Bg 18.29
buddher bhedaṁ dhṛteś caiva guṇatas tri-vidhaṁ śṛṇu
procyamānam aśeṣeṇa pṛthaktvena dhanañ-jaya
Bg 18.30
pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca kāryākārye bhayābhaye
bandhaṁ mokṣaṁ ca yā vetti buddhiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikī
Bg 18.31
yayā dharmam adharmaṁ ca kāryaṁ cākāryam eva ca
ayathāvat prajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī
Bg 18.32
adharmaṁ dharmam iti yā manyate tamasāvṛtā
sarvārthān viparītāṁś ca buddhiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī
Translation
29. Hear (you) the three-fold division of "understanding" and "fortitude" (made) according to the qualities, as I declare them fully and severally, O Dhananjaya.
30. That which knows the paths of work and renunciation, what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation, that "understanding" is SATTWIC (pure) , O Partha.
31. That by which one wrongly understands DHARMA and ADHARMA and also what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, that intellect (understanding), O Partha, is RAJASIC (passionate).
32. That which, enveloped in darkness, sees ADHARMA as DHARMA, and all things perverted, that intellect (understanding) , O Partha, is TAMASIC (dull).
Commentary
ACCORDING TO THE PREDOMINATING GUNA, "UNDERSTANDING" AND "FORTITUDE" ALSO CAN FALL UNDER A THREE-FOLD CLASSIFICATION --- SAYS KRISHNA:
'Work,' no doubt, is constituted of the three factors: the "knowledge," the "action" and the "actor." Each of these three factors was shown to fall under a three-fold classification and all these classifications were described in the foregoing NINE STANZAS. When an actor, guided by his knowledge, acts in the world, no doubt, manifestation of work takes place. But underlying these three, are TWO FACTORS which supply the fuel and the motive force in all sustained endeavours. They are "understanding" (Buddhi) and "fortitude" (Dhriti).
Buddhi, or "understanding," means "the intellectual capacity in the individual to grasp what is happening around him." "Fortitude" (Dhriti) is "the faculty of constantly keeping one idea in the mind and consistently working it out to its logical end"; consistency of purpose and self-application, without allowing oneself to be tossed about hither and thither like a dry leaf at the mercy of a fickle breeze, is called "fortitude."
Every action is controlled and guided by our intellectual capacity of "understanding," and faithful consistency of purpose, "fortitude." This stanza is an introduction to a scientific discussion of these two faculties (Buddhi and Dhriti) and their three-fold classification.
WHAT IS SATTWIC UNDERSTANDING?
The intellect may be considered as having the best type of "understanding" if it can readily discriminate among beings and situations in its field of activity. The intellect has various functions --- observing, analysing, classifying, willing, wishing, remembering and a host of others --- and yet, we find that the one faculty essential in all of them is the "power of discrimination." Without 'discrimination,' neither observation nor classification, neither understanding nor judgement, is ever possible. Essentially, therefore, the function of the intellect is "discrimination," which is otherwise called the faculty of "right understanding."
An "understanding" (Buddhi) which is capable of clearly discriminating between the RIGHT field of pursuit and the WRONG field of false proposition, is the highest type of "understanding." The individual must have the nerve to pursue the right path and also the heroism to defect from all wrong fields of futile endeavour. In short, true "understanding" has a ready ability to discriminate between actions that are to be pursued (Pravritti) and actions that are to be shunned (Nivritti).
An intellect that can discriminate between the true and the false types of work must also be able to function in judging correctly "WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG." Every moment, we are called upon to decide what responses should be made to the flux of happenings and challenges that continuously take place around us. A Sattwic Buddhi always helps us to arrive at the correct judgement. A person in a mood of anger or with a wounded vanity, suddenly resigns his job only to regret thereafter, the folly of his action. His capacity to judge rightly was mutilated by his bad temper of the moment, or by his exaggerated vanity, and so he comes to regret. Arjuna himself had come to a state of mental hysteria when he complained that this power of judgement had been lost, mainly because of his inordinate attachment to his kith and kin.
WHAT IS TO BE FEARED AND WHAT IS NOT TO BE FEARED (Bhaya-abhaya) --- "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Men of indiscrimination, in their false evaluation of the sense-world, hug on to delusory objects and things, fearing nothing from them, and yet, they fear to read and understand philosophy, to strive and to experience the Infinite. A true intellect must have the right "understanding" to discriminate between what is to be feared and what is not to be feared.
BONDAGE AND LIBERATION (Bandham-Moksham-cha) --- If the "understanding" is clear, we can easily recognise the tendencies in our make-up that entangle the Higher in us, and curtail its fuller play. To observe and analyse ourselves with the required detachment, and to evaluate critically our psychological behaviours and intellectual attitudes in life is not easy; it is possible only for those who are endowed with a well-cultivated Sattwic "understanding." If we cultivate Sattwic "understanding," it can not only diagnose for us the false values and wrong emotions that work in us, but also intuitively discover the processes of unwinding ourselves from these cruel vasanas, and help us to regain our personality-freedom from these subjective entanglements.
To summarise: the Sattwic Buddhi is defined as one which makes known to us what type of work is to be done, and what type of work is to be renounced, which distinguishes the right from the wrong, which knows what is to be feared and what is to be faced fearlessly, which shows us the causes of our own present ugliness in life and explains to us the remedies for the same.
Proper "understanding" can make a garden in a desert, can churn out pure success from every threat of failure. Without "understanding" and "fortitude," even the best of chances will become utter disaster. Right "understanding" can convert the greatest of tragedies into chances for ushering in a prosperous destiny.
WHAT IS RAJASIC UNDERSTANDING?
The "understanding" of the passionate (Rajasic) comes to judge the righteous (Dharma) and the unrighteous (Adharma), what is to be done and what is not to be done, in a slightly perverted manner (Ayathaavat). Such a Rajasic "understanding" cannot reach right judgements, because it is invariably coloured by its own preconceived notions and powerful likes and dislikes.
WHAT IS TAMASIC "UNDERSTANDING"?
The type of "understanding" which brings sorrow to everyone including the individual himself, is the "understanding" of the 'dull' (Tamasic). Actually it is no "understanding" at all; it can, at best, be called only a chronic bundle of misunderstandings. Such an intellect runs into its own conclusions, but unfortunately, it always lands up with wrong conclusions only. It has such a totally perverted "understanding" that it recognises "A-dharma" as "Dharma," the 'right' as 'wrong.' This faculty of coming to wrong judgements is amply seen in the dull, because their entire reasoning capacity is enveloped by complete darkness and egoistic drunkenness.
Sources; vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
buddher bhedaṁ dhṛteś caiva guṇatas tri-vidhaṁ śṛṇu
procyamānam aśeṣeṇa pṛthaktvena dhanañ-jaya
Bg 18.30
pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca kāryākārye bhayābhaye
bandhaṁ mokṣaṁ ca yā vetti buddhiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikī
Bg 18.31
yayā dharmam adharmaṁ ca kāryaṁ cākāryam eva ca
ayathāvat prajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī
Bg 18.32
adharmaṁ dharmam iti yā manyate tamasāvṛtā
sarvārthān viparītāṁś ca buddhiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī
Translation
29. Hear (you) the three-fold division of "understanding" and "fortitude" (made) according to the qualities, as I declare them fully and severally, O Dhananjaya.
30. That which knows the paths of work and renunciation, what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation, that "understanding" is SATTWIC (pure) , O Partha.
31. That by which one wrongly understands DHARMA and ADHARMA and also what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, that intellect (understanding), O Partha, is RAJASIC (passionate).
32. That which, enveloped in darkness, sees ADHARMA as DHARMA, and all things perverted, that intellect (understanding) , O Partha, is TAMASIC (dull).
Commentary
ACCORDING TO THE PREDOMINATING GUNA, "UNDERSTANDING" AND "FORTITUDE" ALSO CAN FALL UNDER A THREE-FOLD CLASSIFICATION --- SAYS KRISHNA:
'Work,' no doubt, is constituted of the three factors: the "knowledge," the "action" and the "actor." Each of these three factors was shown to fall under a three-fold classification and all these classifications were described in the foregoing NINE STANZAS. When an actor, guided by his knowledge, acts in the world, no doubt, manifestation of work takes place. But underlying these three, are TWO FACTORS which supply the fuel and the motive force in all sustained endeavours. They are "understanding" (Buddhi) and "fortitude" (Dhriti).
Buddhi, or "understanding," means "the intellectual capacity in the individual to grasp what is happening around him." "Fortitude" (Dhriti) is "the faculty of constantly keeping one idea in the mind and consistently working it out to its logical end"; consistency of purpose and self-application, without allowing oneself to be tossed about hither and thither like a dry leaf at the mercy of a fickle breeze, is called "fortitude."
Every action is controlled and guided by our intellectual capacity of "understanding," and faithful consistency of purpose, "fortitude." This stanza is an introduction to a scientific discussion of these two faculties (Buddhi and Dhriti) and their three-fold classification.
WHAT IS SATTWIC UNDERSTANDING?
The intellect may be considered as having the best type of "understanding" if it can readily discriminate among beings and situations in its field of activity. The intellect has various functions --- observing, analysing, classifying, willing, wishing, remembering and a host of others --- and yet, we find that the one faculty essential in all of them is the "power of discrimination." Without 'discrimination,' neither observation nor classification, neither understanding nor judgement, is ever possible. Essentially, therefore, the function of the intellect is "discrimination," which is otherwise called the faculty of "right understanding."
An "understanding" (Buddhi) which is capable of clearly discriminating between the RIGHT field of pursuit and the WRONG field of false proposition, is the highest type of "understanding." The individual must have the nerve to pursue the right path and also the heroism to defect from all wrong fields of futile endeavour. In short, true "understanding" has a ready ability to discriminate between actions that are to be pursued (Pravritti) and actions that are to be shunned (Nivritti).
An intellect that can discriminate between the true and the false types of work must also be able to function in judging correctly "WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG." Every moment, we are called upon to decide what responses should be made to the flux of happenings and challenges that continuously take place around us. A Sattwic Buddhi always helps us to arrive at the correct judgement. A person in a mood of anger or with a wounded vanity, suddenly resigns his job only to regret thereafter, the folly of his action. His capacity to judge rightly was mutilated by his bad temper of the moment, or by his exaggerated vanity, and so he comes to regret. Arjuna himself had come to a state of mental hysteria when he complained that this power of judgement had been lost, mainly because of his inordinate attachment to his kith and kin.
WHAT IS TO BE FEARED AND WHAT IS NOT TO BE FEARED (Bhaya-abhaya) --- "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Men of indiscrimination, in their false evaluation of the sense-world, hug on to delusory objects and things, fearing nothing from them, and yet, they fear to read and understand philosophy, to strive and to experience the Infinite. A true intellect must have the right "understanding" to discriminate between what is to be feared and what is not to be feared.
BONDAGE AND LIBERATION (Bandham-Moksham-cha) --- If the "understanding" is clear, we can easily recognise the tendencies in our make-up that entangle the Higher in us, and curtail its fuller play. To observe and analyse ourselves with the required detachment, and to evaluate critically our psychological behaviours and intellectual attitudes in life is not easy; it is possible only for those who are endowed with a well-cultivated Sattwic "understanding." If we cultivate Sattwic "understanding," it can not only diagnose for us the false values and wrong emotions that work in us, but also intuitively discover the processes of unwinding ourselves from these cruel vasanas, and help us to regain our personality-freedom from these subjective entanglements.
To summarise: the Sattwic Buddhi is defined as one which makes known to us what type of work is to be done, and what type of work is to be renounced, which distinguishes the right from the wrong, which knows what is to be feared and what is to be faced fearlessly, which shows us the causes of our own present ugliness in life and explains to us the remedies for the same.
Proper "understanding" can make a garden in a desert, can churn out pure success from every threat of failure. Without "understanding" and "fortitude," even the best of chances will become utter disaster. Right "understanding" can convert the greatest of tragedies into chances for ushering in a prosperous destiny.
WHAT IS RAJASIC UNDERSTANDING?
The "understanding" of the passionate (Rajasic) comes to judge the righteous (Dharma) and the unrighteous (Adharma), what is to be done and what is not to be done, in a slightly perverted manner (Ayathaavat). Such a Rajasic "understanding" cannot reach right judgements, because it is invariably coloured by its own preconceived notions and powerful likes and dislikes.
WHAT IS TAMASIC "UNDERSTANDING"?
The type of "understanding" which brings sorrow to everyone including the individual himself, is the "understanding" of the 'dull' (Tamasic). Actually it is no "understanding" at all; it can, at best, be called only a chronic bundle of misunderstandings. Such an intellect runs into its own conclusions, but unfortunately, it always lands up with wrong conclusions only. It has such a totally perverted "understanding" that it recognises "A-dharma" as "Dharma," the 'right' as 'wrong.' This faculty of coming to wrong judgements is amply seen in the dull, because their entire reasoning capacity is enveloped by complete darkness and egoistic drunkenness.
Sources; vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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