Lord Krishna
Divine TeacherThe Supreme Lord, the charioteer and divine guide of Arjuna. Krishna delivers the eternal wisdom of the Gita, revealing the nature of the soul, duty, and the path to liberation.
Speaking: Chapter 16, Verse 12
Verse 12
The Yoga of the Divine and Demonic Natures
Bound by hundreds of cords of hope, devoted to desire and anger, they strive to accumulate wealth for the sake of sensory enjoyment by unjust means.
Context & Meaning
The demonic person is bound — āśā-pāśa-śataiḥ, by hundreds of cords of hope. The image is precise: each desire generates a hope, and each hope is a cord of binding. The person who desires many things is bound in many directions simultaneously, pulled this way and that, unable to move with freedom or clarity. They are kāma-krodha-parāyaṇa — devoted entirely to desire and the anger that arises when desire is frustrated. And from this orientation flows a willingness to accumulate wealth by anyāya — unjust means. When desire is the supreme value and conscience has been dismantled, the only remaining question is what one can get away with. The means become whatever the ends require.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainMadhvacharya
DvaitaĀśā-pāśa-śataiḥ — bound by hundreds of cords of hope. The word pāśa means a noose or snare: each hope is not a freedom but a trap. The demonic person believes their hopes will liberate them — when wealth is accumulated, when pleasure is obtained, when enemies are defeated — but each satisfaction merely generates a new hope and a new binding. This is saṃsāra operating at full intensity: the wheel turns precisely because desire and hope maintain its momentum.