Chapter 7 Shloka 13

त्रिभिर्गुणमयैर्भावैरेभि: सर्वमिदं जगत्।

मोहितं नाभिजानाति मामेभ्य: परमव्ययम्।।१३।।

This entire world is deluded by mental states

arising from the three gunas of Prakriti.

None know My indivisible Essence

which lies beyond these three attributes.

Chapter 7 Shloka 13

त्रिभिर्गुणमयैर्भावैरेभि: सर्वमिदं जगत्।

मोहितं नाभिजानाति मामेभ्य: परमव्ययम्।।१३।।

Bhagwan explains why people do not know His real identity:

This entire world is deluded by mental states arising from the three gunas of Prakriti. None know My indivisible Essence which lies beyond these three attributes.

Bhagwan says, “This world does not know Me because people are deluded by the three gunas of sattva, rajas and tamas.”

1. Since they consider themselves to be the body, it is difficult for them to know the Lord as devoid of the body.

2. It is impossible for the limited to gauge the Limitless.

3. It is extremely difficult for one who is bound by the gunas to comprehend the One who transcends those gunas and yet interacts with them.

4. It is hard for the ordinary man to comprehend that Peerless One.

5. How can one who is bound by the dual forces of attraction and repulsion, understand the One who is devoid of such attributes?

6. How can one who is full of attachments, comprehend the One who has transcended all attachments?

7. One immersed in desire cannot conceive of someone who is totally without desires.

8. How can the evil understand the virtuous sadhu?

9. How can one embroiled in attachment even imagine the state of one who is free from it?

10. How can someone full of aberrations ever understand the one who is unencumbered by ‘I’ and ‘mine’?

He who lives selfishly can never understand the one:

a) Who has forgotten himself.

b) Who seeks nothing for self.

c) Who does nothing out of selfish reasons.

d) Who remains ever silent towards his own trials and tribulations as well as his happiness.

e) Who is completely silent towards his likes and dislikes.

Little one, it is extremely difficult to understand the one:

1. Who is with form and yet formless.

2. Who performs all actions before you but is devoid of doership.

3. Who indulges in sense objects and yet is a not the enjoyer.

4. Who utilises all the attributes or gunas he possesses and is yet a Nirguni or one who is devoid of gunas.

5. Whose body is available for the service of all beings, but who has transcended the body.

6. Who is beyond both birth and death, yet who interacts in the world through the body which one day attains death.

7. Who is Knowledge Itself, but behaves as an ignorant being amongst the ignorant.

8. Who is not dependent on anybody but on whom all depend.

9. Who suffers humiliation, yet does his best to establish the other.

10. Who fulfils the hopes and dreams of others’ but is himself without personal aspirations.

11. Who identifies completely with others yet has no specific status of his own.

12. Who does his best to obtain what others desire but is totally silent towards whatever falls to his lot – desirable or undesirable.

13. Who allows others to have rights over him, but has no claims whatsoever on others.

My little one, it is not only difficult but impossible for the ordinary man to understand such a One. The Lord therefore tells Arjuna that this world, influenced and fettered as it is by the three gunas, cannot understand Him – the Lord of the gunas and the One who has transcended those gunas.

Little one, those in whom the attribute of sattva predominates, take great pride in their virtue. How can they ever accept Such a One to be the Lord, who does not measure up to what is commonly regarded as virtuous? Lord Krishna, who is even known to have broken His promise and who often resorted to stratagems and diplomacy, cannot be accepted by such people to be virtuous! Therefore those who take pride in their own elevated spiritual status or in the knowledge they possess, cannot understand the extraordinary state of That Divine One. The knowledgeable gyani may be able to appreciate knowledge, but cannot understand the manifest form of that knowledge in life.

He, who is so ordinary that He becomes one with whomsoever approaches Him, how can He be understood by anyone? Those in whom rajas predominates are unable to recognise the virtuous, how will they recognise divinity? The tamsic individual is engrossed only in himself – how will he recognise the Lord? The gunatit cannot be understood by the one enmeshed in gunas. He who labours under the misconception ‘I am the body’ cannot understand the Atmavaan who inhabits a body, but is formless.

Little one, the Lord is giving knowledge along with its practical manifestation – gyan and vigyan. It is comparatively easy to understand knowledge, but extremely difficult to comprehend its manifest form. To immerse oneself in knowledge is simple – but to become that knowledge is very difficult.