Bhagavad Gita—Chapter Fourteen

The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas

The Holy Lord said:
I shall tell you supreme knowledge
Which is the best of all knowledge,
Having known which all the sages
Attained to highest perfection. (1)

Resorting to this knowledge they
Attain identity with Me,
At creation they are not born,
Nor tremble at its dissolving.1 (2)

For me great Brahma is the womb,
And in that do I place the egg.
The origin of all beings
Then comes from that, O Bharata. (3)

Whatever be the forms produced
Within all wombs, Son of Kunti,
Of them Brahma is the great womb,
And I the seed-casting Father. (4)

Sattwa, rajas, and tamas–these
Gunas born of Prakriti bind
Fast in the body him who is
Indestructible, embodied. (5)

Sattwa is stainless, luminous,
And free from defect, yet it binds
By attachment to happiness
And by attachment to knowledge. (6)

Know rajas’ nature is passion,
Producing thirst and attachment;
It binds fast the embodied one
By the attachment to action. (7)

Tamas is born of ignorance,
Stupefying the embodied;
It binds by miscomprehension,
Indolence, and sleep, Bharata. (8)

Sattwa ’ttaches to happiness,
Rajas to action, Bharata; And
Tamas, obscuring knowledge,
Attaches unto delusion. (9)

Sattwa prevails over rajas
And tamas; and rajas prevails
Over sattwa and tamas; and
Tamas over sattwa, rajas. (10)

When through each sense of the body
The light of knowledge clearly shines,
Then it should be known that sattwa
Is there fully predominant. (11)

Activity, undertaking
Of actions, greed, unrest, longing–
When rajas is predominant
All these arise, O Bharata. (12)

Darkness, inertness, heedlessness,
And delusion–all these arise
When tamas is predominant,
O descendant of the Kurus. (13)

If the embodied one meets death
When sattwa is predominant,
Then he attains the stainless realms
Of the knowers of the Highest. (14)

Meeting death in rajas, he’s born
Amid those attached to action;
Dying in tamas, he is born
From the wombs of the deluded. (15)

The fruit of good action, they say,
Is sattwic and pure; verily,
The fruit of rajas is pain, and
Ignorance the fruit of tamas. (16)

From sattwa arises wisdom;
From rajas, greed; while from tamas
Arises miscomprehension,
And delusion and ignorance. (17)

The sattwa ’biding go upwards;
Rajasics dwell in the middle;
Tamasics, abiding in the
Lowest guna, do go downward. (18)

When the seer beholds no agent
Other than the gunas and knows
That which is higher than gunas,
He attains unto My being. (19)

He who goes beyond these gunas
Which are the source of the body,
Is freed from birth, death, disease, pain,
And attains immortality. (20)

Arjuna said:
By what marks, O Lord, is he known
Who has gone beyond the gunas?
What is his conduct, and how does
He pass beyond these three gunas? (21)

The Holy Lord said:
He who hates not the appearance
Of light and of activity
And delusion, O Pandava,
Nor yet longs for them when absent; (22)

He, sitting like one unconcerned,
Who is not moved by the gunas,
Knowing: “The gunas operate,”
Stands firm and is unwavering. (23)

The same in pleasure or in pain,
He sees earth, stone, and gold alike;
Alike to pleasing, displeasing,
Firm, the same in censure and praise; (24)

The same in honor and disgrace,
The same to friend and enemy,
Renouncing all undertakings–
He has gone beyond the gunas. (25)

He who renders service to Me
With unswerving devotion, he,
Going beyond the three gunas,
Is fit for union with Brahman. (26)

“I am the abode of Brahman,
The Immortal, Immutable,
Abode of Eternal Dharma,
Abode of the Absolute Bliss.”2 (27)

Om Tat Sat
Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the fourteenth discourse entitled: The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas.

More chapters of the Bhagavad Gita:

• Introduction • Chapter One—The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna • Chapter Two—Sankhya Yoga • Chapter Three—The Yoga of Action • Chapter Four—The Yoga of Wisdom • Chapter Five—The Yoga of Renunciation of Action • Chapter Six—The Yoga of Meditation • Chapter Seven—The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization • Chapter Eight—The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman • Chapter Nine—The Yoga of the Kingly Science and Kingly Secret • Chapter Ten—The Yoga of Divine glories • Chapter Eleven—The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form • Chapter Twelve—The Yoga of Devotion • Chapter Thirteen—The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field • Chapter Fourteen—The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas • Chapter Fifteen—The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit • Chapter Sixteen— Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demoniacal • Chapter Seventeen—The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith • Chapter Eighteen—The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation • Sri Maharshi Gita—An arrangement of verses of the Bhagavad Gita made by Sri Ramana Maharshi that gives an overview of the essential message of the Gita. • The Maharshi Gita sung in english. – This is an arrangement of verses of the Bhagavad Gita made by Sri Ramana Maharshi that gives an overview of the essential message of the Gita. Arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text and sung to a classical Gita melody used to chant the Gita every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India. Sung by the monks of Atma Jyoti Ashram. • To hear online audio files of the above translation of the Gita, click here.

More Bhagavad Gita Commentary by Swami Nirmalananda:
• A Practical Suggestion on Studying the Gita
1. The Battlefield of the Mind 2. The Smile of Krishna 3. Right But Wrong 4. Birth and Death–The Great Illusions 5. Experiencing The Unreal 6. The Unreal and the Real 7. The Body and the Spirit 8. Know the Atman! 9. Practical Self-Knowledge 10. Perspective on Birth and Death 11. The Wonder of the Atman 12. The Indestructible Self 13. “Happy The Warrior” 14. The Virtues of Karma Yoga 15. Religiosity Versus Religion 16. Perspective on Scriptures 17. How Not To Act 18. How To Act 19. How To Be Miserable; How To Be Free 20. Wisdom About the Wise 21. Wisdom about both the Foolish and the Wise 22. The Way of Peace 23. Calming the Storm 24. First Steps in Karma Yoga 25. From the Beginning to the End 26. The Real “Doers” 27. Our Spiritual Marching Orders 28. Freedom From Karma 29. “Nature” 30. Swadharma 31. In the Grip of the Monster 32. “Devotee and Friend” 33. The Eternal Being 34. Worshippers and the Worshipped 35. Caste and Karma 36. Action—Divine and Human 37. The Mystery of Action and Inaction 38. The Wise in Action 39. Sacrificial Offerings 40. The Worship of Brahman 41. The Core Problem 42. Action—Renounced and Performed 43. Freedom (Moksha)	44. The Brahman-Knower 45. The Goal of Karma Yoga 46. The Will of the Wise 47. The Yogis Retreat 48. The Yogi’s Inner Life 49. Union With Brahman 50. The Yogi’s Future 51. Success in Yoga 52. The Net and Its Weaver 53. Those Who Seek God 54. Those Who Worship God and the Gods 55. The Veil in the Mind 56. The Big Picture 57. The Sure Way To Realize God 58. Day, Night, and the Two Paths 59. The Supreme Knowledge 60. Universal Being 61. Maya—Its Dupes and Its Knowers 62. “Shall Not” Versus “Can Not” 63. Going To God 64. Wisdom and Knowing 65. Going To The Source 66. From Hearing To Seeing 67. The Wisdom of Devotion 68. Right Conduct 69. The Field and Its Knower 70. Interaction of Purusha and Prakriti 71. Seeing The One Within the All 72. The Three Gunas—Part One 73. The Cosmic Tree 74. Freedom 75. The All-pervading Reality 76. The Divine and the Demonic 77. Faith and the Three Gunas 78. Food and the Three Gunas 79. Worship and Discipline and the Gunas 80. Tapasya and the Gunas 81. Sannyasa and Tyaga 82. Deeper Insights On Action 83. The Three Gunas: Intellect and Firmness 84. The Three Kinds of Happiness 85. Freedom 86. The Great Devotee 87. The Final Words

Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.

2) This is the realization of the liberated person. [Go back]