Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 17 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday, January 27, 2022.19:13.

Discourse 41

The Fourteenth Chapter: Rising Above the Three Gunas

POST-17.

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SBG -14.17.

"Sattvat sanjayate jnanam rajaso lobha eva cha

pramada-mohau tamaso bhavato ’jnanam eva cha."

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Sattvat sanjayate jnanam :

Knowledge arises through sattva. Intellectuality, rationality, understanding, education, wisdom—all these are qualities of sattva. 

Rajaso lobha eva ca : Greed is the quality of rajas. 

Pramada-mohau tamaso bhavato ’jnanam eva cha : Ajnana (ignorance) and the inability to do anything with a consciousness of the effect of the action are results of tamoguna prakriti.

Having mentioned the variation in the results that accrue from the three guṇas, Shree Krishna now gives the reason for this. Sattva guṇa gives rise to wisdom, which confers the ability to discriminate between right and wrong. It also pacifies the desires of the senses for gratification, and creates a concurrent feeling of happiness and contentment. People influenced by it are inclined toward intellectual pursuits and virtuous ideas. Thus, the mode of goodness promotes wise actions. Rajo guṇa inflames the senses, and puts the mind out of control, sending it into a spin of ambitious desires. The living being is trapped by it and over-endeavors for wealth and pleasures that are meaningless from the perspective of the soul. Tamo guṇa covers the living being with inertia and nescience. Shrouded in ignorance, a person performs wicked and impious deeds and bears consequent results.

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SBG -14.18.

Urdhvam gachchhanti sattva-stha madhye tishthanti rajasah

jaghanya-guna-vritti-stha adho gachchhanti tamasah

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Urdhvam gachchhanti sattva-stha : Those who live in a state of sattva, and depart while sattva is preponderating, go to higher worlds. 

Madhye tishthanti rajasah : Those with rajoguna pravritti, and those who die when the rajoguna pravritti is predominant, will be reborn into this world. Madhya means middle region, which is this earth. 

jaghanya-guna-vritti-stha adho gachchhanti tamasah : Those who are predominantly tamasic, and die while tamas is preponderating, will be born in regions lower than the earth. The scriptures call them the nether regions.

Shree Krishna explains that the reincarnation of the souls in their next birth is linked to the guṇas that predominates their personality. Upon completion of their sojourn in the present life, the souls reach the kind of place that corresponds to their guṇas. This can be compared to students applying for college admission after completing school. There are many colleges in the country. Those students with good qualifying criteria at the school level gain admission in the best colleges, while those with poor grades and other scores are admitted to the worst ones.

“Those who are in sattva guṇa reach the higher celestial abodes; those who are in rajo guṇa return to the earth planet; and those who are in tamo guṇa go to the nether worlds; while those who are transcendental to the three modes attain Me.”

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SBG- 14.19.

Nanyam gunebhyah kartaram yada drashtanupashyati

gunebhyash cha param vetti mad-bhavam so ’dhigachchhati

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When a person, with his eye of wisdom, sees that all the drama of life is only a performance of the three gunas, and only the three gunas do anything anywhere, and knows, at the same time, that there is something above the three gunas—such a person attains to unity with Brahman.

"Nanyam gunebhyah kartaram yada drashtanupashyati, gunebhyash cha param vetti mad-bhavam so ’dhigachchhati." (14.19) :

 “He attains union with Me in My Eternal State, provided that there is a vision perpetually maintained by that person that there is no actor in this world, no performer of deeds other than the three gunas of prakriti, and one's own real self is transcendent, above the three gunas. Such a person is liberated even while in this life itself.”

Having revealed the complex workings of the three guṇas, Shree Krishna now shows the simple solution for breaking out of their bondage. All the living entities in the world are under the grip of the three guṇas, and hence the guṇas are the active agents in all the works being done in the world. But the Supreme Lord is beyond them. Therefore, he is called tri-guṇātīt (transcendental to the modes of material nature). 

Similarly, all the attributes of God—his names, forms, virtues, pastimes, abodes, saints—are also tri-gunatit.

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SBG - 14.20.

"Gunan etan atitya trin dehi deha-samudbhavan

janma-mrityu-jara-duhkhair vimukto ’mritam ashnute."

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If we attach our mind to any personality or object within the realm of the three guṇas, it results in increasing their corresponding color on our mind and intellect. However, if we attach our mind to the divine realm, it transcends the guṇas and becomes divine. Those who understand this principle start loosening their relationship with worldly objects and people, and strengthening it, through bhakti, with God and the Guru. This enables them to transcend the three guṇas, and attain the divine nature of God.

gunan etan atitya trin dehi deha-samudbhavan janma-mrityu-jara-duhkhair vimukto ’mritam ashnute (14.20) :

He attains immortality, free from the sorrow of birth, death, old age, and the like; such a person attains the Eternal Abode. Who is that person? One who has transcended the three gunas, and is unaffected by sattva, unaffected by rajas, and unaffected by tamas.

If we drink water from a dirty well, we are bound to get a stomach upset. Similarly, if we are influenced by the three modes, we are bound to experience their consequences, which are repeated birth within the material realm, disease, old age, and death. These four are the primary miseries of material life. It was by seeing these that the Buddha first realized that the world is a place of misery, and then searched for the way out of misery.

The Vedas prescribe a number of codes of conduct, social duties, rituals, and regulations for human beings. These prescribed duties and codes of conduct are together called karma dharma, or varṇāśhram dharma, or śhārīrik dharma. They help elevate us from tamo guṇa and rajo guṇa to sattva guṇa. However, to reach sattva guṇa is not enough; it is also a form of bondage. The mode of goodness can be equated to being fettered with chains of gold. Our goal lies even beyond it—to get out of the prison house of material existence.

Shree Krishna explains that when we transcend the three modes, then Maya no longer binds the living being. Thus, the soul gets released from the cycle of life and death and attains immortality. Factually, the soul is always immortal. However, its identification with the material body makes it suffer the illusion of birth and death. This illusory experience is against the eternal nature of the soul, which seeks release from it. Hence, the material illusion is naturally discomforting to our inner being and, from within, we all seek the taste of immortality.

What are the insignia of a person who has transcended the three gunas? Arjuna puts a question: “How can we recognise a person who has transcended the three gunas? What are his qualities? How does he behave?” Here is found the gunatita lakshana, which is almost similar to the qualities described as sthitaprajna lakshana in the Second Chapter.

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To be continued....

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