SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
prakruthE: kriyamANAni guNai: karmANi sarvaSa: |
ahankAra vimUdAthmA karthAham ithi manyathE ||
word-by-word meaning
ahankAra vimUdAthmA – one whose AthmA is covered by ahankAram (considering one’s body as the soul)
prakruthE: guNai: – by the three qualities (saththva, rajas, thamas) of matter
sarvaSa: kriyamANAni – performed in many ways (per those qualities)
karmANi (prathi) – towards karmas (actions)
‘aham karthA’ ithi – considering ‘I am the doer’
manyathE – becomes bewildered
Simple Translation
One whose AthmA is covered by ahankAram (considering one’s body as the soul) by the three qualities (saththva, rajas, thamas) of matter, becomes bewildered considering ‘I am the doer’ towards karmas (actions) performed in many ways (per those qualities).
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘All kinds of activities are born of the guṇās1 of matter. Whoso is deluded with the egoistic notion (ahaṇkāra2), thinks, ‘I am the doer.’’
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- Guṇās=qualities of matter. See Lect: XIV for an exhaustive treatment of the gunās. These are the three main characteristics of matter which keep the world moving. Satva is the tendency to produce goodness, purity, etc., Rajas is the tendency to act in the world with passions; and Tamas is the tendency to sloth, evil, etc. See also XIII-20 and 29. ↩
- Means pride, or intumescence of selfness, egoism or egotism. Ahaṇkāra, here means the deluded notion that what is not-self (body) is self (ātmā). ↩