Chapter 18 · Verse 32·Spoken by Krishna
अधर्मं धर्ममिति या मन्यते तमसाऽऽवृता।सर्वार्थान्विपरीतांश्च बुद्धिः सा पार्थ तामसी
adharmaṁ dharmam iti yā manyate tamasāvṛitā sarvārthān viparītānśh cha buddhiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī
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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 tamas which, being covered by darkness, considers vice as virtue, and indeed perceives all things contrary to what they are.
Swami Gambiranandaafter Śaṅkara's bhāṣya· paired with Śaṅkara
That Buddhi, O Arjuna, which, enveloped in darkness, regards Adharma as Dharma and reverses every value, is Tamasika.
Swami Adidevanandaafter Rāmānuja's bhāṣya· paired with Rāmānuja
The intellect which, containing darkness (ignorance), conceives the unrighteous one as righteous and all things topsy-turvy—that intellect is deemed to be of the Tamas (Strand).
Dr. S. Sankaranarayanafter Madhva's bhāṣya· paired with Madhva
That intellect, O Arjuna, which is enveloped in darkness and sees Adharma as Dharma and all things perverted, is Tamasic (dark).
Swami SivanandaThe Bhagavad Gita
And that which, shrouded in Ignorance, thinks wrong to be right, and sees everything perversely, O Arjuna, that intellect is ruled by Darkness.
Shri Purohit SwamiThe Geeta
This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.
The understanding that, wrapped in darkness, takes unlawful action to be lawful and lawful action to be unlawful, and knows all things, every object that can be known, as their opposites, that understanding, Partha, is of tamas.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.
But the tamasic understanding, wrapped in darkness, holds all things to be their opposites: the unrighteous it holds to be righteous, and the righteous unrighteous; a real thing to be unreal, and an unreal thing to be real; the higher truth to be the lower, and the lower truth to be the higher; thus it holds everything as its opposite. This is the meaning.
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.
Madhvacharya does not comment on this verse.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.