Bhagavad Gita 16.20
Spoken by Krishna · Verse 20 of 24
आसुरीं योनिम् आपन्ना मूढा जन्मनि जन्मनि । माम् अप्राप्यैव कौन्तेय ततो यान्त्य् अधमां गतिम् ॥
āsurīṃ yonim āpannā mūḍhā janmani janmani | mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya tato yānty adhamāṃ gatim ||
In āsurī wombs, deluded birth after birth — never reaching Me — they go to still lower destinations.
Word by word (3)
- āsurīṃ yonim āpannā mūḍhā janmani janmani
- — obtaining/falling into (āpannā) the āsurī womb (āsurīm yonim), the deluded ones (mūḍhāḥ), birth after birth (janmani janmani) — a compounding cycle
- mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya
- — without ever reaching Me (mām aprāpya eva), O son of Kuntī (Kaunteya = Arjuna) — the fundamental spiritual failure: God unreached
- tato yānty adhamāṃ gatim
- — then (tataḥ) they go (yānti) to still lower (adhamām) destination/state (gatim) — the compounding downward trajectory
Taking birth in demoniac wombs, birth after birth deluded, without ever reaching Me, O Arjuna, they then go to still lower states.
A modern analogy
A spiral staircase going down: each step lands you at a lower landing, from which you take another step lower still. This verse describes the demonic person's spiritual trajectory as exactly this — not sudden damnation but a continuous downward spiral in which each demonic birth makes the next more demonic, progressively moving away from the supreme.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Entering into demoniac wombs, the deluded ones, in birth after birth, without ever reaching Me, O son of Kunti, pass into a condition still lower than that. [1]
Obtaining the Asurika wombs, and deluded birth after birth, not attaining to Me, they thus fall, O son of Kunti, into a still lower condition. [4]
Coming into demoniac wombs, deluded in every birth, they go down to the vilest state, O son of Kunti, without ever coming to me. [9]
Coming into demoniac wombs, deluded birth after birth, they, O son of Kunti, without attaining to Me go down to the vilest state. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Immeasurable anxieties till death, sense-pleasure as the highest value, firmly certain that 'this is all there is.'
Those who hate Me — cruel, vilest among humans — I continually cast into āsurī wombs, the inauspicious.
Arjuna sees his own people ready to die — and his body breaks before his mind can argue.
In the new birth, one recovers the former body's intelligence — and strives even more than before toward perfection.
Past practice carries the yogi forward involuntarily — even the yoga-inquirer surpasses the Vedic ritualist.
Those whose sin has ended — virtuous in deed, freed from dvandva-delusion — worship Me with firm resolve.
Verse 20 of 24 · back to Chapter 16