When tamas increases, O son of the Kurus, darkness, inactivity, negligence, and delusion arise.

The signs of prevailing tamas: aprakāśa (darkness, the absence of inner light), apravṛtti (inactivity, withdrawal from appropriate engagement), pramāda (negligence, heedlessness toward one's duties and opportunities), and moha (delusion, confusion about what is real and what matters). The tāmasic state is the opposite of both the illuminated sāttvic state and the energised rājasic state — it is characterised by a heaviness, a fogginess, a kind of living unconsciousness. Things that matter do not register; effort feels impossible; the horizons of possibility contract.