In plain words
These arguments only make enmity grow; they bring no peace. You cannot recognise the truth. That is why one who has tamoguṇa cannot recognise the truth. He cannot reach the divine. He cannot experience what is holy. His life is forever ‘birth again, death again.’
Then rajoguṇa: when one's desires are fulfilled, satisfaction, or else ego. When one's desires fail, anger. Whether desires fail or are fulfilled, in both cases some vice or other arises; no right result comes of it. They blaze up with anger and resentment and with fits of passion. This rajoguṇa constantly fosters a quality that makes the blood impure.
Sattvaguṇa is the third. This too is a bond! It becomes worthwhile only when its fruit of merit is offered to God. Tamoguṇa has a colour, and that is black. Tamas means darkness. That is, ignorance. Black is the chief mark of this darkness. Rajoguṇa, through excitement and passion, heats the blood in the body to some extent and sends it all through the body, and a red colour comes into the face. The eyes, too, keep turning red. So the colour proper to rajoguṇa is red. Then the sāttvic. It is pure. Pure white is the mark of purity. Every being born into this world is a mixture of the guṇas sattva, rajas and tamas! They go on acting according to these guṇas. It was on this basis that the divisions by guṇa and karma were made. When man is born, he is born ignorant. When he dies, he must die wise.
To recognise the oneness in the many is Brahmajñāna
It was on the basis of this division by guṇa and karma that the fourfold varṇa came to be formed. On the basis of these three guṇas it came to be formed as three ways. The crowd of the foolish is one. Those who flare up in anger and resentment are another.