Bhagavad Gita — Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga, Shloka 7
Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga
रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् । तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् ॥ १४.७ ॥
rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛṣṇāsaṅgasamudbhavam | tan nibadhnāti kaunteya karmasaṅgena dehinam || 14.7 ||
ఓ కౌంతేయా, రజసును రాగస్వరూపమని తెలుసుకో; అది తృష్ణా మరియు ఆసక్తి నుండి పుట్టింది. అది దేహిని కర్మాసక్తితో బంధిస్తుంది.
Know rajas to be of the nature of passion, born of craving and attachment; it binds the embodied being, O son of Kuntī, through attachment to action.
Understand rajas as consisting in attachment (rāga), arising from thirst/craving (tṛṣṇā) and clinging (saṅga); it fetters the embodied self through attachment to acts.
Most translations align closely here; interpretive differences mainly concern whether ‘rāga’ is rendered as ‘passion’ broadly or ‘attachment’ specifically, and whether ‘karmasaṅga’ is ‘attachment to action’ or ‘attachment to the fruits/status of action’ by implication.
FAQs
The verse frames rajas as an affective-motivational pattern: craving and attachment generate restless engagement, where identity becomes invested in doing, achieving, and maintaining outcomes.
Within Sāṅkhya-influenced guṇa theory, rajas is a constituent of prakṛti that conditions the embodied self’s experience, producing bondage when consciousness identifies with action and its drivers.
In Chapter 14’s taxonomy of the three guṇas, this verse defines rajas by its origin (craving/attachment) and its mechanism of bondage (karmasaṅga).
It can be read as guidance to notice when work is driven by compulsive wanting or status-attachment, and to cultivate action with reduced clinging to outcomes.