Quiz · 14.11–14.20
How they show, and how they are crossed
Cover the answer. Read the Devanagari of the verse before you open it.
1
In 14.11, what form is vidyāt (विद्यात्)?
Answer
Optative, third person singular, of vid (विद्). It means "one should know." It is not the ablative of vidyā (विद्या), "from knowledge." विद्यात् + विवृद्धम् vidyāt + vivṛddham is recited vidyād vivṛddham (विद्याद्विवृद्धम्), because t (त्) before v (व्) becomes d (द्). The quarter break falls on that join.
2
In 14.13, aprakāśaḥ (अप्रकाशः) stands in front of apravṛttiḥ (अप्रवृत्तिः). What is recited, and which sandhi makes it?
Answer
aprakāśo 'pravṛttiḥ (अप्रकाशोऽप्रवृत्तिः). अः + अ aḥ + a becomes o (ओ), and the a (अ) of apravṛttiḥ (अप्रवृत्तिः) is dropped. The dropped a (अ) is the avagraha. It is the negative prefix of the second word. Leave it out and you have recited pravṛttiḥ (प्रवृत्तिः), activity, the sign of rajas (रजस्).
3
Say 14.20 in one sentence.
Answer
The embodied one, having crossed these three strands from which the body comes to be, freed from birth, death, old age, and pain, attains the deathless.
4
What is 14.11–14.20 doing in the talk between Arjuna (अर्जुन) and Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण)?
Answer
Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) is still speaking. Arjuna (अर्जुन) has not asked yet. When sattva (सत्त्व) has grown strong, light arises in all the gates of the body. When rajas (रजस्) has grown strong, greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, unrest, and craving arise. When tamas (तमस्) has grown strong, not-light, not-activity, negligence, and delusion arise. Dying in sattva (सत्त्व), he reaches the stainless worlds of those who know the highest. Dying in rajas (रजस्), he is born among those who cling to action. Dying in tamas (तमस्), he is born in a deluded womb. The seer who sees no doer other than the strands, and knows what is higher than the strands, attains the being of Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण). Having crossed these three, the embodied one is freed from birth, death, old age, and pain, and attains the deathless.
5
Cover the English of 14.20. Which words show what he is freed from, and what fails if that case is read as "by"?
Answer
janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkhaiḥ (जन्म-मृत्यु-जरा-दुःखैः) with vimuktaḥ (विमुक्तः). The instrumental answers "freed from what": birth, death, old age, and pain. If it comes out as "freed by birth," stay on 14.20.