Shloka 19
भीमसेननादः तथा प्रथमसंमर्दः
Bhīmasena’s Roar and the First Clash
जिस समय द्रष्टा5 तीनों गुणोंके अतिरिक्त अन्य किसीको कर्ता नहीं देखता और तीनों गुणोंसे अत्यन्त परे सच्चिदानन्दघनस्वरूप मुझ परमात्माको तत्त्वसे जानता है, उस समय वह मेरे स्वरूपको प्राप्त होता है?
arjuna uvāca — yadā draṣṭā guṇebhyaḥ anyam kartāraṁ na paśyati, guṇebhyaś ca param atītya māṁ saccidānanda-ghana-svarūpaṁ paramātmānaṁ tattvataḥ jānāti, tadā sa mama svarūpaṁ prāpnoti?
Arjuna said: When a person of true insight no longer sees any doer other than the three guṇas, and when—having gone far beyond those guṇas—he knows in reality Me, the Supreme Self, whose nature is a solid mass of being, consciousness, and bliss, does he then attain My own state?
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames liberation as a shift in vision: one recognizes that actions belong to prakṛti through the three guṇas, not to the pure witnessing Self, and then realizes the Supreme Self beyond the guṇas. Such realization culminates in attaining the Lord’s state—freedom from guṇic conditioning.
In the midst of the Kurukṣetra teaching, Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa a precise doctrinal question about the ‘knower of the guṇas’: when the seer no longer attributes agency beyond the guṇas and truly knows the Supreme beyond them, does that moment mark attainment of the divine state?