Sanskrit
रजस्तमश्चाभिभूय सत्त्वं भवति भारत । रजः सत्त्वं तमश्चैव तमः सत्त्वं रजस्तथा ॥
rajas tamaś cābhibhūya sattvaṃ bhavati bhārata rajaḥ sattvaṃ tamaś caiva tamaḥ sattvaṃ rajas tathā
Translation
Now Harmony prevaileth, having overpowered Motion and Inertia, O Bhârata; now Motion, having overpowered Harmony and Inertia; and now Inertia, having overpowered Harmony and Motion.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
An important structural point easy to miss: the gunas aren’t fixed proportions describing a person once and for all, they’re in constant competition, each temporarily overpowering the other two. Nobody is purely sattvic, rajasic, or tamasic — character and mood are a shifting equilibrium. That’s precisely why verses 11-13 are needed next: if dominance changes, a person needs observable signs to tell which guna is currently ascendant in themselves. No one is ever free of all three; they rotate, each in turn overpowering the other two. This is why the chapter can describe “when sattva prevails” — it is a shifting balance, not a fixed type, and guṇātīta means stepping outside the rotation entirely (BG 14.22–BG 14.25).
Study deeper
Word by word
- rajas tamaś cābhibhūyaरजस् तमश् चाभिभूय
- overpowering rajas and tamas (rajaḥ + tamaḥ + ca + abhibhūya)
- sattvaṃ bhavati bhārataसत्त्वं भवति भारत
- sattva prevails, O Bhārata (sattvam + bhavati + bhārata)
- rajaḥ sattvaṃ tamaś caivaरजः सत्त्वं तमश् चैव
- rajas [overpowering] sattva and tamas (rajaḥ + sattvam + tamaḥ + ca + eva)
- tamaḥ sattvaṃ rajas tathāतमः सत्त्वं रजस् तथा
- and tamas, sattva and rajas likewise (tamaḥ + sattvam + rajaḥ + tathā)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verb Krishna uses here is “having overpowered,” not blended with or balanced against. The gunas aren’t described as settling into some stable mixture inside a person; they’re described as actively defeating one another in turn, which means whichever one currently has the upper hand got there by winning a contest, not by being your fixed nature.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- Resist labeling yourself permanently by whatever trait feels dominant right now — irritable, lazy, driven — since this verse describes even a stable-seeming quality as one guna temporarily ahead in an ongoing contest, not a fixed identity you're stuck with.
Professional
- Resist permanently typecasting a colleague by one bad week or one dominant behavior pattern — what looks like a fixed trait is often just whichever tendency is currently winning, and the same person can show up completely differently once conditions shift.
Family & Social
- When a family member is going through a phase of a difficult trait — withdrawn, short-tempered — resist concluding that's now who they are; treat it as one tendency temporarily ahead of the others in them, not a permanent verdict on their character.
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