Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 16, Verse 4: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Dambha (dharma-dhvajitva, the flag of virtue worn as pretense), darpa (the swelling pride that arises from learning, wealth, and kinsmen), atimana (excessive self-aggrandizement), krodha (anger), parusya (harsh speech that cuts — calling a one-eyed man 'blind', a disfigured man 'ugly', a low-born man 'base'), and ajnana (mithya-pratyaya — false cognition regarding what is to be done and not done, rooted in aviveka) — these, O Partha, belong to one born into the asuri-sampad. These traits are not independent vices but symptoms of a single root-defect: the absence of viveka-jnana that alone can discriminate the real from the unreal.

  divergence: Sankara glosses dambha as dharma-dhvajitva, darpa as utseka from vidya-dhana-svajana, and ajnana as kartavya-akartavya-visaya-mithya-pratyaya — false cognition about duty, not mere ignorance. His examples of parusya (kana, virupa, hina-abhijana) are concrete and polemical.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Dambha is the performance of dharma-anushtana for the purpose of publicizing one's own righteousness rather than as kainkarya to Bhagavan. Darpa is the harsha that clouds viveka between what is to be done and avoided, arising from enjoyment of sense-objects. Ajnana here is paravara-tattva-ajnana — ignorance of the hierarchy of realities: jiva, jagat, and Isvara. These svabhavas belong to those born into asuri-sampad; the asuras are precisely defined by Ramanuja as those whose svabhava is to transgress Bhagavad-ajna — divine command.

  divergence: Ramanuja's bhashya explicitly defines asuras as 'bhagavad-ajna-ativrti-silah' and distinguishes darpa as visayanubhava-nimitta-harsha that destroys kartavya-akartavya-viveka — a distinctively Vaishnava framing linking pride to sensory entanglement.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Dambha* (hypocrisy, the show of virtue without its substance), *darpa* (arrogance born of worldly intoxication), *atimāna* (excessive self-inflation), *krodha* (wrath), *pāruṣya* (harshness of speech and act), and *ajñāna* (ignorance of the Lord's supremacy) — these six constitute the *āsurī-sampad* (demonic endowment) of those born into it. In the dvaita *siddhānta*, the *āsurī-sampad* is not an acquired disposition that *jñāna* or *karma* can dissolve. It names the *svabhāva* (essential nature) fixed in the *jīva* from eternity by the *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) will of Hari. The *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) between Lord, *jīva*, and *jaḍa* (inert matter) holds absolutely: no *jīva* crosses from one ontological class to another. Those whose nature is constitutively *tāmasic* — the *tamo-laya* class destined for eternal bondage and darkness — display precisely this *sampad* as their characteristic mark. *Dambha* and *darpa* invert *bhakti* (devotion as ontological subordination to Hari) by directing the *jīva*'s energy back onto itself; *ajñāna* is the root, the ignorance of *bheda* (real distinction) between the *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva* and the *svatantra* Lord. The verse does not prescribe correction: it identifies the constitution of those for whom correction is not possible.

  divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are both silent on this verse. The reading is voiced directly from dvaita *siddhānta*: the tripartite *jīva*-classification (*mukti-yogya* / *nitya-saṃsārin* / *tamo-laya*) and *svabhāva-niyama* (the doctrine that each *jīva*'s essential nature is eternally fixed by Hari's will), applied to the *āsurī-sampad* as ontological constitution rather than remediable moral failing. The contaminated cell's meta-narration ('this rendering extrapolates from') has been stripped; the siddhānta is voiced directly off the mūla.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads the asuri-sampad as the svabhava of those whom Bhagavan has not touched with his prasada. Dambha, darpa (here glossed as kama-rupa, desire-formed pride), abhimana (lobha, greed), krodha, parusya, and ajnana are the six dosas that are svabhavatah — by their very nature — enemies of the daivi gunas listed above. The scriptural taxonomy is tripartite: deva, manusya, asura — only the first class is mukti-yogya; the middle has gradations; the asura class is tamo-laya. The asura is defined by 'ye sambhutim upasate' — those who worship maya — as the sruti declares. Without Krsna's undeserved grace (pusthi), no jiva can step out of its constitutive svabhava.

  divergence: Vallabha's bhashya is present and identifies six dosas: dambha, darpa, abhimana, krodha, parusya, ajnana. He explicitly cites Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (5.2.1) and a Pancaratra verse on the three-class jiva taxonomy, and defines asuras as 'bhagavad-vacah-ananuvarti-svabhava' — those whose nature does not follow divine speech.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The bhakti-philological reading holds the six terms in taut parallel to the daivi-sampad of 16.1-3: where abhaya and sattva-samshuddhi characterized divine birth, here dambha (dharma-dhvajitva — religious pretense), darpa (utseka from dhana-vidya), abhimana, krodha, parusya (nishthura-tva, ruthlessness in speech), and ajnana (aviveka) define the asuri birth. The compound 'asurih sampad' is read as upalaksana — a marker, not exhaustive: the asura-rakshasa field of svabhava is broader than these six. One born into this sampad does not lack resources — they lack the discrimination that would direct those resources toward liberation.

  divergence: Sridhara's bhashya glosses dambha as dharma-dhvajitva, darpa as dhana-vidyadi-nimitta utseka, parusya as nishthura-tva, and ajnana as aviveka. He explicitly marks asurih as upalaksana, extending the range to rakshasas as well.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana reads this verse as the heyatva (what-is-to-be-abandoned) counterpart to the adeya-tva (what-is-to-be-taken-up) of 16.1-3. Dambha is the project of self-promotion through apparent virtue — dharma wielded as a flag for the ego. Darpa is that species of pride (garva-visesa) which leads one to disregard the great (mahat-avadhirana-hetu), arising from wealth, kinship, and social position. Atimana is the superimposition of supreme worthiness on the self — the Satapatha Brahmana warns: 'let no one hold himself in excessive esteem, for excessive self-esteem is the mouth of defeat.' Parusya is the disposition to harsh face-to-face speech (pratyaksa-ruksavadana-silata). The cakara (and) in the verse collects unmentioned defects — capala (fickleness) and the like. Ajnana here is specifically kartavya-akartavya-visaya-vivekabhava. Madhusudana addresses Arjuna as 'Partha' — son of the pure mother Prtha — precisely to indicate that this asuri-sampad is foreign to his nature.

  divergence: Madhusudana's bhashya is the most expansive: he cites Satapatha Sruti on atimana, distinguishes two uses of ca (collecting positive and negative omitted items separately), and explains the vocative 'Partha' as signaling suddha-matrkatva — purity of lineage incompatible with the asuri-sampad being described.