Yoga through Understanding the Three Modes of Material Nature

The Blessed Lord said, "I will again declare to thee that supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge, having known which all the sages have gone to supreme perfection after this life."

Further analysis of the field is made in this chapter.In chapter XIII, verse 21, it has been stated that attachment to the alities is the cause of Samsara or births in good and evil wombs. In this chapter the Lord gives…

Those who, having taken refuge in this knowledge, have attained unity with Me, are neither born at the time of creation nor disturbed at the time of dissolution.

Having resorted to this knowledge they (the sages) are assimilated into My own nature. They have attained to My Being. They have become identical with Me. They live in Me with no thought of thou or I. They go beyond…

My womb is the great Brahma; in it I place the germ; thence, O Arjuna, is the birth of all beings.

My womb is the great Nature. The cosmos is evolved out of His Nature. Nature is called the great Brahma for She is the resting place of the five subtle elements and also the Mahat (cosmic mind). She is callled the great…

Whatever forms are produced, O Arjuna, in any womb whatsoever, the great Brahma is their womb, and I am the seed-giving father.

I am the father The Primordial Nature is the mother. The whole manifested world is the child Nature has produced in its association with me. Therefore I am called the father of this world.Wombs Such as the gods, the…

These qualities, O Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body of the embodied, the indestructible: purity, passion, and inertia.

Sattva is the best. Rajas comes next. Tamas is the lowest and the worst. The three alities indicate the triple mentality. They produce attachment in the individual souls, delude them and bind them down, as it were, to…

Of these, sattva, which is luminous and healthy due to its stainlessness, binds one by attachment to happiness and knowledge, O sinless one.

Sattva is stainless like the crystal. It lays for one the trap of happiness and knowledge. It is a golden fetter. A Sattvic man compares himself with others and rejoices in his excellence. He is puffed up with his…

Know, O Arjuna, that Rajas is of the nature of passion, the source of thirst and attachment; it binds fast the embodied one by attachment to action.

The quality of Rajas denotes activity and ambition. The Rajasic man is full of cravings and desires. The cravings force him to act for their fulfilment. He gets attached to those who help him in the fulfilment of his…

But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, through heedlessness, indolence, and sleep.

Tamas is that binding force with a tendency to lethargy, sloth and foolish actions. It causes delusion or nondiscrimination. It binds him who associates the Self with the body. A Tamasic man acts under the compulsion of…

Sattva attaches to happiness, Rajas to action, O Arjuna, while Tamas, verily shrouding knowledge, attaches to heedlessness.

Just as a dark cloud enshrouds the sun, so also Tamas envelops knowledge or the light of the Self. Tamas creates an attachment for heedlessness, that is, ignorance or forgetfulness of duty or the nonperformance of…

Now, O Arjuna, Sattva prevails, having overpowered Rajas and Tamas; then Rajas, having overpowered Sattva and Tamas; and then Tamas, having overpowered Sattva and Rajas.

Just as winter has its sway when summer and autumn have gone, just as sleep has its sway when a man is neither dreaming nor waking, so also Sattva has its sway when Rajas and Tamas are suppressed and makes people say…

When the wisdom-light shines through every gate of this body, then it may be known that Sattva is predominant.

When a particular quality becomes predominant, it reveals its distinctive characteristics in man. Just as jasmine scatters its fragrance far and wide, so also knowledge disseminates itself in all directions. Convert…

Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, and longing—these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna.

Greed Covetousness Desire to appropriate the property of others a desire to possess more wealth though one has sufficient already.Pravritti Action in general.Asamah Restlessness being agitated by joy, attachment, etc. I…

Darkness, inertia, carelessness, and delusion—these arise when Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna.

When Tamas increases, darkness, a desire to do nothing, forgetfulness of ones duties and confusion ome into existence.Darkness Absence of discrimination.Apravritti Inertness extreme inactivity.Pramada (heedlessness) and…

If the embodied one meets death when Sattva is predominant, then they attain the spotless worlds of the knowers of the Highest.

Lokan Amalan Sptless worlds Brahmaloka and the like where Rajas and Tamas never predominate.The Highest Deities such as Hiranyagarbha.

Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those who are attached to action; and dying in Tamas, he is born in the womb of the thoughtless.

Meeting with death in Rajas If he dies when Rajas is predominant in him, he is born among men who are attached to action. If he dies when Tamas is fully predominant in him, he takes birth in ignorant species such as…

They say that the fruit of good action is Sattvic and pure; indeed, the fruit of Rajas is pain, and the fruit of Tamas is ignorance.

Good action Sattvic action. The fruit of good action is both happiness and,knowledge.They The wise.Rajas means Rajasic action as this verse deals with action. The fruit of Rajasic action is bitter. Rajasic action brings…

From Sattva arises knowledge, and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and delusion arise from Tamas, and also ignorance.

From Sattva When Sattva becomes predominant. Sattva awakesn knowledge just as the sun causes daylight. Sattva enlightens the intellect.Greed is insatiable like fire. Greed brings misery and pain. Greed is born of Rajas.…

Those seated in Sattva ascend; those of Rajasic nature dwell in the middle; and those of Tamasic nature, abiding in the function of the lowest Guna, descend.

Those who abide in Sattva become the lords of heaven after giving up the physical body. The Rajasic are rorn on this earth as human beings. The Tamasic go downwards, i.e., they will be born in the wormbs of cattle and…

When the seer beholds no agent other than the Gunas and knows that which is higher than them, he attains to My Being.

The Supreme Self is in no way contaminated by the alities. The liberated sage exclaims I am the witness of the alities. I am neither the enjoyer nor the doer. The alities form the motive power of all actions. I am beyond…

The embodied one, having crossed beyond these three Gunas from which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay, and pain, and attains immortality.

Just as a river is absorbed in the ocean, so also he who has, while still alive, gone beyond the alities which form the seed from which all bodies have sprung and of which they are composed, is absorbed in Me. He ever…

Arjuna said, "What are the marks of one who has transcended the three qualities, O Lord? What is their conduct, and how do they go beyond these three qualities?"

Arjuna said O Lord, by what characteristics may a man be recognised as having gone beyond the three alities What is the behaviour of that Trigunatita sage (one who has gone beyond the three alities) and how does he go…

The Blessed Lord said, "When light, activity, and delusion are present, he does not hate them, nor does he long for them when they are absent.

This is the answer to Arjuna's first question. Light is the effect of Sattva, activity of Rajas and delusion of Tamas. The liberated sage does not hate them when they are present. When Sattva shines he is not carried…

He who, seated like one unconcerned, is not moved by the dualities, and who, knowing that the dualities are active, is self-centered and does not move.

He is seated as a neutral (one who inclines to neither party). He is free from likes and dislikes. He is entirely unconcerned whether the alities with their effects and the body come or go. He is like the spectator at a…

Who is the same in pleasure and pain, who dwells in the Self, to whom a clod of earth, a stone, and gold are all alike, who is the same to the dear and the unfriendly, who is firm, and to whom censure and praise are one and the same.

Night and day have no meaning to a post fixed in the ground. Even so pleasure and pain have no meaning to a sage who dwells in his own Self. He is above the pairs of opposites. In his eyes cowdung or gold, a jewel or a…

Who is the same in honor and dishonor, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings, he is said to have transcended the dualities.

He keeps a balanced mind in honour and dishonour. He is the same to friend and foe. He is not affected by the dual throng. He has risen above the Gunas. He rests in his own essential nature as ExistenceKnowledgeBliss…

And he who serves Me with unwavering devotion, he, crossing beyond the dualities, is fit for becoming Brahman.

A Sannyasi or even a Karma Yogi who serves Him (the Isvara, Narayana Who abides in the hearts of all beings) with unswerving devotion, is endowed with the knowledge of the Self. He then goes beyond the three alities and…

For I am the abode of Brahman, the immortal, immutable, and everlasting Dharma, and absolute bliss.

The Self Which is immortal and immutable, Which is attainable by the eternal Dharma or the knowledge of the Self, Which is unending bliss, abides in Me, the Supreme Being.,I, the innermost Self, am the abode of the…