Chapter 16 · deep: two destinies

The Yoga of Divine and Demonic Natures

Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāga Yoga

16.1 ☆ Daivī wealth begins: abhaya, sattva-śuddhi, jñāna-yoga, dāna, dama, yajña, svādhyāya, tapa, ārjava.
16.2 ☆ More daivī qualities: ahiṃsā, satya, akrodha, tyāga, śānti, apaiśuna, dayā, aloluptva, mārdava, hrī, acāpala.
16.3 ☆ The final daivī qualities: tejas, kṣamā, dhṛti, śauca, adroha, nātimānitā — belonging to one born to divine nature.
16.4 Six āsurī qualities: dambha, darpa, abhimāna, krodha, pāruṣya, ajñāna — all rooted in ego-assertion and ignorance.
16.5 Daivī wealth leads to liberation, āsurī to bondage. Do not grieve, Arjuna — you are born to the divine endowment.
16.6 Two kinds of beings exist — daiva and āsura. The divine has been described; now hear the āsura from Me, O Arjuna.
16.7 The āsurī know neither pravṛtti nor nivṛtti; purity, good conduct, and truth are all absent in them.
16.8 The āsurī worldview: the world is unreal, groundless, Godless — produced only by matter-union and desire.
16.9 Holding that nihilistic view, ruined selves of limited mind and fierce action, they rise as enemies of the world.
16.10 Driven by insatiable kāma, hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, gripping false notions through moha — impure resolves.
16.11 Immeasurable anxieties till death, sense-pleasure as the highest value, firmly certain that 'this is all there is.'
16.12 Bound by hundreds of hope-nooses, devoted to kāma and krodha, they hoard wealth by unjust means for sense-enjoyment.
16.13 The ego-monologue: 'I gained this today. I'll get that next. This is mine — and more wealth will be mine too.'
16.14 'I slew that enemy; I'll slay others. I am Lord, Enjoyer, Perfect, Powerful, Happy' — the ego-apotheosis of the āsurī.
16.15 The ego-apex: 'I am rich, well-born — who equals me? I'll sacrifice, give, rejoice.' — all deluded by ajñāna.
16.16 Many thoughts, moha-net covering them, addicted to kāma-enjoyments — they fall into impure naraka.
16.17 Self-complacent, stubborn, wealth-proud — they perform name-only sacrifices, ostentatiously ignoring śāstric ordinance.
16.18 Taking refuge in ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha — they hate Me in their own bodies and in others.
16.19 Those who hate Me — cruel, vilest among humans — I continually cast into āsurī wombs, the inauspicious.
16.20 In āsurī wombs, deluded birth after birth — never reaching Me — they go to still lower destinations.
16.21 ★ Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
16.22 Free from these three tamas-gates, one acts for one's genuine good and reaches the Supreme Goal.
16.23 One who abandons śāstra-vidhi to act from desire's impulse attains neither siddhi, nor sukha, nor the Supreme Goal.
16.24 Therefore śāstra is your pramāṇa for kārya-akārya. Know what śāstra declares — then act accordingly in the world.