Gita 16.21 The metaphorical usage stresses the reality and gravity of the demoniac forces of lust anger and greed

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 16.21 Trividham refers to three kinds the doors to hell these are the paths which cause the soul to be destroyed they are lust, anger and greed and knowing their destructive potential tasma detat trayam tejet therefore these five should be given up these three should be given up tasma detat trayam tejet tejet means to give up so Krishna is telling us that in the previous verses especially the last two verses he is talking about the demoniac destinations that they go to hell and they continue to stay in a hellish situation because their mind has been so terribly distorted the solution to their terrible situation is in the redirection of their consciousness in their recognizing how terrible their situation is and it is caused by the forces that direct their consciousness in wrong directions the disposition that is demoniac is triggered primarily by these three forces lust, anger and greed trividham narkasyedam dvaram nasinamatmana there is a lot of metaphorical usage in this verse that is Krishna first says dvaram gates to hell the word gates is not used here in a physical sense it is not that there is a there is a particular place called hell which has a door with a label of lust, anger and greed that means it is not just that there are hell can refer to a place where we go but it is not that the place has an entry way a physical entry way which is labeled as lust or anger or greed the point here is metaphorical that if we do this then these lust, anger, greed are also not physical objects they are mental conceptions they are mental dispositions of course they are not just subjective but they lead to this kind of result in our lives if we do not want this kind of result then we need to purify ourselves and that purification requires us to acknowledge the gravity and the reality of the situation that we are in and then we deal with that situation accordingly if we do not take care of that situation then we get ourselves into unlimited trouble to able to overcome the situation that we are currently in we need to have a determination to purify ourselves to elevate ourselves and to ultimately liberate ourselves and that requires the steady understanding that our dispositions can’t be changed overnight our dispositions stay with us for a long time and these dispositions there are certain forces which propel them so the first metaphorical statement here is that the word door is used, the second is the soul by definition is it cannot be destroyed at the same time that does not mean that the soul itself is incapable of losing its spiritual consciousness and the loss of its spiritual consciousness the inundation of the soul’s consciousness with materialism can make its spirituality appear to be almost non-existent when that happens that can be said to be like the destruction of the soul so Krishna has used the point of the destruction of the soul earlier also when he has said that some people are that they just destroy themselves how? by their materialistic, atheistic worldviews in 16.9 he says that was also a metaphorical usage there Krishna talked about the destruction of the soul because of one’s intellectual misunderstanding here he is talking about one’s desires the driving forces, the subtle body that is the mind and the intelligence and both of them can cause destruction so and therefore these we need to give up now actually again they are not physical objects which are to be given up we have to let go of them, they are holding on to us and we are holding on to them we are sinfully motivated and they are sinfully directed and this combination keeps us in big trouble so to be able to give this up means to recognize that our own it is our free will, it is our choice so we give them up by taking up something else when we take up the resolve to act according to scriptural direction when we become determined to act according to scripture then automatically that itself enables us to resist the lower desires and that’s how we can move onwards in our spiritual journey towards Krishna so to the extent we recognize the need for giving this up, that means for taking up something else by which we can give this up it’s not that it’s something which we are physically holding on to but our mind is filled with this and to give it up we actually have to drive it out and we can’t drive it out, we can actually displace it out we can just crowd it out by filling our mind with positive desires, positive intentions a positive spiritual uplifting disposition the more we learn to do this the more we’ll be purified and protected so now the heart of this verse is lust, anger and greed lust, anger and greed Krishna has talked about how lust is the all-devouring sinful enemy in 3.37 when he stated that sorry, before that, that was 3.39, two verses before that in 3.37 he says that kāmeśa-krodheśa-rajo-guṇa-samudbhava-mahāśano-mahāpāpamā vidyena-mihavairana-mahāśano it is grievously sinful and it is mahāpāpamā and it is all-devouring it can devour morality, spirituality, humanity civility everything, so kāma now when kāma is unfulfilled, it’s frustrated and it leads to krodha where we feel angry with whoever or whatever we feel is obstructing the fulfillment of our desire and we may become aggressive and violent towards that and there Krishna in 3rd chapter Krishna uses kāma in an inclusive sense to refer to anything that makes us act against our self-interest that’s how he defines that’s what the driving question and here Krishna is using kāma in a more specific sense to refer to lust and that is differentiated from greed lobha lobha is the consciousness of wanting more and more material things for one’s pleasure so generally we associate lobha with possessiveness of things not just sensual gratification associated with sex but in general the mentality to possess more and more things and this is something which traps us so Krishna is talking that we need to stay away from these if you want to avoid the hellish destinations just like if a car is fuelled in a particular direction by certain things then we avoid those things and the car will the likelihood of going in that direction will be less so at this point Krishna will elaborate further in the next verse