The three gunas; Sattva, curiosity, Rajas; selfishness, and Tamas; laziness are the primary urges (drive-forces) that control all living beings with their inhabiting soul.
The Purusha (soul) associating with Prakriti (or matter), enjoys the Gunas of Prakriti. Bhagavad-Gita 13.21
Sattva or goodness, Rajas or activity, and Tamas or inertia; these three Gunas
(or states) of mind bind the imperishable soul to the body. Of these, Sattva,
being calm, is illuminating and ethical. It fetters the embodied being, the
Jeeva-atma or Purusha, by attachment to happiness and knowledge. Rajas is
characterized by intense (selfish) activity and is born of desire and
attachment. It binds the Jeeva (animal soul) by attachment to the fruits of
work. Tamas, the deluder of Jeeva, is born of inertia. It binds by ignorance,
laziness, and (excessive) sleep. Sattva attaches one to happiness, Rajas to
action, and Tamas to ignorance by covering the knowledge. One who dies during
the dominance of Sattva goes to heaven, the pure world of the knowers of
Supreme. When one dies during the dominance of Rajas, one is reborn as attached
to action (or the utilitarian type); and dying in Tamas, one is reborn as
ignorant. Bhagavad-Gita
14.05
What impels one to commit sin as if unwillingly and forced against one's will?
Bhagavad-Gita 3.37
It is Kaama and anger born of Rajo Guna (Rajas). Kaama (lust, as in Kama-sutra,
the Book of Lust; Physical love.) is insatiable and is a great devil. Know this
as the enemy.
Bhagavad-Gita 3.36
Kaama, the passionate desire for all sensual and material pleasures, becomes
anger if it is unfulfilled. As the fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror by
dust, and as an embryo by the amnion, similarly the Self-knowledge gets obscured
by Kaama. Bhagavad-Gita
3.38
The senses are said to be superior (to matter or the body), the mind is superior
to the senses, the intellect is superior to the mind, and Atma is superior to
the intellect.
Bhagavad-Gita 3.42
Thus, knowing the Atma to be superior to the intellect, and controlling the mind
by the intellect (that is purified by Jnana, knowledge), one must kill this
mighty enemy, Kaama, O Arjuna.
Bhagavad-Gita 3.43
There is no being, either on the earth or in the heaven or among the Devas, who is free from these three Gunas of Prakriti, the material nature. Bhagavad-Gita 18.40
The one who offers service to Me with love and unswerving devotion transcends
the Gunas, and becomes fit for realizing Brahman.
Bhagavad-Gita 14.26
From Brahma's world down, the dwellers of all the worlds are subject to repeated
birth and death. But, after attaining Me, one does not take birth again.
Bhagavad-Gita 8.16