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The Three Modes of Nature · 27 verses
Ask Krishna about this chapterThe Blessed Lord said: I shall again declare the supreme knowledge, the best among all knowledges, by knowing which all the sages have attained the highest perfection…
Dwelling in wisdom and realizing My divinity, they are not reborn when the universe is recreated at the beginning of every cycle, nor are they affected when it is…
The eternal cosmos is My womb, in which I plant the seed from which all beings are born, O prince!
O son of Kunti, whatever forms come into being in all wombs, the great Prakrti is their womb, and I am the seed-giving father.
Purity, passion, and ignorance are the qualities that the law of nature brings forth. They fetter the free spirit in all beings.
Among these, sattva, being stainless, is illuminating and free from affliction. O sinless one, it binds through attachment to happiness and through attachment to…
Passion, engendered by thirst for pleasure and attachment, binds the soul through its fondness for activities.
But know tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings; it binds them, O Bharata, through heedlessness, laziness, and sleep.
O Bharata, sattva binds one to happiness, rajas binds one to action, while tamas, veiling knowledge, binds one to heedlessness.
O Bharata, sattva prevails by overpowering rajas and tamas; rajas prevails by overpowering sattva and tamas; and likewise, tamas prevails by overpowering sattva and…
When the light of knowledge gleams forth from all the gates of the body, then be sure that purity prevails.
Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, and craving — these arise when rajas predominates, O best of the Bharatas.
Darkness, stagnation, folly, and infatuation are the results of the dominance of ignorance, O joy of the Kuru clan!
When purity prevails, the soul, upon leaving the body, passes on to the pure regions where those who know the Highest reside.
When passion prevails, the soul is reborn among those who love activity; when ignorance rules, it enters the wombs of the ignorant.
The fruit of righteous action, they say, is pure and sattvic; but the fruit of rajas is sorrow, and the fruit of tamas is ignorance.
From sattva arises knowledge, and from rajas, greed indeed. From tamas arise negligence and delusion, as well as ignorance.
Those established in sattva rise upward; those of rajas remain in the middle; and those abiding in the function of the lowest quality, the tamasic, go downward.
As soon as one understands that it is only the qualities that act and nothing else, and perceives that which is beyond, they attain My divine nature.
When the soul transcends the Qualities, which are the real cause of physical existence, then, freed from birth and death, from old age and misery, he drinks the nectar…
Arjuna asked, "My Lord, how can one recognize someone who has transcended the qualities? How do they act and live beyond them?"
The Blessed Lord said: O Pandava, he neither hates illumination, activity, and delusion when they arise, nor longs for them when they cease.
He who maintains an attitude of indifference, who is not disturbed by the qualities, who realizes that it is only they who act, and remains calm;
Who accepts pain and pleasure as they come, is centered in their Self, to whom a piece of clay, stone, or gold are all the same, who neither likes nor dislikes, who is…
He who is equal in honor and dishonor, equal toward the sides of friend and foe, and who has renounced all undertakings — he is said to have transcended the gunas.
And he who serves Me alone, with unwavering devotion, shall overcome the Qualities and become one with the Eternal.
For I am the home of the spirit, the continual source of immortality, eternal righteousness, and infinite joy.