Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 18, Verse 22
यत्तु कृत्स्नवदेकस्मिन्कार्ये सक्तमहैतुकम्।अतत्त्वार्थवदल्पं च तत्तामसमुदाहृतम्।।
yat tu kṛtsna-vad ekasmin kārye saktam ahaitukam
atattvārtha-vad alpaṁ ca tat tāmasam udāhṛtam
also searched as "yat tu kritsnavad ekasmin karye saktam ahaitukam"
Translation
But that knowledge is declared to be Tamasika which clings to one single act as if it were the whole, which is not based on reason, and which is false and insignificant.
Vāṇi's rendering
And the knowing that grips one small thing as if it were everything — reasonless, truthless, narrow — is dark.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| यत्yat | which, that knowing |
| तुtu | but, whereas |
| कृत्स्नवत्kṛtsna-vad | as if it were the whole (sandhi: kṛtsna-vat before ekasmin) |
| एकस्मिन्ekasmin | in one single |
| कार्येkārye | effect, act, thing to be done |
| सक्तम्saktam | stuck to, gripping |
| अहैतुकम्ahaitukam | without reason, groundless |
| अतत्त्वार्थवत्atattvārtha-vad | as though missing the real meaning of the thing (sandhi: -vat before alpam) |
| अल्पम्alpaṁ | small, narrow, trivial |
| चca | and |
| तत्tat | that |
| तामसम्tāmasam | dark, of tamas |
| उदाहृतम्udāhṛtam | is called, is declared |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Verse 22 mean?
It names the darkest kind of knowing: the mind that fastens on one small thing and treats it as the whole of reality. Krishna calls it reasonless, cut off from what is actually true, and trivial. Not a false belief so much as a shrunken field of sight — everything left out.
What does yat tu kritsnavad ekasmin karye saktam ahaitukam teach?
That narrowness itself is a form of darkness. Tāmasa knowing does not investigate; it simply clings. It takes one effect — the body, one role, one wound — for the entire truth, and asks no reason for the taking. Widen the view and the darkness thins on its own.
Why is this called tamasic knowledge and not just ignorance?
Because it has the confidence of knowledge without its work. Ignorance can be taught. This grips. Krishna's word is saktam — stuck. A knowing that will not examine itself cannot be corrected by argument; it loosens only when life shows you something the small view could not hold.
How do I recognise this kind of knowing in myself?
Look for the place where you have stopped asking why. Where one fact about you — a failure, a label, a fear — has quietly become the whole account of who you are. That totalising is the sign. Notice it, and the grip is already less absolute.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Krishna has been naming three ways of knowing, and this is the last and smallest. It is not called wrong. It is called narrow — one thing gripped as if it were everything. The body taken for the whole self. One grievance taken for the whole of a life. It asks no reason for itself, and that is what makes it dark rather than merely mistaken. Reasonless knowing cannot be argued with, only outgrown. Arjuna's despair had this shape: one loss filling the whole field of sight. Ask what you are holding so tightly that nothing else fits in the hand.