Chapter 14: The Three Gunas
गुणत्रयविभागयोग · 27 verses. Lord Shri Krishna continued: Now I will reveal to you the wisdom that is beyond knowledge, by attaining which the sages have reached perfection.
- 14.1 Lord Shri Krishna continued: Now I will reveal to you the wisdom that is beyond knowledge, by attaining which the sages have reached perfection.
- 14.2 Dwelling in wisdom and realizing My divinity, they are not reborn when the universe is recreated at the beginning of every cycle, nor are they affected when it is dissolv…
- 14.3 The eternal cosmos is My womb, in which I plant the seed from which all beings are born, O prince!
- 14.4 O illustrious son of Kunti! Through whatever wombs men are born, it is the Spirit itself that conceives, and I am their father.
- 14.5 Purity, passion, and ignorance are the qualities that the law of nature brings forth. They fetter the free spirit in all beings.
- 14.6 O Sinless One! Of these, purity, being luminous, strong, and invulnerable, binds one with its yearning for happiness and illumination.
- 14.7 Passion, engendered by thirst for pleasure and attachment, binds the soul through its fondness for activities.
- 14.8 But Ignorance, the product of darkness, stupefies the senses of all embodied beings, binding them with chains of folly, indolence, and lethargy.
- 14.9 Purity brings happiness, passion brings commotion, and ignorance, which obscures wisdom, leads to a life of failure.
- 14.10 O Prince! Purity prevails when passion and ignorance are overcome; passion, when purity and ignorance are overcome; and ignorance when it is overcome by purity and passio…
- 14.11 When the light of knowledge gleams forth from all the gates of the body, then be sure that purity prevails.
- 14.12 O best of Indians! Avarice, the impulse to act, and the beginning of action itself are all due to the dominance of passion.
- 14.13 Darkness, stagnation, folly, and infatuation are the results of the dominance of ignorance, O joy of the Kuru clan!
- 14.14 When purity prevails, the soul, upon leaving the body, passes on to the pure regions where those who know the Highest reside.
- 14.15 When passion prevails, the soul is reborn among those who love activity; when ignorance rules, it enters the wombs of the ignorant.
- 14.16 They say the fruit of a meritorious action is spotless and pure; the outcome of passion is misery, and of ignorance, darkness.
- 14.17 Purity engenders wisdom, passion avarice, and ignorance folly, infatuation, and darkness.
- 14.18 When purity is in the ascendant, the man evolves; when passion is in the ascendant, he neither evolves nor degenerates; when ignorance is in the ascendant, he is lost.
- 14.19 As soon as one understands that it is only the qualities that act and nothing else, and perceives that which is beyond, they attain My divine nature.
- 14.20 When the soul transcends the Qualities, which are the real cause of physical existence, then, freed from birth and death, from old age and misery, he drinks the nectar of…
- 14.21 Arjuna asked, "My Lord, how can one recognize someone who has transcended the qualities? How do they act and live beyond them?"
- 14.22 Lord Shri Krishna replied: O Prince! He who does not shun the quality that is present and does not long for that which is absent;
- 14.23 He who maintains an attitude of indifference, who is not disturbed by the qualities, who realizes that it is only they who act, and remains calm;
- 14.24 Who accepts pain and pleasure as they come, is centered in their Self, to whom a piece of clay, stone, or gold are all the same, who neither likes nor dislikes, who is st…
- 14.25 Who looks equally upon honor and dishonor, loves friends and foes alike, and abandons all initiative, such is he who transcends the qualities.
- 14.26 And he who serves Me alone, with unwavering devotion, shall overcome the Qualities and become one with the Eternal.
- 14.27 For I am the home of the spirit, the continual source of immortality, eternal righteousness, and infinite joy.