Shloka 31
भीष्मविक्रमदर्शनं तथा क्रौञ्चारुणव्यूहविधानम् | Bhīṣma’s Ascendancy and the Organization of the Krauñcāruṇa Formation
यया धर्ममधर्म च कार्य चाकार्यमेव च । अयथावत् प्रजानाति बुद्धि: सा पार्थ राजसी,हे पार्थ! मनुष्य जिस बुद्धिके द्वारा धर्म और अधर्मको* तथा कर्तव्य और अकर्तव्यकोः भी यथार्थ नहीं जानता, वह बुद्धि राजसी है?
yayā dharmam adharmaṁ ca kāryaṁ cākāryam eva ca | ayathāvat prajānāti buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī ||
Arjuna said: That intellect by which one fails to discern correctly what is dharma and what is adharma, and likewise what ought to be done and what ought not to be done—such an intellect, O Partha, is of the rajasic kind.
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
A rajasic intellect is marked by confused moral discernment: it misjudges dharma vs. adharma and duty vs. forbidden action, leading to ethically unreliable decisions driven by passion, bias, or self-interest.
Within the Bhīṣma Parva’s battlefield instruction context, the discourse classifies types of intellect by the three guṇas; this verse defines the rajasic type as one that cannot correctly distinguish right from wrong and what should or should not be done.