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Chapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation · 78 verses

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Nature & guṇasChapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 18.21

Knowledge, action, determination and happiness in the modes

पृथक्त्वेन तु यज्ज्ञानं नानाभावान्पृथग्विधान् ।

वेत्ति सर्वेषु भूतेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि राजसम् ॥ २१ ॥

pṛthaktvena tu yaj jñānaṁ

nānā-bhāvān pṛthag-vidhān

vetti sarveṣu bhūteṣu

taj jñānaṁ viddhi rājasam

Translation

That knowledge by which one sees that in every different body there is a different type of living entity you should understand to be in the mode of passion.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
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Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

Knowledge in Passion

  1. 1Seeing a different type of living entity in each different body is knowledge in the mode of passion.
  2. 2Prabhupāda explains that this includes thinking the body is the living entity and consciousness ends when the body is destroyed.
  3. 3The belief that there are no individual souls, only an all-pervading soul, is also in the mode of passion.

Where we are

In the story

Chapter 18, The Perfection of Renunciation: knowledge, action, determination and happiness in the modes.

What it teaches

Theme summary

The modes of nature condition behavior.

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Key ideas in this verse

The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.

Key ideas: prakṛti, guṇa.

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Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does BG 18.21 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to nature & guṇas?

Practice

Observe which mode shaped your last decision.

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Related verses

Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.

Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.

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