पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान्।
कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु।।13.22।।
13.22 The soul seated in Nature experiences the alities born of Nature; attachment to the alities is the cause of its birth in good and evil wombs.
13.22 Hi, since; purusah, the soul, the experiencer; is prakrtisthah, seated in Nature, which is characterized as ignorance and gets transformed into body and organs, i.e., (since the soul) has become identified with Nature; therefore, bhunkte, [Bhunkte, lit. enjoys, here means experiences.-Tr.] it enjoys, i.e. experiences; gunan, the alities-manifest as happiness, sorrow and delusion; prakrtijan, born of Nature, thinking thus, I am happy, sorrowful, deluded, learned. Even though ignorance continues as a cause, still the main cause of worldly existence, of birth, is the contact, the self-identification, with the alities-happiness,sorrow, and delusion-when they are experienced, as is affirmed by the Upanisadic text, What it desires, it resolves (Br. 4.4.5) [See Sankaracaryas Comm. on this.-Tr.]. That very fact is stated here: Gunasangah, contact with the alities; is karanam, the cause; asya, of its, the souls, the experiencers; sad-asad-yoni-janmasu, births in good and evil wombs. Self-identification with the alities is the cause of the experience of births in good and evil wombs. Or the meaning is, Self-identification with the alities is the cause or its worldly existence through birth in good and evil wombs, where the words of worldly existence have to be supplied. The good wombs are he wombs of gods and others; evil wombs are the wombs of gods and others; evil wombs are the wombs of beasts etc. From the force of the context it is to be understood that there is no contradiction in including even human wombs among good and evil wombs. It amounts to saying that ignorance-called being seated in Nature-and the contact with. i.e. the desire for, the alities are the causes of worldly existence. And this is said so that they can be avoided. And in the scripture Gita it is a well-known fact that knowledge and dispassion, accompanied with renunciation, are the causes of removing this (ignorance and self-identification with the alities). That knowledge about the field and the Knower of the field, too, has been presented earlier. This has also been said in, ৷৷.by realizing which one attains Immortality (12), etc., through the process of refutation of elements alien (to the Self) and superimposition of alities belonging to others (that are not the Self). [Verse 12 deals with the refutation of alien elements, and vere 13 with the superimposition of alities belonging to others.] A direct presentation is again being made of that (knowledge) itself:
Purushah prakritistho hi bhungkte prakritijaan gunaan; Kaaranam gunasango’sya sadasadyoni janmasu.
puruṣhaḥ—the individual soul; prakṛiti-sthaḥ—seated in the material energy; hi—indeed; bhuṅkte—desires to enjoy; prakṛiti-jān—produced by the material energy; guṇān—the three modes of nature; kāraṇam—the cause; guṇa-saṅgaḥ—the attachment (to three guṇas); asya—of its; sat-asat-yoni—in superior and inferior wombs; janmasu—of birth
