Verse 18.25

Verse 18.25: “Disregarding the ensuants, loss, injury, and (the expenditure of) manly-power involved, the action which is undertaken through infatuation: that is called Tamas-dominated. (611)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Oh, that action which is the very dark abode of slander, and which (as if) justifies the birth of all that is prohibited as being sinful, is Tamasic action. Such action leaves no trace behind once it is performed, as do the lines drawn on water surface. Such actions are all unavailing as is churning of rice gruel (kāñjī), or the blowing of ashes, or the grinding of sand in an oil-mill, or winnowing the chaff, or piercing the cavity, or placing snares for (catching) the wind, all of which prove barren. Now such an action, performed at the sacrifice of a valuable treasure like the human body, spoils the world’s happiness, in the way the act of dragging a thorny bush over a group of lotus flowers results in making blunt the sharp edges of thorns as also tearing into shreds the lotus flowers, or in the way a moth voluntarily dashing against and embracing a lamp (flame) not only gets itself burnt, but also becomes the cause of stealing the vision of the world by extinguishing the lamp (flame). In that way although such action results in the loss of all (wealth and efforts), and proves injurious to the body of the doer, yet it brings nothing but positive harm to others. A fly gets itself gulped up and causes the agony of vomitting to one gulping it up. Tamasic action is akin to such wickedness. Such actions are performed by a person even without a forethought; he fails to consider whether he is endowed with sufficient strength to execute them; (moreover) he takes no thought about their repercussion on others.

He (Tamas-doer) sets out to perform such actions thoughtlessly discarding considerations, such as his own resources, the magnitude of the actions, and his own capacity (to carry them through). The fire bums its own shelter (vasauṭā—bamboo-shoots from which it gets created by friction) and rushes wildly far and wide: the sea rises high submerging its limits, and once both these do so, they treat things, big or small, indiscriminately, neither looking backwards nor forward, and push headlong gulping up and bringing into one lot all ways and by-paths. Actions in which virtuous and vicious elements are hopelessly muddled, and in whose performance no regard is paid to the ensuing evil affecting the doer and others (people)—such actions, know it, are definitely Tamasic-actions. In this way I have given to you a full and reasoned exegesis of the three-fold actions brought on, on account of the three-fold Guna constituents.

Now the individual soul, harbouring a false pride on the occasion of performing actions that he is the (real) agent, is also differentiated into three distinct types. Just as one and the same person appears four-fold on account of the four different stages of life such as Brahmacharya, period of chaste youth and study etc. and others, in that way the agent also becomes three-fold according to the three distinct sorts of actions. Therefore, I shall now discourse on the Sattva-dominated agent—the first of the three kinds and hear about it attentively.