A core teaching · reflective in mood · easy to enter
“What you repeatedly choose to consume reveals the heaviness within.”
Food that is half-cooked, tasteless, foul-smelling, stale, leftover, and impure is dear to people ruled by tamas.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Hover a word to focus on it.
Read literallydevoid of taste · foul-smelling · and · which · leftover · even · and · impure · food · dear to tamasic people
People dominated by tamas are drawn to food that is stale, tasteless, foul-smelling, leftover, or impure.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga" (The Three Kinds of Faith).
Verse 10 sits in Chapter 17 of the Bhagavad Gita — Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga, "The Three Kinds of Faith". The chapter has 28 verses in total.
You open the fridge late at night and reach for whatever is dead easiest, not what actually helps you. The body keeps a record of what the mind has been feeding it.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts attention from taste alone to the quality of what you repeatedly accept.
What this verse means
People dominated by tamas are drawn to food that is stale, tasteless, foul-smelling, leftover, or impure.
Context & commentary
On the battlefield, Krishna is teaching Arjuna how faith shows itself in daily choices. After describing pure and restless habits, he names the food preferred by tamas: stale, impure, and lifeless. The point is to show how inner heaviness shapes appetite.
Why this verse still matters
You open the fridge late at night and reach for whatever is dead easiest, not what actually helps you. The body keeps a record of what the mind has been feeding it.
“Your cravings can reveal your condition before your thoughts do.”
Explore related themes: shraddha (34 verses), indriya (19 verses), tamas (18 verses)