Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16, Verse 4 (BG 16.4) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

# BG 16.4 — Commentary on Demoniac Qualities Never before has the ugliness of those possessed by the demoniac nature of the world been described so comprehensibly within the bounds of a single verse. Though the varieties of demoniac tendencies are many, only certain principal vices are mentioned here—those through which we may understand all the demoniac forces that can ever manifest in the human heart and display their destructive influence. The benefit of knowing these is that we can remove unwanted tendencies from our hearts, and thus make available to ourselves a great power for our own evolution. **Hypocrisy (Dambha):** According to Sri Shankaracharya, hypocrisy means presenting oneself as a righteous person while being fundamentally unrighteous. In other words, to present oneself otherwise than one truly is—this is hypocrisy. It is an extremely base form adopted by sinful and immoral people. Their superficial piety and purity, their false religiosity and pretended sincerity, are merely attractive coverings that conceal their destructive purposes and wicked intentions. **Pride (Darpa):** Excessive pride in wealth, followers, youth, knowledge, social status and the like grants a person an insufferable sense of superiority. Thereafter, that person views the events of the world through the distorted lens of self-deception and dwells in a realm of imaginary self-esteem. As a result of this pride, he remains deprived of inner peace. Such a person becomes excluded from the affection of his own society. The proud man remains solitary in the world. Only imaginary self-esteem and dreams of his own greatness are his companions. Only he himself can perceive his own splendor; no one else can. Such a person naturally becomes arrogant. **Anger (Krodha):** When a person possessed of hypocrisy, pride, and arrogance discovers that people's perceptions of him are entirely different from his own self-perception, his mind rebels, manifesting as anger toward everything. A person overwhelmed by anger necessarily displays harshness and insolence in his actions and speech that disturb others. The sole cause of the aforementioned hypocrisy and pride is self-ignorance. He neither knows himself nor understands the structure of the world around him. The result is that he cannot comprehend what kind of harmonious relationship he should maintain with the world. In essence, he becomes entirely ego-centered and desires that the external world conform to his expectations and wishes. Moreover, he presents a foolish code of conduct to those in his sphere of work and expects them to behave exactly according to it. This ignorance regarding himself and the world is the hidden cause by which a person, enslaved to it, rebels against society and behaves like one deranged. This is the demoniac wealth—the qualities of the demons. Against the backdrop of the demoniac qualities depicted in this verse, the previously described divine qualities shine forth all the more brilliantly. Now the fruits—the results—of these two types of qualities shall be explained.