Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 14, Verse 6

तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम् । सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ

tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvātprakāśakamanāmayam | sukhasaṅgena badhnāti jñānasaṅgena cānagha

Translation

Of these, Sattva, which, from its stainlessness, is lucid and healthy, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

tatra

there

sattvam

harmony

nirmalatvāt

from stainlessness

prakāśakam

illuminating

anāmayam

healthy

sukhasaṅgena

(of) pleasure, by the attachment

badhnāti

bindeth

jñānasaṅgena

of wisdom, by the attachment

ca

and

anagha

O sinless one

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

It is stainless like a pebble-stone, and therefore lucid and healthy. Sattva binds the Self by making Him think 'I am happy': it binds Him by causing in Him attachment to happiness, by bringing about a union of the subject (the Self) with the object (happiness). It makes Him think, "Happiness has accrued to me." This attachment to happiness is an illusion; it is avidyā. An attribute of the object cannot indeed belong to the subject. Thus it is through avidyā alone — which forms an attribute of the Self as the non-discrimination between the object and the subject — that Sattva causes the Self to be attached as it were to happiness which is not His own. Similarly, Sattva binds the Self by attachment to knowledge. 'Knowledge' here must be an attribute of the antaḥ-karaṇa — of the Kṣetra, of the Object — not of the Self; for if it were an attribute of the Self, it cannot be an attachment and cannot be a bondage. Attachment to knowledge arises in the same way that attachment to happiness arises.