Thursday, 23 October 2014

Gita Simplified & with stories : Chapter 16

What is this chapter about
  • Divine (Daivi) & Demonical (Asuri) qualities
  • Divine & Demoniac Natures
Summary of chapter
  • All have good & bad qualities. Depending on combination/majority one gets classified as good or bad.
  • Lust (sexuality), hunger (greed) & anger is in animals but circumstancial  /natures call. However in humans it can be all consuming 
Shlokas references
  • 24 shlokas
  • 16.1-16.18 The divine & demonic types
    • 16.1-16.3 : 26 Divine qualities : fearlessness, purity, ahimsa, freedom from vanity
    • 16.4 - Demonic qualities : Pride, arrogance, wrath, rudeness, pretentiousness, anger 
  • 16.9-16.24 : Gateway to hell
    • 16.23-16.24 : Scriptures help in arresting the demonic qualities and develop divine qualities
Key message from the chapter 
  • Since all may not have a Guru to guide, scriptures help guide us humans
  • Self control and awareness key to developing divine qualities
  • With reference to the Shlok 16.1-3
    If we draw an analogy  between increasing our divinity and inproving our health. Then, we can see that the 26 Daivigun are like a list of nutritious food for our soul. 
    The asuri sampada ke durgun are the junk food. Only a steady diet of nutritious food can improve our spiritual  health.
Summary in poetry 

Those who are born to attain sublime qualities
Possess all the divine properties
But those who are born for a demoniac estate
Exhibit all the traits that enslave
With hypocrisy, anger, lust and arrogance
They walk the path of only ignorance
Lust, anger and greed are three gates to pain
Renounce these and pursue the noble aim
Follow the guidelines prescribed in sacred text
They are the authority in what is best


A story related to the message

The Dog and the Bone
One day a dog found a bone. He picked it up in his mouth and went to a lonely corner to chew it. He sat there and chewed the bone for some time. Then the dog felt thirsty and picked up the bone in his mouth and walked over a small wooden bridge to drink water from the creek
When he saw his own reflection in the water, he thought there was another dog with a bone in the river. Becoming greedy, he wanted to have the other bone also. He opened his mouth to bark and take the bone from the other dog. As soon as he opened his mouth to grab the other bone, the bone dropped out of his mouth and fell into the creek. The dog realized his mistake, but it was too late.
Greed can be overcome by being satisfied with what one has. A satisfied person is a very happy person. A greedy person cannot find true peace and happiness in life.

The Story of Queen Draupadi
Draupadi was the common wife of five Pāndavas. She was the daughter of a Rishi in her past life. She was very beautiful and virtuous, but in her past life, due to her past Karma, she had been unable to get married. This made her unhappy. So she started austerity to please Lord Shiva. After a long and difficult austerity, she pleased Lord Shiva, who asked her to choose a blessing of her choice. She asked for a husband who would be very religious, strong, a very good soldier, good looking, and gentle. Lord Shiva granted her wish.
In the next life, she was married to five brothers, but she was not very happy with this strange situation. Draupadi was a great devotee of Lord Krishna, who knows the past, present and future of all beings. He knew of her sorrow and explained what she had asked for in her past life. Lord Krishna said it was impossible for one man to have all the qualities she wanted in her husband, so she was married to five husbands in this life, who shared all these qualities among them.
After hearing this explanation from the Lord Krishna Himself, she, her parents, and her five husbands cheerfully accepted what fate had given them and lived happily.
The moral of the story is that one cannot find a husband or wife with all good or bad qualities, so one must learn to live with whatever is given by fate. There is no perfect spouse because no one has only good habits and no bad habits.


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