Book of Krishna (Bhagavad gita)

icon16   The Divine and the Demoniac Natures Defined

1Lord Krishna said: Fearlessness, purity of inner psyche, perseverance in the yoga of Self-knowledge, charity, sense restraint, sacrifice, study of the scriptures, austerity, honesty; nonviolence, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, equanimity, abstaining from malicious talk, compassion for all creatures, freedom from greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of fickleness, splendor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, absence of malice, and absence of pride ¾ these are some of the qualities of those endowed with divine virtues, O Arjuna.
2O Arjuna, the marks of those who are born with demonic qualities are: Hypocrisy, arrogance, pride, anger, harshness, and ignorance.
3Divine qualities lead to salvation, the demonic qualities are said to be for bondage. Do not grieve, O Arjuna, you are born with divine qualities.
4There are only two types (or castes) of human beings in this world: The divine, or the wise; and the demonic, or the ignorant. The divine has been described at length, now hear from Me about the demonic, O Arjuna.
5Persons of demonic nature do not know what to do and what not to do. They neither have purity nor good conduct nor truthfulness.
6They say: The world is unreal, without a substratum, without a God, and without an order. Sexual union of man and woman alone and nothing else causes the world.
7Adhering to this wrong atheist view, these degraded souls — with small intellect and cruel deeds ¾ are born as enemies for the destruction of the world.
8Filled with insatiable desires, hypocrisy, pride, and arrogance; holding wrong views due to delusion; they act with impure motives.
9Obsessed with endless anxiety lasting until death, considering sense gratification their highest aim, convinced that sense pleasure is everything;
10Bound by hundreds of ties of desire and enslaved by lust and anger; they strive to obtain wealth by unlawful means for the fulfillment of sensual pleasures. They think:
11This has been gained by me today, I shall fulfill this desire, I have this much wealth, and will have more wealth in the future;
12That enemy has been slain by me, and I shall slay others also. I am the Lord. I am the enjoyer. I am successful, powerful, and happy;
13I am rich and born in a noble family. Who is equal to me? I shall perform sacrifice, I shall give charity, and I shall rejoice. Thus deluded by ignorance;
14Bewildered by many fancies; entangled in the net of delusion; addicted to the enjoyment of sensual pleasures; they fall into a foul hell.
15Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with pride and intoxication of wealth; they perform service only in name, for show, and not according to scriptural injunction.
16These malicious people cling to egoism, power, arrogance, lust, and anger; and hate Me who dwells in their own bodies and those of others.
17I hurl these haters, cruel, sinful, and mean people into the cycles of rebirth in the womb of demons again and again.
18O Arjuna, entering the wombs of demons birth after birth, the deluded ones sink to the lowest hell without ever attaining Me until their minds change for the better by the causeless mercy of the Lord.
19Lust, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell leading to the downfall (or bondage) of the individual. Therefore, one must learn to give up these three.
20One who is liberated from these three gates of hell, O Arjuna, does what is best for him or her, and consequently attains the Supreme Abode.
21One, who acts under the influence of his or her desires, disobeying scriptural injunctions, neither attains perfection nor happiness, nor the Supreme Abode.
22Therefore, let the scripture be your authority in determining what should be done and what should not be done. You should perform your duty following the scriptural injunction.