Bg 16.16
aneka-citta-vibhrāntā moha-jāla-samāvṛtāḥ
prasaktāḥ kāma-bhogeṣu patanti narake ’śucau
Bg 16.17
ātma-sambhāvitāḥ stabdhā dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ
yajante nāma-yajñais te dambhenāvidhi-pūrvakam
Translation
16. Bewildered by many a fancy, entangled in the snare of delusion, addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall into a foul hell.
17. Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with pride and drunk with wealth, they perform sacrifices in name (only) out of ostentation, contrary to scriptural ordinance.
Commentary
BEWILDERED BY MANY A FANCY --- When an ego-centric individual, who has thus sold himself to sense-indulgence, spends his time seeking gratification from the world-of-objects, his mind becomes ever unsteady. The mind of an indulgent sensualist soon learns to empty its powers of concentration and exhausts itself in its own hallucinations, fancies and imaginations.
ENTANGLED IN THE SNARE OF DELUSION --- If the individual's mind, as a result of its false philosophy, gets dissipated in sapless dreams, his intellect also is in a sad condition. His power of judgement and discrimination is caught up in a web of delusions and false values. His intellect, cut off from its permanent moorings, has thereafter no platform of its own to spring from and come to a correct judgement and evaluation of life. It fails to recognise the permanent harmony of life, but recognises only its own ego-centric vanities. Life looked at through such a disturbing equipment naturally gives a distorted view.
ADDICTED TO GRATIFICATION OF LUST --- When an individual's intellect is clouded, his mind gets agitated, and his sense-organs, which are the vehicles through which the mind-intellect has to express itself, certainly behave erratically. When a driver is drunk, the car cannot move properly. Naturally, therefore, such an individual becomes a victim of lust and sense-gratifications.
THEY FALL INTO A FOUL HELL --- We need not be great philosophers to understand that such an individual, tired physically, confused mentally, and upset intellectually, will live here in a self-created hell, distributing his own personality-contents of woes to others around him. A man can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven, by the harmony or discord in himself. A subjectively shattered personality cannot find peace or fulfilment in any situation. Even if the environments are conducive, he discovers, in himself, methods of unsettling them by his own inner sufferings.
If a single individual who has these false values, discovers for himself but a sad world of sorrow even in the midst of happy surroundings, we can very well understand what would be the condition of the world when a good majority of us are having, in varying degrees, the above qualities. Hell and heaven are determined by the amount of discord or harmony that we successfully bring about in our inner makeup.
WHAT THEN ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCH PEOPLE, AND HOW DO THEY PERFORM THEIR YAJNAS?
Yajna need not necessarily be considered as the elaborate ritualism described in the Vedas. But it can be interpreted, in the Geeta style (III) as "A CO-OPERATIVE ENDEAVOUR IN WHICH EACH INDIVIDUAL POURS HIS BEST INTO THE ACTIVITY OF LIFE, AS AN OBLATION TO PROPITIATE THE POTENTIAL GOODNESS IN EXISTENCE, AND WHICH, WHEN INVOKED, IS TO BE DISTRIBUTED EQUALLY TO ALL." This spirit of selfless effort in the service of mankind was described by Krishna as the greatest Yajna; WORK IS WORKSHIP.
SELF-CONCEITED, STUBBORN, FULL WITH PRIDE AND DRUNK WITH HIS OWN POSSESSIONS AND WEALTH --- When an individual enters the fields of social work or national service, he does not always do so with a true yajna-spirit only. In spite of very many of the leaders and workers striving hard for the upliftment of their country, we find that the world of our age is falling away from peace, plenty, and prosperity. When a man of the 'Diabolically Fallen' type reaches any field of activity, in spite of his vociferous claims of selfless service, he is incapable of it, because of the very nature of his personality and character. Such friends of society can perform a yajna in name only. Unconsciously, their actions will be poisoned by their vanity, coloured by their sensuality, distorted by their arrogance, and generally polluted by their false philosophy. As a result of all their actions, sorrow alone will be the result.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
aneka-citta-vibhrāntā moha-jāla-samāvṛtāḥ
prasaktāḥ kāma-bhogeṣu patanti narake ’śucau
Bg 16.17
ātma-sambhāvitāḥ stabdhā dhana-māna-madānvitāḥ
yajante nāma-yajñais te dambhenāvidhi-pūrvakam
Translation
16. Bewildered by many a fancy, entangled in the snare of delusion, addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall into a foul hell.
17. Self-conceited, stubborn, filled with pride and drunk with wealth, they perform sacrifices in name (only) out of ostentation, contrary to scriptural ordinance.
Commentary
BEWILDERED BY MANY A FANCY --- When an ego-centric individual, who has thus sold himself to sense-indulgence, spends his time seeking gratification from the world-of-objects, his mind becomes ever unsteady. The mind of an indulgent sensualist soon learns to empty its powers of concentration and exhausts itself in its own hallucinations, fancies and imaginations.
ENTANGLED IN THE SNARE OF DELUSION --- If the individual's mind, as a result of its false philosophy, gets dissipated in sapless dreams, his intellect also is in a sad condition. His power of judgement and discrimination is caught up in a web of delusions and false values. His intellect, cut off from its permanent moorings, has thereafter no platform of its own to spring from and come to a correct judgement and evaluation of life. It fails to recognise the permanent harmony of life, but recognises only its own ego-centric vanities. Life looked at through such a disturbing equipment naturally gives a distorted view.
ADDICTED TO GRATIFICATION OF LUST --- When an individual's intellect is clouded, his mind gets agitated, and his sense-organs, which are the vehicles through which the mind-intellect has to express itself, certainly behave erratically. When a driver is drunk, the car cannot move properly. Naturally, therefore, such an individual becomes a victim of lust and sense-gratifications.
THEY FALL INTO A FOUL HELL --- We need not be great philosophers to understand that such an individual, tired physically, confused mentally, and upset intellectually, will live here in a self-created hell, distributing his own personality-contents of woes to others around him. A man can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven, by the harmony or discord in himself. A subjectively shattered personality cannot find peace or fulfilment in any situation. Even if the environments are conducive, he discovers, in himself, methods of unsettling them by his own inner sufferings.
If a single individual who has these false values, discovers for himself but a sad world of sorrow even in the midst of happy surroundings, we can very well understand what would be the condition of the world when a good majority of us are having, in varying degrees, the above qualities. Hell and heaven are determined by the amount of discord or harmony that we successfully bring about in our inner makeup.
WHAT THEN ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCH PEOPLE, AND HOW DO THEY PERFORM THEIR YAJNAS?
Yajna need not necessarily be considered as the elaborate ritualism described in the Vedas. But it can be interpreted, in the Geeta style (III) as "A CO-OPERATIVE ENDEAVOUR IN WHICH EACH INDIVIDUAL POURS HIS BEST INTO THE ACTIVITY OF LIFE, AS AN OBLATION TO PROPITIATE THE POTENTIAL GOODNESS IN EXISTENCE, AND WHICH, WHEN INVOKED, IS TO BE DISTRIBUTED EQUALLY TO ALL." This spirit of selfless effort in the service of mankind was described by Krishna as the greatest Yajna; WORK IS WORKSHIP.
SELF-CONCEITED, STUBBORN, FULL WITH PRIDE AND DRUNK WITH HIS OWN POSSESSIONS AND WEALTH --- When an individual enters the fields of social work or national service, he does not always do so with a true yajna-spirit only. In spite of very many of the leaders and workers striving hard for the upliftment of their country, we find that the world of our age is falling away from peace, plenty, and prosperity. When a man of the 'Diabolically Fallen' type reaches any field of activity, in spite of his vociferous claims of selfless service, he is incapable of it, because of the very nature of his personality and character. Such friends of society can perform a yajna in name only. Unconsciously, their actions will be poisoned by their vanity, coloured by their sensuality, distorted by their arrogance, and generally polluted by their false philosophy. As a result of all their actions, sorrow alone will be the result.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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