Guna

(“quality”) A fundamental concept that
originated in the Samkhya philosophical school, but has become one of the
key ideas in the Hindu worldview. The
word guna literally means “strand,” and
by extension a “quality,” of which there
are believed to be three: sattva (“goodness”), rajas (“passion”), and tamas
(“darkness”). According to the Samkhyas,
in the time before the evolution of
prakrti (primal matter), these three
qualities were in perfect equilibrium.
As mental activity began to disturb the
balance, prakrti evolved into the subjective self and the objective world. All
things and beings in the world have
these three basic qualities, but their
nature and tendencies differ according
to the differing proportions. The quality sattva is always positive and carries
associations with goodness, truth,
wholesomeness, health, cognitive thought,
and deep-rooted religious life. The
quality tamas is always negative and is
associated with darkness, ignorance,
sloth, spoilage, and death. Rajas can
be either positive or negative,
depending on the context. It is negative when one becomes a slave to
one’s passions, blinding one to careful
and conscious thought. However,
one’s passions can also help to engender activity and industriousness.
Although much of Samkhya metaphysics has been long discredited, the
notion of all things drawing their tendencies from the differing proportion of
these three gunas has become an
accepted part of Indian culture.