An Atheist Explroes the Bhagavad Gita Part 17: The Path To The Dark Side (Yog through Discerning the Divine and the Demoniac Natures (Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāg Yog))

 Chapter Sixteen: Yog through Discerning the Divine and the Demoniac Natures

(Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāg Yog)

The Path To The Dark Side

 Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bhagavad Gita).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Bhagavad Gita, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

 For more detail, see the introductory post https://bit.ly/2XAch2A

For the online Bhagavad Gita that I use, see here https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/

 And now:

 Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāg Yog

“There are two kinds of beings in this world—those endowed with a divine nature and those possessing a demoniac nature. I have described the divine qualities in detail, O Arjun. Now hear from me about the demoniac nature.”

 We now learn that people are born with one of two natures – saintly or demonic. Arjun is reassured by Krishna that he has a saintly nature, but later on we are warned that “These cruel and hateful persons, the vile and vicious of humankind, I constantly hurl into the wombs of those with similar demoniac natures in the cycle of rebirth in the material world. These ignorant souls take birth again and again in demoniac wombs. Failing to reach me, O Arjun, they gradually sink to the most abominable type of existence.”

 Which seems a mite unfair to me. It looks here that suddenly there’s a predestination element to what a person is like. Okay, I can understand a “demonic” person getting punished in their rebirth (as animals, we were told before), but to have them reborn in such a situation that makes it even harder for them to achieve a saintly nature seems … cruel and un-necessary. It’s almost like the God of the Bible or Qur’an.

 And there is an element of choice between vice and virtue, because we are also told that “There are three gates leading to the hell of self-destruction for the soul—lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, all should abandon these three”. But if a vicious person is reborn from a “demoniac womb” (which, I’m guessing, is like a mother who’s a crack-whore with emotional stunting of her own), then they’re going to find it harder to shun the “three gates”. Come on Krishna, I’d expect you to understand more on the effects of poverty and social deprivation on the development of the child.

 That aside, most of the chapter discusses what makes a person “demoniac”. We get a long verse at the start that describes a virtuous (saintly) nature, which I’m going to turn into a list for clarity:

 fearlessness,

purity of mind,

steadfastness in spiritual knowledge,

charity,

control of the senses,

performance of sacrifice,

study of the sacred books,

austerity, and straightforwardness;

non-violence,

truthfulness,

absence of anger,

renunciation,

peacefulness,

restraint from fault-finding,

compassion toward all living beings,

absence of covetousness,

gentleness,

modesty, and lack of fickleness;

vigor,

forgiveness,

fortitude,

cleanliness,

bearing enmity toward none,

and absence of vanity”

 I think there’s a bit of cheating there – surely peacefulness and non-violence are the same thing? And some, like “fortitude” and “vigor” are a little bit vague. But, you know, I think you’d make your life and those around you quite happy if you followed those.

 Which is odd, because apparently I’m part of the demoniac who say “The world is without absolute truth, without any basis (for moral order), and without a God (who has created or is controlling it)”. This verse then goes on to claim that such horrible atheists also claim that “It is created from the combination of the two sexes, and has no purpose other than sexual gratification”. Well now. Hold on. I’m not against sexual gratification, but it depends what you mean by “purpose”. Really, yes, as animals, humans exist to propagate their genes, but I think we can all find something else to do with our time as well.

 The demoniac nature is spelled out as well (it’s what most of this chapter is about). It consists of:

“hypocrisy,

arrogance,

conceit,

anger,

harshness,

and ignorance”

Well, talk about the Dark Side being quicker. There are far fewer aspects to a demoniac nature than a saintly nature. Ignorance seems to be the main one, because it’s ignorance of what is right and wrong – “what actions are proper and what are improper”. The main effect of the demoniac nature, however, seems to be a obsession with the material world, papered over by perfunctory sacrifices – we’ve seen this kind of false piety lambasted before in both the Bible and Qur’an.

It’s hard not to read the words given to the demoniac person – “I have gained so much wealth today, and I shall now fulfill this desire of mine. This is mine, and tomorrow I shall have even more. That enemy has been destroyed by me, and I shall destroy the others too! I am like God himself, I am the enjoyer, I am powerful, and I am happy. I am wealthy and I have highly placed relatives. Who else is equal to me? I shall perform sacrifices (to the celestial gods); I shall give alms; I shall rejoice” – and not think of a certain orange ex-president and his cronies.

This chapter seems a bit odd, because up until now it’s been the case that the enlightened person eventually leaves samsara, while the unenlightened dooms themselves to continual rebirth. But here, suddenly, Krishna is taking an active role in punishing wrong-doers, and also that there’s a level of predestination to how people behave in the first place, and this just doesn’t sit right with me compared to what’s gone before.