Sattvic Intellect.
प्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च कार्याकार्ये भयाभये ।
बन्धं मोक्षं च या वेत्ति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी ॥ ३० ॥
pravṛttiṃ ca nivṛttiṃ ca kāryākārye bhayābhaye .
bandhaṃ mokṣaṃ ca yā vetti buddhiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikī .. 30 ..
Read the commentary
Action (pravritti): the cause of bondage, the karma-marga, the path of action as taught in the sastra. Inaction (nivritti): the cause of liberation, the path of samnyasa.—As ‘action’ (pravritti) and ‘inaction’ (nivritti) occur in connection with ‘bondage’ (bandha) and ‘liberation’ (moksha), they have been interpreted to mean the paths of action and renunciation (karma and samnyasa). What…done: the necessity for doing or not doing—by one who relies on the sastra—at particular places and times, actions producing visible or invisible results, according as they are enjoined or prohibited by the scriptural or social ethics. Fear etc.: the cause of fear and the cause of fearlessness, either visible or invisible. Bondage and liberation: together with their causes. Knowledge is a vritti or function or state of intellect (buddhi), whereas intellect is what functions or undergoes change of state.* Even firmness (dhriti) is only a paricular function or state of intellect.
This is to show how the knowledge (jnana) whose threefold nature has been described already (xviii, 20-22) is different from the intellect (buddhi) whose threefold nature is here described.—A.