Bhagavad Gita 9.12
मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतसः | राक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिताः ||
moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ | rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ ||
Translation
Of vain hopes, vain actions, vain knowledge, and confused minds, they take refuge in the deluding rakṣasa and asura nature.
Reflection
Which sustained effort is producing no real harvest?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Nine
The consequence for the deluded just named. Their hopes are vain, their works are vain, their knowledge is vain, because all three rest on a missed foundation. They have taken refuge in the rakshasa and asura nature, which Krishna calls deluding. Mogha, vain, is repeated three times. The repetition is not rhetoric. It is showing how the same root error produces three separate failed harvests. Plans without grounding do not arrive. Work without orientation does not accumulate. Knowledge without humility does not transmit. The fault is not in the energy spent. It is in the soil. The verse is one of the few in the chapter that names a clear negative case, and it does so to throw the great-souled of the next verse into relief.