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Bhagavad Gita · 16.10 · Yoga through Discerning the Divine and Demoniac Natures·10 of 24

काममाश्रित्य दुष्पूरं दम्भमानमदान्विताःमोहाद्गृहीत्वासद्ग्राहान्प्रवर्तन्तेऽशुचिव्रताः

kāmam āśhritya duṣhpūraṁ dambha-māna-madānvitāḥ

mohād gṛihītvāsad-grāhān pravartante ’śhuchi-vratāḥ

Sanskrit recitation

When ego turns cruel · 16.6–16.16 · Teaching

Translation

Filled with insatiable desires, full of hypocrisy, pride, and arrogance, holding evil ideas due to delusion, they work with impure intentions.

Meaning

These soulless malevolent persons perform cruel and sinful actions. Their minds are saturated with vanity, conceit and arrogance. They entertain in their minds unholy resolves and unreasonable ideas. They harbour insatiable desires in their hearts. Just as a monkey becomes more and more intoxicated if wine if given to it, so also the older they grow the more and more arrogant and lustful do they become. They cause the ruin and death of those around them. They boast of their own actions and treat others with great contempt. They are very much attached to their bodies. They worship their bodies. Their passion is boundless. They are stupid and obstinate and so they have no firm determination.Desire is insatiable like fire. Enjoyment cannot bring about satisfaction of the desires. The more you enjoy, the stronger does the desire become. After an object is enjoyed, there springs up a desire to continue the enjoyment for ever. You take recourse to all sorts of devices to preserve the objects.Although a man is not righteous he pretends to be a man of righteousness. This is hypocrisy. Although a man is not worthy of being honoured, he claims to be so. This is Mana (pride). There is false dignity. Although a man does not possess great things he superimposes them on himself. This is Mada.These Asuras make impure resolves

After Swami Sivananda

When ego turns cruel· 16.6–16.16

Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.

Word-by-word
asat
impermanent
māna
arrogance
dambha
hypocrisy
kāmam
lust
mohāt
the illusioned
grāhān
things
āśhritya
harboring
pravartante
they flourish
duṣhpūram
insatiable
gṛihītvā
being attracted to
mada-anvitāḥ
clinging to false tenets
aśhuchi-vratāḥ
with impure resolve

Related verses

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