There is no being, on earth among men and the rest, or among other things without life, nor again any being in heaven among the gods, that is free of these three qualities born of nature, sattva and the rest. This connects with the foregoing. The whole round of transmigration, marked by action, agent, and fruit, of the nature of the qualities sattva, rajas, and tamas, fashioned by ignorance, has been declared a calamity together with its root; and by the figure of a tree it was said 'with its root above'. It was said that this tree is to be cut with the strong axe of non-attachment, and that 'then that state is to be sought'. Now, since everything is of the nature of the three qualities, the removal of the cause of transmigration might seem impossible; so it must be told how that removal can come about, and the whole meaning of the teaching of the Gita must be summed up, this being all that those who desire the highest human goal need to put into practice as the meaning of all the Vedas and remembered scriptures. With this purpose the passage beginning 'of brahmins, kshatriyas, and vaishyas' is begun.

There is no being, no brood of living beings, on earth, among men and the rest, or in heaven, among the gods, among the beings conjoined with nature from Brahma down to unmoving things, that is free of these three qualities born of nature. The relinquishment indicated, in such texts as 'by relinquishment some have reached immortality', as the means to liberation, is not other than the meaning of the word 'renunciation', and it, in actions while they are being done, is rooted in the relinquishment of agency, namely the relinquishment of fruit and action, and the relinquishment of agency by the dwelling on agency in the supreme Person; so it was said. All this is the effect of the growth of the quality of sattva; so, to make known the worthiness-to-be-taken-up of sattva, the differences of effect of sattva, rajas, and tamas were unfolded. Now, to set forth that action of such a kind, done as the means of liberation, has the form of the worship of the supreme Person, and to set forth the fruit, marked by the attaining of Him, of action so performed, the Lord states the own form of the action to be done, together with the way of life, of the qualified ones, brahmin and the rest, who are distinguished by the difference of the qualities sattva and the rest that are attendant on their nature.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Madhvacharya does not comment on this verse.