Gita essays 29
Lord Krishna starts
discussing about nature of people with demoniac traits from verse 7 of
chapter16, after dividing the human beings into two groups, divine and demoniac
in verse 6. This knowledge of people
with demoniac nature can serve one as an aid in one’s own mental
refinement. Mental refinement involves
two-pronged process; dosha apanayanam (removal of impurities) and guna aadanam
(addition of virtues). Dosha and gunas
we saw in essay 28 as traits to discard and virtues to cultivate in oneself. Identifying this in others can help one to
cultivate satsangh and avoid dussangh.
Such
people of demoniac nature are confused about the actions to be pursued and
actions to be avoided. They do not have
inner purity nor do they maintain outer cleanliness. Good conduct is absent in them nor do they
maintain truthfulness in their words. As materialists they do not recognize the truth
that upholds the universe i.e. they do not recognize the eternal unchanging
Reality behind the ever-changing flux of things. According to them the universe is formed as a
result of mutual combination of the elements and the driving force that
determines the creation is nothing but lust and that there is no commanding
intelligence that orders, regulates, determines and guides the happenings in
the world. They believe that the world has no substratum, that there is no
controlling power and that it exists and continues on the basis of lust
only. They hold that sex-urge alone is
the basic driving force behind all achievements and human endeavours and are
totally ignorant of their Divine nature. Yielding to desires such devilish
persons lead a life of perpetual suffering and endless disturbances in and
around them as all their desires are insatiable. They are full of hypocrisy,
pride and arrogance. They are the victims of their own delusion because they
forget their divine nature by identifying themselves with the unreal things and
values of life. With this attitude they carry out all sorts of licentious acts
to the detriment of the world at large ultimately leading to the destruction of
the world itself. They bring about a discordant note of disharmony in the
community and plunge the world into disaster.
They
have as their philosophy the materialistic doctrine which states:
“yavad
jivet sukham jivet rnam krtva ghrtam pibet |
bhasmibhutasya
dehasya punar aagamanam kutah ||
“Eat,
drink and be merry, for death is certain and there is nothing beyond”.
Such
desperate men with all anxieties and cares lead a futile life. Struggle to
acquire the desired objects and anxiety for preserving what is acquired are all
they care for with satisfaction of lust as their highest goal. Their firm
conviction is that there is nothing beyond this in life.
Entangled
by insatiable desires, the energies of demoniac persons get dissipated. They
become restless and impatient with their surroundings and lose their sense of
judgment. Irritated and constantly unhappy with their environment, they become
angry over unfulfilled desires. They ceaselessly try to acquire more and more
wealth to satisfy their sensual hunger losing sight of a diviner principle of
existence.
Such
persons live in constant consciousness of what has been acquired and always
exert to acquire more and more wealth of the world. As desires are insatiable,
they remain in perpetual disappointment and thirst for unlimited possessions.
They always raise the cry of success claiming themselves to be the lord and
victor of all their enemies. They boast themselves to be perfect, powerful,
healthy, wealthy and happy. They look down upon the world with conceit, vanity
and contempt and entertain the hope of rejoicing in the world. In short, such
people fall into hell because of a) their fanciful egocentric ideas b) their
judgment and discrimination getting eclipsed by delusion and false values and
c) their addiction to sense gratification.
Lord Krishna says that these people are deluded by their ignorance.
Lord
Krishna then describes the characteristics of any Yajna performed by demoniac
people. The demoniac people because of
their very personality are incapable of selfless service and whatever they do
as yajna is merely a yajna in name only and is performed out of ostentation and
contrary to scriptural injunctions due to their sensuality, arrogance and false
values of life. As a result of this sorrow only ensues. Such men continue to
fall lower and lower each day. They are full of egoism, brute strength,
arrogance, passion and anger. A person of this kind of attitude would ignore
the sanctity of life, become malignant and because of egoism would hate the
Lord Himself or the Paramatma, in his own body and in those of others.
These people are called as
the worst among the men in the world. They are malicious against the dignity of
themselves and cruel to the people around. Hence Lord Krishna acting as per the
rules of the Law of karma casts such people again and again to be born in the
Asuric environments only till such time as they realize their follies. Lord Krishna says that an individual having
repeatedly reached the Asuric environments, life after life, fails to realize
the Infinite Self for they never climb higher in their culture and only sink to
the bottom most level in the evolution, making their fall total and complete.
Lord then sums
up the entire asuri-sampat
as
the three basic materialistic traits of desire, anger and greed, which He terms
as the three-fold gateway to hell. These qualities are inter-related to each
other as anger arises when fulfillment of a desire is obstructed and greed grows
as the consequence of fulfillment of a desire. Lord emphasizes that these three
evils must be abandoned if one wants to rise up in the ladder of spirituality. So a spiritual seeker should renounce desire,
anger and greed. Lord also says that when
one avoids these traits and adopts the divine virtues, daivi-sampat,
one becomes qualified for Self-knowledge and attains liberation sooner.
The Lord then lays
down that sastra is
the final authority in determining what is right and what is wrong. So one should know what the scriptures say and
act accordingly. Scriptures mean the dharma sastras and the texts discussing
the theory of Truth - Brahma Vidya. The seeker should therefore follow the
authority of the scriptures in leading his life, with a clear mind as to what is
to be pursued and what is to be avoided. Lord Krishna finally concludes this
discussion with the command to Arjuna that he should act always without
desire, anger or greed, knowing the scriptural injunctions regarding the right
way of living.
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