Sanskrit

रजसि प्रलयं गत्वा कर्मसङ्गिषु जायते ।

तथा प्रलीनस्तमसि मूढयोनिषु जायते ॥

14.15

Transliteration

rajasi pralayaṃ gatvā karmasaṅgiṣu jāyate |

tathā pralīnastamasi mūḍhayoniṣu jāyate ||

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3

Translation

Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those who are attached to action; and dying in Tamas, he is born in the womb of the senseless.

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By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08

Explanation

Krishna completes the account of where the qualities lead at death. One who dies while passion (rajas) prevails is reborn among people driven by action and its rewards, a busy human life of striving. One who dies in inertia (tamas) is born in the wombs of the deluded, which many readers take to mean forms of life with little capacity for understanding. The picture is not one of reward and punishment imposed from outside, but of each quality carrying a person to the kind of life that matches it. One becomes what one has habitually been.

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08