Guna

A Samkhya-derived scheme of three fundamental qualities held to underlie all activity and matter, widely used across later texts to analyze temperament and action.

scholarship. Modern scholarship — academic/historical analysis.
Tradition: hinduism Theme: metaphysics Theme: psychology Theme: ethics

Guna names a scheme of three fundamental qualities, developed within Samkhya metaphysics, held to underlie and combine within all of nature's activity. Though the scheme originates in one specific philosophical system, this archive treats it separately because it was widely adopted far beyond that school, becoming one of the tradition's most common tools for analyzing temperament, action, and moral quality generally.

Three qualities in constant combination

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Related in the archive

Text

The Bhagavad Gita

A 700-verse philosophical dialogue set within the Mahabharata, addressing duty, action, and the nature of the self.

Tradition

Samkhya

A dualist philosophical system distinguishing pure consciousness from the material world it observes, offering a genuinely different metaphysics from Vedantic non-dualism.

Tradition

Yoga Darshana

The philosophical school systematizing yoga as a disciplined path paired with Samkhya metaphysics, distinct from the broader family of practices covered under the general concept of yoga.

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Next → Ishvara A concept of a personal, guiding divine principle, treated very differently across traditions - as central devotional reality in some, and as an optional, subordinate feature in others.