BG 16.18 — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 16.18Chapter 16 · Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

अहंकारं बलं दर्पं कामं क्रोधं च संश्रिताः ।

मामात्मपरदेहेषु प्रद्विषन्तो ऽभ्यसूयकाः ॥

ahaṃkāraṃ balaṃ darpaṃ kāmaṃ krodhaṃ ca saṃśritāḥ

mām ātma-para-deheṣu pradviṣanto 'bhyasūyakāḥ

spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip

meaning

Sheltering ego, brute force, arrogance, desire, and rage, they hate Me dwelling in their own bodies and in others', and they find fault with everyone on the right path.

ekras · bhāṣya

Samshritah — sheltering — ahamkara, bala, darpa, kama, krodha. Mam — Me — atma-para-deheshu — in their own and others' bodies — pradvishantah — they hate. Abhyasuyakah — finding fault.

Krishna names the asura's hatred at its precise structural level: they hate Bhagavan dwelling within them and within others. The hatred is not toward an external object but toward the inner ground of action and life itself.

Shankara reads the asuric personality sheltering the entire hierarchy of delusion: ahamkara — superimposition of existent and non-existent qualities onto the self, the root of all evil. Bala — force animated by desire for domination. Darpa — the inner defect that causes transgression of dharma when it arises. Kama — craving directed at objects. Krodha — aversion toward the unwanted. Mam pradvishantah — they hate Me. The verse names the asura's hatred as theological: they hate the antaratma in their own bodies and in others'. The fault-finding — abhyasuyaka — is the operational form of that hatred.

Madhusudana establishes that even the outer limbs of sadhana — yajna, dana — fail for those driven by dambha and ahamkara, while the inner limbs — jnana, vairagya, bhagavad-bhajana — are entirely absent. They hate Me as Ishvara-Bhagavan present as witness of all cognition and action in self and others' bodies. Moreover, they hate Me in the bodies of bhaktas like Prahlada — not recognizing that the bhakta's body is Bhagavan's relational locus. The hatred is structural; the abhyasuya — fault-finding — is its practical expression.

Ramanuja reads these beings as having taken refuge in ahamkara of the form 'I alone do everything, dependent on none.' In bala as 'my power suffices for all.' In darpa as 'none equals me.' In kama as 'all I desire will come to me by my mere wish.' In krodha as 'I will destroy all who oppose me.' Sheltering thus, they hate Bhagavan — the Purushottama — as the inner director present in their bodies and others'. Each asuric posture is a precise inversion of the bhakta's relational mode.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: ahamkara, bala, darpa, kama, krodha — these are what the asurika-jiva clings to. They hate Vishnu lodged in atma-para-deheshu.

Madhva fixes the doctrinal core: 'na kasyachit Vishnuh karayita' — Vishnu is no one's karayita — the cause-of-action — so the asurika claims. The denial of Hari's antaryamic presence is the operational root of the hatred. The bheda is preserved; the asurika's inversion is real and structural.

Vallabha reads these beings hating Me — the Purushottama, the lila-kartri present everywhere, and the chid-atman within all — while sheltering ahamkara and its companions. This hatred of the one who enacts lila in all forms is the supreme asuric trait, the parushya that constitutes the greatest demonic characteristic. Pushti-marga: the bhakta who tastes Krishna's presence in every body cannot hate any body; the asura who refuses Krishna in his own body refuses Him in all.

Shridhara elaborates the absence of proper procedure: sheltering ahamkara and the rest, they hate Me who abide by the chid-amsha — conscious aspect — in self and others' bodies, and so their worship is worthless. In sacrifices performed with dambha, the absence of shraddha means only self-inflicted pain; in unlawful slaying of animals, only the guilt of homicide remains.

Context

where

Chapter 16 · Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 16.17

Self-congratulating, rigid, drunk on wealth and pride, they perform sacrifices that are sacrifices in name only, done for show and without following the prescribed rites.

What's going on

Sheltering ego, brute force, arrogance, desire, and rage, they hate Me dwelling in their own bodies and in others', and they find fault with everyone on the right path.

Sūtras through this verse (25)

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

16.1The dispositions decide who can even begin.───→here16.18───→18.55Even hearing and reflecting need purity.

JayatīrthaclassicalB

Pañcabheda — the five distinctions enforced verse by verseexit

15.17Three orders, each a distinct relatum.───→here16.18───→

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesexit

15.17Beyond all selves stands the Highest Person alone.───→here16.18───→

show all 25

Ekrasmodernanger_management

Anger Managementbetween · other

5.26Already-released sage───→here16.18───→16.21Triple gate of hell

Ekrasmodernforgiveness

Forgivenessbetween · other

16.3Tejas, kṣamā, dhṛti───→here16.18───→18.42Brahmaṇa's kṣamā

RamsukhdasclassicalJ

Divine vs demonic patternsbetween

16.1Divine traits named: fearless, pure, steady.───→here16.18───→16.21Three gates of hell: desire, anger, greed.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here16.18───→

Ekrasmodernend_of_life

End of life — the threshold tourexit · v2

15.8Carrying the perfume───→here16.18───→

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsexit

15.16Uttama-puruṣa is Viṣṇu, beyond both.───→here16.18───→

JayatīrthaclassicalG

Citation as proof — śruti, smṛti, MB, Aṣṭādhyāyī, Pañcarātraexit

15.16Aṣṭādhyāyī 5.2.127 controls bhūta.───→here16.18───→

JayatīrthaclassicalJ

Reading the silence — iti śeṣaḥ and iti bhāvaḥexit

15.1Tat-prasaṅge alaukikaṁ — iti śeṣaḥ.───→here16.18───→

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursexit

15.7Self drags the senses like wind drags scent.───→here16.18───→

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

Civilizational Air Conditioningbetween

6.5'Uddhared atmanatmanam natmanam avasadayet.' Lift yourself by yourself, do not l───→here16.18───→16.21'Tri-vidham narakasyedam dvaram nashanam atmanah, kamah krodhas tatha lobhah.' T

VedāntadeśikaclassicalA

The carama-śloka as retroactive bracketbetween

16.5Mā śucaḥ already once before — same shape.───→here16.18───→18.46Worship-by-own-action fixes the ārādhya.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalH

Mā śucaḥ — the inclusio of evolving griefbetween

16.5Daivī-asuric grief closed mid-text.───→here16.18───→18.66Final mā-śucaḥ closes the long-path grief.

MadhusūdanaclassicalI

Liberation while alive — the body finishes its runbetween

16.1The divine wealth becomes stable knowing in life.───→here16.18───→18.55Knowing burns ignorance; body burns its arc.

MadhusūdanaclassicalJ

Two kinds of nature — divine and demonicbetween

16.1Anchor: gather the good, drop the unwholesome.───→here16.18───→17.1A third class: faith outside the texts.

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netiexit

15.7'Mamaivamsho jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah.' A part of me, eternal, has become───→here16.18───→

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionexit

15.6The supreme abode does not return its dwellers.───→here16.18───→

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordexit

15.4Cut the world-tree by knowing whose play it is.───→here16.18───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalF

The Lord is born only as it wereexit

15.16Both the changing and changeless are below the supreme.───→here16.18───→

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousexit

15.7Aṃśa pinned to the Lord, not free.───→here16.18───→

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaexit

15.18Named Puruṣottama.───→here16.18───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessexit

14.26Unswerving devotion crosses the modes.───→here16.18───→

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryexit

15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.───→here16.18───→

Śabda · lemmas (13 unique · 13 occurrences)

संश्रिताः saṃ-√śri — to take refuge in (sam- + √śri) · nominative masculine plural participle noun
देहेषु deha — body · locative masculine plural noun

show all 13

अहंकारम् ahaṃkāra — ego-sense, the I-maker · accusative masculine singular noun
बलम् bala — strength, power, force · accusative neuter singular noun
दर्पम् darpa — pride, arrogance (from √dṛp) · accusative masculine singular noun
कामम् kāma — desire, lust, sensual pleasure · accusative masculine singular noun
क्रोधम् krodha — anger, wrath · accusative masculine singular noun
च ca — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
माम् mad — I, me (1st person pronoun stem); also: to rejoice (verbal root) · accusative singular noun
आत्म ātman — the Self, soul; one's own self · compound
पर para — highest, supreme, beyond, other · compound
प्रद्विषन्तः pra-√dviṣ — (pra- + dviṣ: to hate) · nominative masculine plural present participle verb
अभ्यसूयकाः abhyasūyaka — envious, jealous (abhi- + √asūy + -aka) · nominative masculine plural noun

Praśna · so what (6)

01Why does the verse list ahankara first, before kama and krodha — what does this sequencing reveal about how delusion is structured?
02The phrase 'atma-para-dehesu' (in self and others' bodies) is unique — what is at stake in hating the divine in someone else's body specifically?

show all 6

03All six schools agree that ritual acts performed from this inner state are void — does this mean the outer form of the act is irrelevant, or that outer and inner are inseparable?
04Shankara identifies ahankara as 'avidya-named, most grievous, the root of all fault' — how does the Advaita diagnosis of ahankara as epistemological error differ from the Dvaita reading of it as ethical rebellion?
05Madhusudana says purification through bhakti becomes structurally impossible when the very object of bhajana is hated — is this a metaphysical claim, a psychological claim, or both?
06The verse names kama and krodha together: desire for the pleasant, aversion toward the unpleasant. What is the structural relationship between these two, and does their co-appearance here echo BG 3.37?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When you take credit for an achievement by saying 'I built this alone,' pause: Shankara reads ahankara as superimposing qualities (real and imagined) onto the self. The practice is not self-deprecation but honest inquiry — which of these claimed qualities are actually witnessed, and which are projected? The hostility you feel toward someone who succeeds without your framework is the same root impulse as hating the divine in them.

Dvaita

Madhva's polemical point has a direct modern form: the demand 'if God exists, let Him prove it by acting for me right now' is the exact asuric logic the Yaska-shruti addresses. The Dvaita application is a discipline of dependent agency — recognizing that your capacity to act at all is borrowed, not owned, and that attributing it to yourself alone is not skepticism but a form of theft from the actual agent.

show all 4

Bhakti

Sridhara's point about shraddha (faith) is practical: any act performed while simultaneously hating the consciousness that will receive it is ritually void, regardless of technical correctness. Applied today — presenting work to a manager you secretly resent, or performing a service role while despising the people served — the absence of shraddha means the act extracts cost from you without generating merit.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudana's synthesis yields the most diagnostic question for daily practice: am I hating the very form or person through whom I would need to approach the divine? If the teacher, the text, the community, or the practice itself has become an object of envious fault-finding (abhyasuyaka), Madhusudana's warning is that this is not a motivation problem but a structural one — the path is blocked at the source, and no amount of technique will substitute for removing the blockage.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

substratev2.6-frozen

parserByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)

mūlaBelvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness

show all metadata

weightsa=1 · b=0.01 · e_v=0.005 · z=0.2 · h=0 · th=0.01

anchorfit on Ramsukhdas's Sādhak Sañjīvanī (1980), frozen across the eight-commentator panel; cross-validated R@4 = 71.6% on Śaṅkara

extracted2026-04-21

methodPaper 1, Section II.B

↓ view raw per-verse object (JSON)↗ per-verse-object schema ↗ substrate code (MIT) + data (CC-BY 4.0)

The schema generalizes to any bounded-polysemy corpus with discrete primary text units, attested witness traditions, identifiable schools, and formal substrate. Port the per-verse object; refit weights on a domain-appropriate Layer-3 anchor; ship.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 16, Verse 18: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga