BG 13.22

The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.

13.22. For, the Soul, seated on the Material Cause, enjoys the Strands born of the Material Cause; His attachment to the Strands is the cause for his births in the good and evil wombs.

13.22 God dwelling in the heart of Nature experiences the Qualities which nature brings forth; and His affinity towards the Qualities is the reason for His living in a good or evil body.

13.22 See Comment under 13.23

13.22 The self, settled in a series of bodies of divinities, men etc., which are modifications of Prakrti, becomes attached to happiness, pain etc., resulting from the Sattva and other alities associated with the respective wombs, and hence engages Itself in virtuous and sinful deeds, constituting the means for happiness, misery etc. In order to experience the fruits of those good and evil deeds, It is born again in good and evil wombs. Then It becomes active and conseently is born again as a result of Its activities. As long as It does not cultivate alities like modesty etc., which are the means for realising the self, so long Its entanglement in Samsara continues like this. Thus, it has been declared here that attachment causes births in good and evil wombs.

13.22 Hi, since; purusah, the soul, the experiencer; is prakrtisthah, seated in Nature, which is characterized as ignorance and gets transformed into body and organs, i.e., (since the soul) has become identified with Nature; therefore, bhunkte, [Bhunkte, lit. enjoys, here means 'experiences'.-Tr.] it enjoys, i.e. experiences; gunan, the alities-manifest as happiness, sorrow and delusion; prakrtijan, born of Nature, thinking thus, 'I am happy, sorrowful, deluded, learned.' Even though ignorance continues as a cause, still the main cause of worldly existence, of birth, is the contact, the self-identification, with the alities-happiness,sorrow, and delusion-when they are experienced, as is affirmed by the Upanisadic text, 'What it desires, it resolves' (Br. 4.4.5) [See Sankaracarya's Comm. on this.-Tr.]. That very fact is stated here: Gunasangah, contact with the alities; is karanam, the cause; asya, of its, the soul's, the experiencer's; sad-asad-yoni-janmasu, births in good and evil wombs. Self-identification with the alities is the cause of the experience of births in good and evil wombs. Or the meaning is, 'Self-identification with the alities is the cause or its worldly existence through birth in good and evil wombs,' where the words 'of worldly existence' have to be supplied. The good wombs are he wombs of gods and others; evil wombs are the wombs of gods and others; evil wombs are the wombs of beasts etc. From the force of the context it is to be understood that there is no contradiction in including even human wombs among 'good and evil wombs'. It amounts to saying that ignorance-called 'being seated in Nature'-and the contact with. i.e. the desire for, the alities are the causes of worldly existence. And this is said so that they can be avoided. And in the scripture Gita it is a well-known fact that knowledge and dispassion, accompanied with renunciation, are the causes of removing this (ignorance and self-identification with the alities). That knowledge about the field and the Knower of the field, too, has been presented earlier. This has also been said in, '৷৷.by realizing which one attains Immortality' (12), etc., through the process of refutation of elements alien (to the Self) and superimposition of alities belonging to others (that are not the Self). [Verse 12 deals with the refutation of alien elements, and vere 13 with the superimposition of alities belonging to others.] A direct presentation is again being made of that (knowledge) itself:

13.22 (a) Indeed, the self seated in Prakrti experiences the Gunas born of Prakrti৷৷. (b) ৷৷. Its attachment to these Gunas is the cause of birth in good and evil wombs.

13.22 Since the soul is seated in Nature, therefore it experiences the alities born of Nature. Contact with the alities is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs.