तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात् प्रकाशकम् अनामयम् । सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ ॥
tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvāt prakāśakam anāmayam | sukha-saṅgena badhnāti jñāna-saṅgena cānagha ||
Sattva — luminous and stainless — yet binds the jīva through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
Word by word (3)
- tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvāt prakāśakam anāmayam
- — among these (tatra), sattva — owing to its stainlessness (nirmalatvāt) — is luminous (prakāśaka) and free from suffering (anāmaya = without disease/affliction)
- sukha-saṅgena badhnāti
- — it binds (badhnāti) through attachment to happiness (sukha-saṅga = saṅga in sukha)
- jñāna-saṅgena ca anagha
- — and through attachment to knowledge (jñāna-saṅga), O sinless one (anagha — Arjuna addressed as 'without sin')
Among the three guṇas, sattva — being stainless, luminous, and free from suffering — yet binds the embodied one through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
A modern analogy
Gold chains are still chains. Sattva is the most beautiful prison — you feel peaceful, wise, good. But attachment to that goodness ('I am a spiritual person', 'I am enlightened') is still saṅga. The only real freedom is guṇātīta — beyond all three.
After V5 named the three guṇas as the binding forces, V6-V8 describe HOW each binds specifically. Sattva is the subtlest binding: its rope is made of pleasure (sukha) and knowledge (jñāna) — things the spiritual seeker DESIRES. This makes sattvic bondage the hardest to escape: the person feels liberated but is still identified with the sattvic guṇa.
The paradox: sattva is called stainless (nirmala) and luminous (prakāśaka), yet it still BINDS. Why? Because any guṇa, when it produces attachment (saṅga), perpetuates the cycle of identification. The ātman does not need even the finest sattvic experience to be free — it is already free. Attachment to spiritual pleasure is as much a chain as attachment to sensual pleasure, just a finer and more transparent one.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Of these, Sattva, which, from its stainlessness, is lucid and healthy, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one. [1]
Of these Sattva, because of its stainlessness, luminous and free from evil, binds, O sinless one, by attachment to happiness, and by attachment to knowledge. [4]
Of these, goodness which, in consequence of being untainted, is enlightening and free from all misery, binds the soul, O sinless one, with the bond of pleasure and the bond of knowledge. [9]
Of these, Goodness, from its unsullied nature, being enlightening and free from misery, binds the soul, O sinless one, with the attainment of happiness and of knowledge. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The yogi abandons fruit and attains lasting peace. The non-yogi, bound to fruit by desire, is fettered.
Sattva begets wisdom; rajas begets greed; tamas begets heedlessness, delusion, and ignorance.
Sāttvic kartā: attachment-free, non-egotistic, firm, enthusiastic, unmoved by success or failure.
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.
Those who resort to this knowledge attain My own nature — neither reborn at creation nor disturbed at dissolution.