Each guna binds a person in one way or another, because each guna requires a particular set up.  Satva guna requires a setup conducive to knowledge and tranquility, rājo guna requires a setup conducive to activity and tāmo guna requires a setup conducive to sleep.  A particular set up that is favorable for sattva guna, is not favorable for rājo guna.  As a boktha we divide the set up into favorable and unfavorable, developing strong rAga and dveSha.  To change the set up, we become a kartA.  But the setup is never satisfactory, so we constantly try to change the setup.  But we never own by our infinite nature.  SaguNa body mind complex keeps us so busy that we are not allowed to think of nirguNa sakshi.  The three guNas constantly change, requiring constant change in the setup, resulting in a person being in eternal struggle.  The only remedy is transcending the three gunas and ahamkara.  AhaMkAra can never be made nirguNa as the three guNas are bound to be there.  NirguNa mind does not exist, as mind is subject to the three guNas.  The only remedy is to switch the identification from SaguNa ahaMkAra to nirguNa consciousness. 

Consciousness is beyond the body, but it is not physically beyond.  Consciousness is not affected by body mind complex, even though it is in and through the body.  This is similar to light is in and through an object, but it is not affected by the object.  The disturbances of the mind do not affect the consciousness.  I am that consciousness, beyond the three guNas and not affected by the body mind complex.  The day I know that my pUrNatvam is not determined by the setup is the day I am free.  An intelligent person changes himself rather than changing the setup.

AnAtma is the doer.  To emphasize this, Lord Krishna says that there is no doer other than anAtma.  Only when we recognize this fact, we will be free from the struggles of life.  This is jivanmukti and this can be obtained only by knowledge or jñānam. 

Verse 20

Having gone beyond these three gunas which are the cause of rebirth, a person becomes free from birth, death, old age, and sorry and attains immortality.

Three guNas represent the three bodies, five koshas and the entire anatma.  This body is a given by the lord, for gathering the knowledge that I am the body, but I have the body for temporary use.  The three guNas have given me this body, they will also give me my next body.  The three guNas are the cause of repeated acquisition of bodies.  When a person disidentifies form the body, that person is free from all the problems belonging to the body.  Body is mortal is not a problem; but I am mortal is problem.  Vedanta does not remove the idea that the body is mortal but teaches that I am not the mortal body but the immortal I, the atma behind the mortal body.  The body being born, growing, decaying and dying are not a problem; it is the nature of the body.  It becomes a problem for sorrow when I refuse to accept that nature.  ShAkShi jñānam gives me objectivity with regards to my own  body.  Once this objectivity comes, the intensity of the problem comes down.  The body will have to go through the condition, but you develop a different perspective and the events of life may not appear to be a tragic events.  This is similar to the sunlight making the stars as though they do not exist.

JIvan mukti is making life’s problem insignificant by changing the perspective through knowledge.  As a result of this knowledge, the mortality of body is not a problem.  We can attain immortality by shifting the identification from the mortal body to immortal atma.  This is jivan mukthi and also called guNatheetha.

Verse 21

Arjuna asked – Oh Lord!  With what characteristics does a person who is beyond these three guNas appear?  What is his conduct?  And how does he go beyond these three guNas?

Arjuna is inspired by the Lord’s teachings and asks three questions:

1. The first question is what are the characteristics or indicators of a person who has transcended the three guNas?  Will there be any change in his physical body?   Will there be any extraordinary powers? 
2. The second question is how does he conduct himself and interact with other people? 
3. The third question is how does he transcend the three guNas?  Is it a physical journey?

When sattva guṇa is dominant jñānendryas will be more operational, whereas rājo guṇa is dominant, karmēndriyas will be more functional; whereas when tāmo guṇa is dominant, neither jñānendryas nor karmēndriyas will be operational.  Tamo guna will suppress jñānendrya and make them dull.  Tamo guna will also suppress karmēndriyas also and there will be no activities.  A tamasic person should not go to vedanta vichAra, but start with sakama karma, then to niṣkāma karma, progress to Upasana and then only to vedanta.

The fourth topic is gathi or what direction each of dominant personalities will travel.

Verse 14

If a person dies when sattva is predominant, then, he attains those pure worlds belonging to the upsAakas of great deities.

If a sattva guna pradhāna ajñāni dies, he will go to higher and purer loka or punya predominant loka.    When a jñāni dies, his bodies merge with prabañcha and a jñāni does not travel after death.

Verse 15

Having died when Rajas is predominant, one is born amidst those who are attached to action.  Likewise, having died when tamas is predominant, one is born in the wombs of deluded being.

A rājo guna dominant person will be reborn in a loka in which people are given lot of karma, that is manuṣhya loka.  In the higher lokas and lower lokas you can’t acquire new karma phalāḥṃ you can only exhaust karma phalāḥṃ.  Only in manuṣya loka, a person can both acquire and exhaust karma phalāḥṃ.

When a tāmo guna predominant person dies, that person is reborn in lower planes of existence.  It can be lower lokas or they will be born as animals or plants where they will have no free will to acquire fresh karma. 

Verse 16

Scriptures say that the result of sattvic action is pure punya.  The result of rajasic action is sorrow.  Whereas the result of tamasic action is ignorance.

These verses discuss phalāḥṃ of each guna.  Sattvic person’s actions are free from anxiety, tension and there will be harmony and peace. There will be spiritual growth.

For a person is rajasic, there will be lot of activities, anxiety, tension, intolerance, stress and strain. There will be hurtful chain reaction among rajasic personalities.  Even communication may breakdown after a while, and it will be a broken environment.  There will be materialistic prosperity without spiritual growth and peace.

For a tamasic person, human life is wasted, and ignorance is perpetuated.  Ajñānam or ignorance is the result of tamasic karma. 

Verse 17

Knowledge is born out of sattva.  Greed is born out of rajas.  Negligence and delusion along with ignorance are born out of tamas.

Out of sattva guna jñāna is born, because jñānendryas are bright and operational.  Knowledge increases by leaps and bounds. 

When rājo guna is dominant there will be greed and ambition.  Tāmo guna will result in forgetfulness, omission delusion conflict and indecisiveness.  Perpetuation of ignorance will continue for a tamasic person..

Verse 18

Sattvic people go up.  Rajasic people remain in the middle.  Tamasic people, abiding by the functions of the lowest guna go down.

Sattva guna predominant person goes to higher loka.  Rājo guna predominant person neither goes up nor goes down, and they stay stagnant.  Tamo guna predominant person travel downward.  Higher, middle and lower lokas refer to the quality of the lokas and not the physical location.

Verse 19

When the seer understands the doer to be none other than the gunas and knows the self which is beyond the gunas, he attains My nature

There is no escape from the bondage created by the three gunas; only the mode of bondage will be different.  Sattva guna is addicted to knowledge predominant environment.  A rājasa guna is addicted to activity predominant environment. AhaMkAra can never be free from gunas.  It can only change the predominance of the gunas.   The only way is to claim the higher nature of I, the sAkshi chaithanyam.  SAkshi need not become guna free, because it never has any guna.  So, there is no question of how to become guna free.  You become guna free when you shift your identification from the lower I, the ego, ahaMkAra, anatma to higher I, consciousness, sAkshi chaithanyam, Atma.  As long as I identify myself with body mind complex, I will be saguna ahaMkAra and I can never escape from saMsAra. The only solution is to know and identify with the higher nature and own up the higher nature.