BHAGAVAD GITA

Conversation 16. The Yoga of Liberating and Binding Conditions

aka Discrimination of the Divine and Demonic

Table of Contents

Chapter 15 - Chapter 17


  • Krishna said:
    Fearlessness, purity of heart,
    perseverance in the yoga of knowledge,
    charity, sense restraint, sacrifice,
    study of the scriptures, austerity, honesty;


  • Nonviolence, truthfulness, absence of anger,
    renunciation, equanimity, abstaining from malicious talk,
    compassion for all creatures, freedom from greed,
    gentleness, modesty, absence of fickleness;


  • Splendor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness,
    absence of malice, and absence of pride;
    these are the qualities of those endowed
    with divine virtues, O Arjuna.


  • Hypocrisy, arrogance, pride, anger,
    arshness, and ignorance;
    these are the marks of those who are
    born with demonic qualities, O Arjuna.


  • Divine qualities lead to nirvana,
    the demonic (qualities) are said to be for bondage.
    Do not grieve, O Arjuna,
    you are born with divine qualities.


  • There are two types of human beings in this world:
    the divine, and the demonic.
    The divine has been described at length,
    now hear from Me about the demonic, O Arjuna.


  • Persons of demonic nature
    do not know what to do and what not to do.
    They neither have purity nor good conduct
    nor truthfulness.


  • They say that the world is unreal, without a substratum,
    without a God, and without an order.
    The world is caused by lust
    (or Kama) alone and nothing else.


  • Adhering to this view these lost souls,
    with small intellect and cruel deeds,
    are born as enemies for the destruction of the world.


  • Filled with insatiable desires, hypocrisy,
    pride, and arrogance; holding wrong views due to delusion;
    they act with impure motives.


  • Obsessed with great anxiety until death,
    considering sense gratification as their highest aim,
    convinced that this (sense pleasure) is everything,


  • Bound by hundreds of ties of desire
    and enslaved by lust and anger;
    they strive to obtain wealth by unlawful means
    for the fulfillment of desires. They think:


  • This has been gained by me today,
    I shall fulfill this desire,
    this is mine and this wealth also
    shall be mine in the future;


  • That enemy has been slain by me,
    and I shall slay others also.
    I am the Lord. I am the enjoyer.
    I am successful, powerful, and happy;


  • I am rich and born in a noble family.
    I am the greatest. I shall perform sacrifice,
    I shall give charity, and I shall rejoice.
    Thus deluded by ignorance;


  • Bewildered by many fancies;
    entangled in the net of delusion;
    addicted to the enjoyment of sensual pleasures;
    they fall into a foul hell.


  • Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with pride
    and intoxication of wealth;
    they perform Yajna only in name, for show,
    and not according to scriptural injunction.


  • Clinging to egoism, power, arrogance, lust, and anger;
    these malicious people hate Me (who dwells)
    in their own body and others' bodies.


  • I hurl these haters, cruel, sinful,
    and mean people of the world,
    into the wombs of demons again and again.


  • O Arjuna, entering the wombs of demons
    birth after birth, the deluded ones
    sink to the lowest hell
    without ever attaining Me.


  • Lust, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell
    leading to the downfall (or bondage) of Jeeva.
    Therefore, one must (learn to) give up these three.


  • One who is liberated
    from these three gates of hell, O Arjuna,
    does what is best, and attains the supreme goal.


  • One who acts under the influence of their desires,
    disobeying scriptural injunctions,
    neither attains perfection nor happiness
    nor the supreme goal.


  • Therefore, let the scripture be your authority
    in determining what should be done
    and what should not be done.
    You should perform your duty
    following the scriptural injunction.

    This is the end of Chapter XVI of the Bhagavad Gita
    Entitled "Daivasurasampadvibhaga-Yoga,"
    Or "The Yoga of the Distinction Between Binding and Liberating Conditions"