BG-18.31 — The Rajasic Intellect: Discrimination Gone Askew
BG-18.31
यया धर्ममधर्मं च कार्यं चाकार्यमेव च । अयथावत्प्रजानाति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ राजसी ॥३१॥
"That intellect by which one discerns dharma and adharma, what is to be done and what is not to be done — but discerns them not as they actually are — that, O Pārtha, is the rajasic intellect."
This is the middle term of the Gītā's three-fold sorting of the intellect (sattvic BG-18.30, rajasic here, tamasic BG-18.32). The trap in the verse is the word prajānāti — "discerns." The rajasic buddhi is not the one that fails to know; it knows. Its defect is ayathāvat — it knows askew. It engages all four categories (dharma, adharma, the-to-be-done, the-not-to-be-done) and gets them subtly, persistently wrong, coloured by desire and restlessness. Jñāneśvar's six ovis render this single defect through a chain of images in which a real faculty is mis-placed: milk-and-water taken un-separated in the crane's village; a bee that scents nectar and bores dead wood; a blind man who lands a pearl only by luck; sacramental rice flung onto a rubbish-heap. The faculty is genuine throughout. The placement is wrong throughout. That gap is rajas.
Ovi 18.718
Original (Marathi): आणि बकाच्या गांवीं । घेपे क्षीरनीर सकलवी । कां अहोरात्रींची गोंवी । आंधळें नेणे ॥७१८॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (Kṛṣṇa continuing the buddhi-taxonomy to Arjuna; the affectionate expository register that the गा/अगा vocatives of 18.721, 18.723 confirm)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| आणि बकाच्या गांवीं | and in the crane's (baka's) village |
| घेपे क्षीरनीर सकलवी | milk-and-water are taken all together (un-separated) |
| कां अहोरात्रींची गोंवी | or the twining / interweaving of day-and-night |
| आंधळें नेणे | the blind man does not know |
Literal translation
English: And in the crane's village, milk and water are taken all mixed together; or — as the blind man does not know the interweaving of day and night.
मराठी (आधुनिक): आणि बगळ्याच्या गावात दूध आणि पाणी एकत्रच, न वेगळं करता घेतलं जातं; किंवा दिवस-रात्रीचा फरक जसा आंधळ्याला कळत नाही — तसं.
Sanskrit-root note
kṣīra-nīra = kṣīra (milk) + nīra (water) — the canonical Indic pair for the discrimination a rāja-hamsa (royal swan) is fabled to perform with its beak. Here governed by baka (the crane / heron), the bird that conventionally cannot, so the separation is precisely what does not happen.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| In the crane's village, milk and water are taken un-separated (बकाच्या गांवीं क्षीरनीर) | The rajasic buddhi engages the discriminanda but cannot separate the genuine (milk) from the false (water) — the ayathāvat failure of viveka | A mind that takes in the real consideration and the self-serving rationalization in one undivided gulp, never sieving one from the other |
| The blind man does not know the twining of day and night (अहोरात्रींची गोंवी आंधळें नेणे) | The faculty for telling the most basic opposites apart is simply absent | The person who genuinely cannot feel the difference between "right" and "what I want to be right" — not lying, just sightless to the seam |
Metaphor-family: milk-and-water (kṣīra-nīra-viveka), here in the negative — the swan's celebrated discrimination invoked by its absence (crane, not swan). This is the controlling image of the whole cluster.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The kṣīra-nīra and blind-man images are viveka-imagery in a guṇa-classification, with no cakra/suṣumnā/kuṇḍalinī frame.
Cross-references
- Internal: Ring-companion to 18.723 — the milk-water-not-separated here is echoed by the sacramental-grain-flung-on-refuse there; both image a good or a faculty mis-placed. Opens the linear chain into 18.719.
- Tukaram parallels:
- Abhang 3118 — निवडी वेगळें क्षीर आणि पाणी । राजहंस दोन्ही वेगळालीं ("the rāja-hamsa separates milk and water — both into distinct vessels"). The exact kṣīra-nīra image, stated in the positive: the swan DOES separate, and so the true bhakta has viveka. This ovi is its photographic negative — the crane's village, where the separation never happens, and so the rajasic buddhi fails. (Line verified verbatim in corpus/3118.md.)
- Abhang 2362 — क्षीर निवडितें पाणी । चोंची हंसाचिये आणी ("the swan's beak separates milk from water"), one of Tukaram's most-cited discernment-images. The swan's beak doing the work names the faculty the rajasic buddhi lacks; here the बक (crane) governs the village, so the beak-work never occurs. (Line verified verbatim in corpus/2362.md.)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 18.31 — ayathāvat prajānāti; the crane's-village-milk-water + blind-man-and-day-night render the "discerns, but not-as-it-is" defect.
Modern application
- When you take in a real reason and a self-serving one as a single undivided thought. You weigh whether to confront a colleague and the "argument" arrives pre-mixed: the genuine principle and the part that just wants to win, poured into one cup. The crane's village is your own head when you never decant the two.
- When you cannot feel the seam between "this is right" and "this suits me." Not dishonesty — sightlessness. Like the blind man who cannot tell day from night, the rajas-coloured mind has lost the contrast-edge between duty and desire, so they read as one continuous surface.
- When a whole environment has stopped separating milk from water. A team, a family, a field where everyone takes the mixed product as normal — "this is just how we evaluate things here." The crane's village: the failure is ambient, not personal.
Sādhanā
Today, take one decision you're calling "the right thing to do." On a single line, write the stated reason. Directly beneath it, write the reason you'd be embarrassed to say aloud. Just see them as two lines, separated — perform once, on paper, the milk-from-water the crane's village cannot.
Arc
18.718 opens with the crane's-village and blind-man double-image of non-discrimination; 18.719 develops it into a real faculty pointed the wrong way — the bee that scents nectar but bores dead wood.
Ovi 18.719
Original (Marathi): जया फुलाचा मकरंदु फावे । तो काष्ठें कोरूं धांवे । परी भ्रमरपणा नव्हे । अव्हांटा जेवीं ॥७१९॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (Kṛṣṇa's continuing exposition)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| जया फुलाचा मकरंदु फावे | the one to whom a flower's nectar (makaranda) becomes available |
| तो काष्ठें कोरूं धांवे | he runs to bore into wood (kāṣṭha) |
| परी भ्रमरपणा नव्हे | but this is not bee-ness (the bee's true nature) |
| अव्हांटा जेवीं | as one led onto the wrong track (avhāmṭā) |
Literal translation
English: The one to whom a flower's nectar is already available — and yet runs off to bore into dead wood: that is not the bee's true nature; it is like being led astray onto the wrong path.
मराठी (आधुनिक): ज्याला फुलातला मकरंद सहज मिळतो आहे, तोच भुंगा लाकूड पोखरायला धावतो — पण हा काही खऱ्या भुंग्याचा स्वभाव नव्हे; हे जणू वाट चुकून आडमार्गाला लागणं आहे.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| The bee that has the flower's nectar available yet runs to bore wood (मकरंदु फावे ... काष्ठें कोरूं धांवे) | The discriminative faculty (the bee's scent) is intact and the right object (nectar/dharma) is at hand — but it is aimed at the wrong target | The capable mind that has the right call within reach and instead drives hard toward the wrong one — competence spent in the wrong direction |
| "This is not bee-ness — it is being led astray" (भ्रमरपणा नव्हे, अव्हांटा जेवीं) | The defect is not loss of faculty but mis-direction of it; rajas does not blind, it deflects | A smart person on the wrong track: nothing wrong with the engine, everything wrong with the heading |
Metaphor-family: bee-and-nectar (here as mis-direction, not the anāhata bhramara-nāda of adhyāya 6). The image's force is the gap between capacity and aim.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The भ्रमर (bee) and मकरंद (nectar) here belong to ordinary discrimination-imagery; this is not the anāhata bhramara-nāda of the yoga chapters, and reading the suṣumnā-bee into a guṇa-classification of buddhi would be a fabrication.
Cross-references
- Internal: Linear development of 18.718's non-discrimination into mis-direction; feeds 18.720's explicit application.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 18.31 — ayathāvat prajānāti; the bee-with-nectar-boring-wood images the faculty intact but mis-aimed.
Modern application
- When you have the obvious right answer at hand and drive toward the clever wrong one. The nectar is फावे — already available — and you run to bore wood: over-engineering a solved problem, picking the fight you could have skipped. Capacity is not the issue; heading is.
- When skill itself carries you off-course. The more able you are, the faster you bore into the wood. A weaker mind would have stalled; yours has the horsepower to commit fully to the wrong target.
- When you call a deflection your "nature." अव्हांटा — the wrong track — gets rebranded as "just how I work." The ovi insists it is not your true bee-ness; it is a deviation you can correct, not an identity you must accept.
Sādhanā
Today, catch one task where you're expending real effort, and ask the single question: is the nectar already here? — i.e., was the right move obvious and available before I started boring this particular piece of wood? If yes, stop for thirty seconds and name the easier, truer target out loud.
Arc
18.719 gives the bee-misdirection image of a real faculty aimed wrong; 18.720 fastens it explicitly onto the Sanskrit four discriminanda — thus these dharma-adharma duties go un-recognized.
Ovi 18.720
Original (Marathi): तैसीं इयें कार्याकार्यें । धर्माधर्मरूपें जियें । तियें न चोजवितां जाये । जाणती जे कां ॥७२०॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (Kṛṣṇa's continuing exposition; तैसीं "in just that way" applies the prior images)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तैसीं इयें कार्याकार्यें | in just that way, these to-be-done-and-not-to-be-done (things) |
| धर्माधर्मरूपें जियें | which take the form of dharma-and-adharma |
| तियें न चोजवितां जाये | these pass without being recognized / discerned |
| जाणती जे कां | (even by) the one(s) who supposedly know |
Literal translation
English: In just that way, these matters of the-to-be-done and the-not-to-be-done, which wear the forms of dharma and adharma — these pass un-recognized, even by the very one who claims to know them.
मराठी (आधुनिक): अगदी त्याचप्रमाणे, धर्म-अधर्माचं रूप घेणारी ही कार्यं आणि अकार्यं — ती नीट ओळखता न येताच निसटून जातात, जो म्हणे "मला कळतं" त्याच्याकडूनही.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. तैसीं ("in just that way") is the simile-hinge applying 18.718-719's images to the Sanskrit discriminanda; the ovi itself is the explicit statement, not a fresh image.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Hinge-ovi — तैसीं fastens the crane's-village (18.718) and bee (18.719) images onto BG-18.31's four-fold list; feeds 18.721's pearls image.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 18.31 — dharmam adharmam ca kāryam ca akāryam ... ayathāvat prajānāti; कार्याकार्यें धर्माधर्मरूपें renders the four discriminanda, न चोजवितां जाये renders ayathāvat prajānāti (passes un-discerned).
Modern application
- When you genuinely believe you "know" the right thing here — and that belief is the problem. जाणती जे कां — even the one who claims to know — lets the real distinction slip past. The confidence that you've already discerned it is exactly what stops you from actually discerning it.
- When duty and non-duty arrive wearing each other's clothes. धर्माधर्मरूपें — the to-be-done and not-to-be-done take on dharma-and-adharma forms, so the forbidden looks principled and the obligatory looks optional. The disguise is convincing precisely to the rajas-coloured eye.
- When "I handled it" is the report you give before you've actually looked. The matter "passes un-recognized" while you file it as understood — the gap between processing something and discerning it.
Sādhanā
Today, pick one situation you've already decided you "know how to handle." Before acting, say to yourself: what if I've recognized this wrong? — and force yourself to state one way your current reading could be the disguised version. One alternative, named once.
Arc
18.720 states that the four discriminanda slip past the buddhi that claims to know them; 18.721 shows how it sometimes lands right anyway — by accident, like a blind man's hand closing on a pearl.
Ovi 18.721
Original (Marathi): अगा डोळांवीण मोतियें । घेतां पाडु मिळे विपायें । न मिळणें तें आहे । ठेविलें तेथें ॥७२१॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (Kṛṣṇa's continuing exposition; the अगा vocative anchors the direct address to Arjuna)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अगा डोळांवीण मोतियें | O — (one who handles) pearls without eyes |
| घेतां पाडु मिळे विपायें | in taking them, the value (pāḍu) is got only by accident (vipāya) |
| न मिळणें तें आहे | what is not got — that remains |
| ठेविलें तेथें | left lying there (where it was) |
Literal translation
English: O — for one handling pearls without eyes, their worth is got only by chance; and what he does not chance upon stays lying just where it was.
मराठी (आधुनिक): अरे, डोळ्यांशिवाय मोती हाताळणाऱ्याला त्यांचं मोल योगायोगानंच मिळतं; आणि जे हाती लागत नाही, ते तिथल्या तिथेच पडून राहतं.
Sanskrit-root note
vipāya (विपाय) → Marathi विपायें, "by chance, occasionally, by a fluke" — the adverb that carries the whole point: any right result is accidental, not faculty-driven.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| A blind man handling pearls (डोळांवीण मोतियें) | The rajasic buddhi engaging objects of discrimination without true sight (viveka) | A person sorting genuinely important matters with no reliable inner instrument for telling worth from worthlessness |
| Value got only by accident (पाडु मिळे विपायें) | When the rajasic buddhi lands the right judgment, it is luck, not discernment | The smart call that happened to be right this time — and gets mis-credited to "good judgment" |
| What he doesn't chance upon is left lying (न मिळणें ... ठेविलें तेथें) | The genuine good is abandoned whenever chance fails to supply it | The real opportunity / right course that stays untaken simply because luck didn't hand it over |
Metaphor-family: blindness-and-sight (viveka-as-vision), continuous with 18.718's blind-man image — discrimination as a seeing, its absence as a groping.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Continues the blindness-imagery from 18.718; feeds 18.722's treatment of the forbidden act.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citations:
- Bhagavad Gītā 18.31 — ayathāvat prajānāti; the blind-man-and-pearls renders the ayathāvat mode as discrimination-by-chance.
- Bhagavad Gītā 18.32 (thematic-contrast) — the next śloka defines the tāmasī buddhi as one that takes adharma FOR dharma and conceives all things viparītān (inverted). The blind man here still lands a pearl sometimes (by luck); that "sometimes" is exactly what separates the rajasic buddhi from the systematically-inverting tamasic one of BG-18.32.
Modern application
- When you get the right answer and credit your judgment for what was luck. पाडु मिळे विपायें — the value came by fluke. The dangerous part is the post-hoc story: "I knew it was right." A blind hand closing on a pearl is not sight.
- When the right course stays untaken because nothing forced it on you. न मिळणें तें ठेविलें तेथें — what chance didn't hand over is left lying. The genuine good was right there; no instrument in you reached for it deliberately, so it stayed on the ground.
- When you rely on circumstances to do your discriminating for you. Outsourcing judgment to luck — letting the deadline, the boss, the market decide which matters, because your own viveka can't reliably tell the pearl from the pebble.
Sādhanā
Today, recall one recent decision that turned out well. Ask honestly: did I discern this, or did it just land? If it landed, name one factor that was luck, not judgment. The point is not guilt — it's to stop mistaking a fluke for sight.
Arc
18.721 shows the right result arrived at only by accident; 18.722 carries this to the forbidden act — avoided only when it happens to be un-doable, otherwise fused with the permissible as one mass.
Ovi 18.722
Original (Marathi): तैसें अकरणीय अवचटें । नोडवे तरीच लोटे । येऱ्हवीं जाणें एकवटें । दोन्ही जे कां ॥७२२॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (Kṛṣṇa's continuing exposition; तैसें "in just that way" continues the applied chain)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तैसें अकरणीय अवचटें | in that way the not-to-be-done (akaraṇīya) act, by chance |
| नोडवे तरीच लोटे | only if it cannot be done is it let go / dropped |
| येऱ्हवीं जाणें एकवटें | otherwise it knows (them) as one lumped-together |
| दोन्ही जे कां | the two, that is (the doable and the not-to-be-done) |
Literal translation
English: In that same way, the forbidden act — only if it happens to be undoable is it let go; otherwise (the buddhi) knows the two — the doable and the not-to-be-done — as one and the same.
मराठी (आधुनिक): त्याचप्रमाणे न करण्याजोगं कर्म — योगायोगानं ते करताच आलं नाही, तरच सुटतं; एरवी करण्याजोगं आणि न करण्याजोगं ही दोन्ही ती बुद्धी एकसारखीच, एकत्रच मानते.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. एकवटें दोन्ही ("the two as one") is a direct diagnostic statement — the collapse of kārya and akārya — rather than an unfolded image; तैसें continues the applied chain from 18.721.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Completes the application begun at 18.720; feeds the verdict of 18.723.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 18.31 — akāryam eva ca ... ayathāvat prajānāti; नोडवे तरीच लोटे (let go only if undoable) + एकवटें दोन्ही (the two known as one) render the ayathāvat collapse of the to-be-done and the not-to-be-done.
Modern application
- When you avoid a wrong only because it became impossible. नोडवे तरीच लोटे — you "let it go" not by discernment but because circumstance shut the door. The restraint looks like virtue; it was only logistics. Ask whether you'd have done it if you could have.
- When the permissible and the forbidden blur into one undifferentiated zone. एकवटें दोन्ही — the two as one. "It's all kind of the same, everyone does it" is the rajasic buddhi declining to keep kārya and akārya apart; the line dissolves not because there's no line but because the eye won't hold it.
- When circumstance is doing your ethics for you. Your "principles" hold exactly as long as breaking them stays inconvenient. The moment the forbidden becomes easy and consequence-free, the fusion shows: there was no real discrimination underneath, only friction.
Sādhanā
Today, name one thing you didn't do recently that you'd call "the right restraint." Ask the one hard question: did I refrain, or was it just not doable? If circumstance stopped you, admit it plainly — "I didn't choose this; it was blocked." See the difference between a held line and a closed door.
Arc
18.722 completes the diagnosis (the two known as one); 18.723 delivers the verdict — know this buddhi as rajasic — sealed with the akṣatā-on-the-refuse-heap image.
Ovi 18.723
Original (Marathi): ते गा बुद्धि चोखविषीं । जाण येथ राजसी । अक्षत टाकिली जैसी । मांदियेवरी ॥७२३॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (Kṛṣṇa's verdict to Arjuna; the गा vocative + जाण "know!" imperative anchor the direct address)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ते गा बुद्धि चोखविषीं | that intellect, O dear one, in its (mis-applied) discriminating |
| जाण येथ राजसी | know (it) here as rajasic |
| अक्षत टाकिली जैसी | as unbroken sacramental rice (akṣatā) flung down |
| मांदियेवरी | onto a refuse-heap / sweepings-pile (māndī) |
Literal translation
English: Know that intellect, O dear one, to be rajasic here — like whole, sacramental rice-grains flung down onto a rubbish-heap.
मराठी (आधुनिक): ती बुद्धी, बाबा रे, इथं राजसिक आहे असं जाण — जणू पूजेची अखंड अक्षता उकिरड्यावर टाकून दिलेली.
Sanskrit-root note
akṣatā (अक्षत) = a (un-) + kṣata (broken) — "the un-broken," the whole rice-grains used in worship and blessing; precious because unbroken. Flung onto māndī (a refuse/sweepings-heap), the sacramental grain is good matter wasted on the wrong surface.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Unbroken sacramental rice (अक्षत) | The buddhi's genuine, even precious, discriminative power — whole, capable | A genuinely sharp, capable mind |
| Flung onto a refuse-heap (मांदियेवरी टाकिली) | That power applied to a field it cannot rightly read — squandered on the wrong surface | Real intelligence poured into self-serving, rajas-coloured judgment where it can't do its proper work |
| The grain is wasted, not destroyed | The faculty is intact; only its placement ruins it — the whole cluster's thesis | Nothing wrong with the instrument; everything wrong with where it's spent |
Metaphor-family: sacramental-grain / right-thing-wrong-place — ring-echoing 18.718's milk-not-separated; both are a genuine good mis-placed.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Ring-companion to 18.718 — akṣatā-on-refuse echoes milk-water-un-separated; both close and open the cluster on right-faculty-wrong-field. Delivers the verdict the whole chain (718-722) built toward.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi; the swan-viveka parallels attach at 18.718)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 18.31 — buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī; जाण येथ राजसी directly renders the predicate-classification, अक्षत ... मांदियेवरी images the genuine faculty squandered.
Modern application
- When real intelligence is spent on a field it can't honestly read. अक्षत on the मांदी — whole sacramental grain on a rubbish-heap. The brilliant analyst rationalizing the conclusion they already wanted: nothing wrong with the brain, everything wrong with the surface it's working on.
- When you mistake capability for the verdict. The cluster's last word is that the rajasic buddhi is capable — that's why the grain is unbroken. Being smart, even being precise, says nothing about whether your discrimination is yathāvat (true) or ayathāvat (askew). The verdict is on the placement, not the power.
- When "but I'm being rigorous" is the disguise. Rajasic discrimination feels rigorous from inside; it has the texture of careful judgment. The akṣatā looks perfectly fine — until you notice the heap it's lying on.
Sādhanā
Today, take one area where you know you're sharp — and you suspect your sharpness mostly serves what you already want. Write one sentence: "My capable mind is, here, flinging good grain onto a heap because ___." Fill the blank with the actual want underneath. Naming the heap is the whole practice.
Arc
18.723 closes the cluster with the verdict — this is the rajasic buddhi — and ring-completes 18.718's opening image of mis-placed discrimination; the next śloka (BG-18.32) drops to the floor of the taxonomy, the tamasic intellect that takes adharma for dharma and conceives all things inverted.
Cluster summary
Core teaching: BG-18.31 classifies the rajasic intellect — and the whole danger is that this buddhi knows. It is not blind to dharma, adharma, the-to-be-done and the-not-to-be-done; it discerns them ayathāvat, askew. Jñāneśvar renders this single defect through a chain in which a real faculty is consistently mis-placed: milk and water taken un-separated in the crane's village (18.718, the rāja-hamsa's viveka shown by its absence), the bee that scents nectar and bores dead wood (18.719), the blind man who lands a pearl's value only by accident (18.721), the forbidden avoided only when it's un-doable and otherwise fused with the permissible (18.722), and finally the verdict-image — sacramental unbroken rice flung onto a refuse-heap (18.723). The faculty is genuine throughout; the placement is wrong throughout. That gap is rajas.
Chapter arc position: This is the middle term of the three-fold buddhi-classification — sāttvikī (BG-18.30, knows pravṛtti-and-nivṛtti as-they-are), rājasī (BG-18.31, knows them askew), tāmasī (BG-18.32, inverts them entirely) — within adhyāya 18's (mokṣa-sannyāsa) closing guṇa-analysis of the inner faculties. The cluster sits in the Gītā's final systematic sorting of the discriminating mind.
Connects to BG-18.32: यया धर्ममधर्मं च विपरीतान् — the tāmasī buddhi, wrapped in darkness (tamasāvṛtā), takes adharma FOR dharma and conceives ALL things viparītān, inverted. Where the rajasic buddhi of BG-18.31 discriminates askew and lands the truth only by accident, the tamasic buddhi systematically reverses it — the floor beneath the rajasic middle, completing the descent of the three-fold intellect-taxonomy.