The Bhagavad Gita: The Field & Knower and Forces of Evolution
XIII. The Field and the Knower
Krishna says: “The body is called a field…I am the Knower of the field in everyone.”
“Those who are truly…free from selfish attachment…their devotion to me is undivided.
Enjoying solitude and not following the crowd
They seek only me.
This is true knowledge, to seek the Self as the true end of wisdom always.
To seek anything else is ignorance.”
XIV. The Forces of Evolution
Krishna says: “It is the three gunas born of prakriti–sattva, rajas, and tamas—
That bind the immortal Self to the body.
Sattva–pure, luminous, and free from sorrow
Binds us with attachment to happiness and wisdom.
Rajas is passion, arising from selfish desire and attachment.
These bind the Self with compulsive action. [early Job in the book of Job]
Tamas, born of ignorance, deludes all creatures
Through heedlessness, indolence, and sleep.”
“Sattva binds us to happiness, rajas binds us to action.
Tamas, distorting our understanding, binds us to delusion.”
“When sattva predominates, the light of wisdom shines
Through every gate of the body.
When rajas predominates, a person runs about pursuing selfish
And greedy ends, driven by restlessness and desire.
When tamas is dominant a person lives in darkness–
Slothful, confused and easily infatuated.”
“The fruit of good deeds is pure and sattvic.
The fruit of rajas is suffering.
The fruit of tamas is ignorance and insensitivity.
From sattva comes understanding
From rajas, greed.
But the outcome of tamas is confusion, infatuation and ignorance.”
Arjuna asks Krishna: “How do those who have gone beyond the gunas act?
Krishan replies: “They are unmoved by the harmony of sattva, the activity of rajas, or the delusion of tamas.
They feel no aversion when these forces are active
Nor do they crave for them when these forces subside.”
“Established within themselves, they are equal in pleasure and pain
Praise and blame, kindness and unkindness…they have given up every selfish pursuit.
By serving me with steadfast love
A man or woman goes beyond the gunas.
Such a one is fit for union with Brahman.”