Inasmuch as the constituents of action, namely “knowledge,” “work,” and the “ego,” are under the influences of different moods, each one of them can fall into the three types. We fluctuate among these three gunas and the different proportions in which they are mixed in our bosom determine the innumerable types of individuals that we are.

These detailed descriptions of the different types of “knowledge,” “action” and “actor” are given here not for the purpose of judging and classifying others, but for the seeker to UNDERSTAND HIMSELF. A true student of culture and self-development must try to maintain himself as far as possible, in the Sattwic temperament. By self-analysis, we can diagnose ourselves, and immediately remedy the defects in us.

In this stanza, we have the description of the Sattwic type of “knowledge.” The “knowledge” by which the One Imperishable Being is seen in all existence, is Sattwic. Though the forms constituted by the different body-mind-intellect equipments are all different in different living creatures, the Sattwic “knowledge” recognises all of them as the expressions of one and the same Truth, which is the Essence in all of them.

Just as an electrical engineer recognises the SAME electricity flowing through all the bulbs, a goldsmith recognises the ONE metal ‘gold’ in all ornaments, and every one of us is aware of the SAME cotton in all shirts, so also, the intellect that sees the screen upon which the play of life and the throbs of existence are projected as the Changeless One has the “knowledge” that is Sattwic.

UNDIVIDED IN THE DIVIDED (Avibhaktam Vibhakteshu) — Even if there are a hundred different pots, of different shapes and colour, and different sizes, the “space” is the ONE undivided factor in all these different pots. Bulbs are different but the current that is expressing through them all is the ONE electricity. Waves are different, and yet the SAME ocean is the reality and the substance in all the waves…. Similarly, the one LIFE throbs in all, expressing itself differently as Its different manifestations, because of the different constitution in the matter-arrangements. The “knowledge” that can recognise the play (vilasa) of this One Principle of Consciousness in and through all the different equipments, is fully Sattwic.

WHAT TYPE OF AN INTELLECT DOES THE “PASSIONATE” POSSESS?

Viddhi, know; tat, that; jnanam, knowledge, realization of the Self as non-dual, complete realization; to be sattvikam, originating from sattva; yena, through which knowledge; iksate, one sees; ekam, a single; avyayam, undecaying-that which does not undergo mutation either in itself or by the mutation of its qualities-‘ i.e. eternal and immutable; bhavam, Entity-the word bhava is used to imply an entity-, i.e. the single Reality which is the Self; sarvabhutesu, in all things, in all things begining from the Unmanifest to the unmoving things; and through which knowledge one sees that Entity to be avibhaktam, undivided; in every body, vibhaktesu, in all the deversified things, in the different bodies. The idea is: that Reality which is the Self remains, like Space, undivided. Being based on rajas and tamas, those that are the dualistic philosophies are incomplete, and hence are not by themselves adequate for the eradication of worldly existence.