SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
tamas tv ajñāna-jaṁ viddhi
mohanaṁ sarva-dehinām
pramādālasya-nidrābhis
tan nibadhnāti bhārata
‘As for Tamas, Bhārata! it begets ignorance, fascinating all embodied (beings): by listlessness doth it bind (one) to sloth and sleep.’
Ajñāna=ignorance is that which is the reverse of knowledge or wisdom. Jñāna or wisdom is the accurate or right perception of things, and ignorance is perverted or wrong perception. And Tamas (lit: darkness) is the diametrically opposed or completely reversed perception of what a thing actually is.
Mohanam=that which deludes men into obtuse knowledge = Tamas.
This Tamas, being thus the root of pramāda, ālasya, and nidrā, binds (one) fast, through these.
Pramāda=listlessness=the attention being diverted from a work on hand to some other.
Ālasya=sloth = inability to engage in any occupation.
Nidrā=sleep. Owing to a disinclination on the part of the senses to function, sublation of all such activities ensue. Sublation of the external senses constitutes dream, but when the mind also sublates, it becomes sleep.
The cardinal features of satva etc., and their various impulses, through which one is fettered, is now stated:—
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