Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14, Verse 7 (BG 14.7) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

14.7 रजः Rajas? रागात्मकम् of the nature of passion? विद्धि know? तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् the source of thirst and attachment? तत् that? निबध्नाति binds? कौन्तेय O son of Kunti (Arjuna)? कर्मसङ्गेन by attachment to action? देहिनम् the embodied one.Commentary The ality of Rajas denotes activity and ambition. The Rajasic man is full of cravings and desires. The cravings force him to act for their fulfilment. He gets attached to those who help him in the fulfilment of his desire and hates those who stand in his way. He is attached to action. He enters on great undertakings. He performs various sorts of sacrifices and rituals and charitable activities. He runs after sensual pleasures and his desires become insatiable like a flame fed by oil. The Self is not the doer. It is the silent witness but Rajas creates in the man the idea? I am the doer.Rajas pleases the mind and keeps alive the passions.A Rajasic man is never contented. He is ever greedy and restless. The more he acires? the more passionate and greedy he becomes. Desires multiply. Nothing gives him satisfaction. If he is a millionaire? he tries to become a multimillionaire. It is like petrol poured into the fire? which inflames it further. A Rajasic man loses his understanding and power of discrimination. His understanding is clouded. He is under intoxication of the pride of wealth. His intellect is turbid. He has a perverted intellect. On account of perversion of intellect misery appears to him to be happiness pain appears to him to be pleasure sorrow appears to be joy. His goal is money and women. He worships mammon as his god.He runs after name? fame and comforts and involves himself in endless activities. Quickness has been associated with the fish? with the flash of lightning and with the glance of a woman. But Rajas is icker than these. A Rajasic man is more active than these. He thinks What will happen to me after my possessions are gone and thus worries himself unnecessarily and engages himself in endless activities. He has no peace of mind.He thirsts for what has not been attained and is attached to what has already been obtained. He wishes and tries to protect his possessions. This is Sanga. I will do such and such an action. I will get such and such a result. I will do this sacrifice. I will enjoy in heaven. This sort of clinging to action and its fruits is Karma Sanga.

# BG 14.7 — The Nature of Rajas and Its Binding Effects The seeker who desires mastery over the mind must come to understand all the subtle tendencies and inclinations through which the mind repeatedly drives him toward objects of desire like one possessed by madness. In this way, the mind remains engaged in a conspiracy to destroy the seeker's inner being. Know rajas as the quality of passion and attachment. When the destructive force of rajas assails the inner faculties, it shatters the human mind with countless painful agitations. These mental disturbances arising at the level of the mind are the primary characteristics of rajas. They manifest in countless forms—such as obstinacy, craving, and emotional turbulence. Yet all of these can be encompassed within two fundamental tendencies: craving and attachment. Here, these two are indicated as the principal sources of all mental disturbances. Craving and attachment—the Sanskrit word for the desire to enjoy objects is trishna, meaning thirst. For a thirsty person, nothing seems more soothing or important than water in that moment. Driven by this thirst, he becomes restless and strives by any means to obtain water from wherever he can. Similarly, once a desire for an object arises in the mind, a person finds no peace until it is satisfied. If the desired object is obtained, attachment to it arises. Attachment is a destructive mental force that disturbs the mind's peace and happiness. In brief: the craving to obtain what is not yet possessed is called trishna, and attachment to what has been obtained is called sanga. The craving and attachment that arise in the mind toward objects are like volcanic mountains that continuously spew molten lava, scorching and destroying the blossoming garden of life. The hot lava erupting from these fiery mountains manifests as various mental disturbances, which in a person's sensual life give birth to struggle and conflict in the effort to acquire countless things, to dominate them, and to keep them secure. Rajas binds the human being through attachment to action. The person under the sway of rajas develops various desires, and to fulfill them, it is natural that he becomes engaged and attached to action day and night. His entire life is spent in the earning and spending of wealth, in the acquisition and protection of possessions. In this process, his body grows old, yet his craving grows ever younger—driven by the anxiety to gain more enjoyment and the fear of losing what he has obtained, he remains engaged from one action to another. Thus, bound by his own actions, this being remains attached to the body in order to experience the fruits of pleasure and pain born of those very actions. If in the bondage of sattva a person holds the pride "I am happy and I am the knower," then in rajas there arises the pride "I am the doer." Let us remember this truth: these bonds arising from the gunas are merely apparent, not ultimately real.