Main Points of the Discourse:
- The excellence of jnana and the origin of the world by the union of prakriti and purusha. (1-4)
- The nature of the three Gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas). (5-13)
- The effects of the three Gunas. (14-18)
- The way to attain Paramatma. (19-20)
- The qualities of Jivamukta who has transcended the three Gunas. (21-27)
Verses 1 to 27
- The Lord said: Once more I will expound that Supreme Knowledge, the most exalted of all forms of knowledge, by gaining which all the sages have attained highest perfection. (14.1)
- They who, having devoted themselves to this Knowledge, have partaken of My nature, are not born at the time of creation, nor are they troubled at the time of dissolution. (14.2)
- The Great Nature is My womb; in that I place the seed of life, and thence are born all beings, Ο Bhārata. (14.3)
- Whatever form is produced, Ο son of Kunti, in any womb, the Great Nature is its womb, and I am the seed-giving Father. (14.4)
- O Arjuna! Born of Prakriti, the three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas bind the imperishable Jivatma in the body. (14.5)
- Of these, sattva, being stainless, is luminous and healthful. It binds, Ο sinless Arjuna, by creating attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge. (14.6)
- Know that rajas is the essence of passion and the cause of thirst and attachment. It binds fast the embodied soul, Ο son of Kunti, by attachment to action. (14.7)
- And know further that tamas is born of ignorance and that it deludes all embodied creatures. It binds fast, Ο Bhārata, by inadvertence, indolence, and sleep. (14.8)
- Sattva binds one to happiness, and rajas to action, Ο Bhārata; whereas tamas veils knowledge and binds one to inadvertence. (14.9)
- Sattva asserts itself by prevailing over rajas and tamas, Ο Bhārata; rajas asserts itself by prevailing over sattva and tamas; and tamas asserts itself by prevailing over sattva and rajas. (14.10)
- When the light of knowledge shines through all the gateways of the body, then it may be known that sattva has prevailed. (14.11)
- Greed, activity, enterprise, unrest, longing— these arise, Ο lord of the Bhāratas, when rajas prevails. (14.12)
- Darkness, indolence, inadvertence, delusion— all these arise, Ο descendant of Kuru, when tamas prevails. (14.13)
- If the embodied soul meets with death when sattva prevails, it goes to the spotless realms of those who know the Highest. (14.14)
- If the embodied soul meets with death when rajas prevails, it is born among those who are attached to action; and if it meets with death when tamas prevails, it is born in the wombs of creatures devoid of reason. (14.15)
- The fruit of a good action is said to be good and clean; the fruit of rajas is pain; and the fruit of tamas is ignorance. (14.16)
- From sattva springs knowledge, and from rajas, greed; from tamas spring inadvertence, delusion, and ignorance. (14.17)
- Those who are established in sattva go upward; those who are moved by rajas remain in the middle; and those who are steeped in tamas, being weighted by the tendencies of the lowest guna, go downward. (14.18)
- When a man of insight beholds no agent other than the gunas, and also knows Him who is beyond the gunas, he attains My being. (14.19)
- When the embodied soul has risen above the three gunas of which its body is made, it gains deliverance from birth, death, old age, and pain and becomes immortal. (14.20)
- Arjuna said: What are the marks, Ο Lord, of the man who has risen above the three gunas? What is his conduct? And how does he rise above the gunas? (14.21)
- The Lord said: O Arjuna! He (the Gunatita) does not hate when the three Gunas bring happiness (from Sattva), action (from Rajo-guna), and delusion (from Tamo-guna): nor does he long for them when they are absent. He sits like one unconcerned, unaffected by the Gunas, knowing that the Gunas are functioning, and is not moved. He is equal-minded in joy and sorrow, established in Self; regards a clod, a stone, and gold alike; the same in pleasant and unpleasant things; heroic, equal in censure and praise. He is the same in honour and dishonour; the same towards friends and enemies; abadons all actions; he is said to be Gunatita. (14.22-14.25)
- And he who worships Me with the yoga of undeviating love rises above the gunas and becomes fit to be one with Brahman. (14.26)
- For I am the Abode of Brahman, the Immortal and the Immutable, and of the Eternal Dharma, and of Absolute Bliss. (14.27)