गुणान् एतान् अतीत्य त्रीन् देही देहसमुद्भवान् । जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर् विमुक्तोऽमृतम् अश्नुते ॥
guṇān etān atītya trīn dehī deha-samudbhavān | janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkhair vimukto'mṛtam aśnute ||
Transcending the three guṇas, the embodied one is freed from birth-death-age-pain and attains immortality.
Word by word (3)
- guṇān etān atītya trīn deha-samudbhavān
- — having transcended (atītya) these three guṇas (trīn etān guṇān) that are the source/arising of the body (deha-samudbhava = body-originated, from the womb established in V3-V4)
- dehī janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkhaiḥ vimuktaḥ
- — the dehin (embodied one) is freed (vimuktaḥ) from birth (janma), death (mṛtyu), old age (jarā), and pain (duḥkha) — the four fundamental sufferings of embodied existence
- amṛtam aśnute
- — attains immortality (amṛtam = the deathless; aśnute = enjoys, savors, reaches — the same verb as Ch.13 V13: amṛtam aśnute)
When the embodied one transcends these three guṇas — which are the very source of the body — they are freed from birth, death, old age, and pain, and attain immortality (amṛtam).
A modern analogy
The guṇas are the fabric from which the body-mind-personality garment is woven. When you transcend the guṇas, you are not destroying the garment — you are recognizing you are NOT the garment. The one who knows 'I am the wearer, not the cloth' is freed from the garment's birth (putting on), death (wearing out), age (fading), and pain (restricting).
V20 is the chapter's liberation-statement: this is what guṇātīta looks like — vimuktaḥ from janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkha AND amṛtam aśnute. These four sufferings (janma/mṛtyu/jarā/duḥkha) echo Ch.13 V8's jñāna quality of 'janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśana' — recognizing their suffering-nature as a component of jñāna. Now their total elimination is promised as the fruit of guṇātīta.
deha-samudbhavān (source/arising of the body) circles back to V3-V4 where the guṇas are born of Prakṛti and Prakṛti is the womb of all bodies. The chain: Puruṣa-Prakṛti union → Mahat-brahma → guṇas → bodies → janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkha. Transcending the guṇas means exiting this entire chain. amṛtam aśnute is the same phrase used in Ch.13 V13 for jñeyam: the direct link between knowing the field-knower and knowing the guṇātīta state.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Having crossed beyond these three guṇas, which are the source of the body, the embodied one is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains the immortal. [1]
The embodied one having gone beyond these three Gunas, out of which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay, and pain, and attains to immortality. [4]
When the embodied one transcends these three qualities, the source of the body, he is freed from birth, death, old age, and pain, and enjoys immortality. [9]
Having crossed beyond these three qualities, the source of bodies, the embodied soul is freed from birth, death, old age, and pain, and attains to immortality. [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.
Krishna reopens with the supreme jñāna above all knowledge — knowing which every muni has reached parāṃ siddhim.
Arjuna asks: what does the truly wise person look like? How do they speak, sit, and move?
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.
Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.