Chapter 16

Daiva-Asura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga

(Classification of Divine and Demoniacal Traits)

1. The Blessed Lord said: "Fearlessness, purity of heart, unceasing concentration on Wisdom, beneficence, sense control, sacrifice, spiritual study, austerity and uprightness;

2. "Non-violence , truthfulness, absence of anger, detachment, serenity, aversion to slander, compassion to beings, freedom from greed, gentleness, revulsion to unrighteous acts, absence of fickleness;

3. "Courage, patience and forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred and jealousy, and humility - these are the qualities, O Bharata, to be found in one born with Divine gifts.

4. "Ostentation, arrogance, insolence, wrath, coarseness, and ignorance - these are the marks, O Partha, of one born with a devilish heritage.

5. "The Divine heritage leads to Liberation and the devilish to bondage. Be not anxious, O Pandava, for thou art born with Divine heritage.

6. "There are two types of beings in this world - the Divine and the demoniacal; the Divine has been described, and hear now from Me of the devilish.

7. "The demoniacal type know not what is right activity nor what to refrain from; neither purity, nor right conduct, nor truthfulness can be found in them.

8. "Such ones declare that the Universe was an accident with no moral basis and was not created by God; and that life is the result of mere union between the sexes and nothing else.

9. Clinging to this false view, these depraved souls of feeble understanding and violent deeds, rise as enemies of the world to destroy it,

10. "Filled with insatiable desires, full of hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit, embracing false doctrines through delusion, they act only to further their own unholy objectives.

11. "Slaves to immeasurable anxieties which end only with death, holding the gratification of senses as the highest ideal and convinced that there is none other;

12. "Caught in myriad snares of hope, slaves to lust and wrath, they seek to amass wealth by unholy means, solely for sensual enjoyment.

13. "Deluded, they proclaim: 'This today I have gained; this desire I shall fulfill; this wealth is mine now and ere long more wealth shall be mine;

14. "This enemy I have already slain, and others also I shall destroy. Happy am I because I am powerful, successful and the lord of all that I survey;

15. "I am wealthy and an aristocrat; who can stand comparison to me? I shall sacrifice, give alms and be merry as I please'' - thus think the deluded.

6. "And tossed thus by diverse fancies, enmeshed in the snare of delusion, addicted to lustful pleasure, they fall into the foulest hell.

17. "Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with pride and intoxicated by wealth, they perform sacrifices mainly for ostentation instead of spiritual progress.

18. "Clinging to egoism, power, insolence, lust and anger, these malicious persons scorn Me who am in them as well as in others.

19. "These demonic haters, cruel and vilest among men, I repeatedly hurl into demoniacal wombs in the cycles of rebirth.

20. "Doomed to lowly wombs, these devilish ones, O Kaunteya, far from coming to Me, sink lower and lower birth after birth.

21. "Threefold is this gateway to hell, leading man to perdition - lust, wrath and greed; these three must be severely shunned.

22. "O Kaunteya, that man who avoids these three gates to darkness, practices what is good for himself and will eventually attain the Supreme State.

23. "But he who scorns the injunctions of the scriptures and acts on the impulse of desire gains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the Supreme State.

24. "Therefore, let the scriptures be thy authority in deciding what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. Ascertain thou what they command, and act accordingly."

Thus in the Bhagavad Gita, the Essence of the Upanishads, the Science of Brahman, the Scripture of Yoga, the Dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the sixteenth chapter, entitled:

DAIVA-ASURA SAMPAD VIBHAGA YOGA