Bg. 16.20 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

आसुरीं योनिमापन्ना मूढा जन्मनि जन्मनि । मामप्राप्यैव कौन्तेय ततो यान्त्यधमां गतिम् ॥ २० ॥

Verse text

āsurīṁ yonim āpannā mūḍhā janmani janmani mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya tato yānty adhamāṁ gatim

Synonyms

āsurīm — demoniac ; yonim — species ; āpannāḥ — gaining ; mūḍhāḥ — the foolish ; janmani janmani — in birth after birth ; mām — Me ; aprāpya — without achieving ; eva — certainly ; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī ; tataḥ — thereafter ; yānti — go ; adhamām — condemned ; gatim — destination.

Translation

Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, O son of Kuntī, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

20. Taking birth as demons birth after birth, these fools, not attaining Me, then go to the lowest position, O son of Kuntī.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

20. Taking birth as demons birth after birth, these fools, not attaining My mercy at all, then go to the lowest status of life, O son of Kuntī.

Translation (Bhurijana Dasa)

Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, O son of Kunti, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence. (cn) Then, after presenting what happens with the divine in Section A, and then presenting what is the results, what happens to the demoniac in Section B, Krsna, in the last verses, He gives us our choice, He gives us clear directions about which path we want to take. If one wants to go to hell here are the ways and if one wants to avoid it, which are Krsna's instructions...

Purport

It is known that God is all-merciful, but here we find that God is never merciful to the demoniac. It is clearly stated that the demoniac people, life after life, are put into the wombs of similar demons, and, not achieving the mercy of the Supreme Lord, they go down and down, so that at last they achieve bodies like those of cats, dogs and hogs. It is clearly stated that such demons have practically no chance of receiving the mercy of God at any stage of later life. In the Vedas also it is stated that such persons gradually sink to become dogs and hogs. It may be then argued in this connection that God should not be advertised as all-merciful if He is not merciful to such demons. In answer to this question, in the Vedānta-sūtra we find that the Supreme Lord has no hatred for anyone. The placing of the asuras, the demons, in the lowest status of life is simply another feature of His mercy. Sometimes the asuras are killed by the Supreme Lord, but this killing is also good for them, for in Vedic literature we find that anyone who is killed by the Supreme Lord becomes liberated. There are instances in history of many asuras – Rāvaṇa, Kaṁsa, Hiraṇyakaśipu – to whom the Lord appeared in various incarnations just to kill them. Therefore God’s mercy is shown to the asuras if they are fortunate enough to be killed by Him.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Not attaining Me, the asuras attain low births. However, those asuras in the form of Kaṁsa and others attained Me, Kṛṣṇa, who appeared at the end of Dvāpara-yuga in the twenty eighth cycle of Vaivasvata Manu’s reign. Though hating Me, they attained Me in the form of liberation. Because I am an ocean of mercy, I give even such sinful asuras liberation, which is only attained by the perfection of bhakti and jṣāna. The Personified Vedas say: nibhṛta-marun-mano’kṣa dṛḍha-yoga-yujo hṛdi yan munaya upāsate tad-arayo’pi yayuḥ smaraṇāt Simply by constantly thinking of Him, the enemies of the Lord attained the same Supreme Truth whom sages fixed in yoga worship by controlling their breath, mind and senses. SB 10.87.23 This widens the scope of My supreme attractive position which I mentioned previously. But as the Bhagavatāmṛta Kārikā says: māṁ kṛṣṇa-rūpiṇaṁ yāvan nāpnuvanti mama dviṣaḥ tāvad evādhamaṁ yoniṁ prāpnuvantīti hi sphuṭam In as much as those who hate Me do not attain Me in My form as Kṛṣṇa, it is clear that they attain the lowest births.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

“Will those born in the wombs of asuras become liberated at some time by Your mercy, after many births?” These fools, having been born in ḍemonic wombs, not attaining Me at all, proceed to the wombs of the lowest creatures like dogs. Use of the word eva after aprāpya indicates that there is no possibility for them to get My mercy. A good birth suitable for practicing attaining the Lord is very rare (what to speak of this low birth). The śruti also says: atha kapūya-caraṇā abhyāso ha yat te kapūyāṁ yonim āpadyeran śva-yoniṁ vā śūkara-yoniṁ vā caṇḍāla-yoniṁ vā Those of bad conduct attain low births, such as dogs, pigs and caṇḍālas. Chāndogya Upaniṣad 5.10.7 “But because You have the quality having all Your desires fulfilled (satya saṅkalpatva), You can make them qualified, even if they are so unqualified.” Anything is possible for the Lord, but though He could do this, He does not have that desire, since there is no good reason for Him to do that. Thus there is no fault of prejudice in the Lord. The author of the Vedānta says vaiṣyamya-niarghṛṇye na: there is no prejudice or hatred in the Lord. (Vedṇata Sūtras 2.1.35) Therefore these two verses are very appropriate. Those asauras described here who do not accept scripture are always shown to be inhabitants of hell. But those who become demons and kings obeident to demens by a curse, though showing externally hatred to the visible forms of Viṣṇū like Vāmana, Narasiṁha and Varāha, regarding them as enemies, are internally followers of the vedic path, and consider Him to be the Supreme Lord the controller of all, in control of time, beyond their material vision. Being killed by Vāmana and other incarnations, they give up the bodies of asuras . Those killed by Kṛṣṇa attain liberation. These persons are not opposers of the Vedas.