guna

[ goon-uh ]

noun
  1. (in Sankhya and Vedantic philosophy) one of the three qualities of prakriti, or nature, which are passion (rajas ), dullness or inertia (tamas ), and goodness or purity (sattva ).

Origin of guna

1
First recorded in 1860–65, guna is from the Sanskrit word guṇa thread, quality

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use guna in a sentence

  • Thus has nature marked every man with his caste, by the predominance in himself of one, or the mixture of two, of the gunas.

    Autobiography of a YOGI | Paramhansa Yogananda
  • Of course every human being has all three gunas in varying proportions.

    Autobiography of a YOGI | Paramhansa Yogananda
  • But what is this letting go gunas (cords fettering the soul); if one is fettered by these gunas, how can there be release?

  • Upwards and downwards stretch its branches, expanded by the potencies (Gunas); the sense-objects are its sprouts.

    Simon Magus | George Robert Stow Mead