Bhagavad Gita 18.31

yayā dharmam adharmaṁ ca

kāryaṁ cākāryam eva ca

ayathāvat prajānāti

buddhiḥ sā pārtha rājasī

 

It sees dimly: what dharma is, what it isn’t;

What needs to be done, what needn’t;

Mistaking truth through partial, clouded sight—

That is intelligence shaped by passion’s light.

 

My dear Lord, much of the world around me is driven by, indeed defined by, the mode of rajas. Please protect me when it drives my actions toward things based on how they glitter, not on whether they matter.

O omniscient Lord, while my vision has holes, your vision forever remains whole. Whenever my conceptions are incomplete and, worse still, therefore become incorrect, please make them whole, so that I do not dissipate my life in pursuing things that seem desirable based on their appearance, but are not actually so based on their substance.

O benevolent Lord, I need holistic intelligence for all of my conceptions: not just those about the objects I pursue, but also those about the duties I discharge and the values I cherish. May your mercy complement my conceptions about my duties and values, so that I can distinguish between what is my moral or practical responsibility toward others and what is a self-created conception fueled by my need for their approval.

O compassionate Lord, I seek and need your compassion to make whole my many conceptions that have been rendered defective, and sometimes even deceptive, by the infection of passion in my inner world. May you please fortify and purify my intelligence so that I can invest my time and energy in pursuing the things that actually count, not the things glamorized by the world that I need to discount.

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18.31 O son of Pṛthā, that understanding which cannot distinguish between religion and irreligion, between action that should be done and action that should not be done, is in the mode of passion.