Verse 18.24

Verse 18.24: “That action which is done by one actuated by desire and likewise under self-conceit, and which involves much exertion; that is pronounced to be Rajas-dominated. (595)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

(Just as) a fool never caring to talk a single sweet word to his parents at home should behave quite courteously with the outside world, or one never dropping a single drop of water on a Tulsi (species of Basil) plants should pour milk at the root of a vine plant; similarly he never thinks of rising up from the place where he is sitting for the purpose of performing actions day-to-day and occasional that are obligatory, but he does not consider it (the exertions) too much even if his entire body gets spent up, when there arises the question of securing some selfish end: or as one should not say “Enough” while sowing seeds in order to secure bumper yield-crop, and should not similarly feel tired while investing money in business where there are prospects of making large profits; or one having secured a Paris (a stone supposed to convert by its mere touch iron into gold) spends his entire fortune in purchasing iron and becomes very prosperous: in all these ways, one (of Rajas quality) gets on performing fruit-motived actions that are intricate and difficult, and yet never feels them (those he has actually performed) as done in sufficient measure, keeping before his eyes the fruit to be secured from them.

With the temptation of securing the fruit, he performs whatever fruit-motived actions he can, neatly and in the enjoined manner, and he goes on blowing his trumpet about whatever he does and goes on parading his name as an orthodox and pious man. Puffed up with the conceit of being a man of piety, he shows no regard either to his father or to his preceptor in the way the destructive (fatal) fever defies all medicines.

Actions (are) performed with great liking by persons thus possessed of conceit and under the temptation of fruit and with great physical exertion as if they were the source of his very subsistence like that of an acrobat, or in the way a rat should excavate a mountain for securing only a single grain of com, or a frog should stir up the entire sea for moss, or a snake-charmer should carry from house to house loads of reptiles getting in return nothing more than paltry alms-what a pity some people find pleasure in such exertions. The ants explore even the region under the earth (pātāla) for the sake of a single particle of grain of that type is this toil helplessly done out of greed for heavenly bliss; and such pain-giving fruit-motived actions should be known as Rajas actions. Now hear the signs of Tamas (actions).