The Bhagavad Gita Part Sixteen

KRISHNA:1. Freedom from fear, purity of heart, constancy in sacred learning and contemplation, generosity, selfharmony, adoration, study of the scriptures, austerity, righteousness; 2. Non-violence, truth, freedom from anger, renunciation, serenity, aversion to fault-finding, sympathy for all beings, peace from greedy cravings, gentleness, modesty, steadiness; 3. Energy, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, a good will, freedom from pride—these are the treasures of the man who is born for heaven. 4. Deceitfulness, insolence and self-conceit, anger and harshness and ignorance—these belong to a man who is born for hell. 5. The virtues of heaven are for liberation but the sins of hell are chains of the soul. Grieve not, Arjuna, for heaven is thy final end. 6. There are two natures in this world: the one is of heaven, the other of hell. The heavenly nature has been explained: hear now of the evil of hell. 7. Evil men know not what should be done or what should not be done. Purity is not in their hearts, nor good conduct, nor truth.

8. They say: ‘this world has no truth, no moral foundation, no God. There is no law of creation; what is the cause of birth but lust?’ 9. Firm in this belief, these men of dead souls, of truly little intelligence, undertake their work of evil: they are the enemies of this fair world, working for its destruction. 10. They torture their soul with insatiable desires and full of deceit, insolence, and pride, they hold fast their dark ideas, and they carry on this impure work. 11. Thus they are beset with innumerable cares which last long, all their life, until death. Their highest aim is sensual enjoyment, and they firmly think that is all. 12. They are bound by hundreds of vain hopes, Anger and lust is their refuge, and they strive by unjust means to amass wealth for their own cravings. 13. ‘I have gained this today, and I shall attain this desire. This wealth is mine, and that shall also be mine.’ 14. ‘I have slain that enemy, and others also shall I slay. I am a lord, I enjoy life, I am successful, powerful and happy.’ 15. ‘I am wealthy and of noble birth: who else is there like me? I shall pay for religious rituals, and I shall make benefactions, I shall enjoy myself.’ Thus they say in their darkness of delusion. 16. Led astray by many wrong thoughts, entangled in the net of delusion, enchained to the pleasures of their cravings, they fall down into a foul hell.

17. In their haughtiness of vainglory, drunk with the pride of their wealth, they offer their wrong sacrifices for ostentation, against divine law. 18. In their chains of selfishness and arrogance, of violence and anger and lust, these malignant men hate me: they hate me in themselves and in others. 19. In the vast cycles of life and death I inexorably hurl them down to destruction: these the lowest of men, cruel and evil, whose soul is hate. 20. Reborn in a lower life, in darkness birth after birth, they come not to me, Arjuna; but they go down the path of hell. 21. Three are the gates to this hell, the death of the soul: the gate of the lust, the gate of wrath, and the gate of greed. Let a man shun the three. 22. When a man is free from these three doors of darkness, he does what is good for his soul, and then he enters the Path Supreme. 23. But the man who rejects the words of the scriptures and follows the impulse of desire attains neither his perfection, nor joy, nor the Path Supreme. 24. Let the Scriptures be therefore thy authority as what is right and what is not right. Know the words of the Scriptures, and do in this life the work to be done. End of Part Sixteen.