The Elements of Mind: Visualizing a drop of wisdom from Shri Bhagavad-Gita

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Fruits of my opinion

7 min readMar 13, 2023

The State Z force (green) shadowing other states

As an Indian, I have access to a wealth of ancient wisdom passed down by my ancestors and documented in books by great minds. One of the most fascinating concepts comes from the Indian holy book “Shri Bhagavad-Gita” (The Song of Lord Krishna), specifically in Chapter 14, “Guṇa Traya Vibhāg Yoga.” In this chapter, Krishna (a guru) teaches his disciple Arjuna about the three different states of the human mind and their characteristics.

Disclaimer: This article is not promoting any religious beliefs. I didn’t even tag this article under “Religion”. It is written in the spirit that everyone has the right to understand their mind. As you read this article, disregard the teacher Krishna, leave out Arjuna, and ignore the time and place. The goal of this article is simply to visually present the three basic elements of the mind and the associated knowledge about them. I am not proposing anything new here, just visualizing existing knowledge. As great people say, knowledge is never invented but understood.

Guṇa Traya Vibhāg Yoga in Sanskrit roughly means “The knowledge of breaking down nature of three fundamental mental states”.

As humans, we experience oscillations in our moods, whether we are aware of them or not. These swings can range from happiness to depression to complete motivation in a matter of days. While the causes of these oscillations can be attributed to many things, such as food, exercise, hormones, etc., this article will focus solely on their effects. Specifically, we will explore these effects using a symbolic language and geometry.

Introduction

According to Indian philosophy, the human mind can exist in three primary states or modes: Tamas (Ignorance), Rajas (Passion), and Satva (Goodness). Due to the limitations of the English language, it is difficult to capture the original essence of these Sanskrit words accurately. However, Eknath Easwaran made a valiant effort to translate the Shri Bhagavad-Gita into English, and I highly recommend reading the 14th chapter of his book to gain the most accurate insights from the original source.

To simplify these concepts, I will use a few schematics and symbolic visual language. As a computer scientist, I write code in my day-to-day life, where I temporarily store ideas in imaginary mechanisms called “variables.” For now, I will refer to the three states of mind, Tamas, Rajas, and Satva, as the imaginary variable names X, Y, and Z.

Tamas (X)

Tamas, also referred to as “State X,” is a state in which a person experiences emotions such as laziness, procrastination, dishonesty, depression, delusion, and excessive sleep. In short, it is a state of ignorance. We can represent this state as a square, symbolically representing a 90-degree angle of ignorance where two sides meet. People in this state are disinterested in everything, live in inertia, and do not attempt to make any changes. Let’s mark this state with the color red to represent its impurity.

Note: The color red itself is not impure. In that sense, no color is inherently pure or impure. We are simply assigning the color red to represent state X for the purposes of visual communication.

Rajas (Y)

Rajas, or what we refer to as “State Y,” is a state of mind in which a human draws motivation to take action, seeks fame, gets angry, feels greedy, experiences burnout, or restlessness, but all for the fruits of those actions. These fruits can be money or fame. In contrast to State X, the effect of State Y keeps a human going, either for good or bad. This state is essential for performing duties in our physical world. We can symbolize State Y using an equilateral triangle (all sides equal) where the degree of ignorance is less than State X, i.e., 60° where two sides meet, but it is still impure because it implies the fruits of one’s actions for oneself.

Satva (Z)

Satva, or simply “State Z,” refers to a state of being that embodies qualities such as goodness, a peaceful mind, earning without greed, helping without seeking fame, and exploring self-knowledge. Humans associate with State Z to find happiness and acquire knowledge. We can represent this state with a green circle, symbolizing purity above other states. The circle has no sides meeting, indicating a very low degree of ignorance with no actions made with results in mind.

The oscillations

After learning about the descriptions of States X, Y, and Z, it is important to note that the human mind can oscillate between these three states. There is no guarantee that a mind will always be in one state or another, or even two. This means that a mind can have portions of its control in three different states by making innumerable tiny oscillations. Whenever it substantially lies in one state for a significant amount of time, it becomes influenced by the qualities of that state.

Note: According to the Shri Bhagavad-Gita, spending a significant amount of time in State X can exponentially increase the downward pull of the state on the human mind. In contrast, a person in State Y will experience a linear rate of increase or drop in motivation, while a person in State Z will experience an exponential upward lift due to the mind’s association with the pure and positive characteristics of “State Z”.

Outcomes of aggregated time spent on oscillations

Now that we have understood the concept of oscillations and how they affect the human mind, let’s create a visual representation of different human emotions using colored geometric symbols to represent the three states. In modern work and personal lives, there are three major factors that can affect our emotional state.

Peace

To achieve peace, one’s association with State Z should be higher than with the other states. However, due to the limitations and functions of the physical world, we may still experience some influence from the other states. For example, we cannot survive without earning a living. The visualization looks like below. The overall color outside the box (green in this case) is net positive of influencing state which is “State Z” or Sattva.

Depression

State X is known to cause depression. It creates a heavy, downward pull that limits opportunities for positive action and goodness. The daigarm would be:

Burnout

Excessive activity can cause burnout. In other words, associating with State Y can eventually lead to restlessness and burnout. We can summarize this aggregated state visually as follows:

Anxiety & Fear

Anxiety can be caused by association with either State X or State Y. Too much inaction (a characteristic of State X) can lead to fear of incomplete deadlines, while too much action can lead to fear of the results of those actions. Thus, both states can lead to anxiety or fear. Therefore, we can show two diagrams for anxiety:

To achieve peace without sacrificing motivation, it is recommended to maintain a ratio of at least 60:30:10 with State Z, State Y, and State X, respectively. If we use the symbol “>” to represent “greater than,” we can summarize the three elements of the mind in one picture as below. The Golden box is the ideal state that could help one being successful.

Conclusion

Knowing the three fundamental states of mind can help one avoid ignorance about the mind and measure their ever-changing moods.

I take no credit for anything mentioned in this article. The original author of Shri Bhagavad-Gita, Vyas, is the one who deserves credit. As a reader, please continue beyond this article. Meditate on what you have seen and learned here, and in the references. Feel free to add your comments; I am curious to know your thoughts!