यया धर्ममधर्मं च कार्यं चाकार्यमेव च ।अयथावत्प्रजानाति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ राजसी ॥
yayā dharmamadharmaṁ ca kāryaṁ cākāryameva caayathāvatprajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī
That by which one knows awry right and wrong and also what should or should not be done, that understanding, O Partha, is rajasic.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
Essays on the Gita
The rajasic understanding, when it does not knowingly choose error and evil for the sake of the error and evil, can make distinctions between right and wrong, between what should or should not be done, but not rightly, rather with a pulling awry of their true measures and a constant distortion of values. And this is because its reason and will are a reason of the ego and a will of desire, and these powers misrepresent and distort the truth and the right to serve their own egoistic purpose. It is only when we are free from ego and desire and look steadily with a calm, pure, disinterested mind concerned only with the truth and its sequences that we can hope to see things rightly and in their just values. But the rajasic will fixes its persistent attention on the satisfaction of its own attached clingings and desires in its pursuit of interest and pleasure and of what it thinks or chooses to think right and justice, Dharma. Always it is apt to put on these things the construction which will most flatter and justify its desires and to uphold as right or legitimate the means which will best help it to get the coveted fruits of its work and endeavour. That is the cause of three fourths of the falsehood and misconduct of the human reason and will. Rajas with its vehement hold on the vital ego is the great sinner and positive misleader.18·31, 18·34
