Chapter 18 · Verse 31 · Moksha Sanyaas Yoga
Bhagavad Gita 18.31
Sanskrit
यया धर्ममधर्मं च कार्यं चाकार्यमेव च।अयथावत्प्रजानाति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ राजसी।।18.31।।
Transliteration
yayā dharmam adharmaṁ cha kāryaṁ chākāryam eva cha ayathāvat prajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī
In plain words
When you're lost—when you can't tell right from wrong, when anger clouds your judgment, when you're driven by fear or what you think you *should* want instead of what is actually true—you're caught in the same trap Krishna is naming here. Krishna says: your intellect has become a servant of your cravings and your ego, and that's why everything feels backwards and painful. The way out is to stop asking your desires what is right, and start asking your deepest, quietest self—the part that knows the difference between what looks good and what *is* good.
Word by Word
Krishna reveals the rajasic intellect—passionate, restless, caught between opposing forces—unable to discern dharma from adharma with clarity. This mind mistakes right action for wrong, confusion for conviction, because it is driven by desire and ego rather than wisdom.
When your intellect serves your appetites instead of truth, you become a prisoner of your own contradictions. In modern life, this is the CEO who confuses profit with purpose, the activist who mistakes ideology for integrity—we all live moments of rajasic blindness until we turn our intelligence toward what is genuinely true.
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Bhagavad Gita 18.31 — BG 18.31
Your Mantra Prescription
This mantra is prescribed for clarity and purpose. Is that what you're going through?
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