The Supreme Lord said: Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in knowledge and yoga, charity, self-control, sacrifice, study of scriptures, austerity, uprightness, nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquility, aversion to fault-finding, compassion to all beings, freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty, absence of fickleness, vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice, and humility—these belong to one born with divine qualities, O Bharata.
These qualities define divine nature. Use them as a checklist for self-evaluation. Where are you strong? Where weak? Cultivate what's lacking; strengthen what's present. Divine qualities lead to liberation.
Verse 16.4
Sanskrit Transliteration:
dambho darpo 'bhimānaśh cha krodhaḥ pāruṣhyam eva cha
ajñānaṁ chābhijātasya pārtha sampadam āsurīm
Translation:
Hypocrisy, arrogance, excessive pride, anger, harshness, and ignorance—these belong to one born with demonic qualities, O Partha.
Commentary:
Six demonic qualities are listed: pretense (showing virtue you don't have), arrogance (unwarranted self-importance), pride (considering yourself better than you are), anger, cruelty, and ignorance. These characterize the demonic nature.
Learning:
Demonic qualities are easier to spot in others than in yourself. Examine honestly: Do you pretend to be what you're not? Think too highly of yourself? Get angry easily? Treat others harshly? Remain ignorant when you could learn?
Divine qualities lead to liberation; demonic qualities lead to bondage. Do not grieve, O Pandava—you are born with divine endowments.
Commentary:
Divine qualities free; demonic qualities bind. Krishna reassures Arjuna that he possesses divine qualities. This is both comfort and a call to maintain those qualities.
Learning:
Know the stakes: divine traits liberate, demonic traits bind. If you have divine qualities, be grateful and cultivate them further. If demonic tendencies appear, work to transform them. Your destiny depends on these choices.
Verse 16.6
Sanskrit Transliteration:
dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin daiva āsura eva cha
daivo vistaraśhaḥ prokta āsuraṁ pārtha me śhṛiṇu
Translation:
There are two types of beings in this world—the divine and the demonic. The divine has been described at length; now hear from Me about the demonic, O Partha.
Commentary:
Creation includes two fundamental types of beings. Divine nature has been detailed; now Krishna will describe demonic nature more fully. Understanding both is necessary for self-knowledge.
Learning:
Both tendencies exist in the world and often within individuals. Understanding both helps you recognize them in yourself and others. Self-awareness requires knowing the full spectrum of human possibility.
Verse 16.7
Sanskrit Transliteration:
pravṛittiṁ cha nivṛittiṁ cha janā na vidur āsurāḥ
na śhauchaṁ nāpi chāchāro na satyaṁ teṣhu vidyate
Translation:
Demonic people do not know what to do or what to avoid. There is no purity, proper conduct, or truth in them.
Commentary:
The demonic lack basic discrimination: they don't know right action from wrong. They lack purity (internal cleanliness), proper conduct (external behavior), and truthfulness. These three absences characterize demonic consciousness.
Learning:
The demonic condition is marked by confusion about right and wrong, internal impurity, improper behavior, and dishonesty. These compound each other. Without discrimination, purity, proper conduct, and truth, one is lost.
Verse 16.8
Sanskrit Transliteration:
asatyam apratiṣhṭhaṁ te jagad āhur anīśhvaram
aparaspara-sambhūtaṁ kim anyat kāma-haitukam
Translation:
They say the world is without truth, without foundation, without a God, produced by mere union of the sexes—what else but driven by lust?
Commentary:
Demonic philosophy: the world is unreal (no ultimate truth), baseless (no foundation), godless (no divine controller), produced by sexual union alone (no higher purpose), driven only by desire. This worldview denies meaning beyond material causation.
Learning:
The demonic worldview reduces existence to accidental materiality driven by desire. No God, no truth, no meaning—just atoms and lust. Recognize this philosophy when you encounter it. It leads to the consequences that follow.
Holding this view, these lost souls of small intellect, of fierce deeds, arise as enemies of the world, working for its destruction.
Commentary:
This materialist philosophy produces lost souls with limited intelligence who engage in violent actions and become enemies of humanity, working toward destruction. Wrong view leads to harmful action.
Learning:
Philosophy matters. The view that life has no meaning beyond desire produces dangerous people. World-destroyers arise from materialist nihilism. Ideas have consequences; wrong ideas have terrible consequences.
Taking refuge in insatiable desire, full of hypocrisy, pride, and arrogance, holding wrong views due to delusion, they act with impure resolves.
Commentary:
Demonic people are driven by desires that can never be satisfied. They are hypocritical, proud, arrogant. Deluded, they adopt false philosophies. Their vows and practices are impure. Desire combined with delusion produces destructive living.
Learning:
Insatiable desire combined with pride and wrong views creates impure living. Notice the combination: desire that can't be satisfied, pretense of virtue without substance, and philosophical error. These together ruin lives.
Obsessed with immense anxieties that end only in death, regarding sense gratification as the highest goal, convinced that this is all; bound by hundreds of ties of hope, given over to lust and anger, they strive to amass wealth by unjust means for sense enjoyment.
Commentary:
Demonic people carry endless anxiety until death. They believe sense pleasure is life's highest purpose—"this is all there is." Bound by countless hopes, driven by lust and anger, they accumulate wealth dishonestly to fuel their pleasures.
Learning:
The demonic life: endless worry, pleasure as the only goal, countless hopes never fulfilled, driven by desire and anger, acquiring wealth unjustly to feed addictions. This pattern is recognizable in individuals and societies.
Verse 16.13-15
Sanskrit Transliteration:
idam adya mayā labdham imaṁ prāpsye manoratham
idam astīdam api me bhaviṣhyati punar dhanam
asau mayā hataḥ śhatrur haniṣhye chāparān api
īśhvaro 'ham ahaṁ bhogī siddho 'haṁ balavān sukhī
āḍhyo 'bhijanavān asmi ko 'nyo 'sti sadṛiśho mayā
yakṣhye dāsyāmi modiṣhya ity ajñāna-vimohitāḥ
Translation:
"Today I have gained this; tomorrow I shall fulfill this desire. This wealth is mine, and that also will be mine. That enemy has been slain by me, and I shall slay others too. I am the lord, the enjoyer, successful, powerful, and happy. I am wealthy, born of a noble family. Who else is equal to me? I shall sacrifice, I shall give, I shall rejoice." Thus deluded by ignorance.
Commentary:
The demonic internal monologue: acquisition achieved, more planned; enemies destroyed, more to destroy; self-proclaimed lord, enjoyer, successful, powerful, happy; wealthy, well-born, unequaled; generous sacrifices planned. All deluded by ignorance.
Learning:
Listen for this internal dialogue in yourself: endless acquisition, comparison with others, self-congratulation, plans for more conquests. This is the voice of demonic delusion. Recognize it; don't be fooled by it.
Bewildered by many thoughts, caught in the net of delusion, addicted to the gratification of desires, they fall into a foul hell.
Commentary:
Many confused thoughts, trapped in delusion's web, addicted to pleasures—this combination drops one into degraded states. Hell is not arbitrary punishment but natural consequence of this way of living.
Learning:
Confused thinking, delusion, and addiction naturally lead downward. The hellish state follows from the causes. There's no external judge condemning—it's cause and effect. Change the causes to change the consequences.
Verse 16.17
Sanskrit Transliteration:
ātma-sambhāvitāḥ stabdhā dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ
yajante nāma-yajñais te dambhenāvidhi-pūrvakam
Translation:
Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with the pride and intoxication of wealth, they perform sacrifices in name only, ostentatiously, not following proper rules.
Commentary:
Demonic people are self-important, rigid, drunk on wealth and pride. Their religious acts are in name only—for show, not following actual traditions. Religion becomes another ego-display rather than genuine worship.
Learning:
Religion can be perverted into ego-display. Performing rituals for show rather than devotion, ignoring proper forms while maintaining appearances—this is demonic religiosity. Examine your motives for religious activity.
Possessed by ego, power, arrogance, desire, and anger, these envious people hate Me in their own bodies and in the bodies of others.
Commentary:
Driven by ego, obsessed with power, arrogant, consumed by desire and anger, demonic people are envious and hate God—in themselves (their own inner divine presence) and in others. They oppose the divine everywhere.
Learning:
Hatred of God shows in hatred of the divine presence in oneself and others. The demonic person resents divinity wherever it appears. Envy of others' goodness is ultimately envy of God in them.
These hateful, cruel, and vile people, the lowest of humanity—I continuously cast them into the wombs of demons in the cycles of rebirth.
Commentary:
Those who hate, who are cruel and impure, the lowest of humans—Krishna casts them into demonic births repeatedly. This isn't arbitrary divine revenge but natural consequence: their tendencies lead them to environments matching their nature.
Learning:
Demonic nature leads to demonic rebirth. You become what you cultivate. Hatred and cruelty don't disappear at death—they carry you to conditions that match them. Transform now while you can.
Entering demonic wombs birth after birth, these deluded beings never reach Me, O son of Kunti, but sink to the lowest condition.
Commentary:
Life after life in demonic conditions, never attaining God, sinking lower—this is the trajectory of uncorrected demonic nature. The descent continues unless the pattern is broken.
Learning:
Without correction, negative patterns perpetuate and worsen. Each demonic life makes the next more likely. Breaking the cycle requires recognizing the pattern and actively changing. Don't assume things will naturally improve.
Three gates lead to hell and the destruction of the self: desire, anger, and greed. Therefore, one should abandon these three.
Commentary:
Three doorways to hell and self-destruction: desire (kama), anger (krodha), and greed (lobha). These three must be abandoned. They are the root causes of demonic life and its consequences.
Learning:
Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates to degradation. Target these specifically. When they arise, recognize them as doors to hell. Work to close these doors through awareness and practice.
One who is freed from these three gates of darkness, O son of Kunti, does what is good for the self and thus goes to the supreme goal.
Commentary:
Released from these three dark gates, a person naturally acts for genuine well-being and attains the highest destination. Freedom from desire, anger, and greed enables right action and liberation.
Learning:
Freedom from desire, anger, and greed enables good action and spiritual progress. These aren't just moral ideals but practical necessities. Remove these obstacles and right living naturally follows.
Verse 16.23
Sanskrit Transliteration:
yaḥ śhāstra-vidhim utsṛijya vartate kāma-kārataḥ
na sa siddhim avāpnoti na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim
Translation:
One who disregards scriptural injunctions and acts according to personal desire attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme goal.
Commentary:
Abandoning scriptural guidance and acting on whim brings neither spiritual success, nor genuine happiness, nor ultimate liberation. Self-will divorced from wisdom fails on all counts.
Learning:
Acting purely on desire without wise guidance leads nowhere good. Personal whim isn't reliable direction. Scripture (properly understood) offers tested guidance. Don't dismiss accumulated wisdom in favor of momentary impulse.
Verse 16.24
Sanskrit Transliteration:
tasmāch chhāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te kāryākārya-vyavasthitau
jñātvā śhāstra-vidhānoktaṁ karma kartum ihārhasi
Translation:
Therefore, scripture should be your authority in determining what should be done and what should not be done. Knowing what is declared in the scriptural rules, you should perform action here.
Commentary:
Scripture serves as the authority for deciding right and wrong action. Understanding scriptural guidance, act accordingly. This isn't blind obedience but informed action based on tested wisdom.
Learning:
Use scripture as a guide for moral decision-making. This doesn't mean mechanical rule-following but informed judgment based on accumulated wisdom. When confused about right action, consult authoritative guidance.
Translation and commentary sourced from public domain texts.
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