Shloka 16
Rajo-guṇa-nirdeśa — Brahmā’s Enumeration of Rajasic Dispositions
कामतृत्ता: प्रमोदन्ते सर्वकामसमृद्धिभि: । अर्वाक्स्रोतस इत्येते मनुष्या रजसा वृता:,जो इस पृथ्वीपर भूत, वर्तमान और भविष्य पदार्थोकी चिन्ता करते हैं, धर्म, अर्थ और कामरूप त्रिवर्गके सेवनमें लगे रहते हैं, मनमाना बर्ताव करते हैं और सब प्रकारके भोगोंकी समृद्धिसे आनन्द मानते हैं, वे मनुष्य रजोगुणसे आवृत हैं, उन्हें अर्वाकृख्रोता कहते हैं
kāmatṛptāḥ pramodante sarvakāmasamṛddhibhiḥ | arvāksrotasa ity ete manuṣyā rajasā vṛtāḥ ||
Vāyu said: Those who are satisfied only by desire rejoice in the abundance of every kind of enjoyment. Such people, wrapped in the quality of rajas, are called ‘arvāksrotas’—their current flows downward, toward worldly objects and pleasures rather than toward higher discernment and liberation.
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
A life driven by kāma (desire) and delighting in the plenty of enjoyments is characterized as rājasic: energetic and restless, but ethically and spiritually downward-leaning. The verse warns that such desire-satiation is not true fulfillment; it marks a consciousness oriented toward external gratification rather than inner clarity and higher aims.
Vāyudeva is describing a category of human disposition. He identifies people who revel in sense-pleasures and worldly abundance as being covered by rajas and labels them ‘arvāksrotas,’ indicating their tendency to flow toward lower, outward pursuits.