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The Bhagavadgita
Chapter 16
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 Prithâ! 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 Prithâ! 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 today; 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! a man works out his own welfare, and then proceeds to the highest goal.
He who abandoning scripture ordinances, acts under the impulse of desire, does not attain perfection, nor happiness, nor the highest goal.
Therefore in discriminating between what should be done and what should not be done, your authority (must. be) scripture. And knowing what is declared by the ordinances of scripture, you should perform action in this world.
From "The Bhagavadgita with the Sanatsugatiya and the Anugita" translated by Kashinath Trimbak Telang, Volume 8, The Sacred Books of the East, 1882.
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