Srimad Bhagavad Gita: The Threefold Qualities (Chapter 14)

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The previous chapter concluded by stating that the Spirit, which is the vitalising principle, functioning in matter is one and the same. Yet, we observe a plethora of variety in the beings that exist in the universe. The fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, known as the Yoga of the Three Gunas provides an elaborate explanation to this paradoxicalsituation.

The Lord, Sri Kısna attributes this variety to the influence of the three Gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas) within a being. The gunas here indicate an attitude with which the mind functions. This chapter provides us with the capability of detecting within ourselves the most powerful tendencies that rise to the top of our mental life at any given point. Knowledge of this will help the seeker achieve steady progress on the path tosalvation.

We have been told so far that the Spirit, functioning through matter, brings forth the expression of an individual who comes to live his experiences in the world. It is very well-known to all students of science that the world of matter is uniformly the same everywhere. The minerals and the non-minerals, the metals and non-metals, the solids, the liquids and the gases each true to its own properties are the same everywhere. The spiritual teachers of all times have uniformly declared that the vitalising Principle in matter is the Spirit, and this Spirit is universally the same everywhere. It is all-pervading and eternally dynamic. In short, we are told to believe that when the one Truth expresses through a world of matter, which is also homogeneously the same, the varieties that constitute the universe arise, obviously contain in themselves an uncompromising paradox.