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The Bhagavad Gita.....The Divine and the Demonic

"The blessed Lord said,
'Fearlessness, purity of heart,
perseverance in knowledge of union,
charity and restraint and sacrifice,
spiritual study, austerity, straightforwardness,
nonviolence, truth, no anger, renunciation, peace,
no slander, compassion for creatures, no greed,
kindness, modesty, no fickleness,
vigor, patience, courage, purity,
no hatred, and no excessive pride
are the endowment of the one born to the divine, Bharata.

"'Hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit,
anger and harshness, and ignorance
are the endowment of the one born to the demonic, Partha.

"'The divine endowment is for liberation,
for bondage the demonic, it is thought.
Do not grieve.
To the divine endowment you are born, son of Pandu.
Two created beings are in this world,
the divine and the demonic.

"'The divine has been described in detail;
hear from me about the demonic, Partha.
Progress and cessation demonic people do not understand;
neither purity nor good conduct nor truth is found in them.
Untruthful, they are unstable.
The universe, they say, is godless,
not by a succession created.
What else but desire caused it?
Holding this view lost souls of little intelligence
and evil actions come forth as enemies
for the destruction of the world.

"'Attached to insatiable desire,
accompanied by hypocrisy, arrogance, and lust,
out of confusion accepting false notions,
they proceed with impure purposes,
and clinging to immeasurable anxiety ending in death,
with gratification of desire their highest aim,
convinced that this is all,
bound by a hundred expectations,
devoted to desire and anger,
they wish for the gratification of desires
by the unjust means of hoards of wealth.

"'"This today was acquired by me;
this wish I shall obtain;
this is it; and this shall be my property also.
That enemy was slain by me;
and I shall kill others also.
I am the Lord; I am the enjoyer;
I am perfect, powerful, happy.
I am wealthy, aristocratic.
Who else is there like me?
I shall sacrifice, give, be merry."

Thus are those deluded by ignorance.
Led astray by more than one thought,
wrapped in a net of delusion,
attached to the gratification of desires,
they fall into an unclean hell.

"'Conceited souls, stubborn,
full of the pride and intoxication of wealth,
they sacrifice in the name of sacrifices with hypocrisy,
not in the sacred manner.
Clinging to the ego, force, insolence, desire, and anger,
the envious hate me in the soul of others' bodies.
Those hating, cruel, vicious wretches I throw continually
into the cycles of reincarnation in demonic wombs.
Entering a demonic womb, the deluded in birth after birth
not attaining me, Kaunteya, go then to the worst path.

"'This threefold gate of hell is destructive of the soul:
desire, anger, and greed.
Therefore one should renounce this threesome.
Released from these three dark gates, Kaunteya,
the best person practices for the soul,
then goes to the supreme goal.

"'Whoever, discarding scriptural knowledge,
follows willful desire does not attain perfection
nor happiness nor the supreme goal.
Therefore scripture is your authority
for determining what is to be done or not to be done.
Knowing what is said in scripture you should do work here.'

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