Sanskrit
यया स्वप्नं भयं शोकं विषादं मदमेव च । न विमुञ्चति दुर्मेधा धृतिः सा पार्थ तामसी ॥ ३५ ॥
yayā svapnaṃ bhayaṃ śokaṃ viṣādaṃ madam eva ca na vimuñcati durmedhā dhṛtiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī
Translation
That by which one from stupidity doth not abandon sleep, fear, grief, despair, and also vanity, that firmness, O Partha, is dark.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Tamasic dhriti is the stubbornness of stupidity — refusing to let go of sleep, fear, grief, despair, and vanity. Unlike rajasic firmness, which at least grips something worth naming, duty, desire, wealth, tamasic firmness grips nothing worth having; it’s tenacity in service of inertia rather than of any goal at all. Tāmasic dhṛti is stubborn attachment to the wrong things — the dull-witted clings to svapna, bhaya, śoka, viṣāda, mada (sleep, fear, grief, gloom, conceit) and will not let them go. Firmness turned to rot. Its guṇa is tamas.
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Word by word
- yayā svapnaṃ bhayaṃ śokaṃयया स्वप्नं भयं शोकं
- that by which sleep, fear, grief (yayā + svapnam + bhayam + śokam)
- viṣādaṃ madam eva caविषादं मदं एव च
- despondency, and conceit (viṣādam + madam + eva + ca)
- na vimuñcati durmedhāन विमुञ्चति दुर्मेधा
- the dull-witted does not release (na + vimuñcati + durmedhā)
- dhṛtiḥ sā pārtha tāmasīधृतिः सा पार्थ तामसी
- that firmness, O Pārtha, is tāmasic (dhṛtiḥ + sā + pārtha + tāmasī)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Across this three-verse sequence, what dhriti holds onto changes character each time: sattvic firmness holds together an inner discipline, mind, breath, senses; rajasic firmness holds onto external goals, dharma, wealth, desire; tamasic firmness holds onto neither a discipline nor a goal but its own afflictions, sleep, fear, grief, refusing to release the very states a person would ordinarily want to escape.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Ask what your own stubbornness is actually gripping — a practice, a goal, or an affliction you've mistaken for part of your identity. The third kind of grip is the one worth deliberately, patiently loosening rather than defending.
Professional
- A team's resistance to change might be gripping a genuine discipline worth keeping, a goal worth keeping, or simply a comfortable dysfunction; diagnose which one before deciding how much to respect the resistance.
Family & Social
- When someone in the family won't let go of an old grudge or fear, recognize that as a grip on an affliction, not a commitment to a value, and respond to it accordingly rather than arguing as if it were a principled stand.
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