Bhagavad Gita 18.32
अधर्मं धर्ममिति या मन्यते तमसावृता । सर्वार्थान्विपरीतांश्च बुद्धिः सा पार्थ तामसी ॥
adharmaṃ dharmam iti yā manyate tamasāvṛtā / sarvārthān viparītāṃś ca buddhiḥ sā pārtha tāmasī
Translation
The intellect that, covered by darkness, takes adharma for dharma and sees everything in reverse, Partha, that is of the dark kind.
Reflection
Which of your justifications inverts dharma into adharma while sounding noble to your ear?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eighteen
Tamasika buddhi. Now the inversion is total. What is adharma is named dharma. What is dharma is named adharma. The intellect is tamasa-avrita, completely shrouded. Sarva-arthan viparitamsh, everything reversed. This is the mind so fully captured by ignorance and self-serving distortion that it loses its compass entirely. Cruelty is heroic. Honesty is naive. Discipline is oppression. Indulgence is freedom. The Gita names this clinically, not to shame anyone but to mark the diagnostic extreme. Recognizing this end of the spectrum makes the daily work of staying out of it visible. The middle and the bottom are nearer than anyone wants to admit.