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Chapter 14 · Verse 7
🪈 Krishna speaks
Illustration for Chapter 14, Verse 7

रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम्। तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम्॥

rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛṣṇāsaṅgasamudbhavam | tannibadhnāti kaunteya karmasaṅgena dehinam ||

Word by Word 9 words
रजः
rañj to colour, to be dyed, to be excited

rajas, the restless quality of passion and activity

रागात्मकम्
rañj to colour, to redden, to be passionate ātman self, very nature

made of passion, whose very nature is colourful longing

विद्धि
vid to know

know! understand this

तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम्
tṛṣ to thirst, to crave sañj to cling, to be attached sam fully, together ud up bhū to be, to arise

arising fully from thirst-craving and clinging-attachment

तत्
tad that, it

that, it (rajas)

निबध्नाति
ni down, firmly bandh to bind, to tie

binds firmly, ties down

कौन्तेय
kunti Kunti, Arjuna's mother eya son of

O son of Kunti (Arjuna)

कर्मसङ्गेन
kṛ to do, to act sañj to cling, to be attached

by attachment to action, by clinging to doing

देहिनम्
dih to smear, to form a body in one who has

the embodied one, the soul living in a body

names the second quality: . It is the colour of longing: full of passion, always thirsting for more, always reaching out to grab and hold. Rajas is born from craving and attachment, and it ties the soul down by making it cling to action: do this, get that, run here, win there. The work feels exciting, but the wanting never quite ends, and so the rope of busyness keeps the heart bound.

कथा

The King Who Could Not Stop

From the puranic tradition

In an age long past there ruled a king named Vichitra, and never in all the land had there been a king so busy. From the first grey light of morning to the last red coal of evening, Vichitra worked. He built. He conquered. He counted. He wanted.

When he saw a hill, he wished to crown it with a fort. When he saw a river, he wished to bridge it. When he saw a neighbour's field, he wished it were his own. His ministers ran panting behind him with scrolls and seals, for the king gave a new order before the last one was finished.

"Sire, you have ten palaces," they said.

"Then I shall have eleven," said the king, and his eyes shone like a fire that has just been fed.

One evening a wandering sage came to the gate, dusty and calm, and asked for a single night's rest. The king, who never stopped, agreed only because the sage said something curious: "I will show Your Majesty the rope that ties you."

"I am tied by nothing," laughed Vichitra. "I am the freest king alive! I do whatever I wish."

"Then wish to sit still," said the sage, "for the space of one hour. Just sit. Want nothing. Build nothing. Count nothing."

The king sat. His foot began to tap. His fingers drummed. His mind leapt to the unbuilt fort, the unbridged river, the field that was not yet his. Before a quarter of the hour had passed he sprang up, his heart pounding.

"I cannot!" he cried. "There is too much to do!"

The sage nodded gently. "That, great king, is the rope. It is not made of iron. It is made of wanting. You think you hold your kingdom — but your kingdom holds you. The thirst to do and to have has tied your hands to the plough, and you cannot let go even for an hour."

Vichitra grew very quiet. For the first time he felt the rope, soft and invisible, wound a thousand times around his restless heart. And in that quiet, just for a breath, he was free.

चिन्तनम्

Doing things can be wonderful, but have you ever felt you HAD to keep going, that you just could not sit still or stop wanting more? That restless tug is rajas. What helps you set it down for a little while?