Lord Krishna
Divine TeacherThe Supreme Lord, the charioteer and divine guide of Arjuna. Krishna delivers the eternal wisdom of the Gita, revealing the nature of the soul, duty, and the path to liberation.
Speaking: Chapter 14, Verse 17
Verse 17
The Yoga of the Three Gunas
From sattva, knowledge arises; from rajas, greed; from tamas come negligence and delusion, and ignorance as well.
Context & Meaning
The direct psychological offspring of each guṇa: sattva generates jñāna (knowledge, understanding, wisdom); rajas generates lobha (greed, the compulsive hunger for more); tamas generates pramāda (negligence), moha (delusion), and ajñāna (ignorance). This gives a diagnostic tool of great power: look at what is arising in the mind — clarity or craving or confusion — and you can identify which guṇa is currently dominant. And knowing which guṇa dominates, you know what to do: strengthen sattva, restrain rajas, dispel tamas.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainMadhvacharya
DvaitaThe precision of this teaching is remarkable. Three guṇas produce three primary psychological states: wisdom, greed, and delusion. These three states encompass the entire range of ordinary human motivation. The entire psychology of spiritual practice can be reduced to: cultivate what produces jñāna, recognise and reduce what produces lobha, and actively counter what produces moha.