Shloka 25
तमोगुण-निरूपण
Analysis of Tamas and its Marks
मग्नास्तमसि दुर्वत्ता: स्वकर्मकृतलक्षणा: । अवाक्स्रोतस इत्येते मग्नासतमसि तामसा:
magnās tamasi durvṛttāḥ svakarmakṛtalakṣaṇāḥ | avāksrotasa ity ete magnās tamasi tāmasāḥ ||
Vāyu said: “These people, of corrupt conduct, bear the marks fashioned by their own deeds. Sunk in darkness, they are called ‘those whose current flows downward’; tamasic by nature, they remain immersed in that gloom.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
One’s moral condition and destiny are shaped by one’s own actions: corrupt conduct leads to tamasic darkness, described as a downward-flowing tendency (avāksrotas), signifying spiritual decline and bondage to ignorance.
Vāyudeva characterizes certain beings/people as sunk in tamas due to their own misdeeds, labeling them ‘avāksrotasaḥ’—those whose inner current moves downward—thereby explaining their degraded state in ethical and karmic terms.