled, though he kills men in this world, does not kill, nor is he bound by his actions.
Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower are the three factors that motivate action; the senses, the work and
the doer are the three constituents of action. According to the three different modes of material nature, there are three
kinds of knowledge, action and performer of action. Now hear of them from Me. (Bg. 18.13-19)
Sattva-Guṇa Raja-Guṇa Tama-Guṇa
Goodness Passion Ignorance
• Performed in illusion
• Without regard for
• Regulated scriptural injunctions
• Performed without attachment • Without concern for
• Performed without love or • Seeking to gratify senses future bondage
hatred • From false ego • Impelled by envy
• Without desire for fruitive • Attached to work and fruits of • Causes violence or distress
results work • Engaged in works against
Action
• Without association of the • Greedy the injunctions of scripture
modes • Envious • Materialistic
of nature • Impure • Obstinate
• Without false ego • Moved by joy and sorrow • Cheating
• With great determination • Expert in insulting others
and enthusiasm • Lazy
• Always morose
• Procrastination
• Foolishness
• Madness
• Misery
• Illusion
• Pious activity • Greed
• Excessive sleep
Result • Real Knowledge • Attachment
• Indulging in false
of action • Happiness • Separatism
hopes
• Virtue • Activity
• Lamentation
• Desire for prestige and fortune
• Violence towards
others
When
• Lamentation
victorious • Happiness • Begin to work hard to acquire
• Illusion
over other • Virtue prestige and fortune
• Excessive sleep
modes • Knowledge • Anxiety
• False hopes
(SB 11.25. • Other good qualities • Struggle
• Violence toward others
13-15)
Faith -
• Demigods • Demons • Ghosts/ Spirits
Worship
• Bitter
• Gives strength • Sour
• Prepared more than three
• Purify one’s existence • Salty
hours before being eaten
• Give health • Hot
• Tasteless
• Give happiness • Pungent
• Decomposed
• Give satisfaction • Dry
Food • Putrid
• Juicy • Burning
• Remnants
• Fatty • Cause distress
• Untouchable things
• Wholesome • Cause misery
• Unclean
• Pleasing to the heart • Cause disease
• Causes distress
• Easily obtained • Gives immediate
pleasure to the senses
• Without regard for directions of
• As a matter of duty
• For material benefit scripture, distribution of prasada,
Sacrifice • Under direction of scripture
• For sake of pride chanting Vedic hymns, or
• Those who desire no reward
remuneration’s to priests
Austerity of the body consists in worship of the Supreme Lord, the brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master, and superiors like the
father and mother, and in cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy and nonviolence. Austerity of speech consists in speaking words
that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature. And
satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind. (Bg. 17-14-
16)
• With transcendental faith • For the sake of gaining
• Performed out of foolishness
• Not expecting benefits respect, honor and worship
Austerity • With self torture
• Only for the sake of the • It is neither stable nor
• To destroy others
Supreme permanent
Sattva-Guṇa Raja-Guṇa Tama-Guṇa
Goodness Passion Ignorance
• In impure place
• Given out of duty without
• With expectation of return • At improper time
expectation of return
Charity • With desire for fruitive results • To unworthy person
• At the proper time and place
• In a grudging mood • Without proper
• To a worthy person
attention and respect
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The giving up of activities that are based on material desire is what great learned
men call the renounced order of life [sannyāsa ]. And giving up the results of all activities is what the wise call renunciation
[tyāga]. Some learned men declare that all kinds of fruitive activities should be given up as faulty, yet other sages maintain
that acts of sacrifice, charity and penance should never be abandoned. O best of the Bhāratas, now hear My judgment
about renunciation. O tiger among men, renunciation is declared in the scriptures to be of three kinds. Acts of sacrifice,
charity and penance are not to be given up; they must be performed. Indeed, sacrifice, charity and penance purify even the
great souls. All these activities should be performed without attachment or any expectation of result. They should be
performed as a matter of duty, O son of Pṛthā. That is My final opinion. Prescribed duties should never be renounced. (Bg.
18.2-6)
Perfor- • Performs duty because • Given up because they are
mance of ought to be done troublesome
• Given up out of illusion
prescribed • Renounces mat. association • Given up out of fear of
duties and attachment to the fruit bodily discomfort
Residence • Forest • Town • Gambling house
• Sees everything as same spirit- • Attached to one kind
• Sees different soul in every body
Knowledge soul of work as all in all
• Based on duality
• Absolute • Materialistic
• Knows what is to be done • Considers irreligion to be
• Cannot distinguish between
and not done religion and vice versa
Under- religion and irreligion
• What is to be feared • Under spell of illusion
standing • Does not know what should be
and not feared and darkness
done and should not be done
• What is binding and liberating • Always in wrong direction
• Cannot go beyond dreaming,
• Holds fast to fruitive results in
Deter- • Unbreakable, steadfast lamentation, moroseness,
economic development, religion
mination • Controls mind, life and senses illusion, and fearfulness
and sense gratification
• Blind to self-realization
• Poison in the beginning but • Derived from senses and their • Delusion from
happiness in the end objects beginning to end
Happiness
• Awakens one to self-realization • Nectar in the beginning • Arises from sleep,
• Derived from self but poison in the end laziness and illusion
• Unsteady perplexity of mind
• Clear • Distortion of intelligence • Lack of higher awareness
• Fearless because of too much activity • Mind is ruined
Conscious-
• Senses are detached • Inability to disentangle the • Ignorance
ness
from matter senses from material objects • Depression
• Detachment from material mind • Unhealthy working of physical • Illusion
organs
