The seer has in the first place to totally subdue his Rajas and Tamas and stay in pure Sattva. This is accomplished through nourishment by Sattvika food and the performance of disinterested actions for the propitiation of the Lord. He then perceives ‘no agent of action other than the Gunas’ i.e., sees that the Gunas are themselves the agents according to their nature. Further he perceives what is ‘other than the Gunas,’ i.e., perceives the Gunas which are agents and the self who is not an agent of action. Such a seer attains to ‘My state,’ i.e., gains likeness with Me in transcending the three Gunas etc. The purport is this: The self, pure in nature by Itself, gains agency through various actions by contact with the Gunas springing from past Karmas. When one perceives the self in this way, namely, that the self by Itself is no agent of actions and is of the nature of infinite knowledge, then It attains to My likeness.

It is stated that one attains to the likeness of the Lord after perceiving the self as a non-agent and as other than the Gunas. What is meant by the state of likeness to the Lord? Shri Krishna now describes it: