The fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga. In this chapter, Krishna reveals the three gunas (modes) of the material nature - goodness, passion and ignorance which everything in the material existence is influenced by. He further explains the essential characteristics of each of these modes, their cause and how they influence a living entity affected by them. He then reveals the various characteristics of the persons who have gone beyond these gunas. The chapter ends with Krishna reminding us of the power of pure devotion to God and how attachment to God can help us transcend these gunas.
The Blessed Lord said: I shall speak again of the supreme Knowledge, the best of all knowledges, by realizing which all the contemplatives reached the highest Perfection from here.
OPEN VERSEThose who attain identity with Me by resorting of this Knowledge are not born even during creation, nor do they suffer pain during dissolution.
OPEN VERSEMy womb is the great-sustainer. In that I place the seed. From that, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, occurs the birth of all things.
OPEN VERSEO son of Kunti, whatever forms are born from all the wombs, of them the great-sustainer is the womb; I am the father who deposits the seed.
OPEN VERSEO mighty-armed one, the qualities, viz sattva, rajas and tamas, born of Nature, being the immutable embodies being to the body.
OPEN VERSEAmong them, sattva, being pure, [Nirmala, pure-transparent, i.e., capable of resisting any form of ignorance, and hence as illuminator, i.e. a revealer of Consciousness.] is an illuminator and is harmless. O sinless one, it binds through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
OPEN VERSE