Shloka 32
भीष्मविक्रमदर्शनं तथा क्रौञ्चारुणव्यूहविधानम् | Bhīṣma’s Ascendancy and the Organization of the Krauñcāruṇa Formation
अधर्म धर्ममिति या मन्यते तमसा5<वृता | सर्वार्थान् विपरीतांश्व बुद्धि: सा पार्थ तामसी,हे अर्जुन! जो तमोगुणसे घिरी हुई बुद्धि अधर्मको भी “यह धर्म है” ऐसा मान लेती हैः तथा इसी प्रकार अन्य सम्पूर्ण पदार्थोकोी भी विपरीत मान लेती है,* वह बुद्धि तामसी है
adharmaṁ dharmam iti yā manyate tamasāvṛtā | sarvārthān viparītāṁś ca buddhiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī ||
Arjuna said: That intellect which, being veiled by darkness (tamas), takes what is unrighteous to be righteous, and likewise misconstrues all things in a reversed way—such an intellect, O Pārtha, is called tāmasī (born of tamas).
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
An intellect dominated by tamas loses moral and practical discernment: it labels adharma as dharma and habitually interprets matters in a distorted, opposite way. Such confusion is the mark of a tāmasī buddhi.
In the Bhīṣma Parva’s Bhagavadgītā discourse, Kṛṣṇa is classifying intellect (buddhi) according to the three guṇas. Here he defines the tamasic type by its darkness-born misjudgment—especially the inversion of dharma and adharma—addressing Arjuna as Pārtha.