But the renunciation of an enjoined and obligatory action does not hold, since for the ignorant man its purifying power is something desirable. To give up such an obligatory action out of delusion, out of ignorance, is self-contradictory, for the obligatory is precisely what must be done and yet is being given up. So relinquishment prompted by delusion is declared to be of tamas, delusion being itself darkness.

The renunciation, the relinquishment, of an enjoined action, an obligatory or occasional one, the great sacrifices and the rest, does not hold; for, by 'and the course of bodily life would not be accomplished for you, who do no action', the very course of bodily life would not be accomplished. For the course of bodily life, carried on by the eating of what is left over from sacrifice, conduces to right knowledge. Otherwise, by 'those sinful ones eat sin', the nourishing of the mind by the eating that is sin, not left over from sacrifice, makes for contrary knowledge. For by 'the mind, dear one, is made of food', it is heard that the mind is nourished by food; and by 'on purity of food, purity of being; on purity of being, the memory stands firm; on the gaining of memory, the loosing of all the knots', it is heard that the knowledge which is the direct realisation of Brahman depends on purity of food. Therefore the obligatory and occasional action, the great sacrifices and the rest, is to be taken up, until departure, for the sake of the knowledge of Brahman alone; so its relinquishment does not hold. So the relinquishment, out of the delusion that the action which begets knowledge is binding, is declared to be tamasic. Relinquishment rooted in tamas is tamasic; the relinquishment's being rooted in tamas is by its being rooted in the ignorance that is the effect of tamas. For tamas is the root of ignorance, as was said here, 'heedlessness and delusion are of tamas, and ignorance too'. And ignorance is the contrary knowledge that is opposed to knowledge. So it will be said, 'the understanding that, wrapped in darkness, holds the unrighteous to be righteous, and all things as their opposites, that, Partha, is tamasic'. So the relinquishment of obligatory and occasional action and the rest is rooted in contrary knowledge alone. This is the meaning.

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.