Sanskrit
यातयामं गतरसं पूति पर्युषितं च यत् । उच्छिष्टमपि चामेध्यं भोजनं तामसप्रियम् ॥
yātayāmaṃ gatarasaṃ pūti paryuṣitaṃ ca yat ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṃ bhojanaṃ tāmasapriyam
Translation
That which is stale and flat, putrid and corrupt, leavings also and unclean, is the food dear to the dark.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Where rajasic food was defined by excess, tamasic food is defined by neglect and decay — yātayāma literally means food that has sat past its proper watch, stale by the clock rather than by any positive quality. This closes the three-verse food sequence with tamas doing what it does everywhere else in the Gita’s framework: not activity gone wrong, like rajas, but the absence of care altogether — inertia, staleness, and indifference to what’s fit for use. Tāmasic food is dead — gata-rasa (the sap gone), pūti (rotting), paryuṣita (kept overnight), ucchiṣṭa (already partly eaten). The pattern across all three guṇas: sattva sustains, rajas inflames, tamas decays.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yātayāmaṃ gatarasaṃ pūtiयातयामं गतरसं पूति
- stale, tasteless, putrid (yāta-yāmam + gata-rasam + pūti)
- paryuṣitaṃ ca yatपर्युषितं च यत्
- and that which is a day old (paryuṣitam + ca + yat)
- ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṃउच्छिष्टं अपि चामेध्यं
- leftover, and impure (ucchiṣṭam + api + ca + amedhyam)
- bhojanaṃ tāmasapriyamभोजनं तामसप्रियं
- such food is dear to the tāmasic (bhojanam + tāmasa-priyam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Yātayāma literally means food that has outlasted its yāma — a “watch,” the same word used for a guard’s shift. The choice of term quietly reframes staleness as a duty someone failed rather than a fact about the food: something was supposed to be attended to within its proper span and wasn’t, which fits tamas’s pattern throughout the chapter as neglect rather than any positive wrongdoing.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Tamasic decline in your own habits rarely looks like a dramatic failure — it looks like something that needed timely attention, a check-in, a maintenance task, a follow-through, that quietly outlasted its proper watch. Notice the missed timing, not just the eventual mess.
Professional
- Most incidents filed as 'neglect' trace back to something that outlived its intended watch — a certificate, a dependency, a review cycle nobody re-triggered. Track ownership of timely renewal as its own responsibility, distinct from doing the work correctly in the first place.
Family & Social
- When a relationship starts to feel stale, it's rarely one dramatic failure — it's usually attention that quietly outlasted its proper watch, a check-in or gesture that used to happen on a rhythm and stopped. Naming the missed timing is often more useful than searching for a bigger cause.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.