Shloka 18
Secondary Creation Begins: Brahmā’s Productions, the Guṇas, and the Emergence of Orders of Beings
ससर्ज च्छाययाविद्यां पञ्चपर्वाणमग्रत: । तामिस्रमन्धतामिस्रं तमो मोहो महातम: ॥ १८ ॥
sasarja cchāyayāvidyāṁ pañca-parvāṇam agrataḥ tāmisram andha-tāmisraṁ tamo moho mahā-tamaḥ
First, Brahmā created from his own shadow five coverings of ignorance for the conditioned souls: tāmisra, andha-tāmisra, tamas, moha, and mahā-moha.
The conditioned souls, or living entities who come to the material world to enjoy sense gratification, are covered in the beginning by five different conditions. The first condition is a covering of tāmisra, or anger. Constitutionally, each and every living entity has minute independence; it is misuse of that minute independence for the conditioned soul to think that he can also enjoy like the Supreme Lord or to think, “Why shall I not be a free enjoyer like the Supreme Lord?” This forgetfulness of his constitutional position is due to anger or envy. The living entity, being eternally a part-and-parcel servitor of the Supreme Lord, can never, by constitution, be an equal enjoyer with the Lord. When he forgets this, however, and tries to be one with Him, his condition is called tāmisra. Even in the field of spiritual realization, this tāmisra mentality of the living entity is hard to overcome. In trying to get out of the entanglement of material life, there are many who want to be one with the Supreme. Even in their transcendental activities, this lower-grade mentality of tāmisra continues.
FAQs
In Bhagavatam 3.20.18, Śukadeva explains that ignorance is manifested in five phases—tāmisra, andha-tāmisra, tamaḥ, moha, and mahā-tamaḥ—describing progressive darkness of consciousness that binds the jīva.
This verse indicates that avidyā appears as part of the material manifestation, enabling conditioned life under the modes of nature; it sets the stage for the jīva’s entanglement and, ultimately, for liberation through hearing and devotion that dispels ignorance.
Use the fivefold description as a self-check: notice when consciousness slips into inertia, delusion, or blind hostility, and counter it with sādhana—hearing Bhagavatam, chanting, and cultivating sattva and bhakti to remove darkness from the heart.