
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 4
Verse 4
The Yoga of the Divine and Demonic Natures
Hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance — these are the endowments of those born to the demonic nature, O Partha.
Context & Meaning
Having painted the divine portrait across three verses, Krishna now sketches the demonic character in a single verse — and the compression is itself a statement. Six qualities suffice to define the demonic type: dambha (hypocrisy — presenting a false image of virtue), darpa (arrogance — the inflated sense of one's own importance), abhimāna (conceit — identification with one's ego as the centre of the universe), krodha (anger — the reactive rage that destroys relationships and clarity), pāruṣya (harshness — cruelty in speech and action), and ajñāna (ignorance — not merely lack of information but the deep spiritual blindness that cannot see what is real). These are not sins committed occasionally but character orientations — the default settings of a consciousness that has turned away from the light and is living by the distortions that follow.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainAdi Shankaracharya
AdvaitaNotice that the demonic list is headed by dambha — hypocrisy — rather than a gross sin. This is precise: the most dangerous form of demonic nature is the one that wears a mask of virtue. The person who is openly cruel can be dealt with; the person who appears righteous while operating from arrogance and self-interest is far more destructive. Ajñāna (ignorance) closes the list, as it is the root from which all the other demonic qualities grow.