Sanskrit
सत्त्वात्सञ्जायते ज्ञानं रजसो लोभ एव च । प्रमादमोहौ तमसो भवतोऽज्ञानमेव च ॥
sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṃ rajaso lobha eva ca pramādamohau tamaso bhavato'jñānam eva ca
Translation
From Harmony wisdom is born, and also greed from Motion; heedlessness and delusion are of Inertia and also unwisdom.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A companion formula to verse 16, shifting focus from the fruit of an action to what arises within the person dominated by each guna: sattva produces wisdom, rajas produces greed, tamas produces heedlessness, delusion, and unwisdom. Verses 16 and 17 together close the description of what each guna does — to action’s outcome and to the mind itself — setting up verse 18’s final piece of the descriptive half of the chapter: where each guna leads a person, spatially, at the end.