XVI
This
discourse is important and very instructive to all persons who wish to attain happiness,
prosperity and blessedness, and to seekers in particular, who wish to attain success in
their spiritual life. Lord Krishna brings out quite clearly and unmistakably here the
intimate connection between ethics and spirituality, between a life of virtue and
God-realisation and liberation. Listing two sets of qualities of opposite kinds, the Lord
classifies them as divine and demoniacal (undivine), and urges us to eradicate the latter
and cultivate the divine qualities.
What kind
of nature should one develop? What conduct must one follow? What way should one live and
act if one must attain God and obtain divine bliss? These questions are answered with
perfect clarity and very definitely. The pure divine qualities are conducive to peace and
liberation and the undivine qualities lead to bondage. Purity, good conduct and truth are
indispensable to spiritual progress and even to an honourable life here.
Devoid of
purity, good conduct and truth, and having no faith in God or a higher Reality beyond this
visible world, man degenerates into a two-legged beast of ugly character and cruel
actions, and sinks into darkness. Such a person becomes his own enemy and the destroyer of
the happiness of others as well as his own. Caught in countless desires and cravings, a
slave of sensual enjoyments and beset by a thousand cares, his life ultimately ends in
misery and degradation. Haughtiness, arrogance and egoism lead to this dire fate.
Therefore, a wise person, desiring success, must eradicate vice and cultivate virtue.
In this
world three gates lead to hell—the gates of passion, anger and greed. Released from
these three qualities one can succeed in attaining salvation and reaching the highest
goal, namely God. Thus the sacred scriptures teach wisely the right path of pure, virtuous
living. One should therefore follow the injunctions of the sacred scriptures that wish his
welfare and be guided in his actions by their noble teachings.
The Blessed Lord said:
1.
Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in Yoga and knowledge, alms-giving, control
of the senses, sacrifice, study of scriptures, austerity and straightforwardness,
2.
Harmlessness, truth, absence of anger, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of crookedness,
compassion towards beings, uncovetousness, gentleness, modesty, absence of fickleness,
3. Vigour,
forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of pride—these belong to
one born in a divine state, O Arjuna!
4.
Hypocrisy, arrogance, self-conceit, harshness and also anger and ignorance, belong to one
who is born in a demoniacal state, O Arjuna!
5. The
divine nature is deemed for liberation and the demoniacal for bondage. Grieve not, O
Arjuna, for thou art born with divine properties!
COMMENTARY:
As Arjuna is dejected, Sri Krishna assures him not to feel alarmed at this description
of the demoniacal qualities as he is born with Sattwic tendencies leading towards
salvation.
6. There
are two types of beings in this world—the divine and the demoniacal; the divine has
been described at length; hear from Me, O Arjuna, of the demoniacal!
7. The
demoniacal know not what to do and what to refrain from; neither purity nor right conduct
nor truth is found in them.
8. They
say: “This universe is without truth, without a (moral) basis, without a God, brought
about by mutual union, with lust for its cause; what else?”
9. Holding
this view, these ruined souls of small intellects and fierce deeds, come forth as enemies
of the world for its destruction.
10. Filled
with insatiable desires, full of hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, holding evil ideas
through delusion, they work with impure resolves.
11. Giving
themselves over to immeasurable cares ending only with death, regarding gratification of
lust as their highest aim, and feeling sure that that is all,
12. Bound
by a hundred ties of hope, given over to lust and anger, they strive to obtain by unlawful
means hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyment.
13.
“This has been gained by me today; this desire I shall obtain; this is mine and this
wealth too shall be mine in future.”
14.
“That enemy has been slain by me and others also I shall slay. I am the lord; I
enjoy; I am perfect, powerful and happy”.
15. “I
am rich and born in a noble family. Who else is equal to me? I will sacrifice. I will give
(charity). I will rejoice,”—thus, deluded by ignorance,
16.
Bewildered by many a fancy, entangled in the snare of delusion, addicted to the
gratification of lust, they fall into a foul hell.
17.
Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with the intoxication and pride of wealth, they perform
sacrifices in name, through ostentation, contrary to scriptural ordinances.
18. Given
over to egoism, power, haughtiness, lust and anger, these malicious people hate Me in
their own bodies and those of others.
19. These
cruel haters, the worst among men in the world,—I hurl all these evil-doers for ever
into the wombs of demons only.
20.
Entering into demoniacal wombs and deluded birth after birth, not attaining Me, they thus
fall, O Arjuna, into a condition still lower than that!
21. Triple
is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, anger, and
greed,—therefore, one should abandon these three.
22. A man
who is liberated from these three gates to darkness, O Arjuna, practises what is good for
him and thus goes to the Supreme goal!
COMMENTARY:
When these three gates to hell are abandoned, the path to salvation is cleared for the
aspirant. He gets the company of sages, which leads to liberation. He receives spiritual
instructions and practises them. He hears the scriptures, reflects, meditates and attains
Self-realisation.
23. He who,
casting aside the ordinances of the scriptures, acts under the impulse of desire, attains
neither perfection nor happiness nor the supreme goal.
24.
Therefore, let the scripture be the authority in determining what ought to be done and
what ought not to be done. Having known what is said in the ordinance of the scriptures,
thou shouldst act here in this world.
Thus in the
Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the
scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the sixteenth
discourse entitled:
“The Yoga of the Division Between the
Divine & the Demoniacal”