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Ananta

गुणत्रयविभागयोग

Chapter 14

Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga

Yoga through Understanding the Three Modes of Material Nature · 27 verses

This chapter is traditionally treasured as the Gita's account of the three gunas, the strands of nature, and the title means the yoga of dividing them. Guna means a basic quality of prakriti, which is nature, the material ground of the world. Krishna says he places a seed into nature, the womb of all beings, so every birth is the joint work of nature and the Lord. Three gunas run through everything: sattva, which is clarity and calm; rajas, which is restless drive and craving; and tamas, which is dullness and delusion. Each binds the self that wears a body, though the self in its own nature stays untouched. Krishna gives the marks of each guna, how each shapes action, and where each carries a person at death. He then describes the one who has crossed beyond all three. Such a person stays even in pleasure and pain, in praise and blame, watching nature move without being pulled in. This is steadiness, not coldness. The means to cross over is unswerving devotion to Krishna. The chapter closes by naming Krishna as the ground of Brahman, the deathless, and unbroken happiness. On what reaching that goal finally is, whether full identity with the supreme or an abiding likeness near a personal Lord, the schools genuinely differ; Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, Shuddhadvaita, and Bhakti each read it in their own way.

श्लोकाः
14.1श्री भगवानुवाचपरं भूयः प्रवक्ष्यामि ज्ञानानां ज्ञानमुत्तमम्।यज्ज्ञात्वा मुनयः सर्वे परां सिद्धिमितो गताः

Krishna said: I will explain once more the supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge. Knowing it, all the sages have passed from here to the highest perfection.

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14.2इदं ज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यमागताः।सर्गेऽपि नोपजायन्ते प्रलये न व्यथन्ति च

Those who take refuge in this knowledge come to share my own nature. They are not born when creation begins, and they do not suffer when it dissolves.

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14.3मम योनिर्महद्ब्रह्म तस्मिन् गर्भं दधाम्यहम्।संभवः सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत

The great Brahman is my womb. In it I place the seed. From that, Arjuna, all beings are born.

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14.4सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तेय मूर्तयः सम्भवन्ति याः।तासां ब्रह्म महद्योनिरहं बीजप्रदः पिता

Whatever forms are born from any womb, Arjuna, the great Brahman is their womb, and I am the father who gives the seed.

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14.5सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसंभवाः।निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम्

Goodness, passion, and ignorance: these are the qualities born of Nature. They bind the imperishable embodied self to the body, Arjuna.

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14.6तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम्।सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ

Of these, goodness is pure, and so it gives light and is free of disease. It binds through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge, sinless one.

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14.7रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम्।तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम्

Know that passion is made of longing, born of thirst and attachment. It binds the embodied self through attachment to action, Arjuna.

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14.8तमस्त्वज्ञानजं विद्धि मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम्।प्रमादालस्यनिद्राभिस्तन्निबध्नाति भारत

Know that ignorance is born of unknowing and deludes all the embodied. It binds through negligence, laziness, and sleep, Arjuna.

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14.9सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति रजः कर्मणि भारत।ज्ञानमावृत्य तु तमः प्रमादे सञ्जयत्युत

Goodness binds one to happiness, Arjuna, and passion to action. Ignorance veils knowledge and binds one to negligence.

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14.10रजस्तमश्चाभिभूय सत्त्वं भवति भारत।रजः सत्त्वं तमश्चैव तमः सत्त्वं रजस्तथा

Goodness rises by overpowering passion and ignorance, Arjuna. Passion rises by overpowering goodness and ignorance. And ignorance rises by overpowering goodness and passion.

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14.11सर्वद्वारेषु देहेऽस्मिन्प्रकाश उपजायते।ज्ञानं यदा तदा विद्याद्विवृद्धं सत्त्वमित्युत

When the light of knowledge shines through all the gates of this body, then know that goodness has grown strong.

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14.12लोभः प्रवृत्तिरारम्भः कर्मणामशमः स्पृहा।रजस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे भरतर्षभ

Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, and craving: these arise when passion grows strong, Arjuna.

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14.13अप्रकाशोऽप्रवृत्तिश्च प्रमादो मोह एव च।तमस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे कुरुनन्दन

When tamas dominates, these arise: lack of light, inertia, negligence, and delusion.

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14.14यदा सत्त्वे प्रवृद्धे तु प्रलयं याति देहभृत्।तदोत्तमविदां लोकानमलान्प्रतिपद्यते

When the embodied self dies while sattva is dominant, it reaches the pure worlds of those who know the highest.

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14.15रजसि प्रलयं गत्वा कर्मसङ्गिषु जायते।तथा प्रलीनस्तमसि मूढयोनिषु जायते

Dying while rajas dominates, one is born among people attached to action. Dying while tamas dominates, one is born in the wombs of the deluded.

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14.16कर्मणः सुकृतस्याहुः सात्त्विकं निर्मलं फलम्।रजसस्तु फलं दुःखमज्ञानं तमसः फलम्

They say the fruit of good action is pure, born of sattva. The fruit of rajas is pain. The fruit of tamas is ignorance.

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14.17सत्त्वात्सञ्जायते ज्ञानं रजसो लोभ एव च।प्रमादमोहौ तमसो भवतोऽज्ञानमेव च

From sattva arises knowledge. From rajas, greed. From tamas arise negligence, delusion, and ignorance.

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14.18ऊर्ध्वं गच्छन्ति सत्त्वस्था मध्ये तिष्ठन्ति राजसाः।जघन्यगुणवृत्तिस्था अधो गच्छन्ति तामसाः

Those settled in sattva rise upward. Those given to rajas stay in the middle. Those given to tamas, caught in the lowest quality, go downward.

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14.19नान्यं गुणेभ्यः कर्तारं यदा द्रष्टानुपश्यति।गुणेभ्यश्च परं वेत्ति मद्भावं सोऽधिगच्छति

When the seer sees no agent other than the qualities, and knows what is beyond the qualities, that one attains My nature.

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14.20गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान्।जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर्विमुक्तोऽमृतमश्नुते

Having transcended these three qualities, which give rise to the body, the embodied self is freed from birth, death, old age, and sorrow, and attains immortality.

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14.21अर्जुन उवाचकैर्लिंगैस्त्रीन्गुणानेतानतीतो भवति प्रभो।किमाचारः कथं चैतांस्त्रीन्गुणानतिवर्तते

Arjuna said: By what signs is one known who has gone beyond these three qualities? How does such a person act? How does one transcend these three qualities?

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14.22श्री भगवानुवाचप्रकाशं च प्रवृत्तिं च मोहमेव च पाण्डव।न द्वेष्टि सम्प्रवृत्तानि न निवृत्तानि काङ्क्षति

Krishna said: He does not hate light, activity, or delusion when they arise, nor does he long for them when they cease.

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14.23उदासीनवदासीनो गुणैर्यो न विचाल्यते।गुणा वर्तन्त इत्येव योऽवतिष्ठति नेङ्गते

He sits like one indifferent, unmoved by the qualities. Knowing that it is only the qualities that act, he stays firm and does not waver.

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14.24समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः।तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस्तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः

He is the same in sorrow and happiness, settled in the Self. A clod, a stone, and gold are alike to him. The pleasant and the unpleasant are the same. He is steady. Praise and blame are the same to him.

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14.25मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः।सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते

The same in honor and dishonor, the same toward friend and foe, having renounced all undertakings: such a one is said to have gone beyond the gunas.

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14.26मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्ितयोगेन सेवते।स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान् ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते

And the one who serves Me with unswerving devotion goes beyond these gunas and becomes fit for Brahman.

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14.27ब्रह्मणो हि प्रतिष्ठाऽहममृतस्याव्ययस्य च।शाश्वतस्य च धर्मस्य सुखस्यैकान्तिकस्य च

For I am the ground of Brahman, the immortal and changeless, the eternal dharma, and absolute bliss.

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