Chapter 14
The Three Qualities of Nature
Goodness, passion and inertia shape every mind. Krishna shows how to rise above all three.
Verses in this chapter(27)
- 14.1The Blessed Lord said: I will again declare (to thee) that supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge, having known which all the sages have gone to the supreme perfection after...
- 14.2They who, having taken refuge in this knowledge, have attained to unity with Me, are neither born at the time of creation nor are they disturbed at the time of dissolution.
- 14.3My womb is the great Brahma; in that I place the germ; thence, O Arjuna, is the birth of all beings.
- 14.4Whatever forms are produced, O Arjuna, in any womb whatsoever, the great Brahma is their womb and I am the seed-giving father.
- 14.5Purity, passion and inertia these qualities, O Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body, the embodied, the indestructible.
- 14.6Of these, Sattva, which from its stainlessness is luminous and healthy, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one.
- 14.7Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of thirst (for sensual enjoyment) and attachment; it binds fast, O Arjuna, the embodied one by attachment to action.
- 14.8But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, by heedlessness, indolence and sleep.
- 14.9Sattva attaches to happiness, Rajas to action, O Arjuna, while Tamas verily shrouding knowledge attaches to heedlessness.
- 14.10Now Sattva arises (prevails), O Arjuna, having overpowered Rajas and Tamas; nor Rajas, having overpowered Sattva and Tamas; and now Tamas, having overpowered Sattva and Rajas.
- 14.11When through every gate (sense) in this body, the wisdom-light shines, then it may be known that Sattva is predominant.
- 14.12Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, longing these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna.
- 14.13Darkness, inertness, heedlessness and delusion these arise when Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna.
- 14.14If the embodied one meets with death when Sattva is predominant, then he attains to the spotless worlds of the knowers of the Highest.
- 14.15Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those who are attached to action; and dying in Tamas, he is born in the womb of the senseless.
- 14.16The fruit of good action, they say, is Sattvic and pure, verily the fruit of Rajas is pain, and ignorance is the fruit of Tamas.
- 14.17From Sattva arises knowledge, and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and delusion arise from Tamas, and also ignorance.
- 14.18Those who are seated in Sattva go upwards; the Rajasic dwell in the middle; and the Tamasic, abiding in the function of the lowest Guna, go downwards.
- 14.19When the seer beholds no agent other than the Gunas and knows That which is higher than they, he attains to My Being.
- 14.20The embodied one having crossed beyond these three Gunas out of which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to immortality.
- 14.21Arjuna said: What are the marks of him who has transcended the three qualities, O Lord? What is his conduct and how does he go beyond these three qualities?
- 14.22The Blessed Lord said: When light, activity and delusion are present, he hates them not, nor does he long for them when they are absent.
- 14.23He who, seated like one unconcerned, is not moved by the qualities, and who, knowing that the qualities are active, is self-centred and moves not.
- 14.24Who is the same in pleasure and pain, who dwells in the Self, to whom a clod of earth, stone and gold are alike, who is the same to the dear and the unfriendly, who is firm, and...
- 14.25Who is the same in honour and dishonour, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings he is said to have transcended the qualities.
- 14.26And he who serves Me with unswerving devotion, he, crossing beyond the qualities, is fit for becoming Brahman.
- 14.27For I am the abode of Brahman, the immortal and the immutable, of everlasting Dharma and of absolute bliss.
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