The Magic of Three – The Economic Times

The Holy Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh symbolize creation, perfection and destruction, the three key stages of our lives – birth, growth and death. Spiritual masters classify our personality constructs into mind, body and intellect while Sigmund Freud describes it as id, ego and superego; and Eric Berns refers to them as the three ego states—Parent, Child, and Adult ego states.

Day and night we go through three conditioned states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and deep sleep.

The Bhagwad Gita classifies our thought structure as satva, rajas and tamas. Sattvic people are easy-going and cool, Rajasic people are hyperactive and passionate, while Tamasic people are lazy and lethargic. These three elements are present in everyone, albeit in different proportions, which is why everyone’s temperament is different.

Thus, the common thread that runs through all spiritual dimensions revolves around the magic number “three”, creating a compound interest effect – similar to compound interest in the material world.