Shloka 13
Chapter 43: Tumult of Battle-Sounds and the Proliferation of Dvandva
Paired Engagements
३. श्रुति-स्मृति-पुराणादिमें विभिन्न विषयोंको समझानेके लिये जो नाना प्रकारके बहुत-से उपदेश हैं
arjuna uvāca
Arjuna said: (The supplied passage is not the verse itself but an extended Gita Press–style commentary discussing the doctrine of prakṛti and puruṣa, the three guṇas—sattva, rajas, tamas—and how they bind the embodied self through attachment to pleasure, action, and delusion. It explains that true liberating knowledge reveals the Supreme Self, frees the jīva from nature’s bondage, and makes one unaffected by cosmic creation and dissolution.)
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberating knowledge (tattva-jñāna) is the discriminative insight that distinguishes prakṛti (nature with the three guṇas) from puruṣa (the conscious self). The guṇas bind the embodied being through attachment—sattva through pleasure and pride in knowledge, rajas through doership and craving for results, tamas through delusion, negligence, laziness, and sleep. Realization of the Supreme (nirguṇa Brahman) frees one from these bonds and from any real connection to cosmic creation and dissolution.
Although labeled with 'Arjuna said,' the provided material functions as doctrinal exposition: it explains the Lord’s promised teaching about reality, describes how beings arise from the conjunction of prakṛti and the conscious principle, and analyzes the ethical-psychological effects of sattva, rajas, and tamas on human conduct and spiritual progress.