A core teaching · reflective in mood · builds on earlier teachings
“Even clarity becomes bondage when you cling to its pleasure.”
Among those qualities, sattva—because it is pure and luminous and free from affliction—binds the embodied being through attachment to happiness and to knowledge, O sinless one.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Hover a word to focus on it.
Read literallythere, among them · sattva · because of purity · luminous, illuminating · free from affliction · through attachment to happiness · binds · through attachment to knowledge · and · O sinless one
Even purity can become a chain when you cling to comfort or to being wise. Sattva brings light, but attachment to that light still binds.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga" (The Three Modes of Material Nature).
Verse 6 sits in Chapter 14 of the Bhagavad Gita — Gunatraya Vibhaga Yoga, "The Three Modes of Material Nature". The chapter has 27 verses in total.
You finally feel calm after weeks of stress, then panic at the thought of losing that calm. You start guarding the feeling instead of living. The grip has simply changed shape.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts the mind from chasing refined states to seeing how attachment operates even inside them.
What this verse means
Even purity can become a chain when you cling to comfort or to being wise. Sattva brings light, but attachment to that light still binds.
Context & commentary
On Kurukshetra, with Arjuna frozen before battle, Krishna explains the three gunas. After naming sattva as pure and illuminating, he shows the hidden trap: even clarity can bind when a person becomes attached to comfort or to the pride of understanding.
Why this verse still matters
You finally feel calm after weeks of stress, then panic at the thought of losing that calm. You start guarding the feeling instead of living. The grip has simply changed shape.
“It warns that even good states can trap you when you start clinging to them.”
Explore related themes: gunas (47 verses), sattva (26 verses)