Bhagwad Geeta

Chapter 16 – Daivasura – Sampad – Vibhaga Yoga

Chapter 16, Verse 1, 2 & 3

 

In these three slokas, Lord Krishna mentions the 26 qualities with which a person earns spiritual wisdom and devotion to God.

 

Fearlessness: fearlessness of losing something. Fear has many degrees. The highest fear is fear of losing life and lowest fear is fear of losing some personal property. A person lives in constant fear of losing his possessions, name, fame etc. A person fears losing love also. A person who is willing to grow spiritually should first grow fearlessness.

The purity of mind. The purity of mind gives the clarity for the person. the person will not be double-minded and is clear about what he wants to do in life. A pure mind also carries less biases.

Established in yoga. The person is established in yoga, in the union of body, mind, and soul.

Knowledge

Charity

Self-restraint: Lord Krishna has mentioned at many places the importance of self-restraint. Restraining the senses will help us control our minds and concentrate more on spiritual practices.

Yagna: conducting periodic sacrifices.

Self-study. Study of the scriptures. Self-study is mentioned here. this means that the person should learn from books interpret it to his own life and grow spiritually.

Austerity: the person who has to be austere. not growing his riches. less luggage more comfort, in the same way, fewer possessions more comfort for the person. The person has to lead an austere life.

Uprightness

Non-violence

Truthfulness

Devoid of anger

Renunciation of vices and possessions and attachments.

Settled in tranquility.

Aversion to fault finding.

Compassion to all living creatures.

Gentleness

Modesty

Determination

Forgiveness

Fortitude

Freedom from malice

The absence of pride.

Radiance

 

If a person develops these qualities then he can grow spiritually in life.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 4

 

In this shloka, Lord Krishna gives the qualities of a person who is having the nature of “asura”. Before proceeding further we should exactly know what is the meaning of Asura.

 

The search for the word “asura “ gives interesting facts which are in Wikipedia. It is being reproduced here as

 

“All powerful beings, good or evil, are called Asuras in the oldest layer of Vedic texts[verification needed]. A much-studied hymn of the Rigveda states Devav asura (Asuras who have become Devas), and contrasts it with Asura adevah (Asuras who are not Devas). Each Asura and Deva emerges from the same father (Prajapati), share the same residence (Loka), eat together the same food and drinks (Soma), and have innate potential, knowledge and special powers in Hindu mythology; the only thing that distinguishes “Asura who become Deva” from “Asura who remain Asura” is intent, action, and choices they make in their mythic lives”

 

The remaining text can be read from the link – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura

 

What differentiates Asura from Deva is the intent, motive, and action. Lord Krishna says that

 

Hypocrisy

Arrogance

Pride

Anger

Harshness

Ignorance

 

These above qualities are given to those people who are high in qualities of Asura.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 5

 

The divine qualities given in shloka 1,2,3, will lead a person towards liberation and the asura qualities mentioned in shloka 4 will lead a person to bondage. all the persons are born with the “sura” and ‘asura” qualities. The endeavour of life is to reduce the asura qualities and improve the sura qualities.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 6

 

Lord Krishna says that there are only two kinds of qualities for creatures on this earth. One is the quality of good. The qualities of the daiva and the other are the qualities of asura or bad. Lord Krishna says he has already explained the qualities of Good and now he will explain the qualities of bad.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 7

 

Those people who are possessing the qualities of asura will not know for sure what is good and what is bad. They do not possess any purity or good conduct and not even truthfulness.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 8

 

The people having the nature of ‘asura’ do not believe in the existence of God. For them, the universe is created out of material elements and not from God. The world is created because of desire and union of elements out of the desire.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 9

 

Such people will gradually become self-centred. The whole universe exists for the satisfaction of their desires. They gradually start plundering the resources of the universe. They do not think for the others. They do not fully use the intellect as to what is good and what is bad. They become enemies of this world and fellow human beings.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 10

 

Having desires which are never satisfied (they need one desire to be satisfied in one instant and once the desire gets fulfilled they move to the next level). The desires never get fulfilled. They are full of hypocrisy and arrogance. The only objective they have in life is to fulfil the desires. They resort to hypocrisy by not speaking what’s in their mind as they fear that they may offend people and may not get what they want.

 

These people are usually arrogant as they differentiate people from what is right and what is wrong. These people are attracted to false tenets and cling to them very tightly. Because the qualities give a sense of drama and action, they believe the life they are living is true and the life the real ways is not proper.

 

Attracted to the impermanent, they are full of action for achieving things which are impermanent. They strive for material things.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 11

 

For gratification of desires, they indulge in works that cause anxiety all through the life. The anxieties and drama end with only death. till then they are quite worried about getting what they wanted in life. The wants keep on changing and actions to achieve them also keep on changing.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 12

 

Driven by lust and anger the people who are not on the path of God are held by hundreds of desires. To fulfil the desires, which are fuelled by lust and anger the people do a lot of immoral acts. Three important words are used here, namely kama (lust), krodha (anger) and bhoga (gratification of senses. these three are used to satisfy hundreds of desires of the people.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 13, 14 & 15

 

Due to ignorance and delusion, the people who are not in the path of God think

 

I have earned this wealth today. Tomorrow I will earn more.

I have finished off this enemy today and tomorrow I will finish of the other enemy.

I have this power today and I will increase my power tomorrow.

I am the enjoyer of this wealth.

The joys are created for me, and all the material pleasures are created for me.

There is no God and even if God exists, I must do all these things to my satisfaction. Thus the person is deluded.

Chapter 16, Verse 16

 

The mind of people having demonic qualities is put on man things because their mind is thinking about too many things. there is no absolute clarity of mind as to what is needed for life. Without a clear clarity of purpose, they keep pursuing different things. Added to lack of clear purpose if the brain is addicted to sensual pleasure, then the person will be pursuing only sensual pleasures. sensual pleasures like wealth, power, positions give a kick to those people.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 17

 

These people (with demonic qualities) are quite stubborn. they are not ready to look at the alternate point of view of the spiritual world. They think that the path they are following is right and there is no alternate path.

 

These people are full of pride about their achievements in terms of wealth and positions and material possessions. They perform sacrifices, poojas, visit temples and sacred places not with spirituality in mind but materialism. They practice materialism in the garb of spirituality. These people are self-conceited.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 18

 

The people having the qualities of ahamkara, power, showing off their possessions, lust and anger are always envious of the path of spirituality. They are not only envious of the God, envious towards its followers and envious of other people and creatures. They also try to malign people and malign the path followed by God.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 19

 

Lord Krishna says that those people having the demonic qualities mentioned above have the punishment of being born in samsara again and again.

 

People are born to undergo all the difficulties again and again on this planet, whereas the spiritual followers will obtain liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The cycle of birth and death is assured by making people born in environments which are full of demonic qualities.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 20

 

Lord Krishna says that birth after birth these people will be born in circumstances and areas where they will be away from the God. The people are born in places and situations where they see difficulties of life. They feel intense pain in life because of those situations. They will have more attachments and they will have more pain.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 21

 

Lord Krishna says that three qualities should be shed by people to be free from demonic qualities. The three qualities are lust, anger and greed. these three qualities make the person go blind and take irrational decisions. The person thinks and acts from the instincts when these three are operating in the brain. If a person is able to shed these three qualities, then the person is able to take the right decisions.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 22

 

Lord Krishna says that whoever leaves the path of righteousness and whoever does not follow the scriptures and injunctions given will not achieve happiness. some people may argue that following spiritual practices may not give the real pleasure. the real pleasure is in pursuing worldly desires. The answer is that pursuing worldly desires will bind us to the samsara and make us unhappy over the long term. This is what Lord Krishna says. The people who do not follow the spiritual path neither will have spirituality nor will have any happiness.

 

Chapter 16, Verse 23

 

In this shloka, Lord Krishna reiterates that people should follow the injunctions given in the scriptures and they should not deviate from them. Scriptures act as guideposts. they guide people whenever they have any doubts as to which path to follow. This will ensure that people follow the path of spirituality and keep people happy.