Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 14: The Yoga of the Distinction between the Three Gunas

All 27 verses of Chapter 14 of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit, with English translation, per-word meanings, and Adi Shankara's commentary.

• Verse 14.1 — I shall again declare that sublime knowledge, the best of all knowledges; which having…
• Verse 14.2 — They who, having resorted to this knowledge, have attained to unity with Me, are neither…
• Verse 14.3 — My womb is the great Brahman; in that I place the germ; thence, O Bhārata, is the birth…
• Verse 14.4 — Whatever forms are produced, O son of Kuntī, in any wombs whatsoever, the Great Brahman…
• Verse 14.5 — Sattva, Rajas, Tamas — these guṇas, O mighty-armed, born of Prakṛti, bind fast in the…
• Verse 14.6 — Of these, Sattva, which, from its stainlessness, is lucid and healthy, binds by…
• Verse 14.7 — Know thou Rajas (to be) of the nature of passion, the source of thirst and attachment; it…
• Verse 14.8 — But, know thou Tamas to be born of unwisdom, deluding all embodied beings; by…
• Verse 14.9 — Sattva attaches to happiness, Rajas to action, O Bhārata, while Tamas, enshrouding…
• Verse 14.10 — Sattva arises, O Bhārata, predominating over Rajas and Tamas; and Rajas, over Sattva and…
• Verse 14.11 — When at every gate in this body there shoots up wisdom-light, then it may be known that…
• Verse 14.12 — Greed, activity, the undertaking of works, unrest, desire — these arise when Rajas is…
• Verse 14.13 — Darkness, heedlessness, inertness, and error — these arise when Tamas is predominant, O…
• Verse 14.14 — If the embodied one meets death when Sattva is predominant, then he attains to the…
• Verse 14.15 — Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those attached to action; and, dying in Tamas…
• Verse 14.16 — The fruit of good action, they say, is Sāttvic and pure; while the fruit of Rajas is…
• Verse 14.17 — From Sattva arises wisdom, and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and error arise from Tamas…
• Verse 14.18 — Those who follow Sattva go upwards; the Rājasic remain in the middle; and the Tāmasic…
• Verse 14.19 — When the seer beholds not an agent other than the guṇas and knows Him who is higher than…
• Verse 14.20 — Having crossed beyond these three guṇas, which are the source of the body, the embodied…
• Verse 14.21 — By what marks, O Lord, is he known who has crossed beyond those three guṇas? What is his…
• Verse 14.22 — Light and activity and delusion present, O Pāṇḍava, he hates not, nor longs for them…
• Verse 14.23 — He who, seated as a neutral, is not moved by guṇas; who, thinking that guṇas act, is firm…
• Verse 14.24 — He to whom pain and pleasure are alike, who dwells in the Self, to whom a clod of earth…
• Verse 14.25 — The same in honour and disgrace, the same towards friends and enemies, abandoning all…
• Verse 14.26 — And he who serves Me with unfailing Devotion of Love, he, crossing beyond those three…
• Verse 14.27 — For I am the abode of Brahman, the Immortal and the Immutable, the Eternal Dharma, and…