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.
V31 gives rājasic buddhi as the counterpart to V30's sāttvic. The key word is ayathāvat (not-correctly): where V30's sāttvic buddhi yathāvat vetti (knows as it really is), V31's rājasic buddhi prajānāti ayathāvat (knows but incorrectly). The same four pairs that V30's sāttvic buddhi sees clearly (dharma-adharma, kārya-akārya, bhaya-abhaya, bandha-mokṣa — though V31 mentions only the first two by name) are seen by rājasic buddhi in a distorted way. Rajas as the guṇa of passion and activity creates this distortion: the intellect is active and engaged but its readings are colored by desire and self-interest.
The rājasic error is more subtle than tāmasic. A rājasic person can construct sophisticated arguments for why dharma in their specific case is actually adharma and vice versa — the intellect is active but the output is distorted. This is the rationalization capacity: using the intelligence to justify what desire already wants. Śaṃkara's commentary notes that rājasic buddhi sees dharma as adharma and vice versa 'in some cases' — it is partial, situationally distorted, not systematically inverted like tāmasic.
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
When the completely controlled mind rests serenely in the Self alone, free from all desire-pull — that is called yoga.
By bhakti one truly knows what and who I am; then knowing Me truly, one enters into Me immediately.
For those freed from desire and anger, with controlled minds, knowing the Self — brahma-nirvāṇa exists on all sides.
I am the strength of the strong, free from craving — and the desire in beings that does not conflict with dharma.
Sattva — luminous and stainless — yet binds the jīva through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.