Shloka 21
तमोगुण-निरूपण
Analysis of Tamas and its Marks
एवंविधाश्व ये केचिल्लोके5स्मित् पापकर्मिण: । मनुष्या भिन्नमर्यादास्ते सर्वे तामसा: स्मृता:,संसारमें ऐसे बर्ताववाले और धर्मकी मर्यादा भंग करनेवाले जो भी पापी मनुष्य हैं, वे सब तमोगुणी माने गये हैं
evaṁvidhāś ca ye kecil loke 'smin pāpakarmiṇaḥ | manuṣyā bhinnamaryādās te sarve tāmasāḥ smṛtāḥ ||
Vāyu said: “In this world, whatever sinful people behave in such a manner—men who break the bounds of dharma and transgress accepted moral limits—all of them are to be regarded as dominated by tamas (darkness, inertia).”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
Those who commit sinful acts and violate the moral boundaries (maryādā) established by dharma are classified as tāmasika—driven by tamas, i.e., ignorance, moral darkness, and inertia that leads to harmful conduct.
Vāyudeva is speaking and offering an ethical classification: he identifies a type of human behavior—sinful conduct coupled with disregard for dharmic limits—and declares that such people are to be understood as dominated by the tamas quality.