Shloka
मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतसः |
राक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिताः ||९-१२||Transliteration
moghāśā moghakarmāṇo moghajñānā vicetasaḥ .
rākṣasīmāsurīṃ caiva prakṛtiṃ mohinīṃ śritāḥ ||9-12||Translations
Dr.S.Sankaranarayan
9.12. [They] are of futile aspirations, futile actions, futile knowledge and wrong intellect; and they take recourse only to the delusive nature that is demoniac and also devilish.
Shri Purohit Swami
9.12 Their hopes are vain, their actions worthless, their knowledge futile; they are without sense, deceitful, barbarous and godless.
Sri Abhinav Gupta
9.12 Mogha-etc. Their action, knowledge and aspirations are all futile, as these are concerned with the unreal. The demoniac and devilish nature etc. They are of the nature of excessive desire and ignorance.
Sri Ramanuja
9.12 Men yielding to the deluding nature characteristics of Asuras and Raksas and not aware of My higher nature like compassion etc. When I am in a human form, are possessed of vain hopes, i.e, their hopes remain fruitless, and their knowledge also is vain, i.e., is fruitless. They are so because of their erroneous understanding which fails to know that all things, mobile and immobile, belong to Me. They are ignorant on account of their being devoid of knowledge of truth everywhere. Whatever they do regarding Me, the Lord of all, is done with an attitude that I am an ordinary mortal. So their efforts go in vain. All this springs from their partaking of the nature of Raksasas and Asuras.
Sri Shankaracharya
9.12 Moghasah, of vain hopes. So also, mogha-karmanah, of vain actions: their rites, such as Agnihotra etc. which are undertaken by them, verily become vain, fruitless actions, because of dishonouring the Lord, disregarding Him who is their own Self. In this way they are of vain actions. Similarly, mogha-jnanah, of vain knowledge: of fruitless knowledge; even their knowledge verily becomes useless. And vicetasah, senseless: i.e., they lose their power of discrimination. Besides, [Besides, in the next birth৷৷.] they become sritah, possessed of; the mohinim, self-deceptive, self-delusive; prakritim, disposition; raksasim, of fiends; and asurim, of demons-according to which the body is the Self; i.e., they become habitually inclined to act cruelly, saying, ‘cut, break, drink, eat, steal others’ wealth,’ etc. [The habit to cut, break, drink, eat, etc. is characteristic of fiends. The habit of stealing others’ wealth, etc. is characteristic of demons.] This is stated in the Sruti, ‘Those worlds of devils (are covered by blinding darkness)’ (Is. 3).
Swami Adidevananda
9.12 Senseless men entertain a nature which is deluding and akin to that of Raksasas (fiends) and Asuras (monsters). Their hopes are vain, acts are vain and knowledge is vain.
Swami Gambirananda
9.12 Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge, and senseless, they become verily possessed of the deceptive disposition of fiends and demons.
Swami Sivananda
9.12 Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge and senseless, they verily are possessed of the deceitful nature of demons and undivine beings.
Commentaries
Swami Sivananda
9.12 मोघाशाः of vain hopes? मोघकर्माणः of vain actions? मोघज्ञानाः of vain knowledge? विचेतसः senseless? राक्षसीम् devilish? आसुरीम् undivine? च and? एव verily? प्रकृतिम् nature? मोहिनीम् deceitful? श्रिताः (are) possessed of.Commentary They entertain vain hopes? for there can be no hope in perishable forms. It is vain hope because they run after transient objects and miss the Eternal. It is vain action? because it is not performed by them as sacrifice unto the Lord. The Agnihotra (a ritual) and other actions performed by them are fruitless? because they insult the Lord. They are senseless. They have no,discrimination. They have no idea of the eternal Self. They worship their body only. They behold no self beyond the body. They neglect their own Self. They do atrocious crimes and cruel actions. They rob others property and murder people. They partake of the nature of the demons and the undivine beings.The Rakshasa are Tamasic and the Asuras are Rajasic.Prakriti means here Svabhava (ones own nature).They see the external human body only. They have no knowledge of the Self that dwells within the body. They do not behold God in the universe. They life for eating and drinking only.He who entertains hope of getting the rewards of actions through mere Karma alone? without the grace of the Lord is one of empty hope and empty deed. Karmas are insentient. They cannot give rewards independently. The omniscient Lord Who knows the relationship between Karmas and their fruits can dispense them. He who has obtained knowledge from books which do not admit of the existence of the Self and which do not speak of the Self is one of empty knowledge. This will not give any reward. That knowledge obtained through the study of spiritual books which treat of Brahman alone can give the reward. (Cf.VII.15XVI.6?20)