Transcending the Gunas
When the seer perceives no agent other than the gunas and knows what is beyond the gunas, he attains My nature.
Liberation comes from transcending all three gunas, not just cultivating sattva. The liberated seer recognizes that all action happens through the interplay of gunas, not through the Self. This discrimination between Self (purusha) and nature (prakriti) is key to Samkhya philosophy. When we identify with the witness rather than the witnessed, we step outside the gunas' power and rest in our true nature.
When the embodied being rises above these three modes born of the material nature, he is freed from birth, death, old age, and distress, and attains immortality.
This verse describes the goal—not just sattvic living but complete transcendence of all qualities, resting in the pure awareness beyond all fluctuation.
Bhagavad Gita