SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
sathvam sukhE sanjayathi raja: karmaNi bhAratha |
gyAnam Avruthya thu thama: pramAdhE sanjayathyutha ||
word-by-word meaning
bhAratha – Oh descendant of bharatha!
sathvam – the quality of sathva (goodness)
sukhE sanjayathi – mainly creates attachment in joyfulness
raja: – the quality of rajas (passion)
karmaNi (sanjayathi) – mainly creates attachment to actions
thama: thu – and the quality of thamas (ignorance)
gyAnam Avruthya – hiding the knowledge which makes one understand things as they are
pramAdhE sanjayathi utha – mainly creates attachment in forbidden activities through carelessness (by causing contrary knowledge)
Simple Translation
Oh descendant of bharatha! The quality of sathva (goodness) mainly creates attachment to joyfulness; the quality of rajas (passion) mainly creates attachment to actions; and the quality of thamas (ignorance), hiding the knowledge which makes one understand things as they are, mainly creates attachment in forbidden activities through carelessness (by causing contrary knowledge).
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘Satvam, Bhārata! unites (one) to blessedness,
Rajas to activity, and Tamas, forsooth! beclouds intelligence, and unites (one) to inattention.’
Satvam is chief in creating a rest for blessedness; Rajas is chief for impelling one to work; and Tamas is chief in obscuring intelligence, and producing a perversity of the understanding, and thus create tendencies for unnatural work.
If Satvam and other qualities are the natural qualities of matter which organizes into forms known as bodies, —then it is evident that they all dwell together in matter. How then do they each give birth to consequences so very conflicting with each other? Reply:
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