SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
tattva-vit tu mahā-bāho
guṇa-karma-vibhāgayoḥ
guṇā guṇeṣu vartanta
iti matvā na sajjate
‘Whereas the truth-knower, O mighty-armed! of the nature and work of the guṇas[1. 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.], knowing that guṇas[2. 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.] rest in guṇas[3. 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.], giveth up attachment.’
In respect to the activities which are displayed by the three-fold nature of matter, satva, rajas and tamas[4. 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.], the man who is blinded by ahaṇkāra[5. Means pride, or intumescence of selfness, egoism or egotism. Ahaṇkāra, here means the deluded notion that what is not-self (body) is self (ātmā).] —fancies that he is the doer or author, (the agent, the cause, the root, the spring, or the fountain of the activities).
Ahaṇkāra[6. Means pride, or intumescence of selfness, egoism or egotism. Ahaṇkāra, here means the deluded notion that what is not-self (body) is self (ātmā).]=I-ness = the notion of egoism one feels for his body, or the mistaken notion that the non-self, —body—, is the self, ātmā.
A man therefore who is under this wrong notion mistakes the doings of the body or the guṇas[7. 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.], as ātmā’s doings. He thinks, ‘I am the doer.’
Tatva-vit or truth-knower: is he who is capable of discerning in work the properties of the guṇas[8. 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.] manifesting themselves.
Whoso therefore discovers in the manifestations of the guṇas[9. 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.], the guṇas[10. 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.] themselves, will not commit the error of thinking, ‘I am the doer.’
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