Chapter 14, Verse 13
अप्रकाशोऽप्रवृत्तिश्च प्रमादो मोह एव च | तमस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे कुरुनन्दन ||१४-१३||
aprakāśo.apravṛttiśca pramādo moha eva ca . tamasyetāni jāyante vivṛddhe kurunandana ||14-13||
Meaning
14.13 Darkness, inertness, heedlessness and delusion these arise when Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna gives the signs of the third guṇa, completing his diagnostic guide. When tamas dominates, four shadows fall: aprakāśa (an absence of light, a mental dimness in which nothing is clearly seen), apravṛtti (inertness, an inability or unwillingness to act), pramāda (heedless forgetting of what one ought to do), and moha (delusion, confusion about right and wrong).
These are states everyone knows — the grey morning when nothing seems worth doing, the fog in which good resolutions are forgotten, the confusion that mistakes the harmful for the harmless. Krishna's gift here is simply naming them, for tamas thrives on going unrecognised. The seeker who can say, 'this dullness and confusion is tamas rising, not the truth of who I am,' has already begun to lift it. Stirring even a little activity (rajas) or kindling a little clarity (sattva) is the practical way out of the dark.
💡 Key Takeaway
Dullness, paralysis, and confusion signal tamas rising — naming it for what it is begins to dispel the fog.
Related Verses
सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः | निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ||१४-५||
sattvaṃ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisambhavāḥ . nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam ||14-5||
14.5 Purity, passion and inertia these alities, O Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body, the embodied, the indestructible.
तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्प्रकाशकमनामयम् | सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ ||१४-६||
tatra sattvaṃ nirmalatvātprakāśakamanāmayam . sukhasaṅgena badhnāti jñānasaṅgena cānagha ||14-6||
14.6 Of these, Sattva, which from its stainlessness is luminous and healthy, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge, O sinless one.
रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् | तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् ||१४-७||
rajo rāgātmakaṃ viddhi tṛṣṇāsaṅgasamudbhavam . tannibadhnāti kaunteya karmasaṅgena dehinam ||14-7||
14.7 Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of thirst (for sensual enjoyment) and attachment; it binds fast, O Arjuna, the embodied one by attachment to action.