Hi all, 3-05-09
Today we did the 20, 21& 22 verses of chapter 14 of BG. It goes like this.

20, Gunaan etantitya threen dehi deha samudbhavaan
Janma mrityu jara duhka vimukto amrutam asnute.

It means the embodied one who has transcended the three gunas which are born of this body, is free from birth, death, oldage ,pain and enjoys blissful immortality. We all forget the body and mind in sleep. Imagine if in the same way while we are fully conscious we are able to forget the body and mind then there is no more the cycle of birth, & death or the dvandvas of the body and mind. This is the real freedom , freedom from sansar. This freedom is called immortality.I think u know the story of a mahatma who was beaten by some robbers. When his sishyas gave him first aid and then asked him who did this vile thing to him , he answered; the hand that beat me is now nursing me. This mahatma has gone beyond the gunas. There are no dualities for such a person.

21, Arjuna uvaca
Kair lingais threen gunaanetan ateeto bhavati prabho
Kimacharaha katham chaitan threen gunaan ativartate.

Arjuna asks Krishna as to what are the characteristic features of
1) a person who has transcended the gunas.
2) How does he transcend them?

22,Sri Bhagavan uvaca,

Prakasam cha pravrttimcha mohameva cha pandava
Na dveshti sampravrittani na nivrittani kankshati.

Such a person is not affected by prakasam (light- sattva) or pravrittim ( activity- rajas) or delusion ( moha- tamas). He does not hate the gunas for expressing themselves nor does he long for them when they are not there. All of us experience feeling bad for losing our anger or for not having enough sattva while dealing with a situation. This is because we are puppets in the hands of our gunas. Wherever they pull we move and they are all following the order of the phantom king the EGO. So all our sadhana must be directed towards moving from tamas to sattva via rajas and then transcending even sattva.