The Supreme Lord said: Again, I shall describe to you the supreme teaching, the highest of all fields of knowledge, knowing which the sages attained the ultimate perfection beyond this mundane plane.

By taking refuge in this knowledge, the soul attains to My nature. Then he is neither born in the cosmic manifestation, nor does he suffer (death) in the cosmic dissolution.

O Bharat, I place the seed within My womb of primordial matter from which all living beings take birth.

O Kaunteya, primordial matter is the original womb of all life-forms that are born of the wombs of all species, and I am the seed-giving father.

O mighty hero, Arjuna, the three modes of goodness, passion, and ignorance, born of material nature, bind the immutable spirit soul within the body.

O sinless one, of these three modes, due its purity, the mode of goodness is illuminating and wholesome, conditioning one to happiness and knowledge.

O son of Kunti, know the mode of passion to be the embodiment of desire. Born of hankering and attachment, it conditions one to action.

And, O Bharat, know the mode of ignorance, born of darkness, to be the ignorance of all the embodied beings, conditioning them to delusion, laziness, and slumber.

O Arjuna, the mode of goodness conditions the embodied being to happiness, and the mode of passion conditions him to action. But the mode of ignorance covers his knowledge and traps him in illusion.

O Bharat, goodness overcomes passion and ignorance, passion overcomes goodness and ignorance, and ignorance overcomes goodness and passion. Each mode in turn defeats the others in an unending battle for supremacy.

When the gateways of the body are illuminated with knowledge, know this to be the manifestation of the mode of goodness.

O Arjuna, most noble of the Bharat dynasty, know that when the mode of passion predominates in a person, greed, exertion, undertaking of activities, unrest, and hankering become manifest.

O Kuru Nandan, by the influence of the mode of ignorance, all the symptoms of dullness, inactivity, delusion, and bewilderment become manifest.

If a person dies in a state of the mode of goodness, he goes to the pure planes where those who have higher knowledge reside.

When a person dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth as a human attached to worldly activity. If one dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the lower species.

It is said by the learned that good actions result in purity, passionate actions result in sorrow, and ignorant actions lead to darkness.

From the mode of goodness, knowledge arises; from the mode of passion, greed; and from the mode of ignorance, delusion, bewilderment, and a lack of knowledge ensue.

Persons in goodness ascend (up to Satyaloka), those in passion remain in the middle (as humans), and the unfortunate, ignorant persons fall to the lower planes (of suffering).

When a person sees the three modes to be the only impetus of this world, and knows the Supreme Lord, transcendental to the modes, then he comes to love Me with devotion.

Transcending these modes manifest in the body, he is liberated from the miseries of birth, death, and old age, and knows the joy of immortality.

Arjuna said: O Lord, what are the symptoms of a person transcendental to these three modes of material nature? How does he behave, and how does he transcend the modes?

The Supreme Lord replied: O Pandava, it is said that a person who has transcended the three modes of material nature neither resents illumination, activation, and delusion when they appear, nor does he hanker for them when they withdraw. Poised in the knowledge that the modes are engaging, he is not distracted by them; he remains unperturbed, unconcerned. Remaining self-satisfied, he sees joy and sorrow equally; he sees earth, rock, or gold with the vision of equality; he is wise, equipoised in desirable and undesirable circumstances, abuse and praise, honour and dishonour; he behaves fairly with friend and foe alike, and he renounces all mundane endeavours.

A person who, without deviation, serves Me with devotion, transcends the three modes of material nature and becomes qualified to know his internal divine identity.

I am the basis of the Absolute Truth, the inexhaustible nectar, the eternal Pastimes, and the ultimate ecstasy of divine love.