Chapter 14, Verse 20
गुणानेतानतीत्य त्रीन्देही देहसमुद्भवान् | जन्ममृत्युजरादुःखैर्विमुक्तोऽमृतमश्नुते ||१४-२०||
guṇānetānatītya trīndehī dehasamudbhavān . janmamṛtyujarāduḥkhairvimukto.amṛtamaśnute ||14-20||
Meaning
14.20 The embodied one having crossed beyond these three Gunas out of which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to immortality.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna names the supreme reward of transcending the guṇas. The dehī, the soul wearing a body, crosses beyond the three qualities from which that very body and its experiences arise. Having stepped outside the field of Nature's play, it is freed from the four great sorrows of embodied existence: janma, birth; mṛtyu, death; jarā, decay; and the duḥkha, the pain, that runs through them all. And so it tastes amṛta — the deathless, immortality itself.
This is liberation stated in its fullness. The guṇas are the loom on which the changing, perishable body and its fortunes are woven; to rise above them is to be free of the whole fabric of mortality. Immortality here is not endless continuation of the body but realisation of the Self that was never born and cannot die. The one who 'crosses beyond' does not flee life but lives it from a centre untouched by its decay — present, free, and at peace amid all that rises and passes.
💡 Key Takeaway
Rising beyond Nature's three qualities frees you from birth, decay, and death, awakening the deathless Self you have always been.
Related Verses
श्रीभगवानुवाच | परं भूयः प्रवक्ष्यामि ज्ञानानां ज्ञानमुत्तमम् | यज्ज्ञात्वा मुनयः सर्वे परां सिद्धिमितो गताः ||१४-१||
śrībhagavānuvāca . paraṃ bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi jñānānāṃ jñānamuttamam . yajjñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṃ siddhimito gatāḥ ||14-1||
14.1 The Blessed Lord said I will again declare (to thee) that supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge, having known which all the sages have gone to the supreme perfection after this life.
इदं ज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यमागताः | सर्गेऽपि नोपजायन्ते प्रलये न व्यथन्ति च ||१४-२||
idaṃ jñānamupāśritya mama sādharmyamāgatāḥ . sarge.api nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca ||14-2||
14.2 They who, having taken refuge in this knowledge, have attained to unity with Me, are neither born at the time of creation nor are they disturbed at the time of dissolution.
सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः | निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ||१४-५||
sattvaṃ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisambhavāḥ . nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam ||14-5||
14.5 Purity, passion and inertia these alities, O Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body, the embodied, the indestructible.