Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18, Verse 16

तत्रैवं सति कर्तारमात्मानं केवलं तु यः । पश्यत्यकृतबुद्धित्वान्न स पश्यति दुर्मतिः

tatraivaṃ sati kartāramātmānaṃ kevalaṃ tu yaḥ | paśyatyakṛtabuddhitvānna sa paśyati durmatiḥ

Translation

Now, such being the case, verily, he who, as untrained in understanding, looks on the pure Self as the agent, that man of perverted intelligence sees not.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

tatra

there

evam

thus

sati

being

kartāram

actor

ātmānam

the Self

kevalam

alone

tu

indeed

yaḥ

who

paśyati

sees

akṛtabuddhitvāt

not, achieved, intelligence, by whom, of him, from the condition

na

not

saḥ

he

paśyati

sees

durmatiḥ

evil-minded

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

The unenlightened one, in virtue of his ignorance, identifies the Self with the five causes and looks upon the pure Self as the agent of the action which is really accomplished by those five causes. His understanding (buddhi) has not been trained in the Vedānta, has not been trained by a master's teaching, has not been trained in the principles of reasoning. Even he who, while maintaining the existence of the disembodied Self, looks upon the pure Self as the agent, is a man of untrained understanding; he is therefore a man of perverted intelligence — his intelligence takes a wrong direction, continually leading to birth and death. Though seeing, yet he does not see the truth.