14.20 Past all three Krishna speaks
गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान्
जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर्विमुक्तोऽमृतमश्नुते
guṇān etān atītya trīn dehī deha-samudbhavān
janma-mṛityu-jarā-duḥkhair vimukto ’mṛitam aśhnute
Having gone beyond these three strands, out of which the body arises, the embodied one is freed from birth, death, old age and pain, and reaches the deathless.
Explanation
The taxonomy was a map of the exits.
Having gone beyond the three, out of which the body arises, the embodied one is freed from birth, death, old age and pain.
Not cultivate the best strand. Nineteen verses of careful classification, and the instruction is to get past the whole classification — which is why 14.6 had to establish that even clarity binds.
Going further
Word by word
- guṇān
- the three modes of material nature
- etān
- these
- atītya
- transcending
- trīn
- three
- dehī
- the embodied
- deha
- body
- samudbhavān
- produced of
- janma
- birth
- mṛityu
- death
- jarā
- old age
- duḥkhaiḥ
- misery
- vimuktaḥ
- freed from
- amṛitam
- immortality
- aśhnute
- attains
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Having gone beyond these three, the embodied one is freed.
The whole chapter has been taxonomy, and here it turns out the taxonomy was a map of the exits. Not cultivate clarity — go past all three. It is a more radical instruction than the tidy hierarchy of 14.18 suggests, and the two verses sit oddly together on purpose.