2. Section Verses Description
A 16.1-16.6 Transcendental and demoniac qualities
B 16.7-16.20 The Demoniac Nature
C 16.21-16.24 The Choice: Escaping to the Supreme Destination
3. Verses 16.1-16.6 Transcendental and demoniac qualities
Transcendental Qualities Demoniac Qualities
Fearlessness, purification of one’s
existence, cultivation of spiritual
knowledge, charity, self-control,
performance of sacrifice, study of
the Vedas, austerity, simplicity,
nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom
from anger, renunciation,
tranquility, aversion to fault-finding,
covetousness, gentleness, modesty,
steady determination, vigor,
forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness,
and freedom from envy and from
the passion for honor
Pride, arrogance, conceit, anger,
harshness and ignorance
These qualities are conducive to the
path of liberation
These qualities are the reasons that
cause bondage
4. Verses 16.7-16.20 The demoniac nature
They do not know what is to be
done and what is not to be done.
No cleanliness, no proper behavior,
nor truth is found in them.
They engage in horrible works that
are meant to destroy the world.
Absorbed in the pride and prestige, they
are illusioned, always sworn to unclean
work, attracted by the impermanent
They believe that sense
gratification is the prime necessity
of the human civilization
Anxiety – immeasurably high until
death.
Bound by a network of thousands of
desires, absorbed in lust and anger,
they secure money by illegal means
Deluded by wealth and false prestige, they
sometimes proudly perform sacrifices in the
name only, without rules and regulations.
5. Biweldered by false ego, strength,
pride, lust and anger.
Envious of the supremacy of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead
Blaspheme against the real religion.
What happens to them?
Krishna casts them into the ocean of
material existence, into various
demoniac species of life.
6. Verses 16.21-16.24 The choice: Escaping to the Supreme Destination
16.21
Three gates to hell:
LUST
ANGER AND
GREED
Leads to the
degradation of
the Soul
Krishna advises us to
give up these qualities,
and act conducive to
self-realization and thus
gradually attain the
Supreme Destination.
Text 23
He who discards spiritual injunctions and
acts according to his own whims and attains
neither perfection nor happiness nor the
Supreme destination
Text 24
One should therefore understand what
is duty and what is not duty by the rules
and regulations of the scriptures.
