Bg 16.11-12
cintām aparimeyāṁ ca pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
kāmopabhoga-paramā etāvad iti niścitāḥ
āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ
īhante kāma-bhogārtham anyāyenārtha-sañcayān
Translation
11. Giving themselves over to immeasurable cares ending only with death, regarding gratification of lust as their highest aim, and feeling sure that, that is all (that matters).
12. Bound by a hundred ties of hope, given to lust and anger, they do strive to obtain, by unlawful means, hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyments.
Commentary
ENDLESS CARES --- Wedded to anxiety and care, such desperate men drag their life of futile endeavours along the corridors of sobs and sorrows to the silent courtyard of death. In an ordinary life, cares besiege the citadel of peace and joy, especially when hosts of powerful desires conquer the individual. The struggles-in-acquiring (Yoga) and anxieties-in-preserving (Kshema) the acquired objects-of-desires are the contents of all cares of life. To waste an entire life-time in such anxieties, and in the end to realise how miserably one had failed is indeed a tragedy.
SATISFACTION OF LUST AS THE HIGHEST (Kama-upabhoga-parama) --- Consistent effort either in the field of the good, or in the field of the vicious, put forth without a philosophy of life that sustains the continuity of an individual's activities, is a haphazard endeavour, ignoble and futile.
The philosophy of life that is accepted by the 'Diabolically Fallen' is invariably the same wherever they be. The philosophy of the (Charvakas) atheists has been hinted at herein. To them, satisfaction of their lusty nature is the goal of life and there is nothing beyond it.
ASSURED THAT IS ALL --- Generally, such materialists are no fools; they have an ample share of a rough and ready intellect. They do realise that a life dedicated to an endless hunt after sense-gratifications is a tragic way of living, and that is such a scheme of existence the individual is called upon to pay an exorbitant price for relatively insignificant gains. And yet, they continue, seeking satisfaction of their uncontrolled lust. If you question them, their answer is that life is nothing but a series of such strifes. They know not of any life, the contents of which are peace and joy. They are generally pessimistic, and since they scrupulously avoid seriously thinking about life, they invariably come to express suicidal tendencies and homicidal temperaments. According to them, sorrows and care alone constitute the fabric of life. They fail to discover any harmony or rhythm underlying the superficial disturbances in life. Entertaining no hope, either for themselves or for the world, they live with embittered hearts, revengefully meeting the happenings around them in the world. In unproductive exertions, they waste their powers only to die a miserable death; exhausted, wearied, disappointed.
THE EXPRESSION OF THE ABOVE PHILOSOPHY IN THE LIFE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA:
BOUND BY A HUNDRED TIES OF HOPE, LUST AND ANGER --- Bringing vividly to the mind of the student, the picture of such a materialist, Krishna records in this stanza, the activities of such an individual. Entangled by hundreds of desires, his mental and intellectual energies get dissipated. Such an individual becomes restless and impatient with things that happen around him, and soon loses his balance of mind --- his sense of judgement. Irritated and constantly unhappy with himself and his environments, such a man is seen in life 'GIVEN TO YEARNINGS AND ANGER.' Wherever desire is throttled, anger is natural. Since he is devoted to desires he pursues sense-fulfilments, and since in the world of competition, desire-fulfilments, often get throttled, his lusty urges get transformed into wild and passionate anger.
THEY DO STRIVE, no doubt --- They do tirelessly and diligently strive to satisfy their ever-increasing urges. To secure their quota of sensual enjoyments, they must necessarily acquire and procure objects of sense-satisfaction from the world without. They are not seeking happiness as such or peace as such; theirs is the anxiety to quench a nameless thirst which they are constantly feeling --- a strange hunger they are chronically suffering from. They have not the mental equipoise to investigate into their urges, and analyse and judge them properly. Madly they strive on to acquire and possess, and in their desperate anxiety to indulge and to enjoy, they lose sight of the divine principles of existence and the noble dictates of their conscience. THEY DO STRIVE, day and night, to satisfy their inexhaustible passion, with wealth acquired and hoarded by all known unjust means.
Though written some five thousand years ago, strangely enough, this portion of the description of the 'Diabolically Fallen' reads as though it were a bitter, but honest, criticism of our own age!! Thus, if students of the Geeta were to judge our era of brilliant scientific knowledge, material prosperity, secular achievements and political freedom, they will have to classify our era as of this 'Diabolically Fallen' type. Amidst the bleating sirens of our booming industries, the horrid thuds of our modern missiles, the devastating powers of nature that we have discovered and released for our own destruction, we may not give our ears to the thundering truth declared by the 'wise' men of such a distant past; but sincere students of the Geeta cannot but perceive the unquestionable veracity in them, and must come to feel sad for the world and age.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
cintām aparimeyāṁ ca pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
kāmopabhoga-paramā etāvad iti niścitāḥ
āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ
īhante kāma-bhogārtham anyāyenārtha-sañcayān
Translation
11. Giving themselves over to immeasurable cares ending only with death, regarding gratification of lust as their highest aim, and feeling sure that, that is all (that matters).
12. Bound by a hundred ties of hope, given to lust and anger, they do strive to obtain, by unlawful means, hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyments.
Commentary
ENDLESS CARES --- Wedded to anxiety and care, such desperate men drag their life of futile endeavours along the corridors of sobs and sorrows to the silent courtyard of death. In an ordinary life, cares besiege the citadel of peace and joy, especially when hosts of powerful desires conquer the individual. The struggles-in-acquiring (Yoga) and anxieties-in-preserving (Kshema) the acquired objects-of-desires are the contents of all cares of life. To waste an entire life-time in such anxieties, and in the end to realise how miserably one had failed is indeed a tragedy.
SATISFACTION OF LUST AS THE HIGHEST (Kama-upabhoga-parama) --- Consistent effort either in the field of the good, or in the field of the vicious, put forth without a philosophy of life that sustains the continuity of an individual's activities, is a haphazard endeavour, ignoble and futile.
The philosophy of life that is accepted by the 'Diabolically Fallen' is invariably the same wherever they be. The philosophy of the (Charvakas) atheists has been hinted at herein. To them, satisfaction of their lusty nature is the goal of life and there is nothing beyond it.
ASSURED THAT IS ALL --- Generally, such materialists are no fools; they have an ample share of a rough and ready intellect. They do realise that a life dedicated to an endless hunt after sense-gratifications is a tragic way of living, and that is such a scheme of existence the individual is called upon to pay an exorbitant price for relatively insignificant gains. And yet, they continue, seeking satisfaction of their uncontrolled lust. If you question them, their answer is that life is nothing but a series of such strifes. They know not of any life, the contents of which are peace and joy. They are generally pessimistic, and since they scrupulously avoid seriously thinking about life, they invariably come to express suicidal tendencies and homicidal temperaments. According to them, sorrows and care alone constitute the fabric of life. They fail to discover any harmony or rhythm underlying the superficial disturbances in life. Entertaining no hope, either for themselves or for the world, they live with embittered hearts, revengefully meeting the happenings around them in the world. In unproductive exertions, they waste their powers only to die a miserable death; exhausted, wearied, disappointed.
THE EXPRESSION OF THE ABOVE PHILOSOPHY IN THE LIFE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA:
BOUND BY A HUNDRED TIES OF HOPE, LUST AND ANGER --- Bringing vividly to the mind of the student, the picture of such a materialist, Krishna records in this stanza, the activities of such an individual. Entangled by hundreds of desires, his mental and intellectual energies get dissipated. Such an individual becomes restless and impatient with things that happen around him, and soon loses his balance of mind --- his sense of judgement. Irritated and constantly unhappy with himself and his environments, such a man is seen in life 'GIVEN TO YEARNINGS AND ANGER.' Wherever desire is throttled, anger is natural. Since he is devoted to desires he pursues sense-fulfilments, and since in the world of competition, desire-fulfilments, often get throttled, his lusty urges get transformed into wild and passionate anger.
THEY DO STRIVE, no doubt --- They do tirelessly and diligently strive to satisfy their ever-increasing urges. To secure their quota of sensual enjoyments, they must necessarily acquire and procure objects of sense-satisfaction from the world without. They are not seeking happiness as such or peace as such; theirs is the anxiety to quench a nameless thirst which they are constantly feeling --- a strange hunger they are chronically suffering from. They have not the mental equipoise to investigate into their urges, and analyse and judge them properly. Madly they strive on to acquire and possess, and in their desperate anxiety to indulge and to enjoy, they lose sight of the divine principles of existence and the noble dictates of their conscience. THEY DO STRIVE, day and night, to satisfy their inexhaustible passion, with wealth acquired and hoarded by all known unjust means.
Though written some five thousand years ago, strangely enough, this portion of the description of the 'Diabolically Fallen' reads as though it were a bitter, but honest, criticism of our own age!! Thus, if students of the Geeta were to judge our era of brilliant scientific knowledge, material prosperity, secular achievements and political freedom, they will have to classify our era as of this 'Diabolically Fallen' type. Amidst the bleating sirens of our booming industries, the horrid thuds of our modern missiles, the devastating powers of nature that we have discovered and released for our own destruction, we may not give our ears to the thundering truth declared by the 'wise' men of such a distant past; but sincere students of the Geeta cannot but perceive the unquestionable veracity in them, and must come to feel sad for the world and age.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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