अयुक्तः प्राकृतः स्तब्धः शठो नैष्कृतिको ऽलसः । विषादी दीर्घसूत्री च कर्ता तामस उच्यते ॥
ayuktaḥ prākṛtaḥ stabdhaḥ śaṭho naiṣkṛtiko 'lasaḥ | viṣādī dīrgha-sūtrī ca kartā tāmasa ucyate ||
Tāmasic kartā: undisciplined, vulgar, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, desponding, procrastinating.
Word by word (3)
- ayuktaḥ prākṛtaḥ stabdhaḥ śaṭho naiṣkṛtikaḥ alaḥ
- — undisciplined/unsteady (ayukta = a + yukta = unyoked/not-joined), vulgar/common/unrefined (prākṛta = of-the-common-prakṛti, crude), obstinate/arrogant/stiff (stabdha = stiff/rigid), deceitful/dishonest (śaṭha = crafty/dishonest), malicious/mischievous (naiṣkṛtika = injurious/ill-doing), lazy/indolent (alasa) — six tāmasic qualities
- viṣādī dīrgha-sūtrī ca kartā tāmasa ucyate
- — desponding/dejected (viṣādī = one with viṣāda/despondency), procrastinating (dīrgha-sūtrī = long-threader, one who draws things out), and (ca), the agent (kartā) is called (ucyate) tāmasic (tāmasa) — two more qualities making eight total
- dīrgha-sūtrī
- — long-thread-er; literally one who threads things out at great length; the tāmasic procrastinator who delays, avoids, never completes; the behavioral outcome of tamas-inertia applied to action; contrast with V26's utsāha (enthusiasm/energy)
The agent who is undisciplined, vulgar, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, desponding, and procrastinating — is called tāmasic.
A modern analogy
The tāmasic actor is the person who cannot start, cannot finish, deceives themselves and others about their intentions, becomes obstinate when challenged, and sinks into despondency when confronted with the gap between what they intended and what they did. Tamas as the guṇa of inertia and obscuration produces precisely this constellation of non-action dressed as action.
V28 closes the three-fold kartā analysis (V26-28). The tāmasic kartā's eight qualities are all expressions of tamas as inertia + obscuration: ayukta (no discipline), prākṛta (crude/unrefined), stabdha (rigid), śaṭha (dishonest — a form of cognitive opacity), naiṣkṛtika (malicious — tamas-aggression), alasa (lazy), viṣādī (despondent), dīrgha-sūtrī (procrastinating). Notably there is no fruit-desire (unlike rājasic V27) — the tāmasic actor is not even trying to get results; they are simply stuck in the mud of tamas itself.
Śaṭha (deceitful/dishonest) appearing in the tāmasic list is significant. In the Gita's psychology, dishonesty is not primarily a rājasic trait (though it appears there too) — it is tāmasic at root because it involves a deeper self-deception. The tāmasic actor's dishonesty is less strategic calculation (rājasic) and more a confusion of reality: they genuinely cannot see things clearly, and this cognitive darkness produces dishonesty as an output.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
MISSING from index. [1]
Unsteady, vulgar, arrogant, dishonest, malicious, indolent, desponding, and procrastinating, such an agent is called Tamasika. [4]
MISSING from index. [9]
The agent who is void of application, without discernment, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, slothful, desponding, and procrastinating, is said to be of the quality of darkness. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.
Greed, restless activity, and longing surge — know that rajas is predominant and karma-saṅga is binding.
Sāttvic tapas: the three-fold tapas practiced with supreme śraddhā, without fruit-desire, by the disciplined.
Hear My definitive word on tyāga, O best of Bharatas — tyāga has been declared three-fold, O tiger among men.
Sāttvic food enhances life, sattva, strength, health, joy, delight — savoury, oleaginous, substantial, heart-pleasing.
Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.