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

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The asuric personality shelters the entire hierarchy of delusion: ahankara (the 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 like women), and krodha (aversion toward the unwanted). Sheltering these, they hate Me — the Ishvara who witnesses all cognition and action in their own and others' bodies — by transgressing My ordinance. Their envy toward those on the right path manifests as attributing faults to the virtuous.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  These beings have taken refuge in ahankara 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'; and in krodha as 'I will destroy all who oppose me.' Sheltering thus, they hate Me — the Purushottama, the inner director present in their bodies and others' — by performing all ritual acts like yajna while deploying specious arguments to find fault with My existence.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Ahaṃkāra* (false ego), *bala* (force), *darpa* (arrogance), *kāma* (desire), and *krodha* (anger) — these are what the demoniac cling to, and they hate Me, Viṣṇu, lodged in *ātma-para-deheṣu* (their own and others' bodies). Madhva's bhāṣya fixes the doctrinal core: *na kasyacid viṣṇuḥ kārayitā* — Viṣṇu is no one's *kārayitā* (the one who causes to act), so the demoniac claim. Their taunt follows: *yadi syān mamāpīdānīṃ kārayatv* — if He truly were the universal cause, let Him cause even me to act right now; and let Him restrain one who is already acting. Jayatīrtha makes the implication sharp: *kurvaṇaṃ ca nivārayet* — let Him also stop the one already engaged. The Yāska-śruti in the Sāma-veda pronounces the verdict on whoever speaks thus: *sadādho yāsyasi* — *sadā adhaḥ*, into perpetual *naraka* (downward into hell, forever). To hate Me in self and other bodies is precisely to deny that *svatantra* Hari is the sole independent *kārayitā* behind all *paratantra* agency — the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) the demoniac collapse by refusing to see Viṣṇu as the *antaryāmin* operative in every embodied locus.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  These beings hate Me — the Purushottama, the supreme sovereign, the lila-kartri (performer of divine play) present everywhere, and the cit-atman (conscious self) within all — while sheltering ahankara and its companions. This hatred of the one who enacts lila in all forms is precisely the supreme asuric trait, the harshness (parusya) that constitutes the greatest demonic characteristic.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara elaborates the absence of proper procedure: sheltering ahankara and the rest, they hate Me who abide by the cit-amsha (conscious aspect) in self and others' bodies, and so their worship is worthless. In sacrifices performed with dambha (ostentation), the absence of shraddha (faith) means only self-inflicted pain; in the unlawful slaying of animals, only the guilt of hostility toward consciousness remains. The term 'abhyasuyaka' means they project faults onto the virtues of those on the proper path.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana establishes that even the outer limbs of sadhana (yajna, dana) fail for those driven by dambha and ahankara, 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 devotees like Prahlada, not recognizing My presence there. As the ninth chapter declares, such persons — 'avajananati mam mudhah' (BG 9.11) — are emptied of hope, action, and knowledge, and fall into rakshasa-asura nature; since they hate the very object of bhajana, purification through bhakti is impossible for them.