If kama, krodha, and lobha are called 'gates' (dvara) rather than chains or prisons, what does the architectural metaphor imply about the agent's role in entering — or staying outside?

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three. See seven-school commentary at https://gita.ekrasworks.com/gita/16/21.

Shankara says the one who enters becomes unfit for ALL purusharthas — not just moksha. Does this mean that ordinary worldly flourishing is also foreclosed by unmanaged desire and anger?

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three. See seven-school commentary at https://gita.ekrasworks.com/gita/16/21.

Sridhara calls these three 'roots' of all asura-faults, while Madhusudana calls them 'roots' of the entire asuri-sampat. What does it mean practically that moral corruption has a root structure rather than being a flat list of vices?

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three. See seven-school commentary at https://gita.ekrasworks.com/gita/16/21.

Madhusudana distinguishes blocking the expression of kama from stopping its arising. Is the first stage (not acting on desire) sufficient for the purpose Krishna names here, or does only the second stage (non-arising) count as real abandonment?

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three. See seven-school commentary at https://gita.ekrasworks.com/gita/16/21.

Ramanuja instructs abandonment 'from a great distance' (duratah parityajet). What does it mean to abandon something from a distance rather than by direct confrontation? Is this approach psychologically superior, and why?

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three. See seven-school commentary at https://gita.ekrasworks.com/gita/16/21.

The verse says these gates lead to 'nashana atmanah' — destruction of the self. But in Advaita the self cannot be destroyed. How do Shankara and Madhusudana reconcile this language with the indestructibility of atman?

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three. See seven-school commentary at https://gita.ekrasworks.com/gita/16/21.

Given that this verse follows a long catalog of asura-qualities, why does Krishna single out only three as 'gates'? What makes kama, krodha, and lobha structurally primary rather than merely the most dramatic items on the list?

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three. See seven-school commentary at https://gita.ekrasworks.com/gita/16/21.

BG 16.21 — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 16.21Chapter 16 · Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

त्रिविधं नरकस्येदं द्वारं नाशनमात्मनः ।

कामः क्रोधस् तथा लोभस् तस्मादेतत् त्रयं त्यजेत् ॥

tri-vidhaṃ narakasyedaṃ dvāraṃ nāśanam ātmanaḥ

kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṃ tyajet

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

meaning

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three.

ekras · bhāṣya

Three-fold is this dvaram — gateway — to naraka, destroyer of the atman: kama, krodha, lobha. Tasmat — therefore — etat trayam tyajet — let one abandon these three.

Krishna names the triple gateway in one shloka, then commands the abandonment. Three doors lead to hell; the bhakta is told to leave all three.

Shankara reads kama, krodha, lobha as the triple gateway to naraka, destroyers of the atman. The one who enters through any of these gates becomes unfit for any purushartha, cut off from liberation. Therefore abandon all three without remainder. The verse is, in Shankara's own words, a tyaga-stuti — praise of renunciation. The chapter's most operational instruction is here: name the three; abandon them; the doors close.

Madhusudana opens with a purvapaksha: the asuri sampat has infinite varieties — how can one exhausted human lifetime ever abandon it all? He resolves by compression: all asuri sampat has its root in this triple gate. Abandon kama, krodha, lobha through viveka — first preventing their active expression, then preventing their arising — and the entire demonic complex collapses. The verse is the chapter's compression-point: twenty-six daivi qualities to cultivate, three asuri roots to remove.

Ramanuja reads kama, krodha, lobha as the three gates leading into the asura-nature that is itself narakasya — the hellish condition. These are the hetu of the most terrible hell, and must be abandoned duratah — from afar. The bhakta does not negotiate with the three; he keeps distance. The atman's real nature as Bhagavan's body demands distance from that which ruptures the kainkarya relationship.

Madhva reads each as a mode of svatantra-abhimana — the delusion of independent selfhood. Kama posits the jiva as a self-originating enjoyer; krodha asserts it as a sovereign power thwarted; lobha enthrones it as a self-sufficient owner. All three are inversions of the bhakta's correct paratantra-mode. Therefore all three are to be abandoned: not just morally, but metaphysically — recognizing that none of them is the jiva's true mode.

Vallabha reads this verse as identifying the mula-hetu — root cause — of the asura-bhava that destroys the soul: desire, greed, anger in threefold form constitute the gateway to the hellish condition. His commentary adds a tantra-antara citation, showing the instruction to abandon the three echoes across shastra. This is not merely ethical advice but the protective imperative the bhakta must hold.

Shridhara reads among all the asura-faults enumerated in this chapter, these three are sakala-dosha-mula — the root of all faults. They generate every other fault, and are therefore to be abandoned in all ways — sarva-atmana tyajet. The triple gate leads to nicha-yoni-prapaka — degrading the soul step by step. The chapter's whole asura-portrait now collapses to three operative roots; the bhakta who removes them removes the whole.

Context

where

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

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 16.20

Birth after birth, these deluded souls take demonic wombs and, never reaching Me, sink to ever lower states.

What's going on

Desire, anger, and greed are the three gates of hell, destroyers of the self. Abandon all three.

Sūtras through this verse (25)

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

16.1The dispositions decide who can even begin.───→here16.21───→18.55Even hearing and reflecting need purity.

JayatīrthaclassicalB

Pañcabheda — the five distinctions enforced verse by verseexit

15.17Three orders, each a distinct relatum.───→here16.21───→

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesexit

15.17Beyond all selves stands the Highest Person alone.───→here16.21───→

show all 25

RamsukhdasclassicalJ

Divine vs demonic patternsstation · anchor

───→here16.21───→

RamsukhdasclassicalJ

Divine vs demonic patternsstation · anchor

───→here16.21───→

Ekrasmodernanger_management

Triple gate of hellstation · other · station 4/7

───→here16.21───→

Ekrasmodernforgiveness

Forgivenessbetween · other

16.3Tejas, kṣamā, dhṛti───→here16.21───→18.42Brahmaṇa's kṣamā

Ekrasmodernend_of_life

End of life — the threshold tourexit · v2

15.8Carrying the perfume───→here16.21───→

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsexit

15.16Uttama-puruṣa is Viṣṇu, beyond both.───→here16.21───→

JayatīrthaclassicalG

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

15.16Aṣṭādhyāyī 5.2.127 controls bhūta.───→here16.21───→

JayatīrthaclassicalJ

Reading the silence — iti śeṣaḥ and iti bhāvaḥexit

15.1Tat-prasaṅge alaukikaṁ — iti śeṣaḥ.───→here16.21───→

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursexit

15.7Self drags the senses like wind drags scent.───→here16.21───→

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

'Tri-vidham narakasyedam dvaram nashanam atmanah, kamah krodhas tatha lobhah.' Tstation · station 5/6

───→here16.21───→

VedāntadeśikaclassicalA

The carama-śloka as retroactive bracketbetween

16.5Mā śucaḥ already once before — same shape.───→here16.21───→18.46Worship-by-own-action fixes the ārādhya.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalH

Mā śucaḥ — the inclusio of evolving griefbetween

16.5Daivī-asuric grief closed mid-text.───→here16.21───→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.───→here16.21───→18.55Knowing burns ignorance; body burns its arc.

MadhusūdanaclassicalJ

Two kinds of nature — divine and demonicbetween

16.1Anchor: gather the good, drop the unwholesome.───→here16.21───→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───→here16.21───→

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionexit

15.6The supreme abode does not return its dwellers.───→here16.21───→

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordexit

15.4Cut the world-tree by knowing whose play it is.───→here16.21───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalF

The Lord is born only as it wereexit

15.16Both the changing and changeless are below the supreme.───→here16.21───→

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousexit

15.7Aṃśa pinned to the Lord, not free.───→here16.21───→

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaexit

15.18Named Puruṣottama.───→here16.21───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessexit

14.26Unswerving devotion crosses the modes.───→here16.21───→

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryexit

15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.───→here16.21───→

Śabda · lemmas (15 unique · 15 occurrences)

नरकस्य naraka — (nara + -ka: man) · genitive masculine singular noun
त्यजेत् √tyaj — to abandon, give up, renounce (verbal root) · present optative 3rd person singular verb
कामः kāma — desire, lust, sensual pleasure · nominative masculine singular noun
नाशनम् nāśana — destruction, destroyer (from √naś) · nominative neuter singular noun
आत्मनः ātman — the Self, soul; one's own self · genitive masculine singular noun · also at 5.16, 6.5, 6.11, 6.19, 16.22

show all 15

त्रि tri — three · compound
विधम् vidha — kind, sort, manner · nominative neuter singular noun
इदम् idam — this (proximal demonstrative) · nominative neuter singular noun
द्वारम् dvāra — door, gateway · nominative neuter singular noun
क्रोधः krodha — anger, wrath · nominative masculine singular noun
तथा tathā — thus, in that manner; likewise
लोभः lobha — greed, covetousness · nominative masculine singular noun
तस्मात् tasmāt — therefore, from that
एतत् etad — this (proximal demonstrative) · accusative neuter singular noun
त्रयम् traya — triad, threefold · accusative neuter singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If kama, krodha, and lobha are called 'gates' (dvara) rather than chains or prisons, what does the architectural metaphor imply about the agent's role in entering — or staying outside?
02Shankara says the one who enters becomes unfit for ALL purusharthas — not just moksha. Does this mean that ordinary worldly flourishing is also foreclosed by unmanaged desire and anger?

show all 7

03Sridhara calls these three 'roots' of all asura-faults, while Madhusudana calls them 'roots' of the entire asuri-sampat. What does it mean practically that moral corruption has a root structure rather than being a flat list of vices?
04Madhusudana distinguishes blocking the expression of kama from stopping its arising. Is the first stage (not acting on desire) sufficient for the purpose Krishna names here, or does only the second stage (non-arising) count as real abandonment?
05Ramanuja instructs abandonment 'from a great distance' (duratah parityajet). What does it mean to abandon something from a distance rather than by direct confrontation? Is this approach psychologically superior, and why?
06The verse says these gates lead to 'nashana atmanah' — destruction of the self. But in Advaita the self cannot be destroyed. How do Shankara and Madhusudana reconcile this language with the indestructibility of atman?
07Given that this verse follows a long catalog of asura-qualities, why does Krishna single out only three as 'gates'? What makes kama, krodha, and lobha structurally primary rather than merely the most dramatic items on the list?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When you notice you are about to send an email from a place of wanting something badly, pause: ask whether the action arises from clear seeing or from a desire that has taken the driver's seat. The Advaita application is not suppression but witnessing — see the desire, and from that witness-position, act or refrain. The moment of witnessing IS the step back from the gate.

Dvaita

When greed (lobha) appears — the impulse to take more than your share in a negotiation, a recognition, or a relationship — recognize it as the signature of the false claim to independence. In Dvaita terms, the jiva that grasps is the jiva forgetting its station. The practice: before a high-stakes interaction, explicitly recall that outcomes are not yours to control.

show all 4

Bhakti

In devotional practice, Sridhara's 'sarva-atmana tyajet' — abandon in every way — applies to the subtle forms of the triad, not just the gross. Subtle kama is needing the kirtan to feel a certain way. Subtle krodha is spiritual impatience with those who are not on the path. Subtle lobha is hoarding teachings. The gate is also entered subtly.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudana's two-stage model is a concrete daily practice: Stage 1 — when kama or krodha arises, use viveka to interrupt the downstream action (do not send the message, make the purchase, speak the cutting word). Stage 2 — over time, notice whether the impulse itself is losing force. Stage 1 is accessible immediately; Stage 2 comes from sustained Stage 1. Do not skip to Stage 2 prematurely by claiming the impulse is already gone.

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 21: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga