Bhagavad Gita Verse 19, Chapter 14

naanyam gunebhyaha kartaaram yadaa drishtaanupashyati |
gunebhyashcha param vetti madbhaavam sodhigacchati || 19 ||
 
When the beholders views no other doer than the gunaas, and knows himself as transcending the gunaas, he attains my nature.
 
na : no
anyam : any other
gunebhyaha : gunaas
kartaaram : doer
yadaa : when
drishtaa : beholder
anupashyati : views
gunebhyaha : gunaas
cha : and
param : transcending
vetti : knows
madbhaavam : my nature
saha : he
adhigacchati : attains
 
Let us now introduce a new character into our recurring example, a CEO of a television channel. He is the father of the young child who, as we have seen earlier, is addicted to watching boxing matches. These matches are broadcast on the very same channel that the CEO owns. What is the difference between the child and the CEO? The CEO has set up the machinery of the television channel. He knows how the shows are recorded, edited and broadcast. When he comes home, he watches the channel as a detached observer. But the child, due to his addiction, gets affected by the blows received by the boxer in the boxing match.
 
The CEO keeps reminding his son to not get so attached to the boxing match since it is not real, it is just a television program. Once the child has identified himself as the boxer, he will have to accept all the consequences of that character in that particular TV show. In the same way, Shri Krishna urges us to not get trapped in the machine called Prakriti. If we identify with Prakriti, which is nothing but the three gunas, then we have to accept all its laws including birth, death, rebirth, joy, sorrow and so on. We have to understand that we neither do anything, nor do we experience the result of our actions. All action and reaction is within the realm of Prakriti. Once we establish ourselves as a witness, we understand that we have incorrectly taken on action and reaction upon ourselves.
 
Knowing this reality, however, does not mean that Prakriti will go away. Even if the child has stopped identifying with the boxer, the boxing match will be broadcast every day at 8 PM. Similarly, even if we are not bound by it, Prakriti will be tangible and visible to us during our waking hours. The entire universe, including the body that we are identified with, is made up of the three gunas of Prakriti. But despite it appearing to us as an apparent reality, Prakriti will be unable to bind us with its laws once we recognize it as an illusion, and not as reality. Once we are able to rise beyond identification with the three gunas, we will see Prakriti the way Ishvara sees Prakriti, as a detached observer. In this manner, when we realize our identity with Ishvara, we will attain the state of liberation, of self realization.