Chapter 16 Shloka 10

काममाश्रित्य दुष्पूरं दम्भमानमदान्विताः।

मोहाद्गृहीत्वासद्ग्राहान्प्रवर्तन्तेऽशुचिव्रताः।।१०।।

Talking of evil qualities the Lord says:

Resorting to insatiable desires and filled with

hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, embracing

illusory principles on account of moha

and committed to impure resolves,

such people conduct themselves in the world.

Chapter 16 Shloka 10

काममाश्रित्य दुष्पूरं दम्भमानमदान्विताः।

मोहाद्गृहीत्वासद्ग्राहान्प्रवर्तन्तेऽशुचिव्रताः।।१०।।

Talking of evil qualities the Lord says:

Resorting to insatiable desires and filled with hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, embracing illusory principles on account of moha and committed to impure resolves, such people conduct themselves in the world.

Insatiable desires

Those who are filled with desires remain ever unsatiated.

1. Desire can never be completely gratified.

2. Man’s appetite can never attain complete satisfaction.

3. How can one’s liking for gross objects ever fade? Something always remains to be attained.

4. Even if one possesses the wealth of the whole world, one will not be able to purchase all the objects of one’s fancy. Something will always remain out of one’s reach.

5. How can one satiate the desire for recognition and fame, and how can one decide how much respect and recognition is enough?

6. Not only that, one also wants dominion over the world and the highest status for one’s body-self!

If one desires, one desires everything. If one does not desire, one desires nothing. Reflect upon the connotation of all that has been discussed here and realise that desire can never be fulfilled. Its appetite is unending.

Those who possess evil tendencies:

a) are charlatans;

b) are pretenders;

c) are betrayers;

d) always hide the facts;

e) are full of jealousy, hatred and hostility;

f) are hypocrites who can only boast;

g) are vain without cause;

h) do not consider the other to be even a human being.

In fact such people:

a) are drunk with the wine of ignorance;

b) are drunk with the wine of moha;

c) are drunk with the intoxication of the ego;

d) consider the ‘I’ to be the most powerful;

e) are drunk with the intoxication of their wealth;

f) are intoxicated with the pride of their own knowledge;

g) are intoxicated with the wine of their social and worldly status.

Understand what is meant here by intoxication:

1. That which distances us from the real;

2. That which robs us of our senses;

3. That which persuades us to relinquish our humane tendencies;

4. That which projects the untrue as the Truth;

5. That which presents the Truth as untrue.

Adhering to fallacious principles due to their moha, such people, drunk with the intoxication of hypocrisy and pride, possess unchaste and impure conduct.

Having renounced their duty, such people believe themselves to be spiritual aspirants who tread the path of abstinence from action. Having quaffed the wine of acclaim for the knowledge they possess, such people are in fact the antithesis of sainthood. Even those who are intoxicated by the recognition heaped on them on account of their wealth and their knowledge about the methods for acquiring wealth, are also of a demonic nature.

Little one,

1. The greatest sin is pride of knowledge.

2. For the man of wisdom, to turn away from dharma and Truth is the most evil act.

3. The greatest tyranny is the false conduct of those who possess knowledge.

4. The greatest crime is the dereliction of duty by the man of knowledge

5. Such a one is verily a destroyer and is the greatest enemy of the world. Anyone who calls the world an illusion is in fact an arrogant imposter.

6. The one who possesses these demonic qualities in profusion is the most ignorant, despite possessing the greatest knowledge.

7. There is no greater ignorance than knowledge that leads one away from one’s duty.

8. He who cannot understand the true meaning of knowledge is the greatest laggard.

9. It is ignorance and moha that prevent the spirit of yagya from permeating one’s life.

The Lord has Himself said that if He did not discharge His duty, He would be the progenitor of illegitimate offspring!

Understand this statement of the Lord once more. Those who have faith in the Lord will aspire to mould their lives in accordance with His precept. They will see in His life the example and proof of spiritual knowledge. His life represents the eternal, intransient luminescence of spiritual living. Silence is His core and His very essence. Thus He is often called the epitome of silence.

The Lord Himself says:

1. If the Lord Himself renounces His duties in life, people would be misled and lose the spiritual path.

2. If the Lord Himself did not give us the example of endurance and forbearance in His life, people would become wicked.

3. If the Lord Himself renounced yagya in His life, people would not be able to understand Reality.

4. If the Lord renounced justice, people would remain ignorant about the Truth.

The Lord Himself clarifies that if He did not fulfil His duties, He would be the cause of illegitimate, immoral mental attitudes. Generating such mental varna sankar is:

a) the greatest sin;

b) the worst form of moha;

c) the greatest impurity;

d) the greatest disservice to the universe.

The Lord was born for the protection of the saintly and for the preservation of their virtuous tendencies. Whatever the Lord is saying is addressed to such sages and those who aspire for such virtue.

One who harbours negative desires will not endeavour to read the Gita! Only the one who aspires for the elevated realms of spiritual living will peruse such a scripture. The Lord is describing the obstacles on the path of such an aspirant of spiritual living.

Little one, man resorts to false principles only when he cannot translate the injunctions of the Scriptures into his everyday life.

The obstacles on the path of spiritual practice lie in:

a) the practicant’s beliefs and concepts;

b) the practicant’s inability to understand the true meaning of Truth;

c) some false principle of his own.

The method for understanding the Gita

1. Little one, whilst perusing the Gita, one must weigh the Lord’s words with His life. Only then can one arrive at the authentic meaning.

2. If any word seems incompatible with the Lord’s life, know with certainty that the lacuna lies in your understanding of that word.

3. The Lord is what He describes in the Gita.

4. The Lord’s life is the light which illuminates the words of the Gita.

5. The essence and the manifestation of knowledge are always at variance. This too, can be understood when one witnesses the Lord’s life.

6. The Lord Himself is the eternal light that illumines the essence of Adhyatam.

The Lord says, “If perchance I do not engage in action, then all kinds of people will begin to follow My example and do the same.”

Little aspirant of the Atma! First understand all that the Lord has said regarding Himself.

He says:

1. I have no duty in these three realms of existence and there is nothing which I cannot attain – yet, I engage in action. (Chp.3, shloka 22)

2. If I did not engage in action, all these people would be corrupted and I would be the progenitor of illegitimate negative tendencies and the cause of destruction of the entire populace. (Chp.3, shloka 24)

3. Just as ignorant individuals attached to action perform deeds, so also must the learned engage in action for the universal benefit, albeit in a spirit of detachment. (Chp.3, shloka 25)

4. An enlightened person should not create confusion in the minds of those ignorant beings who are attached to action; performing all actions with equanimity himself, he should induce them to act similarly. (Chp.3, shloka 26)

5. What a noble person does, others also do the same; the world follows the standards set by him. (Chp.3, shloka 21)

Little one!

1. If after reading all this, one still maintains that the saintly do not mix with the ignorant, that would be sheer delusion.

2. If one says that the saintly must not act like the ignorant, that too would be a wrong concept.

3. The sage knows himself to be the Atma – thus he cannot consider anyone to be inferior or ‘untouchable’.

4. If the sage renounces ordinary life, that would be contrary to the principles of the Gita.

5. You are an aspirant of virtue and you yearn to be an Atmavaan; you also desire sanyas;you wish to become detached and you also aspire for the Supreme State. If you truly desire all these, the Lord’s life is the exposition of the Gita for you.

6. If you truly desire all these, do not ever turn away from your duty.

7. Ever detached, become the Essence of Love – become Love manifest as indeed is the Lord Himself.

Or else you will become an ashuchivrata!

Ashuchivrata (अशुचिव्रता)

1. In other words you will become an ignorant follower of false principles.

2. You will have a corrupt and degraded code of conduct.

3. It is the learned hypocrites who are the cause of such defilement. Do not let yourself become such an impostor as well!

4. Do not snatch away a daughter from your parents. You will not attain ‘sanyas’ in this manner.

5. Do not steal your sister’s sibling from her – this is not the path to renunciation.

If you truly seek sanyas, do what the Lord has specified.

a) Relinquish all your rights.

b) Refrain from imposing your ‘knowledge’ upon others.

c) Renounce attachment and hatred.

The Lord has said:

1. One who relinquishes both attachment and aversion is a sanyasi. (Chp.5, shloka 3)

2. Renounce the desire for the fruits of action. One who is devoid of such desire is a sanyasi. (Chp.6, shloka 1)

3. To renounce all deeds mentally is true sanyas. (Chp.18, shloka 2)

4. To renounce actions sponsored by desire is sanyas. Therefore do nothing for the satiation of personal desire. (Chp.18, shloka 2)

5. Little one, the Lord has reiterated time and again, that you must continue to do yagya, practice forbearance and give charity. Do all this because the Lord has said so; or else, you too will imbibe demonic qualities and be instrumental in propagating such tendencies.

Provide proof of the divine qualities in your day to day life. You have one family today – tomorrow you will become an integral part of many other families. You will do your best for each and every one according to the other’s requirement. Your duty will not be only towards one family, but towards all. Little one, when you become so magnanimous, then you will truly live up to your name.

This is the difference between an ordinary individual and a sanyasi. The ordinary individual has only one family to call his own, whereas the sanyasi belongs to the whole world. He endeavours always for the welfare of all beings. His own family constitutes a part of that ‘whole’.

If you cannot accept all this in your day to day life, you too will become an evil doer, justifying your deeds with obscure principles and concepts. You will then be left with the false pride of theoretical knowledge, and all this knowledge will only serve to augment your arrogance even further.

It is the work of the foolish to barter knowledge for recognition and self-establishment. The Atmavaan does not endeavour to change his circumstances or his manifest attributes. His internal state is very different from that of the ordinary being. His attitude towards life and towards other people is unique.

The method of life as described in the Gita, while bringing out the divinity in man, leads him towards the elevated state of an Atmavaan. If one does not employ this method in one’s ordinary living, all one’s knowledge will merely serve to augment one’s demonic tendencies.