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 20
Verse 20
The Yoga of the Divine and Demonic Natures
Entering demonic wombs birth after birth, these deluded ones, failing to reach Me, O son of Kunti, sink to the lowest condition.
Context & Meaning
The downward spiral is described: birth after birth in demonic conditions, each reinforcing the orientation that led to it. And the thread that runs through all of them is mām aprāpya — failing to reach Me. This is the one constant in the demonic trajectory: the non-encounter with the Divine. Not because the Divine withdraws — God dwells in the heart of every being, including the most deeply demonic — but because the demonic orientation is precisely the orientation away from that inner presence. The result is adhamā gati — the lowest state of existence. Not merely suffering, but the degradation of the soul itself, which sinks further from its own nature with each demonic birth.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainRamanujacharya
VishishtadvaitaMāmaprāpyaiva — failing to reach Me. God is always reachable — He is closer than close, seated in the heart of every being. The tragedy of the demonic life is not that God is absent but that the demonic orientation systematically avoids the encounter. Every choice for ego over truth, every act of cruelty, every performance of false religion, is a step away from the inner presence that is always offering itself. The lowest condition (adhamā gati) is not a location but a state: maximum distance from the Self.