📿 Shloka Collection

Sattvat Sanjayate Jnanam

Gita 14.17 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 14 — Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga
सत्त्वात्सञ्जायते ज्ञानं रजसो लोभ एव च ।
प्रमादमोहौ तमसो भवतोऽज्ञानमेव च ॥
Sattvat sanjayate jnanam rajaso lobha eva cha
Pramada-mohau tamaso bhavato ajnanam eva cha
सत्त्वात्
from sattva
सञ्जायते
arises
ज्ञानम्
knowledge
रजसः
from rajas
लोभः
greed
एव च
indeed
प्रमाद
carelessness
मोहौ
and delusion
तमसः
from tamas
भवतः
arise
अज्ञानम्
ignorance

Krishna distills the three gunas into their core outputs. From sattva: knowledge. From rajas: greed. From tamas: carelessness, delusion, and deeper ignorance.

This is a mirror you can hold up to your own mind at any moment. What is the predominant flavor of your thoughts right now? If clarity and understanding feel close at hand, sattva is leading. If the mind is calculating, wanting, strategizing how to get more of something, rajas is in the driver's seat. If a heavy fog has settled and basic tasks feel like climbing a mountain, tamas has moved in.

For anyone who wants to grow in knowledge and understanding, the prescription is implied: strengthen sattva. Sattvic food, good company, study, and meditation all nourish it. The guna you feed is the guna that grows.

This shloka extends the previous one's analysis of guna-based fruits to the level of mental states. With this verse, the mapping is complete: gunas produce specific actions, those actions yield specific results, and they also generate specific states of mind. The next shloka (14.18) will describe the upward, middle, and downward trajectories that follow from each guna.

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