Bhagavagd Gita - Session 38- Track 3814

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā: those who are seated in Sattwa, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti, they go upwards; madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ: those who are in Rajas stand in the middle…

jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ ||18|| (XIV)

…those who are Tamasic, who are fixed in the lowest Guna, they go downwards, adho gacchanti.

nānyaṁ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṁ yadā draṣṭānupaśyati |
guṇebhyaś ca paraṁ vetti mad-bhāvaṁ so ’dhigacchati ||19|| (XIV)

Now comes again the description of Para Prakriti. having described Apara Prakriti so far, now He says, nānyaṁ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṁ yadā draṣṭānupaśyati: when you begin to perceive that all actions are proceeding only from Prakriti, from the Gunas, then, guṇebhyaś ca paraṁ vetti madbhāvaṁ so ’dhigacchati: then, when you begin to know the complete scheme of Apara Prakriti, then you go above, guṇebhyaś ca paraṁ, you go above the Gunas and mad-bhāvaṁ, not only mam, the knowledge of Me and the knowledge of My activity, (there is a difference): to know Me, you can know the Divine essentially, to know the Divine as Love, but to know the Divine as Action is mad-bhāvaṁ, My Prakriti. When you go above the Gunas, then mad-bhāvaṁ so’ dhigacchati, you rise into Para Prakriti, mad-bhāvaṁ so ’dhigacchati.

guṇān etān atītya trīn dehī deha-samudbhavān |
janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkhair vimukto ’mṛtam aśnute ||20|| (XIV)

“When, dehī, one who is in the body, when he goes beyond the three Gunas, guṇān-etān-atītya…this is the verse which is the message of the whole chapter: your bondage comes because of your saṅga with Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. ‘When you go beyond the 3 Gunas then you are able to be liberated’; guṇān-etān-atītya, atītya means ‘having gone beyond’, when you go beyond the 3 Gunas, then deha-samudbhavān, these Gunas which arise out of the body, when you go beyond these 3 Gunas, then you become vimukto, you become liberated; from where? janma-mṛtyu-jarā-duḥkhair, you become liberated from birth, from death, from old age, and from the misery and then, amṛtam aśnute, then you enjoy immortality.

It is only when you arise to Para Prakriti that immortality comes. This is another definition of immortality. What is immortality? Immortality is the entry into Para Prakriti. Even if you are liberated, but you are not able to enter into Para Prakriti, you are still not attaining immortality. It is only when you go into amṛtaṁ Dharma, of which at the end of the 12th chapter we had given this idea, amṛtam Dharma: amṛtam Dharma is this amṛtam aśnute, when you enter into Para Prakriti.

I think we stop here now, because now comes the question of Para Prakriti and the end of the chapter.