śrīmadbhagavadgītā mūlam - caturdaśo'dhyāyaḥ

The Blessed Lord said: I will again declare (to you) that Supreme Knowledge, the best of all knowledges, having known which, all the sages have attained Supreme Perfection after this life.

They who, having refuge in this Knowledge have attained to My Being, are neither born at the time of Creation, nor are they disturbed at the time of dissolution.

My womb is the great BRAHMAN (MULA PRAKRITI); in that I place the germ; from which, O Bharata, is the birth of all beings.

Whatever forms are produced, O Kaunteya, in all the wombs whatsoever, the great BRAHMA is their womb, and I the seed-giving Father.

Purity, passion, and inertia --- these qualities (GUNAS), O! mighty-armed, born of PRAKRITI bind the Indestructible Embodied one fast in the body.

Of these, SATTWA which because of its stainlessness is luminous and healthy (unobstructive). It binds by (creating) attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge O sinless one.

Know thou RAJAS (to be) of the nature of passion the source of thirst and attachment; it binds fast O Kaunteya the embodied one by attachment to action.

But, know thou TAMAS is born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings, it binds fast, O Bharata, by heedless-ness, indolence and sleep.

ATTWA attaches to happiness, RAJAS to action, O Bharata, while TAMAS, verily, shrouding knowledge, attaches to heedlessness.

Now SATTWA rises (prevails), O Bharata, having over-powered RAJAS and inertia (TAMAS); now RAJAS, having over-powered SATTWA and inertia; and inertia (TAMAS), having over-powered SATTWA and RAJAS.

When, through every gate (sense) in this body, the light-of-intelligence shines, then it may be known that SATTWA is predominant.

Greed, activity, undertaking of actions, restless-ness longing --- these arise when RAJAS is predominant, O best in the Bharata family.

Darkness, inertness, heedlessness and delusion --- these arise when TAMAS is predominant, O descendant-of-Kuru.

If the embodied one meets with death when SATTWA is predominant, then he attains to the spotless worlds of the Knowers of the Highest.

Meeting death in RAJAS, he is born among those attached to action; and dying in TAMAS, he is born in the womb of the senseless.

The fruit of good action, they say, is SATTVIC and pure; verily, the fruit of RAJAS is pain, and the fruit of TAMAS is ignorance.

Knowledge arises from SATTWA, greed from RAJAS, heedlessness, delusion and also ignorance arise from TAMAS.

Those who are abiding in SATTWA go upwards; the RAJASIC dwell in the middle; and the TAMASIC, abiding in the function of the lowest GUNA, go downwards.

When the Seer beholds no agent other than the GUNAS and knows him who is higher than the GUNAS, he attains to My Being.

The embodied-one having crossed beyond these three GUNAS out of which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to Immortality.

Arjuna said: What are the marks of him who has crossed over the three GUNAS, O Lord? What is his conduct, and how does he go beyond these three GUNAS?

The Blessed Lord said: Light, activity, and delusion, when present, O Pandava, he hates not, nor longs for them when absent.

He who, seated like one unconcerned, is not moved by the GUNAS, who, knowing that the GUNAS operate, is self-centred and swerves not...

Alike in pleasure and pain; who dwells in the Self; to whom a clod of earth, a precious stone and gold are alike; to whom the dear and the not-dear are the same; firm; the same in censure and self-praise....

The same in honour and dishonour; the same to friend and foe; abandoning all undertakings --- he is said to have crossed beyond the GUNAS.

And he, serving Me with unswerving devotion, and crossing beyond the GUNAS, is fit to become BRAHMAN.

For I am the Abode of BRAHMAN, the Immortal and the Immutable, of everlasting DHARMA and of Absolute Bliss. Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the fourteenth discourse entitled "The Yoga of the Division of the Three Guṇas."