Devanagari
नि:सङ्गो मां भजेद् विद्वानप्रमत्तो जितेन्द्रिय: ।
रजस्तमश्चाभिजयेत् सत्त्वसंसेवया मुनि: ॥ ३४ ॥
Verse text
niḥsaṅgo māṁ bhajed vidvān
apramatto jitendriyaḥ
rajas tamaś cābhijayet
sattva-saṁsevayā muniḥ
Synonyms
niḥsaṅgaḥ
—
free from material association
;
mām
—
Me
;
bhajet
—
should worship
;
vidvān
—
a wise person
;
apramattaḥ
—
not bewildered
;
jita
—
indriyaḥ — having subdued his senses
;
rajaḥ
—
the mode of passion
;
tamaḥ
—
the mode of ignorance
;
ca
—
and
;
abhijayet
—
he should conquer
;
sattva
—
saṁsevayā — by taking to the mode of goodness
;
muniḥ
—
the sage .
Translation
A wise sage, free from all material association and unbewildered, should subdue his senses and worship Me. He should conquer the modes of passion and ignorance by engaging himself only with things in the mode of goodness.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
A wise sage, free from all material association and alert, should subdue his senses and worship me. As a preliminary, he should conquer rajas and tamas by engaging himself only with things in sattva.
The Lord teaches the method of pure worship. One should be devoid of jṣāna and karma (niḥsaṅgaḥ). “Faith in service to you is beyond the guṇas. Faith in ātmā is in sattva-guṇa. Faith in prescribed karmas is in rajas. Faith in adharma is in tamas. Happiness arising from bhakti to you is beyond the guṇas. Happiness arising from ātmā, sense objects and illusion is in sattva, rajas and tamas. All these things are either in the guṇas or without guṇas. What should a person who worships you do in the beginning?” This verse answers.
It has been said that if he is endowed with bhakti alone, then he will conquer the three gunas by bhakti alone. That was already stated in verse 32. If he has a predominance of bhakti with some mixture of other elements (such as jṣāna), then there is another method for conquering the three guṇas. That is stated in this verse. He engages in sattva to conquer rajas and tamas. It has been previously stated:
sāttvikāny eva seveta pumān sattva-vivṛddhaye
tato dharmas tato jṣāna yāvat smṛtir apohanam
Until one realizes ātmā and destroys the guṇas, and the gross and subtle bodies, one must use sattvika items to increase sattva, which increase dharma, and then gives rise to jṣāna. SB 11.13.6