The Death of Marcus Aurelius

The Death of Marcus Aurelius

Monday, September 5, 2022

Wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita 51


9. Sattva attaches to happiness, and Rajas to action, O descendant of Bharata; while Tamas, verily, shrouding discrimination, attaches to miscomprehension. 

10. Sattva arises, O descendant of Bharata, predominating over Rajas and Tamas; and Rajas over Sattva and Tamas; so, Tamas over Sattva and Rajas. 

11. When through every sense in this body, the light of intelligence shines, then it should be known that Sattva is predominant. 
 
12. Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, unrest, longing—these arise when Rajas is predominant, O bull of the Bhâratas. 
 
13. Darkness, inertness, miscomprehension, and delusion—these arise when Tamas is predominant, O descendant of Kuru. 
 
14. If the embodied one meets death when Sattva is predominant, then he attains to the spotless regions of the worshippers of the Highest. 

15. Meeting death in Rajas he is born among those attached to action; so dying in Tamas, he is born in the wombs of the irrational. 
 
16. The fruit of good action, they say, is Sâttvika and pure; verily, the fruit of Rajas is pain, and ignorance is the fruit of Tamas. 
 
17. From Sattva arises wisdom, and greed from Rajas; miscomprehension, delusion and ignorance arise from Tamas. 

18. The Sattva-abiding go upwards; the Râjasika dwell in the middle; and the Tâmasika, abiding in the function of the lowest Guna, go downwards. 

19. When the seer beholds no agent other than the Gunas and knows That which is higher than the Gunas, he attains to My being. 
 
20. The embodied one having gone beyond these three Gunas out of which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to immortality. 

Bhagavad Gita, 14:9-20 



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