Shloka 54
तृष्णाक्षय-उपदेशः
Instruction on the Cessation of Craving
नैर्गुण्यमेव पश्यन्ति न गुणाननुयुञ्जते । तेषां तम:शरीराणां तम एव परायणम्,वे शम-दम आदि साधनोंको सदा निष्फल ही देखते और समझते हैं। ज्ञान, ऐश्वर्य आदि सदगुणोंकी जिज्ञासा नहीं करते हैं। उन तमोमय शरीरवाले पुरुषोंका तमोगुण ही सबसे बड़ा अवलम्ब है
nairguṇyam eva paśyanti na guṇān anuyuñjate | teṣāṃ tamaḥśarīrāṇāṃ tama eva parāyaṇam ||
Kapila said: “They look only toward what is devoid of higher qualities and do not pursue the cultivation of virtues. For those whose very embodiment is steeped in darkness (tamas), darkness itself becomes their supreme refuge and final resort.”
कपिल उवाच
Educational Q&A
Kapila warns that people dominated by tamas dismiss disciplines like self-control and the pursuit of knowledge and virtue; when one refuses to cultivate higher qualities, one’s ‘refuge’ becomes tamas itself—habitual ignorance and inertia.
Within Kapila’s instruction in the Śānti Parva, he characterizes a class of persons who neither value nor practice the cultivation of guṇas (especially sattvic virtues). He explains their psychological condition: being tamasic in constitution, they naturally cling to tamas as their support.