Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16, Verse 10

English Translation

Giving themselves up to insatiable passion, filled with vanity, pride and arrogance, adopting bad abjectives due to delusion, and having impure resolves, they engage in actions.

Detailed Commentary

16.10. Commentary: *Kāmam āśritya duṣpūram* — Those of Asuri (demonic) nature take refuge in insatiable desires. Just as some take refuge in Bhagavan, Dharma, or Svarga, so too do these individuals rely on desires that can never be fulfilled. It is deeply ingrained in their minds that without desires, a person becomes like a stone, and progress is impossible without them. Those who today have become leaders, pandits, or wealthy, all owe it to desire. Thus, those who take refuge in desires do not believe in Bhagavan, paraloka (the next world), prārabdha (destiny from past actions), and the like. Now, as to how they fulfill those desires, and who their companions are, it is stated: *dambhamānamadānvitāḥ*. They are endowed with dambha (hypocrisy/ostentation), māna (pride/self-importance), and mada (arrogance/intoxication); that is, these are the forces enabling the fulfillment of their desires. To present oneself in a specific manner as required by a situation is dambha. To consider oneself great, to deem oneself superior, is māna. The intoxication arising from the feeling 'we possess vidyā (knowledge), buddhi (intellect), yogyatā (capability), etc.' is mada. They are always engrossed in dambha, māna, and mada. *Aśucivratāḥ* — Their vows (vrata) and rules are impure, such as 'I must set fire to so many villages, so many cow-pens,' or 'I must kill so many people.' To them, varṇa (social order), āśrama (stages of life), ācāraśuddhi (purity of conduct), etc., all seem like mere hypocrisy (dhakoslā), hence they advocate eating and drinking with anyone. They declare, 'We will not listen to kathā (religious discourses) or visit tirthas (pilgrimage sites) and mandirs (temples)' — these are their vows. *Mohād gṛhītvāsadgrāhān* — Out of delusion (moha), they grasp many malevolent obsessions (durāgraha). To follow tāmasī buddhi (intellect rooted in ignorance) itself is foolishness. They do not adhere to the limits (maryādā) of Shastras, Vedas, varṇāśramas, and family traditions; rather, they consider it their bravery and pride to act contrary to these and to corrupt them. They consider that which is not duty (akartavya) as duty (kartavya), and duty as not duty; they deem what is beneficial (hita) as harmful (ahita), and what is harmful as beneficial. Due to these malevolent thoughts (asadvicāra), their intellect deteriorates, leading them to assert that they owe no debt to their parents. Their obsessions include lies, deceit, and fraud. Connection: In the absence of satkarma (virtuous actions), sadbhāva (good disposition), and sadvicāra (virtuous thoughts), the purpose and manner of the rules, dispositions, and conduct of those of Asuri tendencies will be described in the next two verses.