Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 14, Verse 13: Krishna to Arjuna — Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  When tamas (the guna of obscuration) swells in the field, the signs that arise are aprakasha (non-illumination, meaning aViveka — loss of discriminative capacity), apravritti (complete cessation of purposive activity), pramada (heedlessness), and moha (delusion, i.e., stupefaction). Shankara reads these four not as separate qualities but as a cascading sequence: the root is aViveka, and pramada-moha are its successive effects. These are the unfailing marks by which the adept knows tamas has become dominant — and thus knows that liberation requires removing this very obstruction through jnana.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja maps each term precisely: aprakasha is the non-arising of jnana (knowledge does not dawn); apravritti is stambhata (inertness, a kind of paralysis); pramada is the carelessness that results from engagement with what should not be done; moha is viparita-jnana (inverted cognition — taking the non-real for real). These four together are the diagnostics by which one knows tamas has grown; conversely, their presence is how tamas reveals itself. For the devotee, recognizing these signs is itself an act of discernment that initiates the turn toward Bhagavan's grace.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Aprakāśa* (non-illumination), *apravṛtti* (inertia), *pramāda* (heedlessness), and *moha* (delusion) — these four arise, O Kuru-nandana, when *tamas* (the quality of inertia and obscuration) swells and prevails. In the dvaita reading, each of these signs marks a specific mode of *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva*-bondage under tamas. *Aprakāśa* is the suppression of the *jīva*'s natural cognitive orientation toward *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari; *apravṛtti* is the cessation of any movement toward *bhakti* (devotion); *pramāda* is the collapse of discriminative attention; *moha* is the thickening of *adhyāsa* upon *bheda* (real distinction) — the *jīva* loses its grip on its own differentiated status from Hari, from other *jīvas*, and from matter, the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter) being effectively obscured though never annulled. Tamas does not alter the *jīva*'s ontological *paratantra* structure; it buries it. Only Hari's *anugraha* (grace), not the *jīva*'s self-generated effort alone, dissolves what tamas has heaped upon it — for the *jīva* remains wholly *paratantra* even in the work of its own liberation.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads the four tamo-signs through the five-fold avidya schema: he identifies tamas as the first and most fundamental stratum of the panca-parva avidya (five-limbed nescience), of which andha-tamisra, tamisra, maha-moha, and moha are the remaining four. Aprakasha arises when svarupa-ajna (ignorance of one's own nature as Krsna's) predominates, causing false superimposition on prana, antahkarana, indriya, and deha. This avidya is not a separate category but is fully contained within tamo-guna; it bears different names but resolves into the same ground. Recognition of this collapse is the first movement back toward Krishna's lila-prasada.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara Svami gives the clearest lexical anchors: aprakasha is viveka-bhramsha (collapse of discernment), apravritti is udyama-abhava (absence of effort), pramada is kartavya-artha-anusandhana-rahitya (complete lack of attentiveness to what duty requires), and moha is mithya-abhinivesha (false fixation, clinging to what is untrue). These are the cinhna (diagnostic marks) by which one recognizes tamas in growth. The devotee uses these signs not for self-condemnation but as a diagnostic tool to know when deeper bhakti-sadhana is called for.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana Sarasvati gives the most technically precise rendering: aprakasha is the state where, even when the conditions for awakening (upadesa, teaching) are fully present, there is absolute incapacity for bodha (no receptivity to instruction); apravritti is where, even with full jnana of scriptural injunction (agnihotram juhuyat), there is absolute incapacity for that injunction to produce action; pramada is anusandhana-abhava (the failure to hold in mind what is currently due); and moha is nidra or viparitya (sleep-like confusion or inversion). The emphatic 'eva' in 'moha eva ca' rules out any overlap with the other signs — each is a distinct tamo-symptom. Together these are the avyabhicarin (unfailing, non-erring) marks of tamas in its full bloom.