Chapter 18 · Verse 31·Spoken by Krishna
यया धर्ममधर्मं च कार्यं चाकार्यमेव च।अयथावत्प्रजानाति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ राजसी
yayā dharmam adharmaṁ cha kāryaṁ chākāryam eva cha ayathāvat prajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
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Reading set · 5 translations · 3 commentaries
Translation · 5 voices
O Partha, that intellect is born of rajas with which one wrongly understands virtue and vice, as well as what ought to be done and ought not to be done.
Swami Gambiranandaafter Śaṅkara's bhāṣya· paired with Śaṅkara
The Buddhi that gives an erroneous knowledge of Dharma and Adharma (its opposite) and also of what should be done and what should not be done, O Arjuna, is Rajasic.
Swami Adidevanandaafter Rāmānuja's bhāṣya· paired with Rāmānuja
The intellect, by means of which one decides incorrectly between the righteous and the unrighteous, and what is a proper action and an improper one—that intellect is of the Rajas, O son of Prtha!
Dr. S. Sankaranarayanafter Madhva's bhāṣya· paired with Madhva
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 Arjuna, is rajasic (passionate).
Swami SivanandaThe Bhagavad Gita
The intellect that does not understand what is right and wrong, and what should be done and not done, is under the sway of Passion.
Shri Purohit SwamiThe Geeta
The understanding by which one knows wrongly, not as it truly is, not with a complete and settled grasp, lawful action enjoined by scripture, and unlawful action prohibited by it, and what is to be done and what is not, namely the very 'to be done and not to be done' already mentioned, that understanding, Partha, is of rajas.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.
This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.
The understanding by which one does not know, as they truly are, the twofold duty spoken of before, and its contrary, and what is to be done and what is not, in the particular conditions of place, time, and state, for those settled in them, that is the rajasic understanding.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.
This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.
Where there is no fixed rule of conformity to the truth, the understanding is rajasic; otherwise it would be tamasic, since there would be no distinction.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.