Chapter 14: Guṇa Traya Vibhāg Yog – Yoga through Understanding the Three Modes of Material Nature
गुणत्रयविभागयोग · 27 verses
Chapter Summary
The fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is "Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga". In this chapter, Krishna reveals the three gunas (modes) of the material nature - goodness, passion and ignorance which everything in the material existence is influenced by. He further explains the essential characteristics of each of these modes, their cause and how they influence a living entity affected by them. He then reveals the various characteristics of the persons who have gone beyond these gunas. The chapter ends with Krishna reminding us of the power of pure devotion to God and how attachment to God can help us transcend these gunas.
Verses
- 14.1 — The Blessed Lord Shri Krishna said: I shall further declare unto you that supreme knowledge, the best of all…
- 14.2 — Those who, having taken refuge in this knowledge, have attained a state of oneness with Me, are neither born…
- 14.3 — My womb is the great Brahman (Prakriti); in it I place the seed of all living entities, and from that union,…
- 14.4 — O son of Kunti, know that in all forms of life that are born from various wombs, the material nature is the…
- 14.5 — Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas — these three modes born of material nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, bind the…
- 14.6 — O sinless Arjuna, of these three modes, the mode of goodness (sattva-guna), being purer than the others, is…
- 14.7 — Know, O Arjuna, that the mode of passion, Rajas, is born of unlimited desires and longings, and because of…
- 14.8 — But know, O Arjuna, that Tamas is born of ignorance and deludes all embodied beings. It binds the soul fast…
- 14.9 — Sattva binds one to happiness, Rajas to action, O Arjuna, while Tamas, verily shrouding knowledge, attaches…
- 14.10 — O descendant of Bharata, sometimes goodness (Sattva) prevails, having conquered passion (Rajas) and…
- 14.11 — When the light of wisdom shines through all the gates of this body, then it should be known that the quality…
- 14.12 — Greed, intense activity, the undertaking of worldly projects, restlessness, and deep longing—these symptoms…
- 14.13 — Lord Krishna says: 'Darkness, inertia, negligence, and delusion—these occur when the mode of ignorance…
- 14.14 — When the embodied soul departs while the mode of goodness (Sattva) is predominant, it attains the stainless,…
- 14.15 — If one meets death while Rajas is predominant, one is born among those attached to fruitive actions; and if…
- 14.16 — The result of a virtuous act is said to be Sattvic and pure; the result of passion is misery, and the result…
- 14.17 — From Sattva arises knowledge, from Rajas arises greed, and from Tamas arise heedlessness, delusion, and also…
- 14.18 — Those established in Sattva ascend to higher realms, those governed by Rajas remain in the middle sphere,…
- 14.19 — When the seer perceives no agent of action other than the three modes of material nature (Gunas), and knows…
- 14.20 — When the embodied soul transcends these three modes of material nature that originate the body, it becomes…
- 14.21 — Arjuna asked: O Lord, what are the characteristics of one who has transcended these three modes of material…
- 14.22 — Shri Krishna said: He who does not abhor illumination, activity, and delusion when they are manifest, nor…
- 14.23 — He who remains like one unconcerned, undisturbed by the modes of material nature, and who, knowing that the…
- 14.24 — He who is alike in pleasure and pain, who is established in the Self, to whom a clod of earth, a stone, and…
- 14.25 — He who is the same in honor and dishonor, the same to friend and foe, having abandoned all undertakings, is…
- 14.26 — And he who serves Me with unwavering devotion, transcending these three modes of material nature, at once…
- 14.27 — For I am the foundation of the impersonal Brahman, of immortality, of imperishability, of eternal Dharma,…