FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Bhagavad-gītā 16.11-12

చిన్తామపరిమేయాం చ ప్రలయాన్తాముపాశ్రితా: । కామోపభోగపరమా ఏతావదితి నిశ్చితా: ॥ ౧౧ ॥ ఆశాపాశశతైర్బద్ధా: కామక్రోధపరాయణా: । ఈహన్తే కామభోగార్థమన్యాయేనార్థసఞ్చయాన్ ॥ ౧౨ ॥
cintām aparimeyāṁ ca
[chintaam aparimeyaam cha]
pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
[pralayaantaam upaashritaah]
kāmopabhoga-paramā
[kaamopabhoga-paramaa]
etāvad iti niścitāḥ
[etaavad iti nishchitaah]
āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ
[aashaa-paasha-shatair baddhaah]
kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ
[kaama-krodha-paraayanaah]
īhante kāma-bhogārtham
[eehante kaama-bhogaartham]
anyāyenārtha-sañcayān
[anyaayenaartha-sanchayaan]
Word-for-word
cintām — fears and anxieties aparimeyām — immeasurable ca — and pralaya - antām — unto the point of death upāśritāḥ — having taken shelter of kāma - upabhoga — sense gratification paramāḥ — the highest goal of life etāvat — thus iti — in this way niścitāḥ — having ascertained āśā - pāśa — entanglements in a network of hope śataiḥ — by hundreds baddhāḥ — being bound kāma — of lust krodha — and anger parāyaṇāḥ — always situated in the mentality īhante — they desire kāma — lust bhoga — sense enjoyment artham — for the purpose of anyāyena — illegally artha — of wealth sañcayān — accumulation .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
cintām aparimeyāṁ ca
cintām
fears and anxieties
aparimeyām
immeasurable
ca
and
pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
pralaya - antām
unto the point of death
upāśritāḥ
having taken shelter of
kāmopabhoga-paramā
kāma - upabhoga
sense gratification
paramāḥ
the highest goal of life
etāvad iti niścitāḥ
etāvat
thus
iti
in this way
niścitāḥ
having ascertained
āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ
āśā - pāśa
entanglements in a network of hope
śataiḥ
by hundreds
baddhāḥ
being bound
kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ
kāma
of lust
krodha
and anger
parāyaṇāḥ
always situated in the mentality
īhante kāma-bhogārtham
īhante
they desire
kāma
lust
bhoga
sense enjoyment
artham
for the purpose of
anyāyenārtha-sañcayān
anyāyena
illegally
artha
of wealth
sañcayān
accumulation .
Important Words
  • cintām — fears and anxieties
    Cintā — anxious worry. Not occasional concern but the chronic condition of the lust-driven mind. Aparimeyām — immeasurable. The verse weighs the demoniac inner life and finds it unweighable.
  • pralaya - antām — unto the point of death
    Pralaya — dissolution, here personal death. Anta — end. The anxiety extends 'up to the end' — never resolved, only stopped by mortality. Even then, the next birth picks up where it left off.
  • kāma - upabhoga — sense gratification
    Upa-bhoga — enjoyment that approaches and consumes. The demoniac philosophy reduces life's purpose (paramāḥ — the highest goal) to this. Once that reduction is made, every other vice follows logically.
  • āśā - pāśa — entanglements in a network of hope
    Āśā — hope, expectation. Pāśa — noose, rope. Hope as a noose — only the Gītā would dare the inversion. The hope of the demoniac is itself the rope that binds them.
  • kāma — of lust
    Listed twice in this verse and again later — Kṛṣṇa is naming the root. Kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ: those who have taken refuge in lust and anger. The phrasing makes lust and anger their iṣṭa-devatā, their chosen deity.
  • anyāyena — illegally
    An-nyāya — not according to nyāya, not by just means. Instrumental case. The means become invisible to the demoniac; only the goal of wealth matters. Process indifference is itself a symptom.
They believe that to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable. Bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification.
Purport

The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one’s karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality who, even at the point of death, was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete. Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment. When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man’s desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy. The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. He does not know that there is a witness sitting within his heart. The Supersoul is observing the activities of the individual soul. As it is stated in the Upaniṣads, there are two birds sitting in one tree; one is acting and enjoying or suffering the fruits of the branches, and the other is witnessing. But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith; therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequences.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Bhūrijana Dāsa Gauḍīya
Translation
They believe that to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable. Bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they s money by illegal means for sense gratification. (cn) It is quite interesting how in the 2nd Chapter Krsna recommends tha tolerates his desires if he wants to become peaceful and h Just like the ocean is undisturbed although is fed by countless rivers, similarly one should tolerate the rivers of desires that enter in his consciousness. But here the binding of the living entities is described as a network of hundreds of thousands of desires. One who in not fixed in Krsna consciousness will be always many‑branched, filled with all these desires and therefore his determination cannot be strong. Here show the demoniac bound by their desires. They take their minds seriously, identify with their minds' desires and they are lost.
Study Notes — Gauranga Priya Dāsa
Gauranga Priya Dāsa Study
Bhakti-śāstrī Notes, ISKCON Chowpatty (2009)
Theme

Demoniac attitude and engagements are further described

Attitude – Sense gratification is the “prime necessity of human civilization”
Immeasurable anxieties
Network of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger
Engagements – Secure money by illegal means for sense-gratification
Focus of Learning

(a) Insatiable lust – They go on increasing their insatiable desires for material enjoyment

(b) Illusioned

They have no knowledge and cannot tell that they are heading the wrong way
They are always full of anxieties because of accepting non-permanent things

(c) Attracted by impermanent

Create own God, own hymns
Engage in ‘Asuchi-vratah’ : Unclean vows, primarily two things sex enjoyment and accumulation of material wealth
‘Asuchi’ (Unclean habits) – Engaged in wine, women, gambling and meat-eating

(d) Absorbed in conceit of pride and false prestige – This is practically seen as follows:

They create some principles of religion which are not approved by Vedic injunctions
By artificial means the world creates a false honor for them
Although gliding towards hell, they considered themselves very advanced

(a) Illusioned, no intelligence – because they think to be advancing but engaged in the work that is

destructive

(b) Ugra-karma: Painful, horrible, destructive acts

Trying to enjoy sense gratification, they engage in materialistic inventions with the only result of violence and cruelty to other living beings
Two examples: Animal killing and nuclear weapons

LINK BETWEEN TEXTS 16.12 & 16.13: Texts 16.13 – 16.15 describe their thoughts after they acquire

money by “illegal means”

Classical Ācāryas
Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Classical
Translation
16.11 Upasritah, beset with; aparimeyam, innumerable; cintam, cares-worries that defy estimation of their limits!, i.e., constantly burdened with cares; pralayantam, which end (only) with death; kama-upabhoga-paramah, holding that the enjoyment of desirable objects is the highest goal-kama is derived in the sense of 'that which is desired for', viz sound etc.; considered their enjoyment to be the highest; having their minds convinced thus that this alone, viz the enjoyment of desirable objects, is the highest human goal; niscitah, feeling sure; iti, that; etavat, this is all-
Śrī Rāmānujācārya Classical
Translation
16.11 Those who are sure to die today or tomorrow 'obsess themselves with cares' in regard to objects the attainment of which is not possible even by the time of death. Likewise, they look upon 'enjoyment of desires' as their highest aim, viz., they regard the satisfaction of sensual enjoyments as the highest aim of human life. They are convinced that this is all, viz., they are assured that there is no value in human life greater than this.
Śrī Abhinavagupta Classical
Translation
16.11 See Coment under 16.12
Swami Sivananda Classical
Translation
16.11 Giving themselves over to immeasurable cares ending only with death, regarding gratification of lust as their highest aim, and feeling sure that that is all.
Commentary

16.11 चिन्ताम् cares? अपरिमेयाम् immeasurable? च and? प्रलयान्तम् ending only with death? उपाश्रिताः refuged in? कामोपभोगपरमाः regarding gratification of lust as their highest aim? एतावत् that is all? इति thus? निश्चिताः feeling sure.Commentary They are beset with immense cares? worries and anxieties and their minds are engrossed in aciring and preserving the countless sensual objects. They have got the strong conviction that the sensual enjoyment is the highest end of a man. They are steeped in enjoying the objects of the senses. They firmly believe that that is everything. They believe that sensual enjoyment is the supreme source of happiness and there is no such thing as eternal bliss of the soul or transcendental bliss of the Self. They have no belief in the happiness in another world (or plane) or in the perennial bliss which is independent of sensual objects? which is beyond the reach of the senses. They have a dull and gross intellect? and so they cannot grasp the subtle higher truth. Sensual enjoyment is the greatest object of attainment for them.

Swami Gambhīrānanda Classical
Translation
16.11 Beset with innumerable cares which end (only) with death, holding that the enjoyment of desirable objects is the highest goal, feeling sure that this is all.
Shri Purohit Swami Classical
Translation
16.11 Poring anxiously over evil resolutions, which only end in death; seeking only the gratification of desire as the highest goal; seeing nothing beyond;
Related values & verses
Related values
Tyaga (Renunciation / Letting Go)Tapas (Austerity / Discipline)Guru Bhakti (Reverence for Teacher)Atma Nigraha (Self-control)Vairagya (Detachment / Dispassion)
Related verses
BG 3.37 BG 2.70 BG 16.21 SB 5.13.7 SB 7.15.20 SB 11.23.18 CC Madhya 22.118 CC Antya 6.220 CC Madhya 19.159 Īśa Upaniṣad 1 Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.3
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Bound by hundreds of desires until death, satisfying lust, anger as their refuge — they unjustly amass wealth for sense gratification.
Practical Applications
  • Notice when the spirit of 'amassing for myself' creeps in.
  • Distinguish need-meeting from amassing.
  • Refuse anger as a refuge.
Reflection Questions
  • Where is amassing-for-myself active in my life?
  • What practice replaces it?
Analogy

A net thrown over a swimmer. Each knot is a hope, each rope an anxiety. The more he thrashes for one fish, the tighter the net binds his arms. Hundreds of thousands of knots — āśā-pāśa-śataiḥ — and beneath them the swimmer no longer remembers he is a swimmer.

Stories
Aśvatthāmā's Pursuit

On the night the Pāṇḍava sons slept, Aśvatthāmā — driven by anger at Duryodhana's death and the schemes of vengeance — entered their tents and killed the five Upapāṇḍavas in their beds. The act bound him to a curse from Kṛṣṇa: to wander the earth for thousands of years, festering with an unhealable wound, denied even the release of death.

Kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ — situated in the mentality of lust and anger — yields exactly such a fate. The wound he carries is the verse made flesh.

Duḥśāsana's Hands

Bound by the network of his brother's schemes and his own lust for power and humiliation of others, Duḥśāsana dragged Draupadī by the hair into the Kuru assembly. The Mahābhārata makes him the verse's case study: anyāyena artha-sañcayān — accumulating by illegal means — and parāyaṇāḥ — entirely given over to lust and anger.

Bhīma's vow to drink the blood of those hands, fulfilled at Kurukṣetra, completes the arc the verse predicts.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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