The Path beyond the Three Guṇas

At the end of Chapter 13, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa said that one who perceives through the eye of wisdom the difference between kṣetra and kṣetrajña attains the Supreme. This naturally gives rise to the following questions: What exactly is that wisdom ( jñāna), what is its value or glory, and how is it gained? Śrī Kṛṣṇa answers these questions in Chapter 14. This chapter contains twenty-seven verses, one spoken by Arjuna and the remaining by Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
The conjunction with prakṛti and its evolutes, or modifications, leads to bondage. Consequently, Kṛṣṇa had previously described the nature of prakṛti and its evolutes to facilitate giving up one’s identification with prakṛti. In this chapter, He explains the guṇas, which pervade all the evolutes of prakṛti.
In the first two verses, Kṛṣṇa praises jñāna. He says that those who have taken shelter of this jñāna have attained a nature similar to His own (2). Kṛṣṇa then begins a description of prakṛti and its guṇas that continues through verse 20. He explains that prakṛti is like the womb into which God, or the Puruṣa, injects the individual beings, comparing them to the procreational seed (3–4). Thereafter, the various living beings take birth according to their karma. Prakṛti consists of three guṇas, namely, sattva, rajas, and tamas. Sattva is pure and illuminating, but it binds one to happiness and knowledge. Rajas is passion and gives rise to desire and material attachment. It binds by attachment to action (karma). Tamas is born of ignorance and results in delusion. It leads to carelessness, lethargy, and excessive sleep.
Śrī Kṛṣṇa also describes the outcome of actions performed under the influence of sattva, rajas, and tamas, respectively, as well as the destination reached by one who passes away under their different influences. These are the basic characteristics of the guṇas (5–18). Those who perceive that the guṇas alone are functioning, while they themselves are distinct and superior to the guṇas, attain the nature of God (19). By transcending the influence of the guṇas, one becomes free from the sufferings of birth, death, and old age (20).
Hearing this, Arjuna inquires: “By what characteristics is one known to have transcended these three guṇas of nature? What is his conduct, and how does he transcend these three guṇas” (21)? Śrī Kṛṣṇa replies in six verses up to the end of the chapter. After describing the characteristics of a person who is beyond the three guṇas (22–25), He explains that devotees can attain such a state through unswerving devotion to Him. Such devotees become qualified to realize Brahman (26). In the last verse of this chapter, Śrī Kṛṣṇa explains that Brahman is rooted in Him. By this, He implies that His devotees naturally attain realization of Brahman and are free from the three guṇas.

All Verses

  1. Verse 1Śrī Bhagavān said: I shall describe again the preeminent and supreme knowledge among all forms of knowledge, realizing which, all the enlightened thinkers attained the supreme perfection of liberation from this world.
  2. Verse 2Those who, by taking refuge of this knowledge, have attained sameness with My nature and qualities are not born again even at the time of creation nor are they distressed at the time of dissolution.
  3. Verse 3O descendant of Bharata, the measureless material nature (Brahman*) is My womb wherein I place the seed of all conscious beings, from which ensues the birth of all beings.
  4. Verse 4O son of Kuntī, whatever forms are born in all species of life, the measureless material nature is their source, and I am the seed-giving father.
  5. Verse 5The guṇas — namely, sattva, rajas, and tamas — which are born of material nature*, bind the imperishable embodied being to the body, O mighty-armed.
  6. Verse 6Of these, sattva, being pure, is illuminating and free from misery. But, O sinless one, it binds by attachment to happiness and knowledge.
  7. Verse 7Know rajas to be of the nature of passion and the source of desire and attachment. O son of Kuntī, it binds the embodied self by attachment to action.
  8. Verse 8Know tamas, however, to be the source of ignorance*, the deluder of all embodied beings. O descendant of Bharata, it binds fast through carelessness, lethargy, and sleep.
  9. Verse 9Sattva binds one to happiness, O descendant of Bharata, rajas to action, while tamas, obscuring knowledge, enslaves one indeed to negligence.
  10. Verse 10O descendant of Bharata, sattva prevails by overpowering rajas and tamas, rajas prevails by overpowering sattva and tamas, and tamas prevails by overpowering sattva and rajas.
  11. Verse 11When knowledge illuminating the factual nature of objects arises in all the cognitive senses, which are the gates into the body, then one should know that sattva is indeed predominant.
  12. Verse 12O best of the Bharatas, when rajas is predominant, greed, activity, undertaking of work [with a material motive], and uncontrollable desire for sense objects become manifest.
  13. Verse 13O descendant of Kuru, when tamas is predominant, absence of discrimination, indifference to duty, carelessness, and delusion become manifest.
  14. Verse 14If an embodied being meets with death when sattva is predominant, he attains the pure worlds reached by those of the highest wisdom.
  15. Verse 15If one dies under the influence of rajas, he takes birth among those attached to action; similarly, if one dies when tamas is predominant, he is born among the ignorant species of life.
  16. Verse 16The result of meritorious action is said to be sāttvika and pure. But the result of rājasika action is misery, and the result of tāmasika action is ignorance.
  17. Verse 17Knowledge springs from sattva, whereas from rajas, only greed arises. Likewise, from tamas arise inattention, delusion, and ignorance.
  18. Verse 18Those who are situated in sattva ascend upwards [to higher regions], those of the nature of rajas remain in the middle region [the earthly sphere], and those of the nature of tamas, who are stuck in base behavior and nature born of the lowest qualities, glide downwards [to lower regions].
  19. Verse 19When a person of discrimination sees no other agent than the guṇas of material nature and knows himself as beyond the guṇas, then he attains My nature.
  20. Verse 20Having transcended these three guṇas of nature, which are the source of production of the body, the embodied being is freed from birth, death, old age, and all types of miseries, and attains liberation.
  21. Verse 21Arjuna inquired: O Master, by what characteristics is one known to have transcended these three guṇas of nature? What is his conduct and how does he transcend these three guṇas?
  22. Verse 22-25Śrī Bhagavān replied: O son of Pāṇḍu, a person is said to have transcended the guṇas of nature who is not averse to the light of knowledge, to activity, and even to delusion when they are present, nor hankers for them when they have ceased; who remains like a witness, as if indifferent, who is undisturbed by the guṇas of nature, and who is unwavering, remaining firmly situated in the understanding that the guṇas of nature alone are functioning; who is equal in happiness and distress, who is situated in the self, who regards as equal a clod of mud, a stone, and a piece of gold, who considers alike both favorable and unfavorable objects and situations, and who is steady, remaining equally disposed toward censure and praise; who is equal in honor and dishonor, who treats alike both friend and foe, and who has renounced all undertakings.
  23. Verse 26A person who serves Me alone through unswerving devotion, completely transcends these guṇas of nature and becomes eligible to realize Brahman.
  24. Verse 27Verily, I am the shelter of Brahman, of the imperishable immortality, of the eternal dharma [devotion], and of absolute bliss [love].