पृथक्त्वेन तु यज्ज्ञानं नानाभावान्पृथग्विधान् | वेत्ति सर्वेषु भूतेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि राजसम् ||
pṛthaktvena tu yaj jñānaṁ nānā-bhāvān pṛthag-vidhān vetti sarveṣu bhūteṣu taj jñānaṁ viddhi rājasam
Translation
But that knowledge which sees in all beings various entities of distinct kinds as different from one another — know that to be rajasic.
Interpretation
Rajasic knowledge: perception of ultimate separateness — seeing all beings as fundamentally distinct, categorizing the world into 'mine' and 'other,' 'us' and 'them,' friend and enemy, higher and lower. This is not wrong in the relative sense (distinctions exist), but it is wrong as an ultimate understanding. Rajasic knowledge takes the diversity of forms to be ultimate reality and misses the unity beneath. It produces the competitive, acquisitive, separative consciousness that drives most worldly life — not evil but limited, not false but incomplete.