Sanskrit
न तदस्ति पृथिव्यां वा दिवि देवेषु वा पुनः । सत्त्वं प्रकृतिजैर्मुक्तं यदेभिः स्यात्त्रिभिर्गुणैः ॥ ४० ॥
na tadasti pṛthivyāṃ vā divi deveṣu vā punaḥ sattvaṃ prakṛtijair muktaṃ yad ebhiḥ syāt tribhir guṇaiḥ
Translation
There is not an entity, either on the earth or again in heaven among the Shining Ones, that is liberated from these three qualities, born of Matter.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna closes the guna discussion running since chapters 14 and 17 with a totalizing claim: nothing in the cosmos, not even the gods in heaven, stands outside sattva, rajas, and tamas. That universality is the load-bearing premise for what immediately follows — since no one is guna-free, every person’s nature carries some particular mixture, and the fourfold division of duty about to be laid out in verses 41-44 is presented as a description of where that mixture lands each person rather than an arbitrary social rule. The seal on the whole guṇa analysis, and on the figure grid: nothing — on earth or in heaven — is free of the three strands. They are the medium of embodied existence itself; guṇātīta (BG 14.22) means stepping outside it, not purifying it away.
Study deeper
Word by word
- na tadasti pṛthivyāṃ vāन तदस्ति पृथिव्यां वा
- there is no such thing on earth (na + tat + asti + pṛthivyām + vā)
- divi deveṣu vā punaḥदिवि देवेषु वा पुनः
- or again in heaven, among the gods (divi + deveṣu + vā + punaḥ)
- sattvaṃ prakṛtijair muktaṃ yadसत्त्वं प्रकृतिजैः मुक्तं यद्
- any being free of these born-of-nature (sattvam + prakṛti-jaiḥ + muktam + yat)
- ebhiḥ syāt tribhir guṇaiḥएभिः स्यात् त्रिभिः गुणैः
- three guṇas (ebhiḥ + syāt + tribhiḥ + guṇaiḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The claim doesn’t stop at humanity — it specifically includes the devas, beings this text usually treats as exalted above ordinary existence. Naming them forecloses an easy misreading of what follows: reaching a higher station, divine or otherwise, does not exempt anyone from the same three forces the verse just declared universal. There’s no rung on the ladder from which the machinery stops applying to you.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Seniority, expertise, or spiritual progress doesn't graduate you out of being subject to your own temperament and conditioning — the more advanced claim to make is that you understand your patterns better, not that you've escaped them.
Professional
- A senior leader isn't exempt from the same organizational and psychological forces, ego, fatigue, bias, that affect everyone junior to them; design feedback loops assuming rank confers no immunity, because it doesn't.
Family & Social
- Being the elder or the most experienced person in a family doesn't put you above the same emotional patterns everyone else is working through — model examining your own conditioning rather than assuming your position exempts you from it.
Ask yourself
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