Bg. 16.9 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

एतां दृष्टिमवष्टभ्य नष्टात्मानोऽल्पबुद्धय: । प्रभवन्त्युग्रकर्माण: क्षयाय जगतोऽहिता: ॥ ९ ॥

Verse text

etāṁ dṛṣṭim avaṣṭabhya naṣṭātmāno ’lpa-buddhayaḥ prabhavanty ugra-karmāṇaḥ kṣayāya jagato ’hitāḥ

Synonyms

etām — this ; dṛṣṭim — vision ; avaṣṭabhya — accepting ; naṣṭa — having lost ; ātmānaḥ — themselves ; alpa-buddhayaḥ — the less intelligent ; prabhavanti — flourish ; ugra-karmāṇaḥ — engaged in painful activities ; kṣayāya — for destruction ; jagataḥ — of the world ; ahitāḥ — unbeneficial.

Translation

Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

9. Taking shelter of this viewpoint, being depraved, unintelligent, performing violent actions, these men are born to bring destruction to the world.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

9. Taking shelter of these viewpoints, not understanding ātmā, believing in worthless philosophies, performing violent actions, and being hostile to the world, these men deviate the world from spiritual truth.

Purport

The demoniac are engaged in activities that will lead the world to destruction. The Lord states here that they are less intelligent. The materialists, who have no concept of God, think that they are advancing. But according to Bhagavad-gītā, they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense. They try to enjoy this material world to the utmost limit and therefore always engage in inventing something for sense gratification. Such materialistic inventions are considered to be advancement of human civilization, but the result is that people grow more and more violent and more and more cruel, cruel to animals and cruel to other human beings. They have no idea how to behave toward one another. Animal killing is very prominent amongst demoniac people. Such people are considered the enemies of the world because ultimately they will invent or create something which will bring destruction to all. Indirectly, this verse anticipates the invention of nuclear weapons, of which the whole world is today very proud. At any moment war may take place, and these atomic weapons may create havoc. Such things are created solely for the destruction of the world, and this is indicated here. Due to godlessness, such weapons are invented in human society; they are not meant for the peace and prosperity of the world.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Some of these asuras who speak in this way are lost souls (naṣṭātmaṇaḥ), some have little intelligence, some are violent, doing whatever they want, living hellish existence. This is described in eleven verses. Avaṣṭabhya means taking shelter of this conception.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

Taking shelter of actions and philosophies to exemplify their respective views, they destroy the world. Dṛṣṭim is in the singular to indicate the whole class of demonic philosophies. Taking support (avaṣṭabhya) of their philosophies, these foolish people, with worthless opinions (alpa buddhayaḥ), devoid of understanding ātmā distinct from the body (naṣṭātmanaḥ), fixed in actions of violence, slander and insult (ugra karmānaḥ), being enemies of the world (jagataḥ ahitāḥ), deviate the world from spiritual truth (kṣayāya prabhavanti).