Guna-attachment creates bondage.
Krishna speaks to Arjuna
पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान् |कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ||१३-२२||
puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijānguṇān . kāraṇaṃ guṇasaṅgo.asya sadasadyonijanmasu ||13-22||
Use this verse for guna-attachment awareness.
Meaning
The purusha seated in prakriti experiences the gunas born of prakriti. Attachment to these gunas causes birth in good and bad wombs.
Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).
In plain words
Attachment to the gunas keeps the soul bound.
Word-by-word meaning
Tap a word to see its meaning.
Explanation
The problem is not merely that gunas arise; it is that the conscious self becomes attached to them. Identification with clarity, activity, or dullness creates continued bondage.
Read the traditional 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.
In daily life
Notice your attachment to moods, roles, and patterns.
A person may become attached to being productive and feel worthless when resting.
Try this today
Write one pattern you experience but do not want to be ruled by.
I experience the gunas without being bound by them.Reflect
Which guna or identity am I attached to?
Private — only you can see this
Quick check
What does ‘सत् असत् योनि जन्मसु’ mean in this verse?
Krishna on bondage, in other chapters
- Verse 15.2Desire-driven actions send down new roots that bind us deeper into the cycle of becoming.
- Verse 8.19Driven by past karma, beings are swept helplessly through endless cycles; true freedom means stepping beyond the wheel entirely.
- Verse 14.15The quality that rules you at the end pulls you toward more of the same — so steer your habitual state upward, not down.
- Verse 16.19The nature we cultivate becomes the world we are reborn into — character shapes destiny across lifetimes.
Swipe left for 13.23 · The Supreme Witness lives within.
Questions about Bhagavad Gita 13.22
Who says Bhagavad Gita 13.22, and to whom?
Krishna speaks to Arjuna in verse 13.22, in Chapter 13, Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga (Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga).
What does Bhagavad Gita 13.22 mean?
The purusha seated in prakriti experiences the gunas born of prakriti. Attachment to these gunas causes birth in good and bad wombs. (Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).)
What is the lesson of Bhagavad Gita 13.22 for daily life?
Notice your attachment to moods, roles, and patterns. A person may become attached to being productive and feel worthless when resting.
What do the Sanskrit words in Bhagavad Gita 13.22 mean?
पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थः हि — the soul seated in nature; भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान् गुणान् — experiences the qualities born of nature; कारणम् गुणसङ्गः अस्य — its attachment to the qualities is the cause; सत् असत् योनि जन्मसु — of birth in good and evil wombs.
Where does verse 13.22 come in the Bhagavad Gita?
It is verse 22 of 35 in Chapter 13, Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga. The next verse is 13.23.