Bhagavad Gita 14.9
सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति रजः कर्मणि भारत । ज्ञानमावृत्य तु तमः प्रमादे सञ्जयत्युत ॥ ९ ॥
sattvaṁ sukhe sañjayati rajaḥ karmaṇi bhārata | jñānam āvṛtya tu tamaḥ pramāde sañjayaty uta ||9||
Translation
Sattva attaches one to happiness, rajas to action, O Bharata, but tamas, covering knowledge, attaches one to carelessness.
Reflection
Which glue, pleasure, motion, or fog, is hardest for you to peel from?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Fourteen
Three sentences, three bindings, one structure. Each guna chooses a favorite glue. Sattva glues the mind to pleasure and the pleasure of knowing. Rajas glues it to motion, to projects, to the doing. Tamas, more dangerous because it covers knowledge itself, glues the mind to pramada, the slack drift in which mistakes happen and accountability vanishes. The verse arranges them in descending order of subtlety. Once the pilgrim can name which glue currently holds him, he can also notice that he is not the glue. The naming is half of the freedom.