Bhagavad Gita
Chapter XVI — The Separateness of the Divine and Undivine
Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa18854 min read
Bhagavad GitaKrishnaBhakti
Krishna
Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the willAlways to strive for wisdom; opened handAnd governed appetites; and piety,And love of lonely study; humbleness,Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives,Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mindThat lightly letteth go what others prize;And equanimity, and charityWhich spieth no man's faults; and tendernessTowards all that suffer; a contented heart,Fluttered by no desires; a bearing mild,Modest, and grave, with manhood nobly mixed,With patience, fortitude, and purity;An unrevengeful spirit, never givenTo rate itself too high;--such be the signs,O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are setOn that fair path which leads to heavenly birth!
Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride,Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech,And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,--These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birthIs fated for the regions of the vile.
The Heavenly Birth brings to deliverance,So should'st thou know! The birth with AsurasBrings into bondage. Be thou joyous, Prince!Whose lot is set apart for heavenly Birth.
Two stamps there are marked on all living men,Divine and Undivine; I spake to theeBy what marks thou shouldst know the Heavenly Man,Hear from me now of the Unheavenly!
They comprehend not, the Unheavenly,How Souls go forth from Me; nor how they comeBack unto Me: nor is there Truth in these,Nor purity, nor rule of Life. "This worldHath not a Law, nor Order, nor a Lord,"So say they: "nor hath risen up by CauseFollowing on Cause, in perfect purposing,But is none other than a House of Lust."And, this thing thinking, all those ruined ones--Of little wit, dark-minded--give themselvesTo evil deeds, the curses of their kind.Surrendered to desires insatiable,Full of deceitfulness, folly, and pride,In blindness cleaving to their errors, caughtInto the sinful course, they trust this lieAs it were true--this lie which leads to death--Finding in Pleasure all the good which is,And crying "Here it finisheth!"
Ensnared
In nooses of a hundred idle hopes,Slaves to their passion and their wrath, they buyWealth with base deeds, to glut hot appetites;"Thus much, to-day," they say, "we gained! therebySuch and such wish of heart shall have its fill;And this is ours! and th' other shall be ours!To-day we slew a foe, and we will slayOur other enemy to-morrow! Look!Are we not lords? Make we not goodly cheer?Is not our fortune famous, brave, and great?Rich are we, proudly born! What other menLive like to us? Kill, then, for sacrifice!Cast largesse, and be merry!" So they speakDarkened by ignorance; and so they fall--Tossed to and fro with projects, tricked, and boundIn net of black delusion, lost in lusts--Down to foul Naraka. Conceited, fond,Stubborn and proud, dead-drunken with the wineOf wealth, and reckless, all their offeringsHave but a show of reverence, being not madeIn piety of ancient faith. Thus vowedTo self-hood, force, insolence, feasting, wrath,These My blasphemers, in the forms they wearAnd in the forms they breed, my foemen are,Hateful and hating; cruel, evil, vile,Lowest and least of men, whom I cast downAgain, and yet again, at end of lives,Into some devilish womb, whence--birth by birth--The devilish wombs re-spawn them, all beguiled;And, till they find and worship Me, sweet Prince!Tread they that Nether Road.
The Doors of HellAre threefold, whereby men to ruin pass,--The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the doorOf Avarice. Let a man shun those three!He who shall turn aside from enteringAll those three gates of Narak, wendeth straightTo find his peace, and comes to Swarga's gate.
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“HERE ENDETH CHAPTER XVI. OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, Entitled "Daivasarasaupadwibhagayog," Or "The Book of the Separateness of the Divine and Undivine."”
— Bhagavad Gita