Verse 18.28

Verse 18.28: “One inadvertent, vulgar, stubborn, deceitful, perfidious, indolent, depressed, procrastinating: such an agent is said to be Tamas-dominated. (663)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

The fire does not realize how other things get scorched by coming in its contact, or a weapon does not know how others get killed with the sharpness of its edge, or a subtle poison does not know how fatal it is to living creatures. In that way he (Tamas-dominated agent), Oh Dhananjaya, undertakes such wicked actions as are calculated to ruin others. While doing such actions, he pays no attention to the consequences (that might follow) like the (fitful) behaviour of a stormy whirl-wind. There being no co-ordination between his actions and their aim, even a person of unsound mind cannot stand comparison with him, Oh Dhananjaya. He maintains himself on the enjoyment provided by sense-objects, like a cattle-louse stuck up to the udder of the bullock (maintaining itself on the bullock’s blood). He behaves waywardly like an ignorant child, which takes no time for changing from laughing to crying. He is never alive to the fact, whether a particular action is good or otherwise, having entirely gone under the sway of the Prakriti, and abides puffed up with false contentment like a dung-hill, with the result that he never bends low (in reverence) even before God through self-conceit, and excels even a hill in point of stiffness (hauteur). His mind is like the trodden black soil of the thief’s haunt in a dense wood (rāhāṭī), while his vision is (as if) taken in mortgage from a harlot. Nay his very body is formed of wickedness, while the entire life is the very den of gamblers: his very sight is like a locality inhabited by the greedy Bhil tribes (highly criminal). No one should even approach his vicinity (way).

Good actions of others (appear crooked to him), prick his mind like thorns, just as salt when mixed with milk makes it unfit for drinking, or an oblation (fuel stick etc.) put into fire suddenly blazes forth, becoming fire, or dainties of various sorts (swallowed and) entering into the body get ultimately reduced to excreta, so he receives mentally good actions done by others, but they are metamorphosed into their opposite (bad actions) when passing through his mind, Oh Kiriti. He transforms (good) qualities into defects and converts nectar into poison, in the way milk taken in by serpents is changed into poison. On occasions of the (likely) happening of events that lead to the fulfilment of the very object of one’s life, in this world as also in the other, slumber automatically visits his eyes, (as if by pre-arrangement) which however flies far away (as if) for fear of getting polluted, when evil actions are in the offing. During seasons making grape and mango juice available, the crows are affected with the mouth disease, or the owls (should) lose their vision during the day-time; in that way laziness devours him whenever there presents an occasion tending to the secure-ment of real good: but that very laziness leaves him entirely, in all obedience, when he is about to do some despicable act. He is ever possessed of malice, in the way the submarine fire abides (latent) in the sea.

Throughout his life, he is full of gloom in the way there is copious smoke in the fire made of animal-dung, or there ever exists foul smell in the wind (Apana) let out from the anus. He starts greedy transactions to an extent that would even serve him beyond the (current) Kalpa (age), and bears anxieties unknown to (extending beyond) this world; yet if actual results (of his acts) are seen not even a blade of grass accrues to him (comes into his hands). Should such a heap of sins incarnate come to be seen by you in the universe, take it definitely as a Tamas-dominated agent. Thus have been explained to you the signs of the three-fold kinds of the ‘actions,’ the ‘agent,’ and the ‘knowledge,’ Oh you Lord Paramount (cakravarti) of the Righteous.