Sanskrit
तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम् । सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ ॥
tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvāt prakāśakam anāmayam sukhasaṅgena badhnāti jñānasaṅgena cānagha
Translation
Of these Harmony from its stainlessness, luminous and healthy, bindeth by the attachment to bliss and the attachment to wisdom, O sinless one.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Sattva defined: stainless, luminous, healthy — the “best” of the three qualities by any ordinary measure. The chapter’s sharper point is that it still binds, just through more refined attachments than the other two — attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge itself. That detail matters later: verse 19’s escape isn’t a matter of maximizing sattva over rajas and tamas, since even sattva keeps the self tethered to the body. All three gunas bind; they differ only in the quality of the leash. The subtle point: even sattva, the “pure” strand, binds — by attachment to the pleasant clarity and the knowledge it produces. Being lucid and content is still a rope, only a golden one; the goal is past all three, not the best of the three.
Study deeper
Word by word
- tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvātतत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्
- of these, sattva, from its purity (tatra + sattvam + nirmalatvāt)
- prakāśakam anāmayamप्रकाशकं अनामयं
- illuminating, free of ill (prakāśakam + anāmayam)
- sukhasaṅgena badhnātiसुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति
- binds by attachment to happiness (sukha-saṅgena + badhnāti)
- jñānasaṅgena cānaghaज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ
- and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one (jñāna-saṅgena + ca + anagha)
Commentary
Site Commentary
It isn’t incidental that the taxonomy starts with sattva rather than tamas — Krishna leads with the most attractive of the three bindings before moving to the more obviously undesirable ones. Starting with the trap that looks most like virtue is the harder pedagogical move: a person guards readily against obvious vices, but rarely suspects that stainlessness and love of knowledge could themselves be the leash.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Be more suspicious of the attachments that look like virtues — your commitment to being knowledgeable, your pursuit of a good mood — than the ones that are obviously vices; the leash you don't expect to find on yourself is often the one that holds longest.
Professional
- Watch for attachment to being the most competent or most informed person in the room — the drive that looks like professionalism can bind you to needing recognition for expertise just as surely as any obvious vice binds someone else.
Family & Social
- Notice when your pursuit of harmony or being seen as the wise one in the family becomes its own attachment — a virtue pursued for its own sake, rather than for the people it's meant to serve, is still a form of being bound.
Ask yourself
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