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Bhagavad-gītā 14.6

తత్ర సత్త్వం నిర్మలత్వాత్ప్రకాశకమనామయమ్ । సుఖసఙ్గేన బధ్‍నాతి జ్ఞానసఙ్గేన చానఘ ॥ ౬ ॥
tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt
[tatra sattvam nirmalatvaat]
prakāśakam anāmayam
[prakaashakam anaamayam]
sukha-saṅgena badhnāti
[sukha-sangena badhnaati]
jñāna-saṅgena cānagha
[jnaana-sangena chaanagha]
Word-for-word
tatra — there sattvam — the mode of goodness nirmalatvāt — being purest in the material world prakāśakam — illuminating anāmayam — without any sinful reaction sukha — with happiness saṅgena — by association badhnāti — conditions jñāna — with knowledge saṅgena — by association ca — also anagha — O sinless one .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt
tatra
there
sattvam
the mode of goodness
nirmalatvāt
being purest in the material world
prakāśakam anāmayam
prakāśakam
illuminating
anāmayam
without any sinful reaction
sukha-saṅgena badhnāti
sukha
with happiness
saṅgena
by association
badhnāti
conditions
jñāna-saṅgena cānagha
jñāna
with knowledge
saṅgena
by association
ca
also
anagha
O sinless one .
Important Words
  • nirmalatvāt — due to being purest
    Nir-mala — without stain. The ablative gives the cause: because it is the cleanest of the three, sattva shines. Yet the very purity is what makes the attachment hardest to detect. Clean ropes still tie.
  • prakāśakam anāmayam — illuminating, free of sinful reaction
    Two great virtues — light and freedom from pāpa. Read carefully: these are the qualities of the mode, not of the soul. The mode is splendid. That is exactly the danger.
  • sukha-saṅgena — by association with happiness
    Saṅga — the same word from BG 2.47. Even attachment to happiness binds. Sukha is not the problem; saṅga to sukha is. The Gītā keeps surfacing this hinge word.
  • jñāna-saṅgena — by association with knowledge
    And even attachment to knowledge binds. This is the verse the studious devotee must memorize. Erudition is sattvic, and sattvic is still binding. The cure is bhakti, not more reading.
  • anagha — O sinless one
    Kṛṣṇa addresses Arjuna as 'sinless' precisely when teaching the danger of sattva. The vocative is gentle: even you, my sinless friend, must watch for sattva's subtle hooks.
O sinless one, the mode of goodness, being purer than the others, is illuminating, and it frees one from all sinful reactions. Those situated in that mode become conditioned by a sense of happiness and knowledge.
Purport

The living entities conditioned by material nature are of various types. One is happy, another is very active, and another is helpless. All these types of psychological manifestations are causes of the entities’ conditioned status in nature. How they are differently conditioned is explained in this section of Bhagavad-gītā. The mode of goodness is first considered. The effect of developing the mode of goodness in the material world is that one becomes wiser than those otherwise conditioned. A man in the mode of goodness is not so much affected by material miseries, and he has a sense of advancement in material knowledge. The representative type is the brāhmaṇa, who is supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness. This sense of happiness is due to understanding that, in the mode of goodness, one is more or less free from sinful reactions. Actually, in the Vedic literature it is said that the mode of goodness means greater knowledge and a greater sense of happiness. The difficulty here is that when a living entity is situated in the mode of goodness he becomes conditioned to feel that he is advanced in knowledge and is better than others. In this way he becomes conditioned. The best examples are the scientist and the philosopher. Each is very proud of his knowledge, and because they generally improve their living conditions, they feel a sort of material happiness. This sense of advanced happiness in conditioned life makes them bound by the mode of goodness of material nature. As such, they are attracted toward working in the mode of goodness, and, as long as they have an attraction for working in that way, they have to take some type of body in the modes of nature. Thus there is no likelihood of liberation, or of being transferred to the spiritual world. Repeatedly one may become a philosopher, a scientist or a poet, and repeatedly become entangled in the same disadvantages of birth and death. But, due to the illusion of the material energy, one thinks that that sort of life is pleasant.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
6. The mode of sattva, which is peaceful and gives knowledge, binds the jīva with false conceptions of happiness and knowledge, O sinless one.
Commentary

This verse describes how sattva-guṇa binds the jīva. It is without distress (anāmayam); it is peaceful. The association of the jīva with happiness, which is the product of peacefulness, and the association of the jīva with knowledge, which is the product of illumination (prakāśakam), produce the mistaken identity of “I am happy, I am learned.” Thus, from happiness and knowledge whose quality is to produce these designations, from this ignorance, the jīva develops his misconception of himself. These bind him. O pure one (anagha), do not accept impurity in the form of such misconception of “I am happy” or “I am learned.”

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa Gauḍīya
Translation
6. The mode of sattva is peaceful and gives knowledge, because of its purity. It binds the jīva with false conceptions of happiness and knowledge, O sinless one.
Commentary

The Lord describes the characteristics of the three modes, and their different ways of binding the jīva in three verses. Of the three (tatra), sattva produces knowledge (prakāśakam) and happiness, contrary to suffering (anāmayam, which literally means health), arising from its purity. Accordingly, it is said prakāśa-sukha-kāraṇaṁ sattvam: the cause of illumination and happiness is sattva. Moreover, sattva which is conjoined with (saṅgena) its effects of knowledge and happiness, binds the jīva with the conception that one is happy or knowledgeable. It should be understood that knowledge means knowledge of the real nature of a material object, and happiness means tranquility of the senses and body. In the association with those qualities of knowledge and happiness, the engagement in actions for attaining that happiness and knowledge produces future bodies which are a means to experience that result. Since one will repeatedly take association with those qualities, one will not get liberation through sattva.

Bhūrijana Dāsa Gauḍīya
Commentary

One tends to get knowledge when he cultivates the mode of goodness. And from knowledge (as explained in Chapter Thirteen), one gets liberation.

[2. The mode of passion fills one with unlimited desires and lingings, and it binds one to material, fruitive actions. (7) ]

Study Notes — Gauranga Priya Dāsa
Gauranga Priya Dāsa Study
Bhakti-śāstrī Notes, ISKCON Chowpatty (2009)
Theme

Arjuna is addressed as anagha, sinless. The two sins of the mode of goodness are attachment to

sukha, happiness, and jñāna, knowledge, but Arjuna is not bound by either. It is attachment to hap-

piness and knowledge (not happiness and knowledge themselves) that binds the living entity in the

mode of goodness. Such attachment breeds pride, and both attachment and pride are symptoms

of the mode of passion. In other words, attachment to jñāna causes ajñāna, ignorance. As Śrīla

Prabhupada explains in his purport, “The difficulty here is that when a living entity is situated in the

mode of goodness, he becomes conditioned to feel that he is advanced in knowledge and is better

than others. In this way he becomes conditioned.”

Classical Ācāryas
Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Classical
Translation
14.6 Tatra, among them, among sattva etc.;-the characteristics of sattva itself is being stated first-sattva, nirmalatvat, being pure like a crystal stone;is prakasakam, an illuminator; and anamayam, harmless. Anagha, O sinless one; badhnati, it binds. How? Sukhasangena, through attachment to happiness. Bringing about the association of happiness, which is the object, with the Self, which is the subject, in the form of the idea, 'I am happy', is certainly an unreal contact with happiness. This as such is nescience, for the ality of an object cannot belong to a subject. And it has been said by the Lord that all the alities, from 'desire' to 'fortitude' (see 13.6), are, indeed, of the field, which is the object. Therefore, it is certainly through nescience, which is an attribute [In reality, though nescience has no connection with the Self, yet, since there is none other with which it can become associated and since it has no independence, therefore the Commentator imagines it as an attribute of the Self.] of the Self and has the characteristics of non-discrimination between object and subject, that sattva apparently brings about the association with happiness, which is not the Self. It makes (the Self) attached, as it were; [Here Ast. adds 'asangam saktam iva, (makes) the Unattached attached, as it were'.-Tr.] makes one not possessed of happiness as though possessed of it! Similarly, it binds also jnana-sangena, through attachment to knowledge. [Jnana, derived in the sense of 'that through which one knows,' means an instrument of knowledge, and not Consciousness. (S.: Knowledge arising from the study of the import of various scriptures; or, jnanam, means the scriptures, through which the supreme God is known and which leads to devotional practices, but not to steadfastness in (the absolute) Brahman.] Because of its concomitance with happiness, knowledge here is an attribute of the internal organ, the field, but not of the Self. Were it an attribute [If knowledge were a natural attribute of the Self, then there can be no estion of the latter again becoming bound through association with the former.] of the Self, there could be no contact (between it and the Self), and 'bondage' would become illogical. Association with knowledge etc. should be understood in the same sense as with happiness.
Śrī Rāmānujācārya Classical
Translation
14.6 Of 'these', i.e., of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the characteristic nature of the Sattva is this: it illuminates on account of its being pure. What is called purity is to be bereft of alities which veil light and happiness. Because its nature is solely the generation of light and happiness, it constitutes the cause of light and happiness. 'Light' or illumination is enlightenment about a thing as it is. It is 'not morbid,' i.e., an effect called morbidity (disease) does not exist in its presence. The meaning is, that Sattva is the cause of health. The Guna, called Sattva, however, binds the self by attachment to happiness and knowledge. The meaning is that it causes attachment to happiness and knowledge. When attachment to knowledge and happiness is born, one engages oneself in secular and Vedic means for securing them. Conseently, one is born in such bodies which constitute the means for realising such fruits. Hence the Sattva binds the self through attachment to happiness and knowledge. What is said is this: Sattva generates knowledge and happiness; again it generates attachment to them.
Śrī Abhinavagupta Classical
Translation
14.6 See Comment under 14.8
Swami Sivananda Classical
Translation
14.6 Of these, Sattva, which from its stainlessness is luminous and healthy, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one.
Commentary

14.6 तत्र of these? सत्त्वम् purity? निर्मलत्वात् from its stainlessness? प्रकाशकम् luminous? अनामयम् healthy? सुखसङ्गेन by attachment to happiness? बध्नाति binds? ज्ञानसङ्गेन by attachment to knowledge? च and? अनग O sinless one.Commentary Sattva is stainless like the crystal. It lays for one the trap of happiness and knowledge. It is a golden fetter. A Sattvic man compares himself with others and rejoices in his excellence. He is puffed up with his knowledge. His heart is filled with pride when he thinks that he,has more comforts or more pleasant experiences. He thinks? I am happy I am wise? and so he is bound as it were. These ideas really belong to the field but they are transferred through superimposition to the Self on account of the force of SattvaGuna.Rajas and Tamas are pitfalls on the path of knowledge.This attachment to happiness is an illusion. This is ignorance. An attribute of the object cannot belong to the subject. All the alities from desire to firmness (Cf.XIII.6) belong to the field. From ignorance? nondiscrimination is born and so the individual self is not able to discriminate between the permanent and the impermanent? the subject and the object.Knowledge is an attribute of the Antahkarana (inner instrument? viz.? mind? intellect? the unconscious and the ego) but not of the Self. It if were an attribute of the Self? it could not produce attachment and bondage. Sattva binds the soul to knowledge through attachment.

Swami Gambhīrānanda Classical
Translation
14.6 Among them, sattva, being pure, [Nirmala, pure-transparent, i.e., capable of resisting any form of ignorance, and hence as illuminator, i.e.a revealer of Consciousness.] is an illuminator and is harmless. O sinless one, it binds through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
Shri Purohit Swami Classical
Translation
14.6 O Sinless One! Of these, Purity, being luminous, strong and invulnerable, binds one by its yearning for happiness and illumination.
Related values & verses
Related values
Tyaga (Renunciation / Letting Go)Karuna (Kindness / Compassion)Tapas (Austerity / Discipline)Vairagya (Detachment / Dispassion)Prema (Divine Love)
Related verses
BG 2.45 BG 17.4 BG 18.37 SB 11.25.13 SB 1.2.19 SB 3.26.21 CC Madhya 19.145 CC Madhya 24.26 CC Madhya 6.269 Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.1.8Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.12
Study Q&A referencing this verse
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Of these, sattva — being purest, illuminating, free from sin — binds by attachment to happiness and to knowledge.
Practical Applications
  • Recognize that even attachment to happiness or knowledge binds.
  • Don't assume sattva is the goal; it's the steppingstone.
  • Watch the subtle attachments of the 'good' modes.
Reflection Questions
  • Where is my sattvic attachment subtly binding me?
  • What does transcending it look like?
Analogy

A clear glass lamp lights the room beautifully — and you forget you are still inside a glass. Sattva is the clear glass: it shines, it does no harm, it is pleasant to live in. But it is still glass between you and Kṛṣṇa. Even the purest guṇa binds — with happiness and knowledge — and only bhakti to Bhagavān takes you past the pane.

Stories
Vyāsadeva's restlessness after compiling the Vedas

Having divided the Veda, written the Mahābhārata, and organized the Purāṇas — works of pure sattva and immense knowledge — Vyāsa sat by the Sarasvatī and was not at peace. He had every sattvic accomplishment and was still in the glass.

Nārada came and named the diagnosis: knowledge and sattva are not the goal. They had bound Vyāsa, however gently, by saṅga to jñāna. The remedy was the Bhāgavatam — bhakti beyond the modes.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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