अथ चतुर्दशोऽध्यायः🔗

Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ

श्री भगवानुवाच।

śrībhagavānuvāca paraṁ bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi jñānānāṁ jñānamuttamam / yajjñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṁ siddhimito gatāḥ // 14.1

14.1 Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says: I will declare to you again the Supreme wisdom, The knowledge of which has helped all sages attain Supreme perfection.

idaṁ jñānamupāśritya mama sādharmyamāgatāḥ / sarge'pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca // 14.2

14.2 By becoming fixed in this knowledge, one can attain the transcendental nature, like My own, and establish in His Eternal Consciousness, that one is not born at the time of creation, or disturbed at the time of dissolution.

mama yonir-mahad-brahma tasmingarbhaṁ dadhāmyahaṁ / sambhavaḥ sarvabhūtānāṁ tato bhavati bhārata // 14.3

14.3 The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, It is that Brahman that I impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of Bhārata.

sarvayoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ saṁbhavanti yāḥ | tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir ahaṁ bījapradaḥ pitā || 14.4

14.4 Arjuna, understand that all species of life are made possible by birth in this material nature, and I am the seed-giving father.

sattvaṁ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisaṁbhavāḥ | nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam || 14.5

14.5 Material nature consists of the three modes—goodness, passion and ignorance. When the living entity comes in contact with nature, it becomes conditioned by these modes.

tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt prakāśakamanāmayam | sukhasaṅgena badhnāti jñānasaṅgena cānagha || 14.6

14.6 O Sinless One, the mode of goodness, satva, being purer than the others, is illuminating, and it frees one from all sinful reactions. Those situated in that mode develop knowledge, but they become conditioned by the concept of happiness.

rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛṣṇāsaṅgasamudbhavam | tannibadhnāti kaunteya karmasaṅgena dehinam || 14.7

14.7 Kaunteya, know that the mode of passion, rajas, is char-acterized by intense craving and is the source of desire and attachment. Rajas binds the living entity by attachment to work.

14.8 Know, O Arjuna, that the mode of ignorance, tamas, the deluder of the living entity is born of inertia. Tamas binds the living entity by carelessness, laziness, and excessive sleep.

14.9 The mode of goodness, satva conditions one to happiness, passion, rajas conditions him to fruits of action, and veiling the knowledge, tamas binds one to madness.

14.10 Sometimes the mode of passion becomes prominent, de-feating the mode of goodness, O son of Bhārata. And sometimes the mode of goodness defeats passion, and at other times the mode of ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is always competition for supremacy.

14.11 When the light of Self-knowledge illumines all the senses (or gates) in the body, then it should be known that goodness is predominant.

14.12 O Bharatarsabha, chief of the Bhārata, when there is an increase in the mode of passion, the symptoms of great attachment, uncontrollable desire, hankering, and intense en-deavor develop.

14.13 O son of Kuru, when there is an increase in the mode of ignorance, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness are manifested.

14.14 When one dies in the mode of goodness [satva], He goes to the highest of worlds.

14.15 When one dies in the mode of passion [rajas], he takes birth among those engaged in activities. When he dies in the mode of ignorance [tamas], he takes birth in the space of the ignorant.

14.16 By acting in the mode of goodness, one becomes purified. Work done in the mode of passion results in distress, and actions performed in the mode of ignorance result in foolishness.

14.17 From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, greed develops; from the mode of ignorance develops foolishness, madness and illusion.

14.18 Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher world; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the mode of ignorance go down to the worlds below.

14.19 When we see that there is nothing beyond these modes of nature in all activities and that the Supreme Lord is transcendental to all these modes, the seeker can know My spiritual nature.

14.20 When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes, he can become free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life.

अर्जुन उवाच

14.21 Arjuna inquires: O my Lord, by what symptoms is one known who is transcendental to those modes? What is his behavior? And how does he transcend the modes of nature?

श्री भगवानुवाच

14.22,23,24,25 Śrī Bhagavān says: He who does not hate illu-mination, attachment and delusion when they are present, nor longs for them when they disappear; who is seated like one unconcerned, being situated beyond these material reactions of the modes of nature, who remains firm, knowing that the modes alone are active; He who regards alike pleasure and pain, and looks on a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is wise and holds praise and blame to be the same; who is unchanged in honor and dishonor, who treats friend and foe alike, who has abandoned all result based undertakings—such a man is said to have transcended the modes of nature.

14.26 One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.

14.27 And I am the basis of Brahman, which is the rightful state of ultimate happiness, and which is immortal, imperishable and eternal.

iti śrīmad bhagavadgītāsūpaniṣatsu brahmavidyāyāṃ yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjuna saṁvāde Guṇatraya-vibhāgayogo nāma caturdaśo'dhyāyaḥ //

In the Upaniṣad of Śrimad Bhagavad Gītā, the scripture of yoga dealing with Brahmavidyā Yogaśāstra, the science of Brahman, in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇārjuna saṁvād, dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa-Arjuna, this is fourteenth chapter named,

Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ,

‘The Yoga of the Division of the three Guṇas.’

Everything in Existence has a root. The way you behave, the way you think, the way you react, the way you respond, the way you cognize, everything has a root thought pattern!

Whether you feel unhealthy or helpless, or emotionally weak, tired, bored, lazy, agitated, all these put together is what I classify as powerlessness. The good news is that you can live without any of these patterns. Our past experiences are stored in our unconscious as root thought patterns. They mislead you to a space of powerlessness, incompletion. In Saṃskṛit, the right technical word for these root thought patterns is mūla vāsanā or mūla vichāra dhārā.

We make incomplete decisions through root thought patterns or mūla vāsanā. We should find the root of our incompletions and complete with it, else it leads to more powerlessness and suffering.

Let me define ‘root thought pattern’.

The first strong cognition you receive in your life, which influences you to continue to function based on the same cognition, is a root thought pattern! When the first attack of any strong emotion happens in you and imbalances your whole cognition of life, giving birth to your mind, the pattern you develop from that moment is the ‘root thought pattern’.

It is a pattern you develop when powerlessness takes you over for the first time in your life. A simple example:

In the young age, your mother teaches you, ‘Don’t go in the rain. You will catch cold’. But even after you are twenty-five, you don’t go in the rain, just by seeing the rain, you start sneezing. What you you cognized in the very young age, which has imbalanced your nature, is root pattern. Get out of your root thought pattern and complete with it. It may be anything as simple as your mother not giving you the cake and giving it to your brother. It can be even that small!

Please listen! The moment a root pattern enters your system, only the pattern lives through you. You don’t live. The first thing any human should do is—learn this science of discovering the root pattern. This chapter called Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ, is about the science of completion, discovering your root thought pattern, your guṇas (root attributes) and completing with them to experience the space of completion, pūrṇatva.

Please listen! Completion means consciously reliving the same experience and relieving the powerful impact of the past, which makes you powerless in the present.

The powerful impact of the past, which makes you powerless in the present, should be relieved from your system. What we term ‘perception’ is not the experience we perceive through our senses; perception is how we respond emotionally to the experience. This response is an incomplete, inadequate response based on our root thought patterns.

You don’t see what IS. You only see what you want. You create what you want. What is your reality? It is just your perception–your perception about what you feel as you–your mamakāra, what you project to others as you–your ahaṁkāra, and what others expect about you–anyakāra.

Look in. Find out the root of your happening. When you find your root pattern and complete with it, you will understand your prārab- dha, the purpose of your happening. Kṛṣṇa explains the root of our happening by explaining the three different guṇas (attributes) to Arjuna. How we act—actually I can’t say we ‘act’, I should say how we ‘react’ to every situation—is based on these three guṇas, the root patterns and how to complete with them.

By repeating the truth, Kṛṣṇa tries to create the right inner space of completion in Arjuna. Kṛṣṇa declares that we can reach His state, ‘You will achieve the same state in which I am. Anyone can attain the transcen-dental nature like My own, mama sādharmyam āgatāḥ (14.2).’

Right inner space means the space where all the root thought patterns of suffering are destroyed, where your inner space is fertile for experiencing the higher ideals and ideas.

Kṛṣṇa is the first Master bold enough to declare that Enlightenment is available to everybody. He showed the exact Science of Enlightenment. We can experience it through our conscious decision to create the space of completion.

He says that by being fixed in this knowledge, 'One can attain, mama sādharmyam āgatāḥ.' He doesn't say, 'you can attain it,' indicating only Arjuna. He says 'one' can attain it, meaning anybody can attain it.

Kṛṣṇa beautifully declares, 'like My own.' 'Mama' means 'My own'. There are very few concepts Kṛṣṇa repeats in Bhagavad Gīta. One is, 'understand Me, understand My Divinity, you will become God', 'understand My inner space, you will achieve that space'.

Kṛṣṇa talks about the truth that one is eternal, not limited by birth and death. The state of being eternal transcends creation and dissolution. It transcends the past and future. Eternal is the present moment of completion.

Listen! Your inner space experiences the past and future in the same language, in the same way. I will tell you how your past is built.

Incidents, your perceptions and your self-assessments are three pillars on which your past is built. If you complete yourself now, if you complete with your perception and self-assessments, over sixty percent of your past will be burnt! Then can your past stand as it is now? No! It will just be with 'facts'. So, your past will lose its power over you. Your past and the future, both will be transformed.

You need to catch it and live it! If you declare completion now, you are complete. When you complete, you transcend the past and the future. Wherever you go, you will carry auspiciousness, radiating it. You will be a moving auspiciousness, Śiva.

Understand, when you are driving out of incompletion, you may have one dimension success in the life. But you will fail in life itself! Listen! One dimension success in life is not success. For example, if you have a root thought pattern of fear or shivering in you, even if you make billions of dollars out of that root pattern, you will not achieve satisfaction. Because the reason why you are making money is to feel secured. You will feel secured only when you break that pattern, not my money! It is wrong strategy, for the wrong reason!

Kṛṣṇa says, ‘I am the seed-giving father, the pitā, I am the root cause for everything—ahaṁ bīja pradaḥ pitā (14.4).’ ‘This great why’ is Kṛṣṇa’s seed put inside you and sent, so that you won’t rest until you become a tree. Each seed has an energy called ‘vīrya’ that does not rest until it pro-duces more seeds. Here, Arjuna also comes back to the same great ‘why’ again and again.

Material nature consists of three attributes or root patterns, guṇas: satva (goodness), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance). Let me explain these concepts: Satva refers to the root patterns that lead us to joy, bliss, the space of completion. Rajas refers to the root patterns that lead us to restlessness, excitement and to work intensely; making us active and ma-terially productive. The third attribute, tamas, refers to the root patterns that lead us to depression, laziness and to dullness. Those patterns that automatically arise and imbalance our cognition, and lead to depression are called tamas.

These three types of root thought patterns or saṁskāras rule our entire life. Knowledge of these root patterns is the basic knowledge for anyone who wants to live successfully. The science of completing with these roots thought patterns is the owner’s manual for life. This is the basic life science! Kṛṣṇa calls it Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yoga.

Listen! Root patterns, mūla vāsanas are not dead memories. are liv-ing bio-memories and muscle-memories. The more we live with these memories, the more they become a part of our being. They get engraved into our brain structure.

Understand, the inner space you carry is such a powerful space. When a person has energies to do powerless acts out of incompletion, we can tap into those energies and make him do powerful acts out of completion.

Your identity stems from your unconscious incompletions which are your root patterns. You project who you wish to be, never who you are. You do not even know who you are. Who you are is deeply buried in your unconscious. Identify your root pattern! When your root pattern starts, that is moment you feel yourself as an individual identity. Till you complete with that root pattern, you will continue to have accidents in your life.

Completion takes away the agitated confusion and the alternative compensating image we create in our life. If you complete now, you will have complete easeness between what you feel as you (inner image), what you show as you (outer image), and what you are as you.

Listen. The effects of your root pattern are your conflicting patterns. Whenever you are possessed by powerlessness, confusion, agitation, please don't take any decisions in your life. All restlessness is powerless-ness. The more patterns you have, the more powerless you feel, the more restless, rājasic you will be.

Kṛṣṇa says that we should ask our being how we missed the Reality. Why are we deluded by root thought patterns?

When we work with different types of conflicting patterns, satva, rajas and tamas and all three cross each other, they create hell in our lives. Kṛṣṇa gives techniques on how be complete with these three guṇas.

Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not, we are God. We are pure Consciousness. No matter how many millions of reasons you give, there are some things which cannot be changed. Our inner space is all-powerful! Our inner space is infinite and infinitely powerful! Our inner space carries the DNA of Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi (I Am That)!

The space you create inside is so powerful, it can straightaway affect the way you and the way others around you experience life.

Let me define the term ‘space’! How you feel things are going to be, that is what I call the ‘space you create inside’. The space is the order you give to the Cosmos to prepare your future. Listen! Just like how you place the order in the restaurants after looking at the menu card, the inner space you carry is also an order you give to the Cosmos, ‘I want this, this, this in my life.’ The deeper the thoughts we create in this inner space, the more power they get from our Consciousness.

Understand, you have one important pattern of self-doubting. Any part of your personality decides or does anything, the other part doubts that cognition. Whatever your right hand does, your left hand is doubting. Self-doubting patterns corrupt our whole satva space.

Listen. We disturb satva, the pure space, by creating self-doubt-ing patterns. Sit with yourself. Complete with all the negative conflict-ing, self-doubting patterns. Allow the grace to move in you. Create the right inner space by completing again and again with yourself by doing svapūrṇatva, self-completion.

In the satva space, when we create self-conflicting patterns, we are automatically thrown into rajas. Let me describe what Kṛṣṇa says about rajas. The mode of passion is born of unlimited desires and longings. Kṛṣṇa says, because of this rajas, mode of passion, born of unlimit-ed desires and longings, the embodied living entity is bound to doing result-oriented actions.

Rāga means desire; tṛṣṇā means craving, longing. Desires, rāga are ours and longings, tṛṣṇā have been given to us by society. Desires are in-born. If we fulfill desires, we feel relaxed and complete. With longings, the moment we fulfill them, we feel empty, incomplete.

Kṛṣṇa shows us how self-conflicting desires lead us to rajas. When desires contradict each other, we get confused. We fall into rajas, dilemma. Man is a dilemma. Dilemma is what Kṛṣṇa calls rajas, restless-ness. All restlessness is powerlessness. In rajas, we have tremendous an-ger, agitation, violence. How to complete with the rajas patterns?

See, there are only three ways to handle your incompletions.

One, by pushing them under the carpet. Second, by trying to forget them either by alcohol or by other entertainments. Third, by completing them and liberating yourself.

Listen! Continuously completing for the sake of completion leads you to the experience of Enlightenment. When you try to push your incompletions into your unconscious mind, unfortunately, it reach-es deeper and goes closer to your Consciousness. Anything closer to Consciousness becomes powerful. That is why even a small incompletion that happened when you were young, explodes as a dangerous imbalance of your rājasic guṇa patterns.

When we don’t expect or worry about the result, we work beautifully because there are fewer patterns. We will not suffer or be tortured by root thought patterns. We will be in the space of completion.

Kṛṣṇa talks about tamas. He addresses Arjuna, ‘Know that the mode of darkness, tamas, is born out of ignorance, tamas tv ajñānajaṁ viddhi (14.8). It is the delusion of all embodied living entities. The result of this mode is madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul.’

Listen. The level of an animal is the level of instinct; the level of man is the level of intellect; the level of God is the level of intuition. The level of instinct is the level of tamas; the level of intellect is the level of rajas; the level of intuition is the level of satva.

In satva, we work and make decisions, yet we do not become tired. We can be active for twenty-four hours and yet remain peaceful. This is what I call action in inaction and inaction in action. Kṛṣṇa says we will be centered when we are in satva. Though lots of activities go on around us, we will remain utterly relaxed in restful awareness.

The whole thing is dependent on our root thought patterns or bio-memories. The number of root thought patterns determines whether we are caught in satva, rajas or tamas. These three are not enlightened states. Enlightenment is beyond these three.

If we are caught in tamas, we need to move towards rajas. If we are caught in rajas, make the move towards satva. If we are caught in satva, it will automatically lead us to Enlightenment.

For example, we create a self-conflicting desire at the satva level. Because of that we create restlessness, powerless space in the rajas level. When we feel too restless, we drop everything. We fall into tamas. Tamas is not only tiredness, sleep or depression, not taking responsibility is also tamas. Whenever you don't want to take responsibility, you invoke boredom, tiredness, and fear.

Be integrated to your Soul. The Soul, Consciousness can never have tiredness. That is the Truth. Whether you realize or not, you are Soul, Consciousness.

Kṛṣṇa further explains the three modes. ‘Bhārata, sometimes good-ness, satva, is prominent, defeating rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance), and at times, ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way, there is always competition for supremacy (14.10).’

We are not completely caught in satva or rajas or tamas. We swing be-tween satva, rajas and tamas. Kṛṣṇa says the manifestations of the modes of goodness, satva can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge. This is the technique.

The gates of the body are the gates through which we cognize: we receive knowledge through the five senses. He says that we should keep these five carefully guarded by prakāśa (illuminated knowledge)– sarvadvāreṣu dehesmin prakāśa upajāyate (14.11). We should ensure security at these gates and knowledge is that security.

Kṛṣṇa says, let us have the protection of knowledge at the five gates, and we will reside in continuous bliss. Completion is Bliss. When we protect our senses with satva, we will not allow negative patterns to en-ter our inner space. Do not infuse your Consciousness with powerless thoughts of incompletion that create suffering in you. Continuously add thoughts of completion that give power, bliss and peace.

Kṛṣṇa uses powerful words to describe tamas: ignorance, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness. One can quickly slip from rajas to tamas. Listen, the activity without any meaning that we find in tamas is not the same as activity without a purpose that we experience in satva. Please do not confuse the two.

Tamas, darkness, is generally born out of the ignorance of our true Self. We can only remove darkness by bringing in light. Same way, we dispel ignorance by bringing in the science of completion, pūrṇatva. Upaniṣad says—tamaso mā jyotirgamaya—meaning, let my darkness be removed by light. Let the light and wisdom of Kṛṣṇa, the Jagadguru, dispel your darkness and tamas.

Kṛṣṇa tells us where the person goes after death when steeped in these attributes of satva, rajas and tamas. A sātvic person becomes Divine. A tāmasic person chooses a lower life. A rājasic person continues to suffer due to greed.

Please listen! Every birth is your declaration of completion. Kṛṣṇa says that a person living in satva goes to higher spaces, the abodes of the realized sages. He becomes Divine. When we are in satva, we live in rest-ful awareness, the space of enlightenment. We stop thinking about our-selves and we start living for others.

Our true nature is Divine. We are one with the Universal energy, God, Parāśakti. We can just experience it. Throughout life we run away from the core of bliss, the space of completion.

Let me define Completion. Completion is removing the delusion of incompletion, which makes you cognize the other is separate from you; the delusive cognizance, the delusive cognition.

Kṛṣṇa provides the key to liberation here. Those who go beyond the three guṇas, beyond the activity-producing attributes, beyond the root patterns and complete, are free of bondages and enjoy bliss in this world. This is the assurance of the Master. This is a guarantee.

These words are a great technique.

Step one is realize that our thoughts, words, and activities arise from one of the three root patterns, guṇas—satva, rajas and tamas.

Step two is the understanding about which guṇa, root pattern is do-ing what to us; what disempowering cognition that guṇa is building about our inner image (mamakāra), our outer-image (ahaṁkāra), others’ image (anyakāra), others’ expectation about us, and life’s image (svānyakāra).

Step three is to do the completion and the creation process; do completion with that guṇa or root pattern and do creation of the satva guṇa, the right inner space to create the reality that we want. Finally we transcend satva guṇa and enter into nirguṇa or ‘no guṇa state’. If we are complete, unattached by all that is happening, we act out of satva guṇa.

Here Kṛṣṇa assures, ‘Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planes, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (14.18).’ A continuous tireless completion process creates the basis for higher level practices, for higher planes.

The realization that completion helps you move out of fantasies and creates your reality as you want, can only come as a result of learning the Science of Completion.

With great clarity, Kṛṣṇa explains the nature of one who has transcended the three guṇas. He explains what we need to do to become a triguṇa rahita, to become liberated from the influence of the three guṇas.

One who is beyond the three guṇas is unaffected by their play of emotions. Whatever happens is right for him. Success and failure mean the same. Friend and foe make no difference. Poverty or richness has no influence. Such an attitude of total detachment requires one thing: complete trust.

When we trust that whatever happens is what needs to happen, we are totally detached. Then whatever happens will be right. Such trust can only come from surrender.

Kṛṣṇa concludes the chapter by asserting that the transcendental state is beyond the three attributes of nature, guṇas, is Brahman, Cosmic Consciousness, the space of Completion. He says you reach this through devotion. He says that He is that Brahman, the source of Eternal Bliss— brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham (14.27).

Kṛṣṇa speaks as Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme energy and not as Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa, the individual. He is in the expanded consciousness of Brahman, and beyond the three guṇas. He is the Source of the guṇas.

It does not matter who our Master is. What matters is our trust, our surrender based on the level of our completion, our guṇa, and not the Master's state. Even if we worship a stone and surrender to it from a complete inner space, we will be liberated. It is true.

Surrendering not even bothering to whom you are surrendering, as a quality of surrendering is Enlightenment. That space of completion alone liberates us. This is what Kṛṣṇa means by devotion, bhakti-yogena sevate (14.26), which is unfailing in all circumstances. Nothing more is needed. Anyone that we surrender to totally, is Kṛṣṇa and we then fall into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Consciousness of Completion.

Let us pray to Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the Universal Consciousness, the Ultimate Energy, to give us all this understanding in our life, to make us experience the truth that He teaches and to establish us in Completion, and make us radiate Eternal Bliss, Nityānanda.

CHAPTER 15

Puruṣottama Yogaḥ

ONLY DOUBTS