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Chapter 14 · The Three Modes of Material Nature · 27 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps

1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.

Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›

Nature & guṇasChapter 14 · The Three Modes of Material Nature

14.4 14.6

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 14.5

How goodness, passion and ignorance bind

Prakṛti · Material nature

सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणा: प्रकृतिसम्भवा: ।

निबध्‍नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥ ५ ॥

sattvaṁ rajas tama iti

guṇāḥ prakṛti-sambhavāḥ

nibadhnanti mahā-bāho

dehe dehinam avyayam

Translation

Material nature consists of three modes – goodness, passion and ignorance. When the eternal living entity comes in contact with nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

Three Modes of Nature

1
Material nature has three modes—goodness, passion and ignorance—which condition the eternal living being when he contacts nature.
2
Prabhupāda explains that the living being is beyond material nature, yet acts under these modes when conditioned.
3
Different bodies lead living beings to act according to different aspects of nature, causing varied happiness and distress.

Key points from the purport

The living entity gets conditioned

The eternal living entity comes in contact with material nature and becomes conditioned by it. In other words, despite his desire for independent enjoyment, his existence is subject to strict control by the modes of material nature.

The fault which causes the soul’s conditioned state certainly rests in his own independent desire. We cannot blame Krishna any more than a criminal can blame a judge for his jail sentence.

Why the transcendental living-entity suffers

Living entity although transcendental, but has become conditioned by the material world and thus under the spell of material modes

Different bodies and different activities under the different modes is the “cause of varieties of happiness and distress”

Connected verses · 1

Texts 14.5 & 14.6

The next group of verses describes the effects of each of the modes

upon the conditioned soul. Texts 14.6, 14.7 and 14.8, one after another, explain the ways in which goodness, passion and ignorance force a soul to experience his existence