In plain words
When the seer perceives no doer other than the guṇas and knows that which is beyond the guṇas, one attains My being.
Word for word
When the seer sees no doer other than the guṇas and knows [that which is] beyond the guṇas, he attains My being.
नान्यं गुणेभ्यः कर्तारं यदा द्रष्टाऽनुपश्यतिगुणेभ्यश्च परं वेत्ति मद्भावं सोऽधिगच्छति
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
पुरुषस्य प्रकृतिस्थत्वरूपेण मिथ्याज्ञानेन युक्तस्य भोग्येषु गुणेषु सुखदुःखमोहात्मकेषु ‘सुखी दुःखी मूढः अहम् अस्मि’ इत्येवंरूपः यः सङ्गः तत्कारणं पुरुषस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मप्राप्तिलक्षणस्य संसारस्य इति समासेन पूर्वाध्याये यत् उक्तम् , तत् इह ‘सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः’(भ. गी. १४ । ५) इति आरभ्य गुणस्वरूपम् , गुणवृत्तम् , स्ववृत्तेन च गुणानां बन्धकत्वम् , गुणवृत्तनिबद्धस्य च पुरुषस्य या गतिः, इत्येतत् सर्वं मिथ्याज्ञानमूलं बन्धकारणं विस्तरेण उक्त्वा, अधुना सम्यग्दर्शनान्मोक्षो वक्तव्यः इत्यत आह भगवान् —
न अन्यं कार्यकरणविषयाकारपरिणतेभ्यः गुणेभ्यः कर्तारम् अन्यं यदा द्रष्टा विद्वान् सन् न अनुपश्यति, गुणा एव सर्वावस्थाः सर्वकर्मणां कर्तारः इत्येवं पश्यति, गुणेभ्यश्च परं गुणव्यापारसाक्षिभूतं वेत्ति, मद्भावं मम भावं सः द्रष्टा अधिगच्छति ॥ १९ ॥
In plain words
The individual soul, caught up in the false idea that it is nothing more than prakṛti, becomes attached, among the guṇas it enjoys, guṇas whose very nature is pleasure, pain, and confusion, to a thought like 'I am happy, I am unhappy, I am deluded.' That attachment is exactly what drives the soul into saṃsāra, into being born again and again in good wombs and bad, and that much was already said briefly in the previous chapter. Here, starting from '[what are] called sattva, rajas, and tamas, the guṇas born of prakṛti' (Bhagavad Gītā 14.5), the same ground has now been covered in full: what the guṇas actually are, how they function, how their own functioning binds the soul, and where a soul bound by that functioning ends up. All of this, rooted entirely in false knowledge, this whole explanation of what causes bondage, has now been laid out at length. And now, since it's time to explain liberation through right seeing, the Blessed Lord speaks —
When the seer has come to know this and no longer sees any agent apart from the guṇas — apart from these very guṇas taking shape as every effect, instrument, and object — he sees clearly that it is the guṇas alone, in every condition, doing all the acting. And when he also knows what stands beyond the guṇas altogether, the silent witness of all their activity, that seer arrives at my own state, my very being.
Close to the Sanskrit
Of the puruṣa possessed of false knowledge in the form of abiding in prakṛti, among the enjoyable guṇas which have the nature of pleasure, pain and delusion — the attachment that takes the form 'I am happy, unhappy, deluded' — that is the cause of the puruṣa's saṃsāra characterized by attaining birth in good or bad wombs: this was stated briefly in the previous chapter. That same point, here, beginning from '[called] sattva, rajas, tamas, the guṇas born of prakṛti' (Bhagavad Gītā 14.5) — [namely] the nature of the guṇas, the functioning of the guṇas, and, by their own functioning, the binding nature of the guṇas, and what is the destiny of the puruṣa bound by the functioning of the guṇas — having stated all this at length, whose root is false knowledge, [and which is] the cause of bondage — now, since liberation through right vision is to be spoken of, therefore the Blessed Lord speaks —
When the seer, being learned, does not perceive any other agent — other than [the guṇas] transformed into the forms of effect, instrument and object, [i.e.] the guṇas — [and sees that] the guṇas alone, in all states, are the agents of all actions: thus he sees; and he who knows what is beyond the guṇas, [namely] that which has become the witness of the guṇas' activity, he, the seer, attains My state, [i.e.] My own nature.