Bhagavad Gita 18.31
Spoken by Krishna · Verse 31 of 78
यया धर्मं अधर्मं च कार्यं चाकार्यम् एव च । अयथावत् प्रजानाति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ राजसी ॥
yayā dharmaṃ adharmaṃ ca kāryaṃ cākāryam eva ca | ayathāvat prajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī ||
Rājasic buddhi: imperfectly/wrongly discerns dharma-adharma and kārya-akārya — not as they really are.
Word by word (3)
- yayā dharmaṃ adharmaṃ ca kāryaṃ cākāryam eva ca
- — by which (yayā) dharma (right/duty) and adharma (wrong/unduty), and kārya (what-should-be-done) and akārya (what-should-not-be-done) — the same four binary pairs as V30 but now seen through rājasic buddhi
- ayathāvat prajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī
- — does not know/discern (prajānāti = knows/perceives fully) correctly/as-they-really-are (ayathāvat = not-as-it-really-is; a + yathā + vat = not-in-the-true-manner), that (sā) buddhi (intellect), O Pārtha, is rājasic (rājasī) — the defining marker: ayathāvat (not-correctly, distorted perception)
- ayathāvat
- — not-as-it-really-is; distorted perception; yathāvat = as-it-really-is (the sāttvic knowledge of Ch.13 V12, Ch.18 V20 etc.); ayathāvat is the rājasic epistemic failure: partial, approximate, colored by desire, seeing right and wrong but mixing them up; not totally blind like tāmasic (V32) but importantly wrong
That intellect by which one imperfectly understands dharma and adharma, and what ought to be done and what ought not to be done — that intellect, O Pārtha, is rājasic.
A modern analogy
Rājasic buddhi is like a compass that sometimes points roughly north but is affected by nearby magnetic fields — it gives approximate readings but cannot be fully trusted. The person with rājasic buddhi is trying to discern right from wrong but passion, desire, and self-interest distort the reading. They are not blind (that would be tāmasic) but their discernment is unreliable.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
That by which one wrongly understands dharma and adharma, and also what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, that intellect, O Partha, is Rajasic. [1]
That which has a distorted apprehension of Dharma and its opposite and also of right action and its opposite, that intellect, O Partha, is Rajasika. [4]
MISSING from index. [9]
The intellect which imperfectly discerns right and wrong, that which ought to be done and that which ought not to be done, is of the quality of passion. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Tāmasic buddhi: enveloped in darkness, sees adharma as dharma, all things inverted and perverted.
Daivī wealth begins: abhaya, sattva-śuddhi, jñāna-yoga, dāna, dama, yajña, svādhyāya, tapa, ārjava.
One with no ego-doer-sense, whose buddhi is untainted — even while killing all these beings, kills not, is not bound.
When the completely controlled mind rests serenely in the Self alone, free from all desire-pull — that is called yoga.
Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
By bhakti one truly knows what and who I am; then knowing Me truly, one enters into Me immediately.
Verse 31 of 78 · back to Chapter 18