Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 17, Verse 10
यातयामं गतरसं पूति पर्युषितं च यत्।उच्छिष्टमपि चामेध्यं भोजनं तामसप्रियम्।।
yāta-yāmaṁ gata-rasaṁ pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat
ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ bhojanaṁ tāmasa-priyam
also searched as "yatayamam gatarasam puti paryushitam cha yat"
Translation
That food which is stale, tasteless, putrid, decayed, rejected, unclean, is dear to those of a Tamasic nature.
Vāṇi's rendering
The dark are drawn to what is stale and tasteless, gone off, left overnight, picked over, unfit to offer.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| यातयामंyāta-yāmaṁ | whose hour has passed; cooked long ago and gone stale |
| गतरसंgata-rasaṁ | whose juice has left it; tasteless, sapless |
| पूतिpūti | foul-smelling, putrid |
| पर्युषितंparyuṣitaṁ | kept overnight, gone off |
| चca | and |
| यत्yat | that which |
| उच्छिष्टम्ucchiṣṭam | leftovers; what remains on another's plate |
| अपिapi | even, also |
| चca | and (joined in sandhi with the next word) |
| अमेध्यंamedhyaṁ | unfit to be offered; not clean enough to place before what is sacred |
| भोजनंbhojanaṁ | food, what is eaten |
| तामसप्रियम्tāmasa-priyam | dear to the dark, loved by those held in inertia |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 17 Verse 10 mean?
Krishna describes the food loved by tamas: stale, sapless, foul, kept overnight, another's leavings, unfit to offer. The point is not disgust but diagnosis. Tamas does not choose badly; it stops choosing. Where sattva looks for what is fresh and rajas for what is intense, tamas takes whatever is nearest, however long it has sat.
What is the meaning of the verse beginning yatayamam gatarasam puti?
Yāta-yāmaṁ means the hour has passed — cooked long ago, no longer alive. Gata-rasaṁ means the juice has left it. Line by line Krishna names things that were once good and have quietly ceased to be. The verse is a portrait of accepting what has gone dead, and calling it dinner.
Why does Krishna call some food amedhya, unfit to offer?
Amedhya is not a hygiene report. It names what you could not place before something you honour. That test is sharper than any rule, because it asks what you actually revere. Food you would be ashamed to offer is food you have already agreed to be careless about — and carelessness spreads well past the plate.
Is this verse only about food, or about more than food?
Food is where Krishna begins because it is the most honest place to look. But the same three temperaments shape what you read, whom you keep company with, how you spend an evening. Ask of any of these what this verse asks of a meal: is it still alive, and would you offer it?
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Read the list slowly and notice it is not really a list of foods. It is a list of things that have lost their hour. Taste gone, freshness gone, fitness-to-offer gone — and still wanted. That is what tamas is: not hunger, but the absence of any objection. Krishna's sharpest word here is amedhya, unfit to offer. Not unclean by inspection; unclean because you would not set it before someone you love. Look at what you accept without noticing — the reheated evening, the conversation gone flat, the day already picked over by someone else. You did not choose it. You stopped minding.