The Supreme Lord said: I shall again declare that supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge, knowing which all the sages have attained the highest perfection from here.
Commentary:
Krishna promises to reveal supreme knowledge—the highest of all teachings. This knowledge has enabled all sages to attain complete perfection. What follows is essential wisdom for liberation.
Learning:
The highest knowledge is what enables liberation. Not all knowledge is equal; some leads to freedom, some to bondage. This teaching about the gunas is considered supreme because understanding it leads to transcendence.
Verse 14.2
Sanskrit Transliteration:
idaṁ jñānam upāśhritya mama sādharmyam āgatāḥ
sarge 'pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti cha
Translation:
Resorting to this knowledge, having attained My nature, they are not born at creation, nor are they disturbed at dissolution.
Commentary:
Those who understand and apply this knowledge attain Krishna's divine nature. At cosmic creation, they're not born again; at dissolution, they're not distressed. They transcend the entire cycle of manifestation.
Learning:
This knowledge brings identity with the divine and freedom from cosmic cycles. You become like God—unaffected by creation and destruction. The goal isn't just heaven but divine nature itself.
Verse 14.3
Sanskrit Transliteration:
mama yonir mahad brahma tasmin garbhaṁ dadhāmy aham
sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ tato bhavati bhārata
Translation:
My womb is the great Brahman (Prakriti). In that I place the seed. From this, O Bharata, comes the birth of all beings.
Commentary:
Prakriti (material nature) is the great womb; Krishna places his seed (the souls) in it. From this union of spirit and matter, all beings are born. Creation requires both masculine (consciousness) and feminine (matter) principles.
Learning:
Creation arises from the union of consciousness and matter. Neither alone produces beings. You are born from divine consciousness entering material nature. Understanding your dual origin helps you return to your spiritual source.
Whatever forms are produced in any womb, O son of Kunti, great Brahman (Prakriti) is their womb, and I am the seed-giving father.
Commentary:
All forms in all species have Prakriti as mother and Krishna as father. The material nature provides the body; divine consciousness provides the animating soul. This father-mother relationship applies to all beings everywhere.
Learning:
Every creature shares the same cosmic parents—divine consciousness and material nature. This makes all beings fundamentally related. Understanding universal parentage changes how you view other creatures.
Sattva, rajas, and tamas—these qualities born of Prakriti bind the imperishable soul in the body, O mighty-armed one.
Commentary:
The three gunas—sattva (goodness/harmony), rajas (passion/activity), and tamas (ignorance/inertia)—arise from material nature. Though the soul is eternal and free, these qualities bind it to bodily existence.
Learning:
The three qualities of nature are what bind you. Your soul is naturally free; the gunas create bondage. Understanding these forces is the first step to transcending them.
Verse 14.6
Sanskrit Transliteration:
tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt prakāśhakam anāmayam
sukha-saṅgena badhnāti jñāna-saṅgena chānagha
Translation:
Of these, sattva, being pure, is illuminating and healthy. It binds through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge, O sinless one.
Commentary:
Sattva is the purest guna—it illuminates and promotes health. However, even sattva binds—through attachment to happiness and to knowledge itself. The pleasures of peace and understanding become chains.
Learning:
Even goodness binds. The pleasure of peace and the satisfaction of knowledge can become attachments. Sattva is better than the other gunas but is still bondage. Ultimate freedom transcends even goodness.
Verse 14.7
Sanskrit Transliteration:
rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛiṣhṇā-saṅga-samudbhavam
tan nibadhnāti kaunteya karma-saṅgena dehinam
Translation:
Know rajas to be of the nature of passion, arising from craving and attachment. It binds the embodied soul through attachment to action, O son of Kunti.
Commentary:
Rajas is characterized by passion, desire, and attachment. It arises from craving and binds through compulsive activity. The rajasic person is driven to act, act, act—never resting, always pursuing.
Learning:
Passion binds through action addiction. The driven person can't stop doing. Achievement after achievement, project after project—rajas keeps you running without ever arriving. Recognize restless activity as bondage.
Verse 14.8
Sanskrit Transliteration:
tamas tv ajñāna-jaṁ viddhi mohanaṁ sarva-dehinām
pramādālasya-nidrābhis tan nibadhnāti bhārata
Translation:
But know tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings. It binds through heedlessness, laziness, and sleep, O Bharata.
Commentary:
Tamas arises from ignorance and deludes all beings. It binds through negligence, sloth, and excessive sleep. The tamasic person is dull, inactive, and unconscious of higher possibilities.
Learning:
Ignorance binds through dullness and sleep. When you can't be bothered to act, learn, or wake up, tamas dominates. This isn't peaceful rest but unconscious bondage. Recognize lethargy as a chain.
Sattva attaches one to happiness; rajas to action, O Bharata; while tamas, covering knowledge, attaches one to heedlessness.
Commentary:
Each guna has its characteristic attachment: sattva binds to happiness, rajas to activity, tamas to negligence through covering wisdom. Each creates its own type of bondage.
Learning:
Know your dominant bondage. Are you attached to peace and knowledge (sattva)? Driven to endless activity (rajas)? Lost in dullness and neglect (tamas)? Understanding your particular chain is essential to breaking it.
Verse 14.10
Sanskrit Transliteration:
rajas tamaśh chābhibhūya sattvaṁ bhavati bhārata
rajaḥ sattvaṁ tamaśh chaiva tamaḥ sattvaṁ rajas tathā
Translation:
Sometimes sattva prevails over rajas and tamas, O Bharata; sometimes rajas over sattva and tamas; and sometimes tamas over sattva and rajas.
Commentary:
The gunas constantly compete for dominance. At different times, different gunas prevail. You experience this as shifting moods and states—sometimes peaceful, sometimes driven, sometimes dull.
Learning:
Your inner states fluctuate as gunas rise and fall. Don't be surprised by mood changes—they reflect guna dynamics. Observe these fluctuations without being controlled by them. Eventually you can transcend the whole system.
When through all the gates of the body the light of knowledge shines, then it should be known that sattva has increased.
Commentary:
When clarity, wisdom, and light pervade all senses—when you see, hear, and understand clearly through all your faculties—sattva is dominant. Luminosity indicates sattvic increase.
Learning:
Clarity indicates sattva. When everything seems clear and bright, when understanding comes easily, sattva is high. Recognize these states and cultivate them while remaining unattached to them.
Greed, activity, undertaking of works, restlessness, and desire—these arise when rajas increases, O best of the Bharatas.
Commentary:
When rajas dominates: greed intensifies, activity increases, new projects are constantly started, restlessness prevents calm, and desires multiply. These signs indicate rajasic excess.
Learning:
Greed, restlessness, and constant new projects indicate rajas. If you're always starting things, never satisfied, unable to sit still, rajas is high. Recognize this state without judging it.
Verse 14.13
Sanskrit Transliteration:
aprakāśho 'pravṛittiśh cha pramādo moha eva cha
tamasy etāni jāyante vivṛiddhe kuru-nandana
Translation:
Darkness, inactivity, heedlessness, and delusion—these arise when tamas increases, O descendant of the Kurus.
Commentary:
When tamas dominates: darkness obscures understanding, you can't be motivated to act, you neglect what matters, and confusion prevails. These signs indicate tamasic excess.
Learning:
Darkness, inability to act, and confusion indicate tamas. If you can't think clearly, can't get moving, and don't care, tamas dominates. Recognize this state as a guna-effect, not your true nature.
When the embodied being meets death while sattva is predominant, then one attains the pure worlds of those who know the highest.
Commentary:
Dying in a sattvic state leads to the pure realms of the wise. The guna dominant at death influences the next destination. Sattva at death yields elevated rebirth among the knowledgeable.
Learning:
Your state at death matters. Cultivating sattva isn't just for this life but determines your next condition. If sattva dominates when you die, you attain good rebirth. Work on your inner state while you can.
Dying in rajas, one is born among those attached to action. Dying in tamas, one is born in deluded wombs.
Commentary:
Death in rajas leads to rebirth among driven, action-obsessed beings. Death in tamas leads to birth in dull, confused species. The dominant guna shapes the next incarnation.
Learning:
Dying in passion brings rebirth among workaholics; dying in ignorance brings dull rebirth. Since you don't choose when you die, work on your guna balance now. Reduce tamas and rajas; cultivate sattva.
The fruit of good action is said to be sattvic and pure; the fruit of rajas is pain; and the fruit of tamas is ignorance.
Commentary:
Actions produce results matching their guna: sattvic action yields purity and goodness, rajasic action yields suffering, tamasic action yields deeper ignorance. You reap what you sow according to guna.
Learning:
The quality of action determines the quality of result. Pure action brings pure results; passionate action brings pain; ignorant action brings more ignorance. Choose your actions with awareness of their guna.
Verse 14.17
Sanskrit Transliteration:
sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṁ rajaso lobha eva cha
pramāda-mohau tamaso bhavato 'jñānam eva cha
Translation:
From sattva arises knowledge; from rajas arises greed; from tamas arise heedlessness and delusion, as well as ignorance.
Commentary:
Each guna produces characteristic effects: sattva generates knowledge, rajas generates greed, tamas generates negligence, delusion, and ignorance. These are the natural fruits of each quality.
Learning:
Want more knowledge? Increase sattva. Feeling greedy? Rajas is high. Neglectful and confused? Tamas dominates. The gunas explain psychological states and point to what needs adjustment.
Those established in sattva go upward; the rajasic stay in the middle; the tamasic, abiding in the lowest quality, go downward.
Commentary:
Sattva lifts one to higher realms; rajas keeps one in the middle (human realm); tamas drags one down to lower states. Vertical movement in the cosmic hierarchy follows guna dominance.
Learning:
Gunas determine your direction—up, stable, or down. If you want to rise, cultivate sattva. If you're stuck, rajas maintains the status quo. If declining, tamas is dragging you down.
Verse 14.19
Sanskrit Transliteration:
nānyaṁ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṁ yadā draṣhṭānupaśhyati
guṇebhyaśh cha paraṁ vetti mad-bhāvaṁ so 'dhigachchhati
Translation:
When the seer perceives no doer other than the gunas, and knows that which is beyond the gunas, such a one attains My nature.
Commentary:
When you see that only the gunas act—not any individual self—and when you know what transcends all gunas, you attain Krishna's divine nature. This double insight—gunas act, transcendence is real—liberates.
Learning:
Liberation comes from two insights: the gunas do everything (you don't), and something exists beyond all gunas (your true Self). See the gunas as the only doers; know yourself as beyond them. This is freedom.
When the embodied being transcends these three gunas that give rise to the body, liberated from birth, death, old age, and sorrow, one attains immortality.
Commentary:
Transcending the three gunas—which are the cause of embodiment—brings liberation from the entire cycle: birth, aging, death, and their accompanying sufferings. The result is immortality.
Learning:
Freedom from the gunas means freedom from the whole package: birth, death, old age, suffering. The gunas create the body and its troubles. Transcend them and you transcend all bodily limitations.
Arjuna said: What are the marks of one who has transcended these three gunas, O Lord? What is such a one's conduct, and how does one transcend these three gunas?
Commentary:
Arjuna asks three practical questions: What are the signs of transcendence? How does such a person behave? What is the method of transcendence? These questions seek applicable knowledge.
Learning:
Ask for practical details. How do you recognize transcendence? What does it look like in daily life? How is it achieved? These questions turn abstract teaching into usable guidance.
Verse 14.22-25
Sanskrit Transliteration:
śhrī bhagavān uvācha
prakāśhaṁ cha pravṛittiṁ cha moham eva cha pāṇḍava
na dveṣhṭi sampravṛittāni na nivṛittāni kāṅkṣhati
udāsīna-vad āsīno guṇair yo na vichālyate
guṇā vartanta ity evaṁ yo 'vatiṣhṭhati neṅgate
sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ sva-sthaḥ sama-loṣhṭāśhma-kāñchanaḥ
tulya-priyāpriyo dhīras tulya-nindātma-saṁstutiḥ
mānāpamānayos tulyas tulyo mitrāri-pakṣhayoḥ
sarvārambha-parityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa uchyate
Translation:
The Supreme Lord said: One who does not hate illumination, activity, or delusion when they appear, nor longs for them when they disappear; who sits like one unconcerned, undisturbed by the gunas, knowing that only the gunas act, who remains firm and moves not; equal in pleasure and pain, self-contained, regarding a clod of earth, a stone, and gold alike; equal toward the pleasant and unpleasant, steady, equal to criticism and praise; equal in honor and dishonor, equal toward friend and enemy, renouncing all undertakings—such a one is said to have transcended the gunas.
Commentary:
Krishna describes the transcended person: doesn't hate or crave any guna-state; sits neutral while gunas play; knows only gunas act; is unmoved; equal in all pairs of opposites—pleasure/pain, dirt/gold, praise/blame, honor/insult, friend/enemy; renounces personal projects.
Learning:
Transcendence shows in equanimity across all opposites. The transcended person neither hates nor craves any state, remains neutral as gunas fluctuate, knows the gunas act without personal involvement. Total equality and detachment mark this state.
Verse 14.26
Sanskrit Transliteration:
māṁ cha yo 'vyabhichāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
Translation:
One who serves Me with unwavering devotional yoga transcends these gunas and becomes fit for becoming Brahman.
Commentary:
The method for transcending gunas: exclusive devotion to Krishna. Unswerving bhakti yoga lifts one beyond the three gunas and qualifies one for Brahman-realization. Devotion is the practical path to transcendence.
Learning:
Devotion is the method for transcending gunas. All the analysis of gunas is useful, but the way beyond them is devotion. Serve God with unwavering love, and you'll transcend what intellectual analysis cannot escape.
Verse 14.27
Sanskrit Transliteration:
brahmaṇo hi pratiṣhṭhāham amṛitasyāvyayasya cha
śhāśhvatasya cha dharmasya sukhasyaikāntikasya cha
Translation:
For I am the foundation of Brahman, of the immortal and imperishable, of the eternal dharma, and of absolute bliss.
Commentary:
Krishna concludes by revealing his relationship to Brahman: he is Brahman's foundation. Immortality, dharma, and supreme bliss rest on him. Brahman is not a competitor to Krishna but has its basis in him.
Learning:
The ultimate truth (Brahman) rests on Krishna. Immortality, cosmic law, and supreme happiness have their foundation in the personal God. Devotion to Krishna doesn't bypass Brahman but reaches its very source.
Translation and commentary sourced from public domain texts.
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