The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

chapter sixteen
╭ Two Paths
I n this most unusual chapter, the Gita
departs from a lofty view of human nature and describes
two opposing forces. The higher tendency, the divine, leads
to increasing happiness in the course of the soul’s evolution,
and eventually to its liberation; but there is also a downward
current leading to suffering and enslavement of the spirit.
This chapter is unusual in giving equal, if not in fact more,
attention to this dark side of human nature. Here we get a
detailed description of the divine qualities that liberate and
the “demonic” qualities that enslave (16:5).
In a rare somber tone, Krishna describes the sinful person,
the individual of a demonic kind – and it seems he knows
what he is talking about. But first he assures Arjuna that he is
of the divine type, so he shouldn’t be alarmed.
The “demonic” personality is basically atheistic. For such
people life does not originate in God or a divine reality but
is grounded in biology, in sexual desire. Taking a low view
of human nature, such people cause suffering to themselves
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