गुणत्रयविभागयोग
Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yoga — The Yoga of Separation from the Three Qualities
Krishna explains the three gunas born of prakriti — sattva, rajas, and tamas — that bind the indestructible dweller in the body, describing how each guna manifests, which fruits and destinies it produces, and which guna dominant at death determines the character of the next birth. The chapter turns on verse 19's insight that liberation lies in the Seer recognizing the gunas' activity as never its own, then answers Arjuna's question with a portrait of the gunatita — one who has crossed beyond the three qualities entirely — before naming exclusive devotion (bhakti yoga) as the actual means, and closing with Krishna identifying himself as the very ground of Brahman, immortality, eternal dharma, and bliss.
About this chapter
Chapter 13 ended on an undefined phrase — bhūta-prakṛti-mokṣa, the “liberation of beings from nature.” Chapter 14 is that definition: the three guṇas — sattva (clarity), rajas (passion), tamas (inertia) — how each binds, how to tell which one is ascendant, where each leads at death, and what it means to step outside all three.
The cosmogony, and the three strands
Krishna frames it with a birth image: mahad brahma — the great unmanifest nature — is the womb; he deposits “the seed”; every being is that union (BG 14.3–BG 14.4). The guṇas, “born of nature,” then bind the imperishable dweller in the body (BG 14.5) — the paradox the chapter works out. Even sattva binds: by attachment to the pleasant clarity it produces (BG 14.6). It is a golden rope, but a rope; the goal is past all three, not the best of the three.
Diagnosis, fruit, and destiny
The figure below lays the three strands against four axes. Each binds differently (BG 14.6–BG 14.8); each shows differently when ascendant — sattva as light at every sense, rajas as greed and restless activity, tamas as fog and inertia (BG 14.11–BG 14.13); each yields a characteristic fruit — pure fruit, pain, ignorance (BG 14.16–BG 14.17); and the guṇa ascendant at death fixes the next birth — upward, level, downward (BG 14.14–BG 14.15, BG 14.18). And no one is ever free of all three: they rotate, each in turn overpowering the other two (BG 14.10).
Stepping outside the rotation
The turn is BG 14.19: “when the seer perceives no doer but the guṇas, and knows what is beyond them, he attains My being.” Arjuna asks what such a guṇātīta person looks like (BG 14.21) — and the answer (BG 14.22–BG 14.25) is the sthitaprajña portrait almost verbatim: “seated as if a bystander,” “the guṇas are at work” and unmoved by it, the same toward clod and gold, friend and foe. The method: unswerving bhakti-yoga, which “carries one past the guṇas to becoming Brahman” (BG 14.26). And a last reversal — Krishna is not within Brahman but its ground (BG 14.27).
How the chapter moves
- v1–9Cosmogony, and the three strands that bind — The great unmanifest is the womb, Krishna the seed-giver. The guṇas, born of nature, bind the imperishable dweller — sattva by attachment to happiness and knowledge, rajas by attachment to action, tamas by heedlessness and sleep.
- v10–13Which guṇa is ascendant — and its signs — The three rotate, each overpowering the other two. Diagnose by felt signature: sattva as light at every sense; rajas as greed, restless activity, longing; tamas as no light, no activity, delusion.
- v14–18Fruit, and destiny at death — The guṇa ascendant at death fixes the next birth: the spotless worlds (sattva), the actively attached (rajas), the deluded wombs (tamas). Each yields its fruit — pure, painful, ignorant. Sattva up, rajas level, tamas down.
- v19–20Beyond the guṇas — The seer perceives no doer but the guṇas, and knows what is beyond them — and attains Krishna's being, freed from birth, death, age, and sorrow into immortality.
- v21–27The marks of the guṇātīta, and the method — The one who has transcended the guṇas neither hates nor craves their effects; 'seated as a bystander,' unmoved, the same toward all pairs. Unswerving devotion is what carries one across. Krishna is the ground of Brahman itself.
| Binds byBG 14.6 | Shows as (when ascendant)BG 14.11 | Its fruit / what it yieldsBG 14.16 | At death → next birthBG 14.14 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sattva — clarity | attachment to happiness and to knowledge — a golden rope (14.6) | the light of knowledge shining at every gate of the body (14.11) | pure, faultless fruit; from it, knowledge arises (14.16–17) | the spotless worlds of the knowers of the highest — upward (14.14, 14.18) |
| Rajas — passion | attachment to action, born of craving and clinging (14.7) | greed, restless activity, undertakings, unrest, longing (14.12) | pain as its fruit; from it, greed arises (14.16–17) | born among those attached to action — the middle (14.15, 14.18) |
| Tamas — inertia | heedlessness, indolence, and sleep — born of ignorance (14.8) | no light, no activity, negligence, delusion (14.13) | ignorance as its fruit; from it, negligence and delusion (14.16–17) | born in the wombs of the deluded — downward (14.15, 14.18) |
The three strands bind even the imperishable dweller in the body (14.5). No one is ever free of all three — each in turn overpowers the others (14.10); guṇātīta means stepping outside the rotation entirely (14.22–25).
Concept map for this chapter
I will again proclaim that supreme Wisdom, of all wisdom the best, which having known, all the Sages have gone hence to the supreme Perfection.
Having taken refuge in this Wisdom and being assimilated to My own nature, they are not re-born even in the emanation of a universe, nor are disquieted in the dissolution.
My womb is the great Eternal; in that I place the germ; thence cometh the birth of all beings, O Bhârata.
In whatsoever wombs mortals are produced, O Kaunteya, the great Eternal is their womb, I their generating father.
Harmony, Motion, Inertia, such are the qualities, Matter-born; they bind fast in the body, O great-armed one, the indestructible dweller in the body.
Of these Harmony from its stainlessness, luminous and healthy, bindeth by the attachment to bliss and the attachment to wisdom, O sinless one.
Motion, the passion nature, know thou, is the source of attachment and thirst for life, O Kaunteya, that bindeth the dweller in the body by the attachment to action.
But Inertia, know thou, born of unwisdom, is the deluder of all dwellers in the body; that bindeth by heedlessness, indolence and sloth, O Bhârata.
Harmony attacheth to bliss, Motion to action, O Bhârata. Inertia, verily, having shrouded wisdom, attacheth on the contrary to heedlessness.
Now Harmony prevaileth, having overpowered Motion and Inertia, O Bhârata; now Motion, having overpowered Harmony and Inertia; and now Inertia, having overpowered Harmony and Motion.
When the wisdom-light streameth forth from all the gates of the body, then it may be known that Harmony is increasing.
Greed, outgoing energy, undertaking of actions, restlessness, desire—these are born of the increase of Motion, O best of the Bhâratas.
Darkness, stagnation and heedlessness and also delusion—these are born of the increase of Inertia, O joy of the Kurus.
If Harmony verily prevaileth when the embodied goeth to dissolution, then he goeth forth to the spotless worlds of the great Sages.
Having gone to dissolution in Motion, he is born among those attached to action; if dissolved in Inertia, he is born in the wombs of the senseless.
It is said the fruit of a good action is harmonious and spotless; verily the fruit of Motion is pain, and the fruit of Inertia unwisdom.
From Harmony wisdom is born, and also greed from Motion; heedlessness and delusion are of Inertia and also unwisdom.
They rise upwards who are settled in Harmony; the Active dwell in the mid-most place: the Inert go downwards, enveloped in the vilest qualities.
When the Seer perceiveth no agent other than the qualities, and knoweth That which is higher than the qualities, he entereth into My Nature.
When the dweller in the body hath crossed over these three qualities, whence all bodies have been produced, liberated from birth, death, old age and sorrow, he drinketh the nectar of immortality.
What are the marks of him who hath crossed over the three qualities, O Lord? How acteth he, and how doth he go beyond these three qualities?
He, O Pândava, who hateth not radiance, nor outgoing energy, nor even delusion, when present, nor longeth after them, absent;
He who, seated as a neutral, is unshaken by the qualities; who, saying, "The qualities revolve," standeth apart immovable.
Balanced in pleasure and pain, self-reliant, to whom a lump of earth, a rock and gold are alike, the same to loved and unloved, firm, the same in censure and in praise,
The same in honour and ignominy, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings—he is said to have crossed over the qualities.
And he who serveth Me exclusively by the Yoga of devotion, he, crossing beyond the qualities, he is fit to become the Eternal.
For I am the abode of the Eternal, and of the indestructible nectar of immortality, of immemorial righteousness, and of unending bliss.