Verse 14.19

Verse 14.19: “When the percipient comes to see that there is no agent other than the Gunas, and (when he) realises Him who is on the other side of the Gunas, then does he attain oneness of essence with Me. (279)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Yet enough of this discussion. Only give recognition to none else but the Supreme. Now I shall tell you and hear the account already narrated to you. Know this, that all these three Gunas make themselves felt through the instrumentality (mask) of the body owing to the power solely of highest Reality. The fire assumes the shape of the fire-wood it pervades, or the fertility of the soil becomes perceptible in the form of a tree (growing on it), or milk takes the form of curds, or sweetness becomes felt in the form of sugarcane. In that way the triad of the Gunas assumes the body-form accompanied by the inner sense (mind) and therefore becomes the cause of the bondage. But the wonder of it, Oh Dhananjaya, is that this entanglement of the Gunas and the body in no way affects the independence of the Self. All the three Gunas while playing their part in the body according to their respective properties, in no way affect the qualityless state of the (Supreme) Self.

Complete deliverance is thus easy and this you would (be made to) hear, you who are the large black bee in the lotus in the form of knowledge. This is like what was preached to you before, viz. the sentience, although abiding among the Gunas, does not follow them, and this is realized, Oh Partha, when the human being attains the Self. One realizes the unreality of a dream when he awakes from sleep; one realizes, when he stands on the bank (of a river) looking at his own image, that what is broken into sundry images on the surface of the water at the upsurge of ripples is unsubstantial, or an actor is not deceived by his own skill in the art of dressing and make-up; in that way the individual soul should view the Gunas without getting absorbed in them.

The sky experiences all the three seasons; yet it does not permit any defect in its own from or be in any way different. In that way, the self-same (Supreme) Self, above the Gunas, even though abiding admidst them (Gunas), continues to occupy its original seat in the form of the notion, “I am myself Supreme Brahman”.

Viewing from that original seat it says, “I am only an on-looker, myself doing absolutely nothing. It is these Gunas that set up this array of activism. The scope of the activism gets widened up through the different properties of the three Gunas-Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. The activism (karmakānḍa [karmakāṇḍa?]) is the disorder of the Gunas. (Were you to ask me) how I am in the tangle, (the answer is) I am (with reference to the tangle) what the spring season is to the loveliness of the woods (or) what the sunrise is to (the getting) dim of the brilliance of the stars, or the brightening of the Sun-stone (sūryakānta) or the blowing fully open of the lotus or the expulsion of the darkness, just as for these results (consequent on the sunrise) the sun himself is not the direct cause, in that way, as a non-doer I abide in the body-form in my pristine state. Yet, in no way I am affected by the actions.

The Gunas become perceptible, because I display them: (also) I maintain their power, and what remains behind after their total extinction, (subtraction) is myself, the qualityless, and the eternal Supreme Spirit. One, Oh Dhananjaya, who rises high through such discriminating power, goes higher up following the ascending path beyond these Gunas.