The Magic Of Three

For holistic development of our personality, all its four dimensions, physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual, need to be equally balanced. Though the first three are easily perceptible, there are challenges in deciphering the spiritual one and that is where magic of 'three' comes in. Let us dive deeper.

The Holy trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, symbolise creation, perfection and destruction, the three key phases of our lives - birth, growth and death. Spiritual masters classify our personality constructs into mind, body and intellect, whereas Sigmund Freud describes is as id, ego and superego; and Eric Berns labels them as three ego states - parent, child and adult ego states.


All through day and night, we undergo three states of conditioned consciousness: waking, dreaming and deep sleep.

The Bhagwad Gita classifies our thought structure as Satva, Rajas and Tamas. Sattvic people are serene and cool, Rajasic are hyperactive and passionate, whereas Tamasic are lazy and indolent. These three elements exist in everyone, although in varying proportion, that's why everyone's temperament varies.

Thus, the common thread running across all spiritual dimensions revolves around the magic number 'three', creating a compounding effect - much like compounding of interest in the material world.