BG 16.7 — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 16.7Chapter 16 · Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

प्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च जना न विदुरासुराः ।

न शौचं नापि चाचारो न सत्यं तेषु विद्यते ॥

pravṛttiṃ ca nivṛttiṃ ca janā na vidur āsurāḥ

na śaucaṃ nāpi cācāro na satyaṃ teṣu vidyate

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

meaning

Demonic people know neither what to pursue nor what to renounce, and you will find no purity, no right conduct, and no truth in them.

ekras · bhāṣya

The asura janas do not know pravritti — what to engage in — nor nivritti — what to withdraw from. No shaucham — purity; na acharah — no right conduct; na satyam — no truth — vidyate, is found in them.

Krishna names the asura's epistemological hole: he cannot distinguish what to do from what to refrain from. Without that discrimination, neither purity, conduct, nor truth lands. Three deficiencies follow from one underlying ignorance.

Shankara reads the asura people as not knowing pravritti — meaning the dharma in which one must engage for purushartha — nor nivritti — turning away from harm. Therefore there is no shaucham, no achara, no satya in them. These three deficiencies are not separate failures; they are three faces of the same underlying disorientation. Without knowing what is to be done and what is not, the bhakta cannot purify himself, conduct himself rightly, or speak truthfully — because all three depend on the prior discrimination.

Madhusudana synthesizes Shankara's structure with devotional depth: pravritti means both the dharma of engagement and the vidhi-vakya — injunctive Vedic sentence — that enjoins it. Nivritti means both the dharma of abstention and the nishedha-vakya — prohibitive sentence — that enforces it. The asura does not know either the content or the scriptural authority. The two forms of shaucha and achara that follow are also missing. The chapter names the demonic in terms of Vedic-relation: failure to recognize the Veda's authority is the deepest defect.

Ramanuja reads the asuras as not knowing the vaidika dharma of pravritti — the means to abhyudaya, worldly flourishing — nor of nivritti — the means to moksha through Bhagavan's grace. The absence of shauchama means specifically the shastra-prescribed inner-and-outer fitness for karma-yoga. The achara referenced is the daily ritual practice of sandhya-vandana, snana, and the rest. Without these, the asura is operationally outside Bhagavan's relational sphere.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: the asurika jiva, though paratantra upon svatantra Hari, actively rejects the structural relation that constitutes its actual mode. The ignorance is not accidental; it is the asurika-jiva's settled orientation away from Hari. Lacking pravritti-nivritti discrimination, lacking shauchama, achara, satya, the asura is recognizable by what is missing in him. The bheda holds: the asura is a real, distinct ontological type.

Vallabha reads the verse as Krishna's shri-mukha warning that the demonic nature is to be utterly abandoned. He introduces the next twelve verses as a single sustained vivechana of what must be renounced. The asuras lack ruchi — taste, delight — for the Veda-ordained paths of pravritti and nivritti alike. Their triple deficiency — mental, verbal, bodily — is the absence of shauchama, achara, satya. Pushti-marga reads this as the absence of pushti's grace-flow; the bhakta who has received prasada has all three.

Shridhara reads in the context of the next twelve shlokas on the asuri nature, giving a clean philological rendering: the asura people do not know pravritti toward dharma nor nivritti away from adharma. Consequently — not as a separate fact but as the same diagnosis seen from three sides — shauchama, achara, and satya are simply absent in them. The diagnosis is one; the symptoms are three.

Context

where

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

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 16.6

Two kinds of beings inhabit this world, Arjuna: the divine and the demonic. The divine has been described at length; now hear from me about the demonic.

What's going on

Demonic people know neither what to pursue nor what to renounce, and you will find no purity, no right conduct, and no truth in them.

Sūtras through this verse (25)

MadhusūdanaclassicalC

Action purifies before knowing can landbetween

16.1The dispositions decide who can even begin.───→here16.7───→18.55Even hearing and reflecting need purity.

JayatīrthaclassicalB

Pañcabheda — the five distinctions enforced verse by verseexit

15.17Three orders, each a distinct relatum.───→here16.7───→

MadhvaclassicalT3

Ranking is real — and it never collapsesexit

15.17Beyond all selves stands the Highest Person alone.───→here16.7───→

show all 25

Ekrasmodernanger_management

Anger Managementbetween · other

5.26Already-released sage───→here16.7───→16.21Triple gate of hell

Ekrasmodernforgiveness

Forgivenessbetween · other

16.3Tejas, kṣamā, dhṛti───→here16.7───→18.42Brahmaṇa's kṣamā

RamsukhdasclassicalJ

Divine vs demonic patternsbetween

16.1Divine traits named: fearless, pure, steady.───→here16.7───→16.21Three gates of hell: desire, anger, greed.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here16.7───→

Ekrasmodernend_of_life

End of life — the threshold tourexit · v2

15.8Carrying the perfume───→here16.7───→

JayatīrthaclassicalE

Vishnu-sarvottamatva read into apparently neutral wordsexit

15.16Uttama-puruṣa is Viṣṇu, beyond both.───→here16.7───→

JayatīrthaclassicalG

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

15.16Aṣṭādhyāyī 5.2.127 controls bhūta.───→here16.7───→

JayatīrthaclassicalJ

Reading the silence — iti śeṣaḥ and iti bhāvaḥexit

15.1Tat-prasaṅge alaukikaṁ — iti śeṣaḥ.───→here16.7───→

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursexit

15.7Self drags the senses like wind drags scent.───→here16.7───→

Gauravmoderncivilizational_air_conditioning

Civilizational Air Conditioningbetween

6.5'Uddhared atmanatmanam natmanam avasadayet.' Lift yourself by yourself, do not l───→here16.7───→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.───→here16.7───→18.46Worship-by-own-action fixes the ārādhya.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalH

Mā śucaḥ — the inclusio of evolving griefbetween

16.5Daivī-asuric grief closed mid-text.───→here16.7───→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.───→here16.7───→18.55Knowing burns ignorance; body burns its arc.

MadhusūdanaclassicalJ

Two kinds of nature — divine and demonicbetween

16.1Anchor: gather the good, drop the unwholesome.───→here16.7───→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───→here16.7───→

MadhvaclassicalT4

Liberation is bliss in body — not absorptionexit

15.6The supreme abode does not return its dwellers.───→here16.7───→

MadhvaclassicalT10

The deluder is named — three goddesses, one Lordexit

15.4Cut the world-tree by knowing whose play it is.───→here16.7───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalF

The Lord is born only as it wereexit

15.16Both the changing and changeless are below the supreme.───→here16.7───→

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousexit

15.7Aṃśa pinned to the Lord, not free.───→here16.7───→

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśaexit

15.18Named Puruṣottama.───→here16.7───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalH

The grammar of single-pointednessexit

14.26Unswerving devotion crosses the modes.───→here16.7───→

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentaryexit

15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.───→here16.7───→

Śabda · lemmas (12 unique · 18 occurrences)

विदुः·विद्यते √vid ×2 — to know; to find (verbal root) · past indicative 3rd person plural verb / present indicative pass 3rd person singular verb
तेषु tad — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · locative masculine plural noun
आसुराः āsura — demonic, of the asuras · nominative masculine plural noun

show all 12

न na ×4 — not (negation particle)
च ca ×3 — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
प्रवृत्तिम् pravṛtti — engagement, activity (pra- + √vṛt: 'turning-toward') · accusative feminine singular noun
निवृत्तिम् nivṛtti — cessation, withdrawal (ni- + √vṛt 'turn') · accusative feminine singular noun
जनाः jana — person, people, folk · nominative masculine plural noun
शौचम् śauca — purity, cleanliness (from √śuc) · nominative neuter singular noun
अपि api — also, even, although
आचारः ācāra — conduct, observance (ā- + √car) · nominative masculine singular noun
सत्यम् satya — true, real; truth (from √as 'be') · nominative neuter singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If the asuric person does not know the distinction between pravṛtti and nivṛtti, is the failure primarily intellectual (not knowing the rules) or dispositional (not caring) — and does it matter which it is for the possibility of correction?
02The verse groups śauca, ācāra, and satya as consequences of not knowing pravṛtti and nivṛtti. Does this causal ordering imply that ethical conduct is downstream of cosmological orientation — and if so, what does that say about ethics-first reform programs?

show all 7

03Ramanuja specifies satya as speech that is both accurate and beneficial (yathārthajñānam bhūtahitarūpabhāṣaṇam). When accuracy and benefit conflict, which takes precedence — and how does this verse implicitly adjudicate that tension?
04Madhusudana preserves the distinction between vidhi-vākya (what to do) and niṣedha-vākya (what not to do) as distinct modes of scriptural authority. Modern ethics tends to collapse these into a single consequentialist calculus. What is lost in that collapse?
05Vallabha reads this as Krishna's own warning voice, not an impersonal description. How does the identity of the speaker change the force of a character indictment — and what rhetorical work is done by attributing this diagnosis to Bhagavan directly?
06The verse says the asuric do not know (na viduḥ) pravṛtti and nivṛtti — not that they reject them. Is ignorance of dharmic structure the same moral condition as willful rejection of it, or does this verse quietly distinguish the two?
07Śauca (purity) is listed before ācāra (conduct) and satya (truth). If inner-outer purity is the precondition for conduct and conduct is the precondition for truthful speech, what institutional or pedagogical design would reverse-engineer these dependencies?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

In professional life, an advaita-inflected reading asks: do I know which tasks I should engage (pravṛtti) and which I should refuse (nivṛtti) — not from preference but from discrimination (viveka) about what serves the larger purpose? The person who cannot say no to trivial demands and cannot commit to essential ones is displaying the asuric incapacity this verse diagnoses, regardless of intelligence or intent.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Ramanuja's reading asks whether daily practice — the equivalent of sandhyāvandana — actually generates the inner fitness for service, or whether it has become rote. If morning routines no longer produce the two-fold purity (inner calm, outer correctness) that makes one capable of offering one's work to Bhagavan, the conduct has become ācāra in name only — and satya in relationships will erode in parallel.

show all 6

Dvaita

From a Dvaita standpoint, the everyday question is whether one's decisions are made in genuine dependence on something larger (Hari's will, in Madhva's terms; principle or community in secular terms) or are driven by the illusion of self-sufficiency. The asuric pattern is not cruelty but the categorical refusal to acknowledge that one's discrimination is not self-generated — a refusal that quietly corrupts both conduct and truth-telling.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's Puṣṭi-mārga application: if there is no ruci (taste, delight, appetite) for the practice — if dharma feels like a burden rather than a gift of Krishna's own design — then the form of practice is present but the prasāda-receptivity is absent. The everyday sign of this is that one follows rules without joy and speaks truth without warmth. Restoring ruci is the practical work, not adding more rules.

Bhakti

Shridhara's clean reading suggests a diagnostic for relationships: the person who cannot tell the difference between what to engage with and what to step back from in a relationship — who neither commits nor withdraws with discernment — will over time display the three symptoms: slovenliness, disregard for relational norms, and habitual imprecision or dishonesty. The verse is a sequence, not a list; pravṛtti-nivṛtti blindness causes the rest.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudana's synthesis points to the difference between priya (agreeable), hita (beneficial), and yathārtha (accurate) as three distinct demands on speech. In daily conversation, most failures of satya are failures of integration: one is accurate but not agreeable, or agreeable but not beneficial, or beneficial but not accurate. The asuric absence of satya is not lying per se but the inability to hold all three dimensions at once — a capacity that requires both the inner purity (śauca) and the trained conduct (ācāra) that precede it.

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