Chapter 13, Verse 22
पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान् | कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ||१३-२२||
puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijānguṇān . kāraṇaṃ guṇasaṅgo.asya sadasadyonijanmasu ||13-22||
Meaning
13.22 The soul seated in Nature experiences the alities born of Nature; attachment to the alities is the cause of its birth in good and evil wombs.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna explains the mechanism of rebirth. The purusha, while 'seated in nature' (prakriti-stha) — that is, while identified with the body and its conditions — experiences the play of the three gunas. As long as the self imagines itself enmeshed in nature, it tastes nature's flavours of pleasure and pain and is carried along by them.
The pivotal word is sanga — attachment. It is the soul's clinging to the gunas, its emotional investment in nature's qualities, that becomes the cause of repeated births in 'good and evil wombs.' Our future is shaped by what we attach to: cling to clarity and goodness (sattva) and we rise; cling to passion or inertia and we fall. The teaching is sobering yet hopeful. Birth and destiny are not arbitrary; they follow the lines of our attachments. Loosen the grip of attachment, and the wheel of compelled rebirth begins to slow. Freedom lies not in changing circumstances but in releasing identification with nature's pull.
💡 Key Takeaway
What you cling to shapes where you go — attachment to nature's qualities keeps the wheel of rebirth turning.
Related Verses
प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादी उभावपि | विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसम्भवान् ||१३-२०||
prakṛtiṃ puruṣaṃ caiva viddhyanādi ubhāvapi . vikārāṃśca guṇāṃścaiva viddhi prakṛtisambhavān ||13-20||
13.20 Know thou that Nature (matter) and the Spirit are both beginningless; and know also that all modifications and alities are born of Nature.
कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते | पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ||१३-२१||
kāryakāraṇakartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtirucyate . puruṣaḥ sukhaduḥkhānāṃ bhoktṛtve heturucyate ||13-21||
13.21 In the production of the effect and the cause, Nature (matter) is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, the soul is said to be the cause.
य एवं वेत्ति पुरुषं प्रकृतिं च गुणैः सह | सर्वथा वर्तमानोऽपि न स भूयोऽभिजायते ||१३-२४||
ya evaṃ vetti puruṣaṃ prakṛtiṃ ca guṇaiḥ saha . sarvathā vartamāno.api na sa bhūyo.abhijāyate ||13-24||
13.24 He who thus knows the Spirit and Matter together with the alities, in whatever condition he may be, he is not born again.