Chapter XIV : Guna-Traya-Vibhaga-Yoga

THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THE THREE GUNAS

The Blessed Lord said:

Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (purity, passion and inertia).these Gunas, O mighty-armed, born of Prakriti, bind fast in the body the indestructible embodied one. Of these Sattva (purity) which from its stainlessness is luminous and healthy, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one!

Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of thirst for life and objects and attachment, it binds fast, O son of Kunti, the embodied one by attachment to action. But know thou Tamas (inertia) born of ignorance is the deluder of all embodied beings; it binds fast, O Bharata, by heedlessness, indolence and sloth. Now Sattva (purity) prevails, having overpowered Rajas and Tamas, O Bharata; now Rajas, having overpowered Sattva and Tamas; now Tamas, having overpowered Sattva and Rajas. When the wisdom-light shines at every gate (sense) in this body, then it should be known that Sattva is increasing. Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, desire.these are born of increase of Rajas, O best of the Bharatas. Darkness, inertness, heedlessness, and also delusion.these are born of the increase Of Tamas, O descendant of the Kuru.

If the embodied one dies when Sattva is predominant, then he goes to the spotless worlds of the Highest. If he dies when Rajas is predominant, he is born among those attached to action; if he dies when Tamas is predominant he is born in the wombs of the senseless. The fruit of good action, they say, is Sattvic and pure; verily the fruit of Rajas is pain and the fruit of Tamas is ignorance. Those who are seated in Sattva rise upwards; the Rajasic remain in the middle; and the Tamasic who follow in the course of the lowest Guna, go downwards. When the seer beholds not an agent other than the Gunas and knows that which is higher than the Gunas, he attains to My being. The embodied one, having crossed beyond these three Gunas out of which the body is evolved is freed from birth, death, old age and pain and attains the immortal.

Arjuna said:

What are the marks of him who has crossed over the three qualities, O Lord? What is his conduct and how does he pass beyond the three Gunas?

The Blessed Lord said:

He, O Pandava, who hates not radiance nor activity, nor even delusion when present, nor longs for them when absent, he who, seated as a neutral, is not moved by Gunas; who knowing that the Gunas act, is firm and moves not. He to whom pain and pleasure are alike, who dwells in the Self, to whom a lump of earth, stone and gold are alike, to whom the dear and the undear are alike, who is firm, to whom censure and praise are same; the same in honour and disgrace, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings.he is said to have crossed over the qualities.