VERSES 1-4: KṚṢṆA GIVES LIFE TO THIS MATERIAL WORLD
14.1
Lord Kṛṣṇa says:
I shall speak to you again of another kind of knowledge; this is the
best of all forms of knowledge. By knowing this, all the sages have
attained the highest perfection beyond this world.
Dedicating themselves to this knowledge, they attain the same nature and
quality as Me. As a result, they are not born at the time of creation,
and are unaffected at the time of its dissolution.
idaṁ jñānam upāśritya mama sadharmyam āgatāḥ |
sarge’pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca || 2 ||
14.3
My womb is the totality of material existence, within which I place the
seed of life. From that, O Arjuna, all beings are born.
mama yonir mahad-brahma tasmin garbham dadhāmyaham |
saṁbhavaḥ sarva bhūtānāṁ tato bhavati bhārata || 3 ||
14.4
Different beings come from various wombs, O Arjuna, but this material
nature is the womb for all of them and I am the seed-giving Father.
Of these, because sattva is pure, it is illuminating and free from
contamination. It causes bondage, O Arjuna, through attachment to
happiness and to learning.
Arjuna, know that tamas is born of ignorance and causes the delusion of
all embodied souls. It creates bondage, through negligence, laziness and
sleep.
The mode of sattva generates attachment to pleasure and rajas to action,
O Arjuna. But the mode of tamas, obscuring wisdom, creates attachment to
negligence.
Sometimes sattva prevails by subduing rajas and tamas, O Arjuna.
Sometimes rajas prevails by subduing tamas and sattva, and other times
tamas prevails by subduing rajas and sattva.
rajas tamaścābhibhūya sattvaṁ bhavati bhārata |
rajas sattvaṁ tamaścaiva tamas sattvaṁ rajas-tathā ||
14.11
When the light of wisdom radiates in all the doorways (senses) of the
body, then one should know that sattva prevails.
Meeting death when rajas predominates, one is born among those attached
to action. Similarly, one who meets death when tamas prevails is born
among beings in delusion.
From sattva arises wisdom, from rajas comes greed, and from tamas comes
negligence, delusion, as well as ignorance.
sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṁ rajaso lobha eva ca |
pramāda-mohau tamaso bhavato’jñānam eva ca ||
14.18
Those who are established in sattva rise upwards; those who dwell in
rajas remain in the middle; and those who adhere to tamas, influenced by
the lowest tendencies, go downwards.
When the enlightened one sees that nothing acts other than the guṇas,
and when he realises what lies beyond the guṇas, then he attains My
divine nature.
By transcending these three guṇas from which the body arises, the
embodied Self is freed from birth, death, old age and suffering, and
thereby attains immortality.
Lord Kṛṣṇa says:
O Arjuna, he does not resent illumination, activity or delusion when
they appear, nor does he long for them when they are absent.
śrī bhagavān uvāca
prakāśaṁ ca pravṛttiṁ ca moham-eva ca pāṇḍava |
na dveṣṭi saṁpravṛttāni na nivṛttāni kāṅkṣati ||
14.23
He remains indifferent and undisturbed by the guṇas. He knows it is the
guṇas alone that are active, and so he remains stable and unwavering.
udāsīnavad āsīno guṇair yo na vicālyate |
guṇā vartanta ityeva yo’vatiṣṭhati neṅgate ||
14.24
He is equal in pleasure and pain; he is focused within; he sees a lump
of earth, a stone and a piece of gold as the same; he is firmly
resolved; he is equal to those who are dear to him and those who are
not; he regards praise and blame equally;
sama duḥkha sukhaḥ svasthaḥ sama loṣṭāśma kāñcanaḥ |
tulya priyāpriyo dhīras-tulya nindātma saṁstutiḥ ||
14.25
He is indifferent to honour and dishonour, he is equal to friends and
enemies; and he has abandoned all worldly ambitions — such a person is
said to have transcended the guṇas.