section_path: Chapters and content/Chapter 14: Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga (27 verses)
section_name: Chapter 14: Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga (27 verses)
paragraph_text: Chapter 14: Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga (27 verses)
  
  Translators title the fourteenth chapter as Gunatraya–Vibhaga yoga, Religion by Separation from the Qualities, The Forces of Evolution, or The Yoga of the Division of Three Gunas. Krishna continues his discourse from the previous chapter. Krishna explains the difference between purusha and prakriti, by mapping human experiences to three Guṇas (tendencies, qualities). These are listed as sattva, rajas and tamas. All thoughts, words and actions are filled with sattva (truthfulness, purity, clarity), rajas (movement, energy, passion) or tamas (darkness, inertia, stability). These gunas influence future rebirths, with sattva leading to higher states, rajas to continued material existence, and tamas to lower forms of life. Whoever understands everything that exists as the interaction of these three states of being can gain knowledge, transcend all three gunas and achieve liberation. When asked by Arjuna how he recognizes the one who has conquered the three gunas, Krishna replies that it is one who remains calm and composed when a guna 'arises', who always maintains equanimity, who is steadfast in joy and sorrow, who remains the same when he is reviled or admired, who renounces every action (from the ego), detaches himself from the power of the gunas. Liberation can also be reached by unwavering devotion to Krishna, which enables one to transcend the three gunas and become one with Brahman. All phenomena and individual personalities are thus a combination of all three gunas in varying and ever-changing proportions. The gunas affect the ego, but not the Self, according to the text. This chapter also relies on Samkhya theories.