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Chapter 14 · Verse 22
🪈 Krishna speaks
Illustration for Chapter 14, Verse 22

प्रकाशं च प्रवृत्तिं च मोहमेव च पाण्डव। न द्वेष्टि सम्प्रवृत्तानि न निवृत्तानि काङ्क्षति॥

prakāśaṁ ca pravṛttiṁ ca mohameva ca pāṇḍava | na dveṣṭi sampravṛttāni na nivṛttāni kāṅkṣati ||

Word by Word 11 words
प्रकाशम्
pra forth, forward kāś to shine, to be bright

light, brightness, clear knowing (the mark of sattva)

च
ca and, also

and

प्रवृत्तिम्
pra forth, forward vṛt to turn, to move, to act

activity, busy doing, restless action (the mark of rajas)

मोहम्
muh to be confused, to be deluded

delusion, fogginess, dullness (the mark of tamas)

एव
eva indeed, just, only

indeed, even

पाण्डव
pāṇḍu Pandu, the pale one pāṇḍava son of Pandu

O Pandava, O son of Pandu (Arjuna)

न
na not, no

not, neither

द्वेष्टि
dviṣ to hate, to dislike

hates, dislikes, pushes away

सम्प्रवृत्तानि
sam fully, together pra forth vṛt to turn, to arise

when they have arisen, when they come up

निवृत्तानि
ni down, away vṛt to turn, to cease

when they have gone away, when they stop

काङ्क्षति
kāṅkṣ to wish for, to long for

longs for, wishes back, craves

begins to answer by describing the free person's heart. When the bright calm of clear knowing comes, or the busy buzz of activity, or the heavy fog of dullness — when any of these three weathers arrives, the free one does not push it away with dislike. And when each one passes and leaves, the free one does not chase after it or beg it to stay. The moods come; the moods go; and that person stays peaceful right through.

कथा

Jeeva and the Weather of Moods

An original story

All week Jeeva had been at war with his own moods.

On the bright mornings, when his mind felt clear and everything made sense and his lessons came easily, he loved it so much that he clung to it. "Stay like this!" he begged the good feeling. But by afternoon it had slipped away, and then he felt cheated and cross.

On the busy days, when he was buzzing with energy and ran everywhere and couldn't sit still, he didn't know whether he liked it or hated it — so he fought it, trying to force himself calm, and only got more tangled.

And on the heavy, foggy afternoons, when his head felt thick as a wet blanket and he couldn't think and didn't want to do anything, he was furious at himself. "Go away!" he told the dullness, shoving at it. It only sat on him harder.

Aaji found him on the third day, frowning at the sky as if it had insulted him. "What is the matter, little storm-cloud?" she asked.

"My moods won't behave!" Jeeva burst out. "The good ones leave when I want them to stay. The bad ones stay when I want them to leave. I can't make them do what I want!"

Aaji sat beside him and pointed up. "Look at the sky," she said. "This morning, bright. At noon, windy and rushing. Now, see — a heavy grey cloud coming over. Does the sky chase the bright morning and beg it to come back? Does the sky shove at the grey cloud and shout *go away*?"

Jeeva almost laughed. "No. The sky just… lets them."

"The sky just lets them," Aaji nodded. "Bright comes, bright goes. Busy comes, busy goes. Heavy comes, heavy goes. And the wide sky behind it never moves at all. Your moods are weather, child. The clear ones, the busy ones, the foggy ones — they are the three gunas blowing through. You don't have to grab them or fight them. Just be the sky. Let them come. Let them go."

That afternoon a foggy, dull mood crept over Jeeva again. But this time he didn't shove at it. He just noticed it, the way you notice a cloud, and waited. And after a while — he hardly saw it happen — it drifted off on its own, and he was still there, quiet and whole, like the sky.

चिन्तनम्

When a bad mood comes, do you fight it and make it worse? And when a happy mood comes, do you grab it so hard you're afraid to lose it? What if you just let your moods come and go, like clouds across the sky?