Bhagavad Gita 18.25अनुबन्धं क्षयं हिंसामनपेक्ष्य च पौरुषम्।मोहादारभ्यते कर्म यत्तत्तामसमुच्यते ॥
anubandhaṁ kṣhayaṁ hinsām anapekṣhya cha
pauruṣham mohād ārabhyate karma yat tat tāmasam uchyate
Sanskrit recitation
What makes an action · 18.13–18.28 · Teaching
Translation
That action which is undertaken from delusion, without regard for the consequences, loss, injury, and one's own ability, is declared to be Tamasic (dark).
Hindi translation
जो कर्म परिणाम, हानि, हिंसा और सामर्थ्यको न देखकर मोहपूर्वक आरम्भ किया जाता है, वह तामस कहा जाता है।
Meaning
Tamasic acts cause harm to others. A Tamasic man reflects not at all whether he has the capacity to perform these useless actions, but continues to act blindly. With utter thoughtlessness he sets aside any reflection as to the difficulty of performing the action and what the result of it would be. He carries it on in his own egoistical manner. He does not discriminate between the good and the bad, or what is ones own and what belongs to another.Kshayam Loss of power and of wealth, resulting from the performance of an action.Himsa Injury to living beings.Paurusham Ones own ability or capacity to complete the work.Now listen to the characteristics that pertain to the pure agent. The Lord proceeds to deal with the distinction among the agents.
After Swami Sivananda
What makes an action· 18.13–18.28→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 18.13Learn from Me, O mighty-armed Arjuna, these five causes, as declared in the Sankhya…
- 18.14The body, the doer, the various senses, the different functions of various kinds, and the…
- 18.15Whatever action a person performs with their body, speech, and mind, whether right or…
- 18.16Now, such being the case, verily he who, owing to an untrained understanding, looks upon…
- 18.17He who is free from the egoistic notion, whose intelligence is not tainted by good or…
- 18.18Knowledge, the knowable, and the knower form the threefold impulse for action; the organ,…
- 18.19Knowledge, action, and actor are declared in the science of the Gunas (Sankhya philosophy)…
- 18.20That by which one sees the indestructible Reality in all beings, not separate in any of…
- 18.21But that knowledge which sees in all beings various entities of distinct kinds as being…
- 18.22But that which clings to one single effect as if it were the whole, without reason,…
- 18.23An action that is ordained, free from attachment, done without love or hatred, and without…
- 18.24But that action which is done by one longing for the fulfillment of desires or gain with…
18.25That action which is undertaken from delusion, without regard for the consequences, loss,…
- 18.26An agent who is free from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with firmness and enthusiasm,…
- 18.27Passionate, desiring to obtain the reward of their actions, greedy, cruel, impure, moved…
- 18.28Unsteady, vulgar, inflexible, deceitful, malicious, lazy, despondent, and…
Word-by-word→
- cha
- and
- tat
- that
- yat
- which
- karma
- action
- mohāt
- out of delusion
- hinsām
- injury
- uchyate
- is declared to be
- tāmasam
- in the mode of ignorance
- kṣhayam
- loss
- anubandham
- consequences
- ārabhyate
- is begun
- pauruṣham
- one’s own ability
- anapekṣhya
- by disregarding
Read this when you feel
Related verses
- 14.17From Sattva arises knowledge, and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and delusion arise from…
- 18.7Verily, the renunciation of obligatory action is not proper; the abandonment of the same…
- 2.63Anger leads to delusion, which causes loss of memory; this, in turn, leads to the…
- 4.40The ignorant, the faithless, and the doubting self go to destruction; there is neither…