Bhagavad Gita · 14.12 · Yoga through Understanding the Three Modes of Material Nature·12 of 27
लोभः प्रवृत्तिरारम्भः कर्मणामशमः स्पृहा।रजस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे भरतर्षभ ॥
lobhaḥ pravṛittir ārambhaḥ karmaṇām aśhamaḥ
spṛihā rajasy etāni jāyante vivṛiddhe bharatarṣhabha
Sanskrit recitation
Three moods of nature · 14.1–14.18 · Teaching
Translation
Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, and longing—these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna.
Meaning
Greed Covetousness Desire to appropriate the property of others a desire to possess more wealth though one has sufficient already.Pravritti Action in general.Asamah Restlessness being agitated by joy, attachment, etc. I will do this and then I wil take up that action. After finishing the second, I will take up the third, and so on. There is no end to the continuity of desire, will and action. This is called Asama or restlessness.Spriha Thirsting or longing for all sensual objects in general.These are the characteristic marks that indicate that Rajas is predominant.Do not mistake Rajasic restlessness or Rajasic movements for Karma Yoga or divine activity. People may say that they are doing selfless service to the world, but if you analyse their motives,there will be the taint of personal desire in some form or other. Many persons cannot sit quiet even for a moment. They think that moving about here and there or doing some action or other is to full of life. The Yogi or sage who sits still by calming the mind, who does nothing at all physically, is the most active man in the whole world whereas the man who runs here and there and who is always very busy does nothing at all. This may be paradoxical to you. Very few can comprehend the truth of this statement. Sattva is intense activity. A wheel that revolves very rapidly appears to be at rest. So is Sattva. So is a Sattvic man.
After Swami Sivananda
Three moods of nature· 14.1–14.18→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 14.1The Blessed Lord said, "I will again declare to thee that supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge, having known which all the sages have gone to supreme perfection after this life."
- 14.2Those who, having taken refuge in this knowledge, have attained unity with Me, are neither born at the time of creation nor disturbed at the time of dissolution.
- 14.3My womb is the great Brahma; in it I place the germ; thence, O Arjuna, is the birth of all beings.
- 14.4Whatever forms are produced, O Arjuna, in any womb whatsoever, the great Brahma is their womb, and I am the seed-giving father.
- 14.5These qualities, O Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body of the embodied, the indestructible: purity, passion, and inertia.
- 14.6Of these, sattva, which is luminous and healthy due to its stainlessness, binds one by attachment to happiness and knowledge, O sinless one.
- 14.7Know, O Arjuna, that Rajas is of the nature of passion, the source of thirst and attachment; it binds fast the embodied one by attachment to action.
- 14.8But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, through heedlessness, indolence, and sleep.
- 14.9Sattva attaches to happiness, Rajas to action, O Arjuna, while Tamas, verily shrouding knowledge, attaches to heedlessness.
- 14.10Now, O Arjuna, Sattva prevails, having overpowered Rajas and Tamas; then Rajas, having overpowered Sattva and Tamas; and then Tamas, having overpowered Sattva and Rajas.
- 14.11When the wisdom-light shines through every gate of this body, then it may be known that Sattva is predominant.
14.12Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, and longing—these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna.
- 14.13Darkness, inertia, carelessness, and delusion—these arise when Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna.
- 14.14If the embodied one meets death when Sattva is predominant, then they attain the spotless worlds of the knowers of the Highest.
- 14.15Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those who are attached to action; and dying in Tamas, he is born in the womb of the thoughtless.
- 14.16They say that the fruit of good action is Sattvic and pure; indeed, the fruit of Rajas is pain, and the fruit of Tamas is ignorance.
- 14.17From Sattva arises knowledge, and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and delusion arise from Tamas, and also ignorance.
- 14.18Those seated in Sattva ascend; those of Rajasic nature dwell in the middle; and those of Tamasic nature, abiding in the function of the lowest Guna, descend.
Word-by-word→
- etāni
- these
- rajasi
- of the mode of passion
- jāyante
- develop
- lobhaḥ
- greed
- spṛihā
- craving
- aśhamaḥ
- restlessness
- karmaṇām
- for fruitive actions
- vivṛiddhe
- when predominates
- ārambhaḥ
- exertion
- pravṛittiḥ
- activity
- bharata-ṛiṣhabha
- the best of the Bharatas, Arjun
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