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Adhyāya 14 — Guṇatraya-Vibhāga Yogaḥ

The Three Guṇas of Nature · 27 verses

Overview

from Q&A with KnA

Having distinguished the field from its knower, K now anatomises the field itself — the three guṇas, the strands of which all Nature is woven. He opens with a great promise: those who take refuge in this supreme knowledge attain His own nature, unborn at creation and undisturbed at dissolution. He describes the guṇas one by one — sattva, luminous and pure, binding by attachment to happiness and knowledge; rajas, of the nature of passion and craving, binding by attachment to action; tamas, born of ignorance, binding by heedlessness, sloth and sleep — and gives the marks by which each may be recognised as it waxes, and the destinations to which each, at death, leads. Arjuna then asks the practical question: how is one who has crossed the three known, and how does he cross them? K answers with the portrait of the guṇātīta — even in pleasure and pain, unmoved by the strands as they operate, self-poised — and reveals the way across: unswerving devotion to Him, by which one becomes fit for Brahman, whose very abode and support He is.

Verses

14.1परं भूयः प्रवक्ष्यामि ज्ञानानां ज्ञानमुत्तमम्।14.2इदं ज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यमागताः।14.3मम योनिर्महद्ब्रह्म तस्मिन् गर्भं दधाम्यहम्।14.4सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तेय मूर्तयः सम्भवन्ति याः।14.5सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसंभवाः।14.6तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम्।14.7रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम्।14.8तमस्त्वज्ञानजं विद्धि मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम्।14.9सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति रजः कर्मणि भारत।14.10रजस्तमश्चाभिभूय सत्त्वं भवति भारत।14.11सर्वद्वारेषु देहेऽस्मिन्प्रकाश उपजायते।14.12लोभः प्रवृत्तिरारम्भः कर्मणामशमः स्पृहा।14.13अप्रकाशोऽप्रवृत्तिश्च प्रमादो मोह एव च।14.14यदा सत्त्वे प्रवृद्धे तु प्रलयं याति देहभृत्।14.15रजसि प्रलयं गत्वा कर्मसङ्गिषु जायते।14.16कर्मणः सुकृतस्याहुः सात्त्विकं निर्मलं फलम्।14.17सत्त्वात्सञ्जायते ज्ञानं रजसो लोभ एव च।14.18ऊर्ध्वं गच्छन्ति सत्त्वस्था मध्ये तिष्ठन्ति राजसाः।14.19नान्यं गुणेभ्यः कर्तारं यदा द्रष्टानुपश्यति।14.20गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान्।14.21कैर्लिंगैस्त्रीन्गुणानेतानतीतो भवति प्रभो।14.22प्रकाशं च प्रवृत्तिं च मोहमेव च पाण्डव।14.23उदासीनवदासीनो गुणैर्यो न विचाल्यते।14.24समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः।14.25मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः।14.26मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्ितयोगेन सेवते।14.27ब्रह्मणो हि प्रतिष्ठाऽहममृतस्याव्ययस्य च।