Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga
The Yoga Of The Three Qualities of Material Nature And Their Divisions

14:1: The Blessed One said: I will further describe the highest knowledge, the knowledge which is supreme, knowing which, all the sages have gone forth and attained incomparable perfection.

14:2: Taking refuge in this knowledge and thereby attaining a nature like My own, one is not born at the time of creation nor disturbed even at the time of the dissolution [of the material universes].

14:3: From My womb, which is the great Brahman [material nature], all living entities are conceived, impregnated and born, O descendent of Bharata.

14:4: O child of Kunti, Brahman [material nature] is the great womb from which all species are born and I am the seed giving father.

14:5: The material qualities of goodness (sattva), passion (raja) and ignorance (tamas) are born of material nature. O mighty armed one, they bind the imperishable embodied being to the body.

14:6: Of these, the quality of sattva (goodness), due to its purity, is luminous and healthy. It binds, O sinless one, through attachment to happiness and knowledge.

14:7: Know the quality of raja (passion), which is composed of desires born of thirst and attachment, to bind the embodied being who is attached to fruitive activities, O son of Kunti.

14:8: Know the quality of tamas (ignorance), which is born of ignorance, to delude all embodied beings. It binds them through negligence, apathy and sleep, O descendent of Bharata.

14:9: The quality of sattva binds one to happiness, the quality of raja to fruitive activities, and the quality of tamas envelopes knowledge and binds one to negligence, O descendent of Bharata.

14:10: Sometimes the quality of goodness overpowers the qualities of passion and ignorance, O descendent of Bharata. At other times the quality of passion surpasses goodness and ignorance, while at yet other times ignorance excels goodness and passion.

14:11: When every gate in the body is illuminated by the birth of knowledge, know thereby that the quality of goodness (sattva) has increased.

14:12: Greed, activity, endeavoring, mischief and desiring, these are the manifestations of the augmented quality of passion (raja), O best of the Bharatas.

14:13: Darkness, inactivity, negligence and delusion, these are the manifestations of the augmented quality of ignorance (tamas), O child of Kuru.

14:14: If the embodied living entity dies with the quality of goodness predominating, he/she attains the undefiled worlds of those who know the supreme.

14:15: One who dies in the quality of passion is born in the association of fruitive workers. Those dying in the quality of ignorance take birth in the wombs of fools.

14:16: Pious activities are said to be the pure fruit of sattva, suffering is the fruit of raja and ignorance is the fruit of tamas.

14:17: From the quality of goodness knowledge is born, from the quality of passion comes greed and from the quality of ignorance negligence, delusion and ignorance are born.

14:18: Those who abide in the quality of goodness are elevated, those who abide in the quality of passion dwell in the middle and those who abide in the quality of ignorance, the basest of all material qualities, are degraded.

14:19: When the seer beholds no other doer of activities than these qualities of material nature, and knows My nature to be superior to these material qualities, that seer attains Me.

14:20: Crossing beyond these three qualities, which are produced from the body, the embodied entity is freed from birth, death, old age and affliction and attains the nectar of immortality.

14:21: Arjuna inquired: O my God, what are the distinguishing marks of one who has transcended the three qualities of material nature? How does such a person act? How does one transcend the three gunas?

14:22-25: The Blessed One replied: O son of Pandu, one who does not hate illumination, engagements and delusion when commencing, nor desires them when concluding,
Who lives detached, yet remains firm in the presence of the gunas, who is not deviated by them and who continues to function without being skaken,
Who is equipoised in suffering and happiness, who abides in the Self, who views a lump of dirt, a stone and gold equally, who is equal to friends and foes alike, who is sober and dispassionate in the face of reproach or personal praise,
Who is objective in honor and dishonor, who is equitable to friends and foes, and who renounces all undertakings - such a one is said to have transcended the qualities of material nature.

14:26: One who is steady in bhakti-yoga and serves Me and who crosses beyond the qualities [of material nature] is fit for attaining brahman realization.

14:27: I am the abode of the immortal and immutable Brahman: the source of eternal religious and moral duties which bestow absolute happiness.

Here Ends Chapter Fourteen

Go to: Chapter Fifteen

Go to: Setting the Stage: My Introduction.

Go to: Notes and References.