Sanskrit
अनुबन्धं क्षयं हिंसामनपेक्ष्य च पौरुषम् । मोहादारभ्यते कर्म यत्तत्तामसमुच्यते ॥ २५ ॥
anubandhaṃ kṣayaṃ hiṃsām anapekṣya ca pauruṣam mohād ārabhyate karma yat tat tāmasam ucyate
Translation
The action undertaken from delusion, without regard to capacity and consequences—loss and injury to others—that is declared to be dark.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Tamasic action is undertaken from sheer delusion, with no regard for one’s actual capacity or for the resulting loss and harm to others. This is the most consequential of the three failure modes precisely because it’s outward-facing — where rajasic action mainly costs the agent, tamasic action externalizes damage onto others through simple heedlessness. Tāmasic action ignores everything a decision should weigh — anubandha (what follows), kṣaya (the cost), hiṃsā (the harm), pauruṣa (whether one even can) — and proceeds mohāt, out of fog. The guṇa of heedless action.
Study deeper
Word by word
- anubandhaṃ kṣayaṃ hiṃsāmअनुबन्धं क्षयं हिंसां
- disregarding consequence, loss, harm (anubandham + kṣayam + hiṃsām)
- anapekṣya ca pauruṣamअनपेक्ष्य च पौरुषं
- and one's own capacity (anapekṣya + ca + pauruṣam)
- mohād ārabhyate karma yatमोहाद् आरभ्यते कर्म यत्
- action begun through delusion (mohāt + ārabhyate + karma + yat)
- tat tāmasam ucyateतत् तामसं उच्यते
- that is called tāmasic (tat + tāmasam + ucyate)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Notice the pairing: disregard for one’s own actual capacity sits in the same clause as disregard for the injury caused to others, as if these were the same failure rather than two. That’s a sharp diagnostic — someone who has lost track of what they’re actually capable of is exactly the person most likely to cause damage they didn’t see coming; miscalibrated self-assessment and harm to others aren’t separate risks here, they’re cause and effect.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Before taking on a big commitment, be honest about your actual capacity, not the capacity you wish you had. Overreach born of self-delusion rarely stays private — it tends to spill real damage onto the people who are counting on you to follow through.
Professional
- Before committing your team to an aggressive deadline, assess actual capacity honestly rather than aspirational capacity. An overcommitted team isn't just a risk to itself — the miscalibration typically produces real collateral damage downstream, to other teams or to customers.
Family & Social
- Before overcommitting to family obligations you can't actually sustain, be honest about your real capacity — overextending yourself isn't a private cost, it usually shows up as a letdown for the people who were counting on you.
Ask yourself
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