Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 36- Swami Krishnananda.

==============================================================

 

===============================================================

Tuesday, May 24, 2022. 19:30.

Discourse 44:  The Sixteenth Chapter Begins – 
Divine and Undivine Qualities :

POST-36

================================================================

"Etam drishtim avashtabhya nashtatmano ’lpa-buddhayah

prabhavanty ugra-karmanah kshayaya jagato ’hitah." (BG :16-9)

Holding fast to such views, these misdirected souls, with small intellect and cruel actions, arise as enemies of the world threatening its destruction.

They become terrorists—ugra-karmanah.

 

They are a terror for everybody because they have a vision of life which is bent on self-satisfaction and the destruction of everybody except themselves. 

Nashtatmanah: They have lost their own souls, and they cannot see that there is a soul in anybody else. Inasmuch as there is no soul—they have lost it, and they cannot visualise souls in anybody other than themselves—they see no value in human life. There is no human feeling, there is no respect for humanity, and there is no necessity to work for the welfare of other people, because the vision of other people requires the perception of humanity in them also, whereas the vision of these people who are terror incarnate is a consuming attitude and not a creative attitude; therefore, they veritably appear to be incarnations of vehement violence and destruction. Naṣṭa-ātmānaḥ alpabuddhayaḥ means one who has no brains to think. 

Ugra-karmanah: They become very dangerous, and capable of violent action. They are apparently intent on the abolition of all life in this world. These are the despots and the tyrants which history has sometimes seen. They would not like anybody else to live except themselves. Jagataḥ ahitāḥ: They are the people who do great injustice to the world.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Kamam ashritya dushpuram dambha-mana-madanvitah

mohad grihitvasad-grahan pravartante ’shuchi-vratah." (BG :16-10)

Harboring insatiable lust, full of hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, the demoniac cling to their false tenets. Thus illusioned, they are attracted to the impermanent and work with impure resolve

Kamam ashritya dushpuram : Their desires are endless. Insatiable longing and passion is their quality. Dambhamānamadānvitāḥ: I have already mentioned that dambhaḥ is vanity; egoism, pretentiousness and pride are their qualities. 

Mohad grihitvasad-grahan : They have ideologies which are entirely materialistic, sensory, outward, and hedonistic in the worst way. 

Dambha-mana-madanvitah mohad grihitvasad-grahan : Their ideology—the philosophy of life that they entertain—is something which is pleasing to their egos and totally destructive of the higher, real values of life which are spiritually awakening, to which they are totally opposed.

Mohad grihitvasad-grahan pravartante ’shuchi-vratah : Their resolutions are impure. How could there be any kind of pure resolve in the minds of such people?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Chintam aparimeyam cha pralayantam upashritah

kamopabhoga-parama etavad iti nishchitah." (BG :16-11)

They are obsessed with endless anxieties that end only with death. Still, they maintain with complete assurance that gratification of desires and accumulation of wealth is the highest purpose of life.

Chintam aparimeyam cha pralayantam upashritah : They are worried, vexed and always in a state of anxiety, which is going to pursue them even till the end of their lives. There is not even a moment of rest and peace in their minds. 

kamopabhoga-parama etavad iti nishchitah : While there is life, drink ghee and purchase delicacies by borrowing money from other people—because nothing happens when the body dies. This is the Charvaka doctrine, a materialistic attitude of enjoyment. “I must enjoy all things; all the goods should belong to me, and there is no other value in this world. The joy of the senses and the satisfaction of the mind and the ego—these are the highest values of life.” And to fulfil these morbid intentions they keep themselves in a state of restlessness and agony, which will end only with their death. 

kamopabhoga-parama etavad iti nishchitah : These qualities, to some extent, apply to pure hedonistic materialism and what is sometimes known as the Charvaka doctrine.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be continued ....

===============================================================