The Bhagavad Gita · 1 of 2 · tr. Kashinath Trimbak Telang
Chapter XVI, Section 1a
CHAPTER XVI.
Freedom from fear, purity of heart, perseverance in (pursuit of) knowledge and abstraction of mind, gifts , self-restraint , and sacrifice, study of the Vedas, penance, straightforwardness, harmlessness, truth , freedom from anger, renunciation , tranquillity, freedom from the habit of backbiting , compassion for (all) beings, freedom from avarice, gentleness, modesty, absence of vain activity, noblemindedness, forgiveness, courage, purity, freedom from a desire to injure others, absence of vanity, (these), O descendant of Bharata!
are his who is born to godlike endowments.
Ostentatiousness, pride, vanity , anger, and also harshness and ignorance (are) his, O son of P ri thâ!
who is born to demoniac endowments.
Godlike endowments are deemed to be (means) for final emancipation, demoniac for bondage .
Grieve not, O descendant of Bharata!
you are born to godlike endowments.
(There are) two classes of created beings in this world, the godlike and the demoniac; the godlike (class) has been described at length; now hear from me, O son of P ri thâ!
about the demoniac.
Demoniac persons know not action or inaction , neither purity nor yet (correct) conduct nor veracity are in them.
They say the universe is devoid of truth , devoid of fixed principle , and devoid of a ruler, produced by union (of male and female) caused by lust , and nothing else.
Holding this view, (these) enemies of the world, of ruined selfs, of little knowledge, and of ferocious actions, are born for the destruction (of the world).
Entertaining insatiable desire, full of vanity, ostentatiousness, and frenzy, they adopt false notions through delusion, and engage in unholy observances.
Indulging in boundless thoughts ending with death , given up to the enjoyment of objects of desire, being resolved that that is all, bound down by nets of hopes in hundreds, given up to anger and desire, they wish to obtain heaps of wealth unfairly for enjoying objects of desire.
'This have I obtained to-day; this wish I will obtain; this wealth is mine; and this also shall be mine; this foe I have killed; others too I will destroy; I am lord, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect , strong, happy; I have wealth; I am of noble birth; who else is like me?
I will sacrifice ; I will make gifts; I will rejoice.' Thus deluded by ignorance, tossed about by numerous thoughts, surrounded by the net of delusion, and attached to the enjoyment of objects of desire, they fall down into impure hell.
Honoured (only) by themselves, void of humility, and full of the pride and frenzy of wealth, these calumniators (of the virtuous) perform sacrifices, which are sacrifices only in name, with ostentatiousness and against prescribed rules ; indulging (their) vanity, brute force, arrogance, lust, and anger; and hating me in their own bodies and in those of others .
These enemies , ferocious, meanest of men, and unholy, I continually hurl down, to these worlds , only into demoniac wombs.
Coming into demoniac wombs, deluded in every birth, they go down to the vilest state, O son of Kuntî!
without ever coming to me.
Threefold is this way, to hell,-- ruinous to the self ,--lust, anger, and likewise avarice; therefore one should abandon this triad.
Released from these three ways to darkness, O son of Kuntî!
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
The passage explicitly structures reality around two opposing classes of beings (godlike and demoniac) with distinct endowments leading to emancipation or bondage.
The cosmic law that manifests as each being's own duty — right order known not as abstract truth but as the specific obligation of one's nature and station (svadharma), so that maintaining the cosmos and performing one's proper work are one act; the Gita's 'one's own duty, though defective, is better than another's well performed.' Sits beside asha_cosmic_order and maat_cosmic_order as a right-order concept but is distinct in individuating the order into personal vocation; distinct from good_thought_word_deed (ethical triad) in binding duty to cosmic station.
The passage defines right conduct, duty, and proper action through the godlike endowments (self-restraint, sacrifice, penance, truth, harmlessness) while the demoniac are defined by their lack of 'correct conduct' and 'veracity,' and one's birth into godlike or demoniac endowments determines one's proper path.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The text asserts that the divine actively hurls demoniac beings into specific wombs and orchestrates their fate.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage systematically presents paired opposites—godlike/demoniac, truth/falsity, purity/impurity, liberation/bondage, knowledge/ignorance—as the structural framework of spiritual reality.
Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.
The text condemns those who perform sacrifices only in name with ostentatiousness and against prescribed rules, driven by vanity rather than true piety.
The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.
Avarice and the desire for heaps of wealth are listed as primary demoniac traits that lead to destruction, while renunciation is a godlike endowment. [quarantine-w4: renunciation_of_wealth x hinduism — see rellm data/quarantine/dossiers.jsonl]
The text describes the cycle of rebirth into demoniac wombs for those deluded by ignorance and the ultimate goal of final emancipation from this cycle.