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Gita for the Beginners: Part 15
Chapter XIV

Chapter XIV contains 27 verses. One can say that this chapter highlights Samkhya philosophy about evolution of manifest world. The Lord tells how His power - Prakriti - although insentient, is illumined by His sentience to apparently create multifarious universe. Thus, in the third verse Sri Krishna says, "My Prakriti (Nature) in her primordial undeveloped state is the womb of all creatures; in that I place the seed of consciousness. The birth of all beings follows from this combination of matter and Spirit." 14/3

This Prakriti has three constituent gunas (elements we may roughly translate as) namely, sattva, rajas, and tamas. Combinations of these gunas in various proportions tie the individual soul to the worldly objects, and delude him to think that he is body-mind complex. Further, depending on the predominance or preponderance of a particular guna, the individual soul manifests different qualities in his/her nature.

"Of these sattva being immaculate, is illumining and flawless; it binds the soul through self-identification with happiness and wisdom." (6) "Rajas, which is of the nature of passion, as born of cupidity and attachment, binds the soul through attachment for action and their fruits." (7) And lastly, "Tamas deludes all embodied beings, as born of ignorance; and it binds through error, sloth, and inertia (laziness)." (8)

Every soul has inherent predominance of one or more gunas, and the combination changes with time and place giving rise to different natural reactions at different time and in different place. Sometimes sattva prevails making the person happy and elated, pure and selfless, while when rajas rules, suppressing sattva and tamas, with passion and action as the dominant natural tendency. Tamas leads to lethargy, delusion, and vices.

Food, spiritual practices, company one keeps, and impressions from the past life are responsible for particular set up of gunas in an individual. Higher Self affects the gunas, but It is not affected by the se gunas. Spiritual disciplines like devotion, worship, study of scriptures, japa, association with saints and sadhus, etc., all help the person to become more sattvik, the desirable and favorable state of mind. Under its influence the reason is sharpened and becomes pure. All spiritual disciplines are intended to make the aspirant more and more sattvik so that he may take the Royal road to Self-realization. But it is not enough, for to reach the Highest State of Realization of Brahman, one has to transcend even sattva!

To this Arjuna says, "What are the marks of him who has risen above the three gunas, and how does he conduct himself? And how, Lord, does he rise above the three gunas?" 14/21

The answers to these questions are more or less similar to the characteristics of as stoic minded person, sthitaprajna, as elaborated in the second chapter. In very brief, I would recount the same. The lord says, "Arjuna, he who feels no aversion for light, activity, or stupor (i.e. sees sameness in all three gunas), who acts as the pure witness to the activities of gunas, he who takes sorrow and joy alike, considers clod of earth, stone, and gold as equal in value, views censure and praise, honor and ignominy, friend and foe alike, he is said to be above three gunas." And the way to reach above three gunas is through worship, surrender, and devotion to Him, for 'I am the abode of the imperishable Brahman, of immortality, of everlasting virtue, and unending bliss'. End of chapter XIV
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C S Shah


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