Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 7.12

ye caiva sāttvikā bhāvā

rājasās tāmasāś ca ye

matta eveti tān viddhi

na tv aham teshu te mayi

SYNONYMS

ye — all which; ca — and; eva — certainly; sāttvikāh — in goodness; bhāvāh — states of being; rājasāh — in the mode of passion; tāmasāh — in the mode of ignorance; ca — also; ye — all which; mattah — from Me; eva — certainly; iti — thus; tān — those; viddhi — try to know; na — not; tu — but; aham — I; teshu — in them; te — they; mayi — in Me.

TRANSLATION

Know that all states of being — be they of goodness, passion or ignorance — are manifested by My energy. I am, in one sense, everything, but I am independent. I am not under the modes of material nature, for they, on the contrary, are within Me.

PURPORT

All material activities in the world are being conducted under the three modes of material nature. Although these material modes of nature are emanations from the Supreme Lord, Krishna, He is not subject to them. For instance, under the state laws one may be punished, but the king, the lawmaker, is not subject to that law. Similarly, all the modes of material nature — goodness, passion and ignorance — are emanations from the Supreme Lord, Krishna, but Krishna is not subject to material nature. Therefore He is nirguna, which means that these gunas, or modes, although issuing from Him, do not affect Him. That is one of the special characteristics of Bhagavān, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness