Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 14

Yoga through Understanding the Three Modes of Material Nature

14.1Krishna says he will explain again the highest wisdom, the best of all knowledge. Wise people who learned it reached the highest goal.Krishna
14.2Krishna says those who rely on this wisdom become like him. They are not born again when a new universe begins, and they are not shaken when it ends.Krishna
14.3Krishna says that the great nature is like a mother's womb, and he places the seed of life into it. From this, all living beings are born.Krishna
14.4Krishna says that whatever form a living being is born in, nature is its mother and he is its father. Every creature comes from him.Krishna
14.5Krishna names the three qualities that come from nature: goodness, passion, and dullness. These three tie the soul that never dies to the body.Krishna
14.6Krishna says goodness is pure, bright, and healthy. But even goodness ties a person down, by making them attached to happiness and to knowing things.Krishna
14.7Krishna says passion creates strong wanting and craving. It ties the soul down by making it attached to always doing things.Krishna
14.8Krishna says dullness comes from not knowing and fools everyone. It ties people down through carelessness, laziness, and too much sleep.Krishna
14.9Krishna sums up: goodness ties us to happiness, passion ties us to action, and dullness hides wisdom and ties us to carelessness.Krishna
14.10Krishna says the three qualities keep competing inside us. Sometimes goodness wins over the other two, sometimes passion wins, and sometimes dullness wins.Krishna
14.11Krishna says when clear understanding shines through all your senses, you can tell that goodness is growing in you.Krishna
14.12Krishna says greed, busy energy, starting many projects, restlessness, and strong desire are signs that passion is growing.Krishna
14.13Krishna tells Arjuna that darkness of mind, feeling stuck, carelessness, and confusion are signs that dullness is growing.Krishna
14.14Krishna says that if goodness is strongest when a person dies, they go to the pure worlds where the great wise ones live.Krishna
14.15Krishna says that if passion is strongest at death, a person is reborn among busy, action-driven people. If dullness is strongest, they are reborn among beings without understanding.Krishna
14.16Krishna says good action brings pure, peaceful results. Passion brings pain, and dullness brings ignorance.Krishna
14.17Krishna says each of the three qualities of nature gives its own results. Harmony (goodness) brings wisdom. Motion (restless passion) brings greed. Inertia (dullness) brings carelessness, confusion and ignorance.Krishna
14.18Krishna says people rooted in goodness rise upward to higher states. Restless, busy people stay in the middle. Dull, lazy people sink lower, wrapped in the worst qualities.Krishna
14.19Krishna says a wise person sees that the three qualities of nature are what really do all the acting. When that person also knows what lies beyond the qualities, they come to share Krishna's own nature.Krishna
14.20Krishna says all bodies come from the three qualities. The soul living in the body can rise above them. Then it is free from birth, death, old age and sorrow, and it tastes a life that never ends.Krishna
14.21Arjuna asks Krishna three questions. How can you recognize someone who has gone beyond the three qualities? How does that person behave? And how do they get beyond them?Arjuna
14.22Krishna begins his answer to Arjuna, whom he calls Pandava (son of Pandu). Such a person does not hate clarity, busy energy or confusion when they show up. They also do not long for these when they are gone.Krishna
14.23Krishna says this person sits calmly, like an onlooker, and is not shaken by the qualities. They tell themselves, "These are just the qualities moving around," and stay steady and apart.Krishna
14.24Krishna says this person stays the same in pleasure and pain and relies on their inner self. To them a lump of dirt, a stone and gold are worth the same. They treat pleasant and unpleasant people alike, and they stay steady whether blamed or praised.Krishna
14.25Krishna goes on: this person is the same in honor and in shame, and the same toward friends and enemies. They give up all self-driven projects. Such a person has gone beyond the three qualities.Krishna
14.26Krishna says anyone who serves him with undivided, loving devotion also goes beyond the three qualities. Such a person becomes ready to be one with the Eternal.Krishna
14.27Krishna says he is the home and foundation of the Eternal. He is also the source of everlasting life, of timeless goodness, and of happiness that never ends.Krishna