Quiz · 14.21–14.27

Dative singular. It answers "fit for what." kalpate (कल्पते), "he is fit," takes that dative. The ending --āya (आय) is the "for." He is fit for becoming Brahman (ब्रह्म). The object of sevate (सेवते) is mām (माम्), not this dative.

vartanta iti (वर्तन्त इति). e (ए) before a vowel other than a (अ) becomes short a (अ), and the i (इ) of iti (इति) stays, with a gap between them. There is no avagraha, because the vowel that followed was i (इ), not a (अ). The verb is still vartante (वर्तन्ते), "they are at work." A reciter who hears vartanta (वर्तन्त) as a different verb has lost the predicate of the strands.

And who serves me with an unswerving bhakti-yoga (भक्ति-योग), he, having fully crossed these strands, is fit for becoming Brahman (ब्रह्म).

Arjuna (अर्जुन) asks by what marks a man has crossed these three strands, of what conduct he is, and how he crosses them. Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) answers. He does not hate light, activity, or delusion when they have come on, and he does not long for them when they have ceased. He sits like one seated apart, and he is not shaken by the strands. He stays with the thought that the strands are at work, and he does not waver. Pain and happiness, a clod, a stone, and gold, honor and dishonor, friend and foe, are the same to him. He is called guṇa-atītaḥ (गुण-अतीतः), one who has crossed the strands. Who serves Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) with an unswerving bhakti-yoga (भक्ति-योग) crosses these strands and is fit for becoming Brahman (ब्रह्म). Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण) is the ground of that Brahman (ब्रह्म), of the deathless, of everlasting dharma (धर्म), and of absolute happiness.

उदासीनवत् आसीनः udāsīnavat āsīnaḥ, seated like one who sits apart, and guṇāḥ vartante (गुणाः वर्तन्ते), "the strands are at work." The way across is avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena (अव्यभिचारेण भक्ति-योगेन). If guṇāḥ vartante (गुणाः वर्तन्ते) comes out as "he has stopped the strands," stay on 14.23.