Verse 14.6

Verse 14.6: “Of them, the Sattva, because of its taintlessness, is luminous and free from disorder; through fondness for comfort it fetters, and through fondness for knowledge, O Sinless One. (148)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

The hunter Sattva begins to gather in the snares in the form of pleasure and knowledge, then he (individual soul) goes on indulging in loose and vain talk in his conceit as being one of knowledge, chafes and kicks (struggles vainly) as he realises his actual state and thus banishes that autochthonous bliss of the self which was already his. He feels greatly pleased when honoured as being a learned person, is elated at every trifling gain, and begins to boast of being a really happy person. He says, “Is it not a great luck of mine? Who else is as happy as myself,” and while indulging in such talks the eight affections of the body (considered as) indicating the prevalence of Sattva quality begin to surge up all through his body. The matter does not stop here. Another sticky thing gets at him, viz. the ghost in the form of his erudition possesses him. He does not feel sorry in the least for ignoring the fact that he himself is the essence of knowledge, but he has lost that primal nature of his and feels he is distended infinitely like the sky with the mundane knowledge of sense-objects. It is just like a king turned into a beggar in his dreams and then making a boast of being as lucky as God Indra on his going around abegging in his capital and securing a little grain.

In that way one above form, getting into form (body) thus gets (deluded) by external knowledge. He becomes expert in active worldly life, well-versed in sacrificial learning, nay he considers even heaven as too low in magnitude for himself. And then he boasts, “No one else has got as much knowledge as I have” and says, “my mind is (as boundless as) the sky which harbours the moon in the form of dexterity”. In this way the Sattva Guna drags the soul with a chord of happiness and knowledge tied round his ears, in the way a decorated bull is reduced to a (helpless) state by his trainer. Now I tell you and you do hear how this embodied soul is fettered by the Rajas Guna.