CHAPTER
14: THE YOGA OF THE THREE MODES OF NATURE
On the inherent
qualities of material nature
(1)
The Supreme Lord said: 'Again about the transcendental, I
will tell you, of all knowledge the utmost knowledge,
knowing which all the sages from this world attained.
(2)
Taking shelter of this knowledge, having attained to My
selfsame nature, one is not born at the time of creation,
nor is one lost on annihilation.
(3)
My channel of birth is the total material existence and
of the Supreme in that I impregnate, creating the
conditions of all living entities who find thereafter
their existence, o son of Bharata. (4)
Of all that are born, o son of Kuntî, of all the
forms that manifest, am I the creator, the source of
birth and the seed-giving father. (5)
The modes of goodness, passion and ignorance are the
qualities produced by material nature which condition, o
mighty armed one, this body of the imperishable living
being. (6)
Of them, is the mode of goodness the purest; it illumines
without reactions, and conditions with a sense of
happiness the feeling for knowledge, o sinless one.
(7)
Know that the mode of passion is characterized by
desires, born from attachment and longing, that bind, o
son of Kuntî, the one embodied to the outcome of
the deeds in the past. (8)
The mode of ignorance is the result of a lack of
knowledge; know it as deluding all embodied beings,
binding them to carelessness, indolence and sleep, o son
of Bharata.
(9)
The mode of goodness conditions one to happiness, passion
binds one to fruitive activities, o son of Bharata, but
from the ignorance that covers the knowledge one is bound
to errors. (10)
Then goodness prevails defeating passion and ignorance,
then o son of Bharata, ignorance does so with passion and
goodness and then passion overrules goodness as well as
the ignorance; this is how the modes of sattva, rajas and
tamas are. (11)
When to all the gates of the body the enlightenment of
knowledge develops, at that time one says is the mode of
goodness prevailing. (12)
Greed, overexertion, enterprising and restless desire all
develop when the mode of passion predominates, o chief of
the Bhâratas. (13)
Darkness, slowness, negligence and surely illusion too
manifest themselves when the mode of ignorance is
developed, o son of Kuru.
(14)
When with the development of the mode of goodness the
embodied one finds dissolution, then one attains the
world of those who are pure and of great wisdom.
(15)
When one is in passion finding ones end, one takes birth
among those who work for material results and similarly
when one is in ignorance one takes birth among the
ignorant. (16)
Of pious activities in the mode of goodness is said that
one is purified, the mode of passion results in misery
and stupidity is the result of the mode of ignorance.
(17)
The way from the mode of goodness knowledge develops and
greed surely develops from the mode of passion, so do
illusion and certainly perplexity develop from the mode
of ignorance. (18)
Those in the mode of goodness rise up, those in passion
stay in between while the ones in ignorance whose
occupation is of an abominable quality go down.
(19)
When a seer properly sees that the doer is no one other
than these three qualities to the modes of nature and
knows the beyond, he is promoted to My spiritual nature.
(20)
Transcending all three qualities the embodied one will
enjoy the nectar of being freed from the physical result
of the distress of birth, death and old age.'
(21)
Arjuna said: 'By which symptoms is the one that
transcended the qualities recognized, o master, what is
his conduct and how does he rise above these three
modes?'
(22-25)
The Supreme Lord said: 'He who, despite of their
development, does not hate the revelation nor the
attachment nor the illusion, o son of Pându, nor
desires to stop that development; one who, knowing that
the qualities are acting, is never agitated by them
staying the witness in continuing selfperception; he who
equal in distress and happiness from within is equal
about a clod, a stone or gold, who is the same towards
what is desirable and what is undesirable and steady and
equal under criticism and praise for himself; he who is
equal in honor and dishonor and equal towards both sides
of friends and enemies and is renounced in all his
endeavors - he is said to be transcendental to the modes.
(26)
A person who unswerving renders service in devotion unto
Me - he, transcending all these modes of nature, will
rise to the spiritual platform. (27)
For certain I am the base of the spiritual, the immortal
and the imperishable, the original nature and the
ultimate happiness.
Spoken
by Anand Aadhar Prabhu
to the text offered below