Shri Krishna

#1

Permit me to elaborate on the transcendental wisdom that the saints and sages relied on to achieve perfection. This is the wisdom that goes beyond all knowledge.

#2

Those who put their trust in this knowledge will be brought into communion with me. They do not believe in rebirth, and they do not have a fear of dying.

#3

My Prakriti serves as my womb, and it is there that I plant the seed. As a result, everything that is created has a beginning.

#4

Everything that is born, Arjun, originates in the womb of Prakriti, and I am the father who gives birth to a new life.

#5

The immortal Self is bound to the body through the interaction of the three gunas that are the products of Prakriti: sattva, rajas, and tamas.

#6

Sattva, which is perfect, illuminating, and devoid of all misery, ties us down with an attachment to happiness and wisdom.

#7

Rajas, also known as passion, is an emotion that results from egocentric desire and attachment. These tie the Self down with actions that are compulsive.

#8

Tamas, who was born from ignorance, lead all living things astray by lulling them into heedlessness, indolence, and sleep.

#9

Sattva ties us down to contentment, while rajas ties us down to activity. Tamas, by warping our perceptions, lead us down the path to self-deception.

#10

When rajas and tamas are transmuted, sattva emerges as the dominant force. When sattva is depleted and tamas is victorious, rajas will take control. Tamas is the dominant quality when rajas and sattva are inactive.

#11

When the quality of sattva is predominant, the light of wisdom shines through each and every gate of the body.

#12

When the rajas dosha is predominant in a person’s life, that person is driven by restlessness and a desire to pursue egotistical and materialistic goals.

#13

A person whose tamas is predominating lives in darkness; they are slothful, confused, and easily swayed by their passions.

#14

Those who pass away while in the sattva state are able to enter the pure worlds inhabited by the wise.

#15

Those who pass away while in the rajas state are reborn among people who are motivated by their work. Those, however, who pass away in tamas were born in the wombs of those who are ignorant.

#16

Pure and sattvic are the fruits that come from doing good deeds. Rajas is a state that inevitably results in suffering. Tamas bears the fruit of ignorance and insensitivity to others.

#17

Understanding originates from sattva, while greed originates from rajas. The result of tamas, on the other hand, is obscurantism, infatuation, and confusion.

#18

Those who live in sattva ascend to higher levels, while those who live in rajas remain at the same level. However, those who are submerged in tamas fall to a lower level.

#19

The wise understand very well that the Gunas are the agents behind all action. They enter into union with me because they are aware of that which is beyond the Gunas.

#20

They transcend the three Gunas that make up the body, which allow them to escape the cycle of birth and death, as well as degeneration and suffering, and ultimately achieve immortality.

Arjun

#21

Who are these people who have transcended the Gunas, O Lord? What are the hallmarks of their existence? What kind of behaviour do they exhibit? They must have gotten around the Gunas’ defences in some way.

Shri Krishna

#22

Neither the tranquil of sattva nor the activity of rajas nor the illusion of Tamas can move them in the slightest. When these forces are at work, they do not experience any aversion, and when they are no longer at work, they do not experience any craving for these forces.

#23

Despite the activities of the Gunas, they continue to maintain their objectivity. They do not waver in their convictions because they are confident in the knowledge that it is the Gunas that exert their influence.

#24

They are equal in pleasure and pain, praise and blame, kindness and unkindness because they have established themselves within themselves. They do not differentiate between clay, a rock, and gold.

#25

They have given up every selfish pursuit and are equal in honour and dishonour, treating friends and enemies the same way. Those who have reached this level have moved beyond the Gunas.

#26

One transcends the Gunas when they serve me with undying love. This is true for both men and women. A person like that is suitable for a union with Brahman.

#27

Because I am the foundation upon which Brahman, the everlasting, the unchanging, the non-mortal, the dharma that is eternal, and the source of everything, rests.