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Chapter 14 · 27 verses

गुणत्रयविभागयोगः

Guṇatraya-vibhāga-yoga

The three qualities of nature

What shapes the way I think, desire and act?

Clarity can bind as well as confusion. Krishna examines the qualities that shape experience, then asks what freedom would mean beyond even the most desirable of them.

What happens here

A turn in the
conversation.

The previous chapter distinguished the field from its knower and identified the qualities as arising from nature. Chapter 14 brings those qualities into focus. Krishna again promises knowledge through which sages attain the highest fulfilment. A generative image introduces the world: the great Brahman is a womb, and Krishna gives the seed. The variety of embodied forms therefore has a shared source before the differences within experience are described.

Three qualities are named: sattva, rajas, and tamas, rendered here through clarity, passion, and darkness. They are not three permanent kinds of human essence. They arise from nature, interact, and gain predominance over one another. Each binds the embodied self in a characteristic way. Darkness obscures, passion drives restless involvement, and clarity illuminates, yet even clarity binds through attachment to happiness and knowledge.

Krishna describes signs of their predominance, the fruits of their activity, and their implications for rebirth. The framework is religious and cosmological as well as psychological. It should not be reduced to a personality quiz or a diagnosis made from someone's mood. Its purpose is to disclose the conditions through which identification and attachment operate, making possible an understanding that is not wholly governed by those conditions.

Arjuna asks how a person beyond the qualities can be recognized, how such a person lives, and how the crossing occurs. Krishna describes steadiness without hatred or craving when illumination, activity, or confusion arise. Equal regard extends through pleasure, pain, praise, blame, friendship, and hostility. The final answer joins this freedom with unwavering devotion to Krishna, who is named as the foundation of Brahman and enduring happiness.

Krishna

Clarity, passion, and darkness arise from nature and bind the embodied self.

Arjuna

How does someone beyond them live, and how are they crossed?

Krishna

See the qualities operating without being ruled by them, and serve me with unwavering devotion.

The Dialogue · An editorial account of the exchange

Chapter essence

The qualities shape experience and bind through attachment, even when they bring clarity. Freedom comes through knowing their operation, loosening identification, and remaining steadfast in devotion.

Key movements

Follow the
argument.

14.1–4

A common source for embodied difference

The opening presents knowledge as a path to a likeness with Krishna's being, beyond repeated birth at creation and fear at dissolution. The womb-and-seed image then describes the emergence of beings. The expression 'great Brahman' here is explained in relation to the generative matrix of nature within the chapter's argument. It should not be assumed to carry an identical meaning in every occurrence across the Gita. Context establishes how the vocabulary functions before the qualities themselves are distinguished.

14.5–9

Three ways of being bound

Clarity illuminates and supports knowledge; passion arises through thirst and attachment; darkness obscures understanding through heedlessness and inertia. The surprising claim is that all three bind. Sattva's purity does not make attachment to happiness or knowledge final freedom. The distinction is therefore between a beneficial condition and liberation from conditioned identification. A reader need not devalue clarity in order to recognize that the desire to possess it permanently can become another form of dependence.

14.10–18

Predominance, signs, and consequences

The qualities alternate in strength. Illumination, restless acquisition, and obscurity provide signs through which their activity can be recognized. The text then connects predominance at death with different births and describes the corresponding fruits of conduct. These claims belong to its account of karma and rebirth. Modern analogies may help illuminate patterns of experience, but they should not replace that horizon or turn a temporary difficulty, illness, or need for rest into a verdict on another person's spiritual condition.

14.19–23

Seeing the qualities as qualities

The seer recognizes the qualities as the agents of activity and knows what is beyond them. Arjuna asks for signs and conduct, keeping the inquiry attached to lived experience. Krishna's first response concerns the relation to arising states: neither hatred when they appear nor craving when they pass. The point is not that nothing happens inwardly. It is that what happens is known without immediately becoming a demand, a threat to identity, or a possession that must be defended.

14.24–27

Steadiness and undivided devotion

The portrait widens to praise and blame, pleasant and unpleasant experience, honour and dishonour, friend and foe. The person rests in the self and relinquishes self-directed undertakings. The chapter then answers how the qualities are crossed: unwavering service through devotion to Krishna makes one fit for the state of Brahman. This conclusion prevents the teaching from being reduced to detached self-observation. Its freedom is articulated within a relationship to the divine and to enduring dharma.

Selected key verses

Stay with the words.

The Sanskrit, an original translation, and a way into the meaning.

Bhagavad Gita 14.6Krishna · in the dialogue

Even clarity can bind

तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम् ।सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ ॥ ६ ॥
tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvātprakāśakamanāmayamsukhasaṅgena badhnāti jñānasaṅgena cānagha

Among them, clarity is illuminating and free of affliction because of its purity. Yet it binds through attachment to happiness and to knowledge, blameless one.

Original King of Dwarka translation · Complete verse

Textual edition ↗Second textual witness ↗

Why this verse matters

Sattva is illuminating because it is relatively pure, but the verse still calls its attachment binding. Happiness and knowledge are valuable conditions, yet a person can cling to them as possessions or as proof of identity. The chapter distinguishes their value from the freedom that is not dependent upon maintaining any particular condition.

Explore deeper

This is not an instruction to seek confusion or reject learning. Later verses describe seeing the qualities at work without hatred when they arise or craving when they pass. The point is a changed relation to experience. A person may cultivate clarity while relinquishing the demand that it make the self permanently secure. The verse is exacting because it extends the inquiry into attachment beyond obviously destructive desires to things a spiritual seeker may rightly cherish.

Bhagavad Gita 14.23Krishna · in the dialogue

The qualities are operating

उदासीनवदासीनो गुणैर्यो न विचाल्यते ।गुणा वर्तन्त इत्येवं योऽवतिष्ठति नेङ्गते ॥ २३ ॥
udāsīnavadāsīno guṇairyo na vicālyateguṇā vartanta ityevaṃ yo’vatiṣṭhati neṅgate

Remaining as an impartial witness, undisturbed by the qualities, that person stands firm in the understanding, 'The qualities are operating,' and does not waver.

Original King of Dwarka translation · Complete verse

Textual edition ↗Second textual witness ↗

Why this verse matters

The person beyond the qualities recognizes their activity without being swept away by identification with it. The image is of an impartial witness who remains steady. This does not mean that experience ceases; it means that each arising condition does not immediately become a command, a possession, or a final description of the self.

Explore deeper

The surrounding portrait includes steadiness in pleasure and pain, praise and blame, honour and dishonour. Such steadiness should not be confused with indifference to the moral character of action. The chapter concludes with devotion and enduring dharma, keeping relationship and conduct in view. Witnessing is therefore not a licence to excuse harm as merely nature's activity. It belongs to a disciplined knowledge that loosens the ego's claim without abolishing discernment.

Bhagavad Gita 14.26Krishna · in the dialogue

Devotion beyond the qualities

मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्तियोगेन सेवते ।स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान्ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते ॥ २६ ॥
māṃ ca yo’vyabhicāreṇa bhaktiyogena sevatesa guṇānsamatītyaitānbrahmabhūyāya kalpate

One who serves me through unwavering devotion in yoga passes beyond these qualities and becomes fit for the state of Brahman.

Original King of Dwarka translation · Complete verse

Textual edition ↗Second textual witness ↗

Why this verse matters

The answer to how the qualities are crossed is relational: unwavering service through devotion to Krishna. The person becomes fit for the state of Brahman. The verse gathers the chapter's analysis of nature into a path rather than leaving it as a detached classification of mental conditions.

Explore deeper

The next verse names Krishna as the foundation of Brahman, immortality, enduring dharma, and undivided happiness. Traditions explain that relation in different ways, but devotion is unmistakably integral to this conclusion. A reading concerned only with controlling moods would miss it. The chapter asks for a reorientation beyond the shifting demands of the qualities, and that reorientation is sustained by a relation not confined to the private ego's preferred state.

Read the full chapter

The whole conversation
matters.

All 27 verses, with Sanskrit, IAST transliteration and original King of Dwarka English.

Read Chapter 1427 verses · Sanskrit & English

Use the peacock feather above to mark your place. Sources & editions

14.1Krishna

परं भूयः प्रवक्ष्यामि ज्ञानानां ज्ञानमुत्तमम् ।यज्ज्ञात्वा मुनयः सर्वे परां सिद्धिमितो गताः ॥ १ ॥
paraṃ bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi jñānānāṃ jñānamuttamamyajjñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṃ siddhimito gatāḥ

Krishna said: I will again explain the highest knowledge, the best of all knowledge, through which all the sages have gone from here to the highest fulfilment.

14.2

इदं ज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यमागताः ।सर्गेऽपि नोपजायन्ते प्रलये न व्यथन्ति च ॥ २ ॥
idaṃ jñānamupāśritya mama sādharmyamāgatāḥsarge’pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca

Taking refuge in this knowledge, they have attained a likeness to my being. They are not born when creation begins, nor troubled when it dissolves.

14.3

मम योनिर्महद् ब्रह्म तस्मिन्गर्भं दधाम्यहम् ।सम्भवः सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत ॥ ३ ॥
mama yonirmahad brahma tasmingarbhaṃ dadhāmyahamsambhavaḥ sarvabhūtānāṃ tato bhavati bhārata

The great Brahman is my womb; in it I place the seed. From that comes the arising of all beings, descendant of Bharata.

14.4

सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तेय मूर्तयः सम्भवन्ति याः ।तासां ब्रह्म महद्योनिरहं बीजप्रदः पिता ॥ ४ ॥
sarvayoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥtāsāṃ brahma mahadyonirahaṃ bījapradaḥ pitā

Whatever forms arise in all wombs, son of Kunti, the great Brahman is their womb, and I am the father who gives the seed.

14.5

सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः ।निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥ ५ ॥
sattvaṃ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisambhavāḥnibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam

Clarity, passion, and darkness are the three qualities born of nature. They bind the imperishable embodied self within the body, mighty-armed one.

14.6

तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम् ।सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ ॥ ६ ॥
tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvātprakāśakamanāmayamsukhasaṅgena badhnāti jñānasaṅgena cānagha

Among them, clarity is illuminating and free of affliction because of its purity. Yet it binds through attachment to happiness and to knowledge, blameless one.

The three qualities are strands of nature, not fixed classes of people. Even clarity can bind through attachment to happiness and knowledge; the chapter does not make a flattering personality label its final goal.

14.7

रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् ।तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् ॥ ७ ॥
rajo rāgātmakaṃ viddhi tṛṣṇāsaṅgasamudbhavamtannibadhnāti kaunteya karmasaṅgena dehinam

Know passion as craving in its very nature, arising from thirst and attachment. It binds the embodied self through attachment to action, son of Kunti.

14.8

तमस्त्वज्ञानजं विद्धि मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम् ।प्रमादालस्यनिद्राभिस्तन्निबध्नाति भारत ॥ ८ ॥
tamastvajñānajaṃ viddhi mohanaṃ sarvadehināmpramādālasyanidrābhistannibadhnāti bhārata

Know darkness as born of ignorance, bewildering every embodied being. It binds through heedlessness, indolence, and sleep, descendant of Bharata.

14.9

सत्त्वं सुखे सञ्जयति रजः कर्मणि भारत ।ज्ञानमावृत्य तु तमः प्रमादे सञ्जयत्युत ॥ ९ ॥
sattvaṃ sukhe sañjayati rajaḥ karmaṇi bhāratajñānamāvṛtya tu tamaḥ pramāde sañjayatyuta

Clarity attaches one to happiness; passion attaches one to action. Darkness, covering knowledge, attaches one to heedlessness, descendant of Bharata.

14.10

रजस्तमश्चाभिभूय सत्त्वं भवति भारत ।रजः सत्त्वं तमश्चैव तमः सत्त्वं रजस्तथा ॥ १० ॥
rajastamaścābhibhūya sattvaṃ bhavati bhāratarajaḥ sattvaṃ tamaścaiva tamaḥ sattvaṃ rajastathā

Clarity prevails by overcoming passion and darkness; passion by overcoming clarity and darkness; and darkness by overcoming clarity and passion, descendant of Bharata.

14.11

सर्वद्वारेषु देहेऽस्मिन्प्रकाश उपजायते ।ज्ञानं यदा तदा विद्याद्विवृद्धं सत्त्वमित्युत ॥ ११ ॥
sarvadvāreṣu dehe’sminprakāśa upajāyatejñānaṃ yadā tadā vidyādvivṛddhaṃ sattvamityuta

When the light of knowledge arises through all the gates of this body, one should recognize that clarity has grown strong.

14.12

लोभः प्रवृत्तिरारम्भः कर्मणामशमः स्पृहा ।रजस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे भरतर्षभ ॥ १२ ॥
lobhaḥ pravṛttirārambhaḥ karmaṇāmaśamaḥ spṛhārajasyetāni jāyante vivṛddhe bharatarṣabha

Greed, restless activity, the launching of undertakings, lack of quiet, and craving arise when passion grows strong, foremost of the Bharatas.

14.13

अप्रकाशोऽप्रवृत्तिश्च प्रमादो मोह एव च ।तमस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे कुरुनन्दन ॥ १३ ॥
aprakāśo’pravṛttiśca pramādo moha eva catamasyetāni jāyante vivṛddhe kurunandana

Obscurity, inactivity, heedlessness, and confusion arise when darkness grows strong, joy of the Kurus.

14.14

यदा सत्त्वे प्रवृद्धे तु प्रलयं याति देहभृत् ।तदोत्तमविदां लोकानमलान्प्रतिपद्यते ॥ १४ ॥
yadā sattve pravṛddhe tu pralayaṃ yāti dehabhṛttadottamavidāṃ lokānamalānpratipadyate

When an embodied being meets dissolution while clarity prevails, that being reaches the stainless worlds of those who know the highest.

14.15

रजसि प्रलयं गत्वा कर्मसङ्गिषु जायते ।तथा प्रलीनस्तमसि मूढयोनिषु जायते ॥ १५ ॥
rajasi pralayaṃ gatvā karmasaṅgiṣu jāyatetathā pralīnastamasi mūḍhayoniṣu jāyate

Dying while passion prevails, one is born among those attached to action. Dying in darkness, one is born into conditions of delusion.

14.16

कर्मणः सुकृतस्याहुः सात्त्विकं निर्मलं फलम् ।रजसस्तु फलं दुःखमज्ञानं तमसः फलम् ॥ १६ ॥
karmaṇaḥ sukṛtasyāhuḥ sāttvikaṃ nirmalaṃ phalamrajasastu phalaṃ duḥkhamajñānaṃ tamasaḥ phalam

The fruit of good action is said to be clear and pure. The fruit of passion is suffering; the fruit of darkness is ignorance.

14.17

सत्त्वात्सञ्जायते ज्ञानं रजसो लोभ एव च ।प्रमादमोहौ तमसो भवतोऽज्ञानमेव च ॥ १७ ॥
sattvātsañjāyate jñānaṃ rajaso lobha eva capramādamohau tamaso bhavato’jñānameva ca

From clarity comes knowledge; from passion, greed; from darkness come heedlessness, confusion, and ignorance.

14.18

ऊर्ध्वं गच्छन्ति सत्त्वस्था मध्ये तिष्ठन्ति राजसाः ।जघन्यगुणवृत्तिस्था अधो गच्छन्ति तामसाः ॥ १८ ॥
ūrdhvaṃ gacchanti sattvasthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥjaghanyaguṇavṛttisthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ

Those established in clarity rise upward; those governed by passion remain in the middle; those governed by darkness, abiding in the lowest workings of the qualities, descend.

14.19

नान्यं गुणेभ्यः कर्तारं यदा द्रष्टानुपश्यति ।गुणेभ्यश्च परं वेत्ति मद्भावं सोऽधिगच्छति ॥ १९ ॥
nānyaṃ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṃ yadā draṣṭānupaśyatiguṇebhyaśca paraṃ vetti madbhāvaṃ so’dhigacchati

When the seer recognizes no agent apart from the qualities and knows what is beyond the qualities, that seer reaches my being.

14.20

गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान् ।जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर्विमुक्तोऽमृतमश्नुते ॥ २० ॥
guṇānetānatītya trīndehī dehasamudbhavānjanmamṛtyujarāduḥkhairvimukto’mṛtamaśnute

Going beyond these three qualities that give rise to the body, the embodied one is freed from the suffering of birth, death, and old age, and reaches immortality.

14.21Arjuna

कैर्लिङ्गैस्त्रीन्गुणानेतानतीतो भवति प्रभो ।किमाचारः कथं चैतांस्त्रीन्गुणानतिवर्तते ॥ २१ ॥
kairliṅgaistrīnguṇānetānatīto bhavati prabhokimācāraḥ kathaṃ caitāṃstrīnguṇānativartate

Arjuna asked: By what signs is one who has gone beyond these three qualities recognized, Lord? How does such a person behave, and how are the three qualities crossed?

14.22Krishna

प्रकाशं च प्रवृत्तिं च मोहमेव च पाण्डव ।न द्वेष्टि सम्प्रवृत्तानि न निवृत्तानि काङ्क्षति ॥ २२ ॥
prakāśaṃ ca pravṛttiṃ ca mohameva ca pāṇḍavana dveṣṭi sampravṛttāni na nivṛttāni kāṅkṣati

Krishna said: Such a person does not hate illumination, activity, or confusion when they arise, nor long for them when they cease, son of Pandu.

14.23

उदासीनवदासीनो गुणैर्यो न विचाल्यते ।गुणा वर्तन्त इत्येवं योऽवतिष्ठति नेङ्गते ॥ २३ ॥
udāsīnavadāsīno guṇairyo na vicālyateguṇā vartanta ityevaṃ yo’vatiṣṭhati neṅgate

Remaining as an impartial witness, undisturbed by the qualities, that person stands firm in the understanding, 'The qualities are operating,' and does not waver.

14.24

समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः ।तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस्तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः ॥ २४ ॥
samaduḥkhasukhaḥ svasthaḥ samaloṣṭāśmakāñcanaḥtulyapriyāpriyo dhīrastulyanindātmasaṃstutiḥ

Even in pain and pleasure, resting in the self, seeing earth, stone, and gold alike, steady amid the pleasant and unpleasant, and equal in blame and self-praise,

14.25

मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः ।सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते ॥ २५ ॥
mānāpamānayostulyastulyo mitrāripakṣayoḥsarvārambhaparityāgī guṇātītaḥ sa ucyate

equal in honour and dishonour, equal toward friend and foe, relinquishing all self-directed undertakings: such a person is said to have gone beyond the qualities.

14.26

मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्तियोगेन सेवते ।स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान्ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते ॥ २६ ॥
māṃ ca yo’vyabhicāreṇa bhaktiyogena sevatesa guṇānsamatītyaitānbrahmabhūyāya kalpate

One who serves me through unwavering devotion in yoga passes beyond these qualities and becomes fit for the state of Brahman.

14.27

ब्रह्मणो हि प्रतिष्ठाहममृतस्याव्ययस्य च ।शाश्वतस्य च धर्मस्य सुखस्यैकान्तिकस्य च ॥ २७ ॥
brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāhamamṛtasyāvyayasya caśāśvatasya ca dharmasya sukhasyaikāntikasya ca

For I am the foundation of Brahman, of the immortal and imperishable, of enduring dharma, and of undivided happiness.

A deeper reading

Questions worth
remaining with.

14.5–18

The qualities are not fixed identities

The chapter explicitly describes one quality overcoming the others. That movement makes a rigid label inadequate. A person may recognize clarity in one situation, restless desire in another, and obscurity in a third. The teaching concerns the operation of nature, not a permanent allocation of human worth. Using the vocabulary to rank people can reproduce the very attachment to superiority that the wider Gita asks the reader to examine.

Its descriptions also should not substitute for understanding bodily and social circumstances. Sleep can be needed; exhaustion can have material causes; difficulty concentrating does not disclose an entire spiritual life. The chapter's account is best approached as a religious framework for discerning attachment and conditioned experience. Its ethical value depends on honest attention, including attention to one's own motives, rather than confidence in classifying everyone else.

14.6, 19–23

Why even clarity is not the final goal

Sattva is illuminating and relatively free of disturbance. The Gita values such conditions, and later chapters will describe clear action, understanding, and faith favourably. Yet this chapter identifies attachment to the happiness and knowledge that clarity brings. A person can begin to require a particular inward state as proof of worth or safety. Then its loss becomes a threat, and its preservation becomes another consuming project.

Going beyond the qualities does not mean deliberately becoming confused or abandoning discernment. It means that clarity itself is no longer appropriated as a private possession. Krishna's instruction about neither hating arising states nor craving departed ones addresses that relation. The freedom described is more exacting than obtaining a pleasant condition. It changes how every condition is known, while leaving the practical value of careful, illuminating conduct intact.

14.24–27

Equal regard is not ethical indifference

Seeing earth, stone, and gold alike does not require losing the ability to distinguish their ordinary uses. Likewise, steadiness toward friend and foe need not make harmful conduct acceptable. The portrait concerns freedom from the compulsions of attraction, aversion, praise, and humiliation. Its relation to dharma remains explicit in the final verse, and the larger conversation continues to distinguish what should be done from what should be avoided.

The conclusion in devotion is therefore essential. The person is not left as a spectator who claims to stand above every relationship. Unwavering service to Krishna names an orientation beyond the oscillations of private preference. Traditions interpret Krishna's relation to Brahman in different ways, but the chapter clearly joins the crossing of qualities with that divine relation. Freedom is not merely the ego congratulating itself on having become impossible to disturb.

Sources & editions

The complete chapter is above. These optional external editions support further study; their modern translations and commentaries belong to their publishers.

Text, translation & sources