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Bhagavad Gita Chapter Sixteen: The Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demonic

The Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God
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The Holy Lord said:

Fearlessness, purity of being, steadfastness in knowledge and yoga, almsgiving, self-control, sacrifice, self-study, tapasya, and straightforwardness, (16:1)

Non-violence, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, tranquility, without calumny, compassion for beings, uncovetousness, gentleness, modesty, absence of fickleness, (16:2)

Vigor, patience, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of pride–they are the endowment of those born to a divine state. (16:3)

Hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance are the endowment of those born to a demonic state. (16:4)

The divine state is deemed to lead to liberation, the demonic to bondage. Do not grieve: you are born for a divine state. (16:5)

There are two types of beings in this world: the divine and the demonic. The divine has been described at length. Hear from me of the demonic. (16:6)

Demonic men know not what to do or refrain from; purity is not found in them, nor is good conduct, nor is truth. (16:7)

“The world,” they say, “is without truth, without a basis, without God, produced by mutual union,* with lust for its cause–what else?” (16:8)

Holding this view, these lost souls, small-minded and of cruel deeds, arise as the enemies of the world, bent on its destruction. (16:9)

Attached to insatiable desires, full of hypocrisy, arrogance and intoxication, having accepted false ideas through delusion, they act with foul purposes. (16:10)

Clinging to boundless cares ending only in death, with gratification of desire as their highest aim–convinced that this is all– (16:11)

Bound by a hundred snares of hope, given over to desire and anger, they seek to gain by unjust means accumulation of wealth to gratify their desires. (16:12)

“Today this has been acquired by me. This I shall also obtain. This is mine, and this gain also shall be mine. (16:13)

“That enemy has been slain by me, and I shall slay others, too, for I am the Lord, I am the enjoyer, I am successful, powerful and happy. (16:14)

“I am wealthy and high-born,” they say, “who else is equal to me? I shall sacrifice, I shall give, I shall rejoice.” Thus, they are deluded by ignorance. (16:15)

Led astray by many imagined fancies, caught in a net of delusion, addicted to the gratifying of desire, they fall into a foul hell. (16:16)

Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with the intoxication of wealth, they sacrifice in name only, for show, not according to the prescribed forms. (16:17)

Clinging to egotism, power, haughtiness, desire and anger, these malignant people hate me in their own and in others’ bodies. (16:18)

These malicious evildoers, cruel, most degraded of men, I hurl perpetually into only the wombs of demons here. (16:19)

Entering the demonic wombs, and deluded birth after birth, not attaining to me they fall into a progressively lower condition. (16:20)

Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the Self: desire, anger and greed. Therefore one should abandon these three. (16:21)

A man who is liberated from these three gates to darkness does what is best for him, and thus goes to the Highest Goal. (16:22)

He who casts aside the injunctions of the scriptures, following the impulse of desire, attains neither perfection nor happiness, nor the Supreme Goal. (16:23)

Therefore the standards of the scriptures should be your guide in determining what should be done and what should not be done. Knowing what the scriptural injunctions prescribe, you should perform action here in this world. (16:24)

* Aparaspara is translated “mutual union” by many translators into English, but it literally means “not one by the other,” or “not by a succession.” In his translation Judge has: “not governed by law,” and Aurobindo: “a world of chance.” It seems to me that the idea is denial of both cause and effect and the manifestation of the universe in an orderly and hierarchical manner according to exact laws. We are all familiar with the atheistic-materialistic ideas about the universe being without meaning, purpose or even order. It seems to me that Vyasa is indicating that such a view of the world without either God or cosmic order is demonic.

Om Tat Sat

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 and the Demonic.

Read Chapter Seventeen: The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith

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Chapters for The Bhagavad Gita–The Song of God

Introduction: The Bhagavad Gita–The Book of Life

  1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter One: The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna
  2. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Two: Sankhya Yoga
  3. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Three: The Yoga of Action
  4. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Four: The Yoga of Wisdom
  5. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Five: The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
  6. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Six: The Yoga of Meditation
  7. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Seven: The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization
  8. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Eight: The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
  9. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Nine: The Yoga of the Royal Science and Royal Secret
  10. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Ten: The Yoga of Divine Glories
  11. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Eleven: The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form
  12. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Twelve: The Yoga of Devotion
  13. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Thirteen: The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field
  14. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Fourteen: The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
  15. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Fifteen: The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
  16. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Sixteen: The Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demonic
  17. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Seventeen: The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith
  18. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Eighteen: The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation

Also: The Bhagavad Gita Arranged for Singing

  1. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 1: The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna
  2. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 2: Sankhya Yoga
  3. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 3: The Yoga of Action
  4. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 4: The Yoga of Wisdom
  5. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 5: The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
  6. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 6: The Yoga of Meditation
  7. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 7: The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization
  8. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 8: The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
  9. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 9: The Yoga of the Kingly Science and Kingly Secret
  10. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 10: The Yoga of Divine Glories
  11. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 11: The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form
  12. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 12: The Yoga of Devotion
  13. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 13: The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field
  14. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 14: The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
  15. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 15: The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
  16. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 16: The Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demoniacal
  17. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 17: The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith
  18. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 18: The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation

Read about the meanings of unfamiliar terms in A Brief Sanskrit Glossary

Read the Bhagavad Gita for Awakening, a full commentary on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Nirmalananda Giri (Abbot George Burke).

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