Sanskrit
सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति रजः कर्मणि भारत । ज्ञानमावृत्य तु तमः प्रमादे सञ्जयत्युत ॥
sattvaṃ sukhe sañjayati rajaḥ karmaṇi bhārata jñānam āvṛtya tu tamaḥ pramāde sañjayaty uta
Translation
Harmony attacheth to bliss, Motion to action, O Bhârata. Inertia, verily, having shrouded wisdom, attacheth on the contrary to heedlessness.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A condensed restatement of verses 6-8 into a single refrain: sattva attaches to happiness, rajas to action, tamas — by first shrouding wisdom — to heedlessness. This kind of compression, restating a three-part definition as a quick single-verse formula, marks a hinge in the argument: the definitions are done, and the chapter now turns from what each guna is to how they behave — competing for dominance (verse 10) and producing visible symptoms (verses 11-13). A one-line summary of BG 14.6–BG 14.8: each guṇa glues (sañjayati) the self to a different thing — happiness, action, negligence. The figure on the chapter page lays all three out against four axes.
Study deeper
Word by word
- sattvaṃ sukhe sañjayatiसत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति
- sattva binds one to happiness (sattvam + sukhe + sañjayati)
- rajaḥ karmaṇi bhārataरजः कर्मणि भारत
- rajas to action, O Bhārata (rajaḥ + karmaṇi + bhārata)
- jñānam āvṛtya tu tamaḥज्ञानं आवृत्य तु तमः
- but tamas, veiling knowledge (jñānam + āvṛtya + tu + tamaḥ)
- pramāde sañjayaty utaप्रमादे सञ्जयत्य् उत
- binds one to negligence, indeed (pramāde + sañjayati + uta)
Commentary
Site Commentary
After three full verses of definition, verse 9 compresses everything into a memorizable formula — pleasure, action, heedlessness — small enough to actually carry away and check against yourself later. A definition that takes three verses to state can be understood in the moment and forgotten by evening; a refrain that takes one line is built to survive being remembered without the text in hand.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- After you work through a longer insight about your own patterns, compress it into one memorable line you can actually recall in the moment it matters — a full explanation you understood once rarely survives being needed later without the text in front of you.
Professional
- After a detailed retro or root-cause writeup, distill it into a short recallable principle for the team — thorough documentation nobody remembers under pressure protects nothing at the moment a similar failure starts to repeat itself.
Family & Social
- After a long, nuanced conversation about a recurring family conflict, agree on one short phrase that captures the pattern — something either of you can say in the heat of the moment, when there's no time to re-explain the whole insight again.
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