Bhagavad Gita · 16.4 · Yoga through Discerning the Divine and Demoniac Natures·4 of 24
दम्भो दर्पोऽभिमानश्च क्रोधः पारुष्यमेव च।अज्ञानं चाभिजातस्य पार्थ सम्पदमासुरीम् ॥
dambho darpo ’bhimānaśh cha krodhaḥ pāruṣhyam eva
cha ajñānaṁ chābhijātasya pārtha sampadam āsurīm
Sanskrit recitation
Divine qualities to grow · 16.1–16.5 · Teaching
Translation
Hypocrisy, arrogance, and self-conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance—these belong to one who is born for a demoniacal state, O Partha.
Meaning
Dambha Hypocrisy. To pretend to be what one is not, to pretend to be religious and pious. It consists of bragging of ones own greatness. Religious hypocrisy is the worst form of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a mixture of deceit and falsehood. Those who boast about their own merits will get demerit only.Darpa Arrogance. Pride of learning, wealth, high connection, etc. An arrogant man cannot endure to see his fellowmen happy. He is more and more enraged at the fortune of his fellowmen in the matter of learning, happiness and prosperity.Parushyam (in speech) To speak of the blind as having lotuslike eyes, of the ugly as beautiful, of a man of low birth as one of high birth and so on, usually with an ulterior, selfish or evil motive.Ajnanam Ignorance, misconception of ones duties. An ignorant man is blind as to what should be done and what should not be done. There is absence of discrimination. Just as a child will put anything it gets in its hands into its mouth, whether it is clean or dirty, so also is the condition of the ignorant man who is not able to discriminate between the Real and the unreal, the good and the evil, virtue and vice. He is on the path of destruction. He does not know the road that leads to Moskha or liberation. He is drowned in the ocean of this worldly existence.These are the six demonical alities. These evil alities constitute the satanic or demonical wealth
After Swami Sivananda
Divine qualities to grow· 16.1–16.5→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 16.1The Blessed Lord said: Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in knowledge and yoga, almsgiving, control of the senses, sacrifice, study of scriptures, austerity, and straightforwardness.
- 16.2Harmlessness, truth, absence of anger, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of crookedness, compassion for beings, non-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, and absence of fickleness.
- 16.3Vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of pride—these belong to one born for a divine state, O Arjuna.
16.4Hypocrisy, arrogance, and self-conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance—these belong to one who is born for a demoniacal state, O Partha.
- 16.5The divine nature is deemed conducive to liberation, and the demonic to bondage. Grieve not, O Arjuna, for you are born with divine endowments.
Word-by-word→
- cha
- and
- eva
- certainly
- pārtha
- Arjun, the son of Pritha
- darpaḥ
- arrogance
- sampadam
- qualities
- āsurīm
- demoniac
- ajñānam
- ignorance
- dambhaḥ
- hypocrisy
- krodhaḥ
- anger
- abhijātasya
- of those who possess
- abhimānaḥ
- conceit
- pāruṣhyam
- harshness
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