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.

My womb is the totality of material existence, within which I place the seed of life. From that, O Arjuna, all beings are born.

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.

Sattva, rajas and tamas are the guṇas that arise from prakṛti. They are responsible for the bondage of the unchanging Self to the body, O Arjuna.

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.

O Arjuna, understand that rajas is the nature of passion and arises from craving and attachment, it causes bondage through attachment to action.

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.

When the light of wisdom radiates in all the doorways (senses) of the body, then one should know that sattva prevails.

Greed, intense endeavour, the undertaking of different tasks, restlessness and craving, arise, O Arjuna, when rajas is dominant.

Dullness, stagnation, negligence and even delusion arise, O Arjuna, when tamas dominates.

If the embodied Self meets death when sattva predominates, then It proceeds to the pure realms of those who know the highest Truth.

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.

The result of sattvic action is a pure good deed; the result of rajasic action is suffering; the result of tamasic action is ignorance.

From sattva arises wisdom, from rajas comes greed, and from tamas comes negligence, delusion, as well as ignorance.

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.

Arjuna says:
What are the indications of one who has transcended the three guṇas? How does one behave? And how does one overcome the three guṇas?

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.

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.

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;

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.

And by serving Me with unswerving devotion, one transcends the guṇas and becomes fit to attain one’s true relationship with Me.

For I am the foundation for the immortal, unchanging Brahman. I am also the basis for this eternal dharma and for perfect happiness.