An intellect that has got fumed under the dulling effects of extreme tamas clings to one single “effect” as though it were the whole, never enquiring into its “cause.” The “knowledge” of the dull is painted here as that belonging to the lowest type of spiritual seekers. They are generally fanatic in their faith and in their devotion, in their views and values in life. They never enquire into, and try to discover, the cause of things and happenings; they are unreasonable (ahaitukam).

Looking through such a confused intellect loaded with fixed ideas, the dull not only fail to see things as they are, but invariably project their own ideas upon the world and judge it all wrongly. In fact, a man of Tamasic intellect views the world as if it is meant for him and his pleasures alone. He totally ignores the Divine Presence, the Infinite Consciousness. The “knowledge” of the dull is thus circumscribed by its own concept of self-importance, and thus its vision becomes narrow (alpam) and limited.

To summarise, the “knowledge” of the ‘good’ (Sattwic) perceives the oneness underlying the universe; the comprehension of the ‘passionate’ (Rajasic) recognises the plurality of the world; and the understanding of the ‘dull’ (Tamasic) indicates a highly crystallized, self-centred ego in him, and his view of the world is always perverted and ever false.

It must again be noted that in this chapter we shall come across similar three-fold divisions in the various aspects of our personal inner life and they are not meant to serve as reckoners to classify OTHERS, but they are meant to help us to SIZE OURSELVES UP from time to time.

THE THREE-FOLD NATURE OF “ACTION” IS NOW DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING STANZAS:

But tat, that knowledge; is udahrtam, said to be; tamasam, born of tamas; yat, which is; saktam, confined; ekasmin, to one; karye, from, to one body or to an external image etc., krtsnavat, as though it were all, as though it comprehended everything, thinking, ‘The Self, or God, is only this much; there is nothing beyond it,’-as the naked Jainas hold that the soul conforms to and has the size of the body, or (as others hold) that God is merely a stone or wood-, remaining confined thus to one form; ahaitukam, which is irrational, bereft of logic; a-tattvarthavat, not concerned with truth-tattvartha, truth, means some-thing just as it is; that (knowledge) which has this (truth) as its object of comprehension is tattvarthavat; that without this is ; a-tattvarthavat-; and which, on account of the very fact of its being irrational, is alpam, trivial, because it is concerned with trifles or is productive of little result. This kind of knowledge is indeed found in non-discriminating creatures in whom tamas predominates. Now is being stated the threehold division of action: