Devanagari
अधर्मं धर्ममिति या मन्यते तमसावृता ।
सर्वार्थान्विपरीतांश्च बुद्धि: सा पार्थ तामसी ॥ ३२ ॥
Verse text
adharmaṁ dharmam iti yā
manyate tamasāvṛtā
sarvārthān viparītāṁś ca
buddhiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī
Synonyms
adharmam
—
irreligion
;
dharmam
—
religion
;
iti
—
thus
;
yā
—
which
;
manyate
—
thinks
;
tamasā
—
by illusion
;
āvṛtā
—
covered
;
sarva-arthān
—
all things
;
viparītān
—
in the wrong direction
;
ca
—
also
;
buddhiḥ
—
intelligence
;
sā
—
that
;
pārtha
—
O son of Pṛthā
;
tāmasī
—
in the mode of ignorance.
Translation
That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Pārtha, is in the mode of ignorance.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
32. That intelligence is in tamo-guṇa by which one considers adharma to be dharma, and sees all things contrary to the truth.
Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
32. That intelligence is in tama guṇa by which one considers adharma to be dharma, and sees all things contrary to the truth.
Purport
Intelligence in the mode of ignorance is always working the opposite of the way it should. It accepts religions which are not actually religions and rejects actual religion. Men in ignorance understand a great soul to be a common man and accept a common man as a great soul. They think truth to be untruth and accept untruth as truth. In all activities they simply take the wrong path; therefore their intelligence is in the mode of ignorance.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Yā manyate is used for yayā manyate. The intelligence by which one considers everything opposite of the truth is tamasic intelligence. The statements in these verses, such as this verse, which literally says “the intelligence which considers adharma to dharma” but actually means “the intelligence by which a man considers adharma to be dharma” are similar to saying, “The axe cuts the tree” instead of saying “the man cuts the tree using an axe.”
Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
This verse describes intelligence in the mode of ignorance. That intelligence which takes everything in the opposite way, considering what is right to be wrong, what is wrong to be right; considering what is the supreme truth not to be the supreme truth, and what is not supreme truth to be the supreme truth, is intelligence in the mode of ignorance.