Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 16: The Yoga of Discrimination Between the Divine and the Demoniacal

Source context

Theme

discrimination between divine and demoniacal natures as the axis of moral-spiritual self-determination

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

• GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner treats the three qualities (sattwa, rajas, tamas) enumerated in the Gita as governing whether the soul inclines toward luminous or darkened states, which bears directly on the discriminative capacity Discourse 16 assigns to the divine versus demoniacal natures.
• GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner describes the Bhagavad Gita as a harmonious interpenetration of three spiritual streams, situating its moral discernments — including the opposition of elevated and degraded soul-qualities — within the broader Vedic-philosophical inheritance.

Cross-tradition

• Zoroastrian dualism (Ahura Mazda / Angra Mainyu)The Iranian tradition structures cosmic and human moral life as a binary between truth-following and lie-following natures, showing cross-tradition congruence with the Gita's enumeration of divine versus demoniacal endowments as determining destiny.
• Platonic anthropology (Republic, Phaedrus)Plato's distinction between the philosophical, spirited, and appetitive soul-types, and his account of the tyrannic soul enslaved to lower impulses, presents cross-tradition congruence with Discourse 16's catalogue of demoniacal qualities as bondage to desire and delusion.
• Kabbalistic doctrine of the two impulses (yetzer ha-tov / yetzer ha-ra)Rabbinic and Kabbalistic teaching that the human being contains a formed inclination toward good and toward evil, to be consciously discriminated and sublimated, shows cross-tradition congruence with Krishna's enumeration of divine and demoniacal tendencies as inherent to embodied existence.

Discourse 16: The Yoga of Discrimination Between the Divine and the Demoniacal

16:1The 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,

16:2Harmlessness, truth, absence of wrath, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of
crookedness, compassion to living beings, uncovetousness, mildness, modesty, absence of fickleness,

16:3Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of envy and pride—these are his
who is born with the divine properties, O Bharata.

16:4Hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit, wrath and also harshness and unwisdom are
his who is born, O Partha, with demoniacal properties.

16:5The divine properties are deemed to be for liberation, the demoniacal for
bondage. Grieve not, thou art born with divine properties, O Pandava.

16:6Twofold is the animal creation in this world, the divine and the demoniacal: the
divine hath been described at length: hear from Me, O Partha, the demoniacal.

16:7Demoniacal men know neither right energy nor right abstinence; nor purity, nor
even propriety, nor truth is in them.

16:8"The universe is without truth, without basis," they say, "without a God; brought
about by mutual union, and caused by lust and nothing else."

16:9Holding this view, these ruined selves of small understanding, of fierce deeds,
come forth as enemies for the destruction of the world.

16:10Surrendering themselves to insatiable desires, possessed with vanity, conceit
and arrogance, holding evil ideas through delusion, they engage in action with impure resolves.

16:11Giving themselves ever to unmeasured thought whose end is death, regarding
the gratification of desires as the highest, feeling sure that this is all,

16:12Held 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.

16:13"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.

16:14"I have slain this enemy, and others also I shall slay. I am the Lord, I am the
enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful, happy;

16:15"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,

16:16Bewildered by numerous thoughts, enmeshed in the web of delusion, addicted
to the gratification of desire, they fall downwards into a foul hell.

16:17Self-glorifying, stubborn, filled with the pride and intoxication of wealth, they
perform lip-sacrifices for ostentation, contrary to scriptural ordinance.

16:18Given over to egoism, power, insolence, lust and wrath, these malicious ones
hate Me in the bodies of others and in their own.

16:19These haters, evil, pitiless, vilest among men in the world, I ever throw down
into demoniacal wombs.

16:20Cast into demoniacal wombs, deluded birth after birth, attaining not to Me, O
Kaunteya, they sink into the lowest depths.

16:21Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, wrath, and greed;
therefore let man renounce these three.

16:22A man liberated from these three gates of darkness, O son of Kunti,
accomplisheth his own welfare, and thus reacheth the highest goal.

16:23He who having cast aside the ordinances of the Scriptures, followeth the
promptings of desire, attaineth not to perfection, nor happiness, nor the highest goal.

16:24Therefore 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.

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