A core teaching · reflective in mood · builds on earlier teachings
“Attachment to changing qualities keeps the cycle of birth going.”
The inner being, situated in nature, experiences the qualities born of nature. Attachment to those qualities causes birth in good and bad wombs.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Hover a word to focus on it.
Read literallythe inner being · situated in nature · indeed · experiences · born of nature · qualities · cause · attachment to qualities · of this · good and bad · in womb-births
The inner being, while tied to nature, experiences its changing qualities. Clinging to those qualities is what leads to repeated births in favorable and unfavorable forms.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga" (Field and Knower of the Field).
Verse 22 sits in Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita — Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga, "Field and Knower of the Field". The chapter has 35 verses in total.
You keep replaying the same argument in your head after the call ends. The event is over, but your attachment to its emotional charge keeps pulling you back.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts attention from the event to the attachment that keeps the cycle going.
What this verse means
The inner being, while tied to nature, experiences its changing qualities. Clinging to those qualities is what leads to repeated births in favorable and unfavorable forms.
Context & commentary
On the battlefield, Arjuna is frozen, and Krishna is explaining why suffering repeats. The inner being, caught in nature, tastes its changing qualities; that same attachment becomes the cause of future births in better or worse conditions.
Why this verse still matters
You keep replaying the same argument in your head after the call ends. The event is over, but your attachment to its emotional charge keeps pulling you back.
“What traps you is not experience itself, but your attachment to its changing moods and pulls.”
Explore related themes: gunas (47 verses), prakriti (31 verses), kshetrajna (20 verses)