{"id":24905,"date":"2021-01-29T11:18:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T15:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=24905"},"modified":"2021-02-05T15:42:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T19:42:06","slug":"prakriti-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Prakriti: Meaning and Source of The Three Gunas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the Prakriti meaning? How does <em>The Bhagavad Gita<\/em> explain how Prakriti drives our actions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prakriti is the source of the three Gunas\u2014sattva, rajas, and tamas. Only sattva is a desirable Guna, but all three are driven by Prakriti. In <em>The <\/em>Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains the Prakriti meaning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about the Prakriti meaning and how it drive action through the Gunas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Prakriti: Meaning and More<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Krishna explains that, aside from sense-objects and actions, prakriti is also the source of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/three-gunas\/\">three gunas<\/a> discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. <strong>The gunas are three qualities, or attributes, and every action can be related to one of them.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a reminder, the guna of <em>sattva <\/em>is considered the only positive one. It\u2019s associated with harmony, balance, light, and peace. <em>Rajas <\/em>is energy, or passion. It fuels desire and drives people to pursue selfish things\u2014although it can also be a powerful motivator. <em>Tamas <\/em>is associated with darkness, depression, and sloth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who live\u2014and, more importantly, die\u2014experiencing one of the gunas will be reborn according to that guna. Those who die in a state of tamas sink deeper into the cycle and are reborn to an ignorant or unlearned family, likely doomed to continue their downward slide. Those who die consumed by rajas will stay where they are karmically, and be reborn to continue chasing their own desires. Those who die in a state of sattva, of tranquility and harmony, will be reborn among the wise to continue their spiritual journeys.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, there is a state even better than sattva, and that\u2019s to renounce the gunas entirely. <strong>Those who aren\u2019t driven by any of the three gunas, who have given up all of their personal desires and any attachment to the outcomes of their actions, are able to pass beyond the gunas and rejoin with Vishnu.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Krishna finishes this explanation, Arjuna asks what people who have moved beyond the three gunas are like. He wants to know how they behave, and how they managed to break free of the gunas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Krishna answers that these people are completely unmoved by any of the three gunas. They don\u2019t have any desire to feel sattva\u2019s peace, nor are they driven by rajas\u2019s passion or repulsed by tamas\u2019s indolence. They understand that the gunas are outside forces, not from their true Purusha, and they don\u2019t let any of the three affect their actions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He then repeats that people who truly understand their Purusha aren\u2019t affected by good or bad times, pleasure or pain. They see the same value in every person and don\u2019t think in terms of friends or enemies. A lump of gold and a plain rock have the same worth to such people. All of this is because they\u2019ve moved beyond the physical concerns of the Prakriti meaning and dedicate everything to Vishnu and Brahman. He ends by saying that these kinds of people are ready to break out of samsara and be reunited with Brahman.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Prakriti meaning? How does The Bhagavad Gita explain how Prakriti drives our actions? Prakriti is the source of the three Gunas\u2014sattva, rajas, and tamas. Only sattva is a desirable Guna, but all three are driven by Prakriti. In The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains the Prakriti meaning. Read more about the Prakriti meaning and how it drive action through the Gunas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,6],"tags":[197],"class_list":["post-24905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-improvement","category-spiritual","tag-the-bhagavad-gita","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prakriti: Meaning and Source of The Three Gunas - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the Prakriti meaning? 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Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-29T15:18:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-05T19:42:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/power-of-now-bad-relationships.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"702\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"462\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Prakriti: Meaning and Source of The Three Gunas\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-29T15:18:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T19:42:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/\"},\"wordCount\":519,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/power-of-now-bad-relationships.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Bhagavad Gita\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Self-Improvement\",\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/\",\"name\":\"Prakriti: Meaning and Source of The Three Gunas - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/prakriti-meaning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/power-of-now-bad-relationships.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-29T15:18:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T19:42:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is the Prakriti meaning? 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