रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम्।तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम्।।14.7।।
तमस्त्वज्ञानजं विद्धि मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम्।प्रमादालस्यनिद्राभिस्तन्निबध्नाति भारत।।14.8।।
सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति रजः कर्मणि भारत।ज्ञानमावृत्य तु तमः प्रमादे सञ्जयत्युत।।14.9।।
Know rajas to be of the nature of passion, born of hankering and attachment. O son of Kunti, it binds the embodied one through attachment to action.
On the other hand, know tamas, which deludes all embodied beings, to be born of ignorance. O scion of the Bharata dynasty, it binds through inadvertence, laziness, and sleep.
O scion of the Bharata dynasty, sattva attaches one to happiness, rajas to action, while tamas, obscuring knowledge, leads to inadvertence as well.
Osho’s Commentary
Rajas, my friend, is born of thirst, of desire. It binds you through the fever of action. The rajasic man is always doing, always running, always trying to achieve something in the future. He can never be here and now. His life is a constant race, and in this race, he forgets himself completely. Action becomes an obsession, a drug. The fruit of rajas is pain, because desire can never be fulfilled. Tamas is born of ignorance. It binds you through laziness, through sleep, through a dull, unconscious state of being. The tamasic man is asleep. He lives in a kind of stupor. He is not really alive; he is just dragging his existence. The fruit of tamas is ignorance. So, sattva attaches you to happiness, rajas attaches you to action, and tamas attaches you to delusion. These are the three prisons. And a man is a strange mixture of all three. One guna may be dominant, but the other two are always present, waiting for their chance. This is the inner conflict, the inner madness of man.