ज्ञानं कर्म च कर्ता च त्रिधैव गुणभेदतः । प्रोच्यते गुणसंख्याने यथावच् छृणु तान्य् अपि ॥
jñānaṃ karma ca kartā ca tridhaiva guṇa-bhedataḥ | procyate guṇa-saṃkhyāne yathāvac chṛṇu tāny api ||
Knowledge, action, and agent are each three-fold by guṇa-distinction — as declared in the guṇa-science. Hear them.
Word by word (3)
- jñānaṃ karma ca kartā ca tridhaiva guṇa-bhedataḥ
- — knowledge (jñānam), action (karma), and agent (kartā) — all three are each only (eva) three-fold (tridhā) by the distinction of guṇas (guṇa-bhedataḥ = by the differentiation of guṇas)
- procyate guṇa-saṃkhyāne yathāvac chṛṇu tāny api
- — these are declared (procyate = stated) in the guṇa-enumeration (guṇa-saṃkhyāna = the Sāṃkhya-style counting/analysis of guṇas), accurately/as-they-are (yathāvat); hear (śṛṇu) them (tāni) also (api) — the announcement that the three-fold guṇa analysis of jñāna/karma/kartā follows
- guṇa-saṃkhyāne
- — in the enumeration/analysis of guṇas (guṇa = sattva/rajas/tamas; saṃkhyāna = numbering/counting/analyzing); the Sāṃkhya philosophical framework is being explicitly invoked — as in V13's sāṃkhye kṛtānte
Knowledge, action, and agent — all three are each three-fold in accordance with the distinction of guṇas, as declared in the science of guṇas. Hear them also duly.
A modern analogy
V19 is the table of contents for V20-28: 'I will now analyze each of knowledge, action, and agent through the three-guṇa lens.' Just as Ch.17 analyzed food/yajña/tapas/dāna through the three guṇas, Ch.18 now applies the same framework to the fundamental categories of knowing, acting, and agency.
V19 is the transition announcement from the five-cause analysis (V13-17) to the three-fold guṇa analysis of jñāna/karma/kartā (V20-28). This section represents one of the Gita's most philosophically comprehensive passages — a systematic Sāṃkhya-style analysis of the fundamental categories of mind and action. V20-22 will give three-fold jñāna; V23-25 three-fold karma; V26-28 three-fold kartā. The section culminates in V30-32's three-fold buddhi and V33-35's three-fold dhṛti (fortitude) before the chapter's famous concluding sections.
Guṇa-saṃkhyāne (in the Sāṃkhya enumeration of guṇas) explicitly marks this section as Sāṃkhya-philosophical in approach. The Gita is here integrating the Sāṃkhya analytical method (classifying reality through guṇa-categories) with Vedānta's metaphysics and Yoga's practical ethics. This integration is one of the Gita's distinctive contributions: it uses Sāṃkhya's analytical precision while transcending its dualist framework.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Knowledge and action, and the agent are said in the science of gunas to be of three kinds only, according to the distinction in gunas. Hear thou duly of them. [1]
MISSING from index. [4]
Knowledge and action and agent are said in the science of qualities to be of three kinds only, in accordance with the distinction of qualities. Hear them also duly. [9]
Knowledge, action, and agent, are declared in the enumeration of qualities to be three-fold, according to the difference of qualities. Listen to those also duly. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Tamas — born of ignorance — deludes all beings and binds through carelessness, laziness, and sleep.
Sattva binds to happiness; rajas to action; tamas veils wisdom and chains to heedlessness.
Sattva, rajas, or tamas — each can become dominant over the others, alternating in every mind.
Sitting as a neutral — unmoved by guṇas, knowing 'guṇas act' — firm, unshaken, the pure witness.
Three-fold impulse to action: knowledge, knowable, knower. Three-fold action-structure: organ, act, agent.
All actions are done by the gunas of nature. The ego-deluded one thinks 'I am the doer' — this is the root of bondage.