परं भूयः प्रवक्ष्यामि ज्ञानानां ज्ञानम् उत्तमम् । यज् ज्ञात्वा मुनयः सर्वे परां सिद्धिम् इतो गताः ॥
paraṃ bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi jñānānāṃ jñānam uttamam | yaj jñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṃ siddhim ito gatāḥ ||
Krishna reopens with the supreme jñāna above all knowledge — knowing which every muni has reached parāṃ siddhim.
Word by word (3)
- param bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi
- — again (bhūyaḥ) I will declare (pravakṣyāmi) that supreme (param) — re-opening a new chapter of teaching
- jñānānāṃ jñānam uttamam
- — the most excellent (uttama) of all knowledge (jñānānāṃ jñānam) — superlative framing
- yaj jñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṃ siddhim ito gatāḥ
- — having known which, all munis (sages) have gone from here (itas = from this world) to the highest perfection (parāṃ siddhim)
I will declare to you once more that supreme knowledge — the most excellent of all knowledges — having known which, all sages have attained to the highest perfection beyond the bonds of this life.
A modern analogy
A great teacher doesn't repeat; they revisit the same truth from a higher vantage. Ch.13 showed WHAT the field and its knower are. Ch.14 shows WHY we feel trapped — the three binding forces of nature.
Ch.14 opens with the standard preamble (param bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi) that Krishna uses to signal a fresh, complete teaching. After Ch.13's kṣetra-kṣetrajña analysis, Ch.14 zooms in on the MECHANISM of bondage: Prakṛti's three guṇas. The result of knowing this is parāṃ siddhi — the same liberation-promise, now grounded in guṇa-transcendence.
The word uttamam (most excellent) positions this teaching above the previous knowledge-catalogues. For Vedānta, understanding the guṇas is not merely analytical psychology — it is the key to understanding why the ātman APPEARS to be bound. jñānānāṃ jñānam parallels the 'yajñānāṃ jñāna-yajñaḥ' structure (the jñāna that illumines all other jñānas).
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
MISSING — SH Ch.14 V1 not indexed; Ganguli and Telang used as primary. [1]
Again I shall tell thee that supreme knowledge which is above all knowledge, having known which all the Munis have attained to high perfection after this life. [4]
Again I will declare to you the highest knowledge, the best of all sorts of knowledge, having learnt which, all sages have reached perfection beyond the bonds of this body. [9]
I will again declare (to thee) that supernal science of sciences, that excellent science, knowing which all the munis have attained to the highest perfection from (the fetters of) this body. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The tattva-vit sees gunas moving among gunas and does not become attached. Knowledge itself produces liberation.
Transcending the three guṇas, the embodied one is freed from birth-death-age-pain and attains immortality.
Those who resort to this knowledge attain My own nature — neither reborn at creation nor disturbed at dissolution.
Sattva — luminous and stainless — yet binds the jīva through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
When the seer sees only guṇas as agents and knows what is beyond them — he attains My being.
Satisfied by knowledge and realisation, senses mastered, gold and mud equally seen — this is the true steadfast yogi.