The Three Gunas – First Depiction

This is my first attempt at depicting The Three Gunas, a Hindu concept of the qualities that create the universe: matter, energy, and consciousness.

Matter is the physical and most dense manifestation of the universe,  depicted as black, and best describes the qualities of the lower chakras.

Energy is the movement and flow of the universe, and I chose red like the blood which flows and moves in our bodies. The middle chakras are associated with this movement.

Consciousness is the intangible and indescribable intelligence of the universe, and is depicted as white, and describes the qualities of the upper chakras.

All three gunas are equally necessary and are woven together to create the universe. My original intention was to find a way to depict this braided/woven concept, but have yet to receive the specific inspiration of how it should look. So in the meantime, I borrowed the chakra concept to create this depiction, as the gunas do describe the qualities of the chakras.

I chose silver string to tie it all together because I’m pretty sure there’s some ancient concept of a divine silver cord which animates life.

It was a fun experiment and it honestly reminds me of a fish, haha! But WOW it was really hard to get the silver tied in just the exact right places for perfect balance and suspension. It isn’t perfectly balanced but its good enough 🙂 the concept was deceptively simple, the execution was very difficult!