Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 14, Verse 5

सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः । निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम्

sattvaṃ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisambhavāḥ | nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam

Translation

Sattva, Rajas, Tamas — these guṇas, O mighty-armed, born of Prakṛti, bind fast in the body the embodied, the indestructible.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

sattvam

rhythm (or harmony)

rajaḥ

mobility

tamaḥ

inertia

iti

thus

guṇāḥ

the qualities

prakṛtisambhavāḥ

from Prakṛti, birth, whose, them

nibadhnanti

bind

mahābāho

O great-armed one

dehe

in the body

dehinam

the embodied

avyayam

indestructible

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Sattva (goodness), Rajas (vigour, activity, passion) and Tamas (darkness) — thus are the guṇas named. 'Guṇa' is a technical term. It does not mean a property, attribute or quality (such as colour) as opposed to the substance in which it is said to inhere. No separate existence of a guṇa and a guṇin — of an attribute and a substance — is meant here. The guṇas here are so called because, like the attributes of substances, they are ever dependent on another, namely the Kṣetrajña, as they are only forms of avidyā or nescience; and they bind fast as it were the Kṣetrajña. They are said to bind Kṣetrajña because they come into being with Kṣetrajña as the basis of their existence. Born of the Lord's Māyā, they bind fast as it were in the body the embodied one, the indestructible Self. To the objection that the embodied one was earlier said not to be tainted (xiii.31), the qualifier 'as it were' is the answer — 'they bind him as it were.'