Divine & Demonic Qualities

The Blessed Lord said:

Fearlessness, cleanness of life, steadfastness in the Yoga of wisdom, almsgiving, self-restraint and sacrifice and study of the Scriptures, austerity and straightforwardness,

Harmlessness, truth, absence of wrath, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of crookedness, compassion to living beings, uncovetousness, mildness, modesty, absence of fickleness,

Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of envy and pride—these are his who is born with the divine properties, O Bhârata.

Hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit, wrath and also harshness and unwisdom are his who is born, O Pârtha, with demoniacal properties.

The divine properties are deemed to be for liberation, the demoniacal for bondage. Grieve not, thou art born with divine properties, O Pândava.

Twofold is the animal creation in this world, the divine and the demoniacal: the divine hath been described at length: hear from Me, O Pârtha, the demoniacal.

Demoniacal men know neither right energy nor right abstinence; nor purity, nor even propriety, nor truth is in them.

"The universe is without truth, without basis," they say, "without a God; brought about by mutual union, and caused by lust and nothing else."

Holding this view, these ruined selves of small understanding, of fierce deeds, come forth as enemies for the destruction of the world.

Surrendering themselves to insatiable desires, possessed with vanity, conceit and arrogance, holding evil ideas through delusion, they engage in action with impure resolves.

Giving themselves over to unmeasured thought whose end is death, regarding the gratification of desires as the highest, feeling sure that this is all,

Held in bondage by a hundred ties of expectation, given over to lust and anger, they strive to obtain by unlawful means hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyments.

"This to-day by me hath been won, that purpose I shall gain; this wealth is mine already, and also this shall be mine in future.

"I have slain this enemy, and others also I shall slay. I am the Lord, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful, happy;

"I am wealthy, well-born; what other is there that is like unto me? I will sacrifice, I will give alms, I will rejoice." Thus deluded by unwisdom,

Bewildered by numerous thoughts, enmeshed in the web of delusion, addicted to the gratification of desire, they fall downwards into a foul hell.

Self-glorifying, stubborn, filled with the pride and intoxication of wealth, they perform lip-sacrifices for ostentation, contrary to scriptural ordinance.

Given over to egoism, power, insolence, lust and wrath, these malicious ones hate Me in the bodies of others and in their own.

These haters, evil, pitiless, vilest among men in the world, I ever throw down into demoniacal wombs.

Cast into demoniacal wombs, deluded birth after birth, attaining not to Me, O Kaunteya, they sink into the lowest depths.

Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, wrath, and greed; therefore let man renounce these three.

A man liberated from these three gates of darkness, O son of Kunti, accomplisheth his own welfare, and thus reacheth the highest goal.

He who, having cast aside the ordinances of the Scriptures, followeth the promptings of desire, attaineth not to perfection, nor happiness, nor the highest goal.

Therefore let the Scriptures be thy authority, in determining what ought to be done, or what ought not to be done. Knowing what hath been declared by the ordinances of the Scriptures, thou oughtest to work in this world.