Bhagavad Gita 14.5 Meaning: Sattvam rajastama iti gunah

Bhagavad Gita 14.5

सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसंभवाः ।निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥

Sattvam rajastama iti gunah prakritisambhavahNibadhnanti mahabaho dehe dehinamavyayam

sattvaṃ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisaṃbhavāḥ |nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam ||

How to read these English letters (IAST)

Our explanation Krishna names the three guṇas that arise from nature: sattva (clarity, goodness), rajas (passion, restless activity) and tamas (darkness, inertia). He says they bind the unchanging embodied self in the body. Besant keeps the Sanskrit names; Telang translates them as goodness, passion and darkness. The schools explain how the guṇas bind (see the views).

हिंदी अर्थ कृष्ण प्रकृति से उत्पन्न तीन गुणों के नाम बताते हैं: सत्त्व (निर्मलता, अच्छाई), रज (राग, बेचैन सक्रियता) और तम (अंधकार, जड़ता)। वे कहते हैं कि ये अविनाशी देही (शरीर में रहने वाले) को शरीर में बाँधते हैं। बेसेंट संस्कृत नाम रखती हैं; तेलंग इनका अनुवाद goodness, passion और darkness करते हैं। गुण कैसे बाँधते हैं, इसे परंपराएँ अलग ढंग से समझाती हैं।

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Word by word

सत्त्वम् sattvam · sattva (clarity, goodness) (noun (neuter), nominative singular) Dictionary: sat-tva, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1135, col. 2 “the quality of purity or goodness”
रजः rajaḥ · rajas (passion, activity) (noun (neuter), nominative singular) Dictionary: rajas, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 863, col. 2 “the ‘darkening’ quality, passion, emotion, affection”
तमः tamaḥ · tamas (darkness, inertia) (noun (neuter), nominative singular) Dictionary: tamas, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 438, col. 1 “one of the 3 qualities or constituents of everything in creation”
इति iti · thus, these (indeclinable) Dictionary: 2. iti, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 165, col. 1 “in this manner, thus”
गुणाः guṇāḥ · the guṇas (qualities) (noun (masculine), nominative plural) Dictionary: guṇa, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 357, col. 1 “(in Sāṃkhya phil.) an ingredient or constituent of Prakṛiti, chief quality of all existing beings”
प्रकृतिसंभवाः prakṛtisaṃbhavāḥ · born of nature (prakṛti) (compound (masculine), nominative plural) Dictionary: pra-kṛti, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 654, col. 1 “nature, character, constitution, temper, disposition”; sam-bhava, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1179, col. 1 “birth, production, origin, source”
निबध्नन्ति nibadhnanti · bind (present, 3rd person plural) Dictionary: ni-bandh, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 550, col. 1 “to enchain, fetter (lit. and fig.)”
महाबाहो mahābāho · O mighty-armed one (compound (masculine), vocative singular) Dictionary: mahā-bāhu, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 798, col. 1 “long-armed”
देहे dehe · in the body (noun (masculine), locative singular) Dictionary: deha, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 496, col. 3 “the body”
देहिनम् dehinam · the embodied self (noun (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: dehin, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 497, col. 1 “having a body, corporeal”
अव्ययम् avyayam · unchanging, imperishable (adjective (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: 2. a-vyaya, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 111, col. 3 “not liable to change, imperishable, undecaying”

1 printing differs

Edition differences. Another printing or text reads this place differently.

Spelling A digital text reads Same word. The e-text writes the class nasal (प्रकृतिसम्भवाः); the 1922 edition writes anusvara (प्रकृतिसंभवाः).

These constitute nature. We must understand nature, with Professor Bhândârkar, as the hypothetical cause of the soul's feeling itself limited and conditioned. If nature is understood, as it usually is, to mean matter, its being made up of the qualities is inexplicable. Interpreted idealistically, as suggested by Professor Bhândârkar, the destruction of it spoken of at the close of the last chapter also becomes intelligible. By means of knowledge of the soul, the unreality of these manifestations is understood and nature is destroyed. ↩

Bhagavad Gita 14.5: meaning and translation

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