Divine qualities

Expressions researched:
"divine qualities" |"divine quality"

BG Chapters 13 - 18

BG 16.5, Translation and Purport:

The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities make for bondage. Do not worry, O son of Pāṇḍu, for you are born with the divine qualities.

Lord Kṛṣṇa encouraged Arjuna by telling him that he was not born with demoniac qualities. His involvement in the fight was not demoniac, because he was considering the pros and cons. He was considering whether respectable persons such as Bhīṣma and Droṇa should be killed or not, so he was not acting under the influence of anger, false prestige or harshness. Therefore he was not of the quality of the demons. For a kṣatriya, a military man, shooting arrows at the enemy is considered transcendental, and refraining from such a duty is demoniac. Therefore there was no cause for Arjuna to lament. Anyone who performs the regulative principles of the different orders of life is transcendentally situated.

BG 16.6, Translation and Purport:

O son of Pṛthā, in this world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called divine and the other demoniac. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities. Now hear from Me of the demoniac.

Lord Kṛṣṇa, having assured Arjuna that he was born with the divine qualities, is now describing the demoniac way. The conditioned living entities are divided into two classes in this world. Those who are born with divine qualities follow a regulated life; that is to say they abide by the injunctions in scriptures and by the authorities. One should perform duties in the light of authoritative scripture. This mentality is called divine. One who does not follow the regulative principles as they are laid down in the scriptures and who acts according to his whims is called demoniac or asuric. There is no other criterion but obedience to the regulative principles of scriptures. It is mentioned in Vedic literature that both the demigods and the demons are born of the Prajāpati; the only difference is that one class obeys the Vedic injunctions and the other does not.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.2:

Brahman exists as the all-pervading energy in this phenomenal world. Therefore the Vedas have defined Brahman as formless, impersonal, pure, and so on. But the source of Brahman is an eternal personality who has no material form but who has a transcendental form full of spiritual potencies and all divine qualities. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the embodiment of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. He possesses all six transcendental opulences to an infinite degree, He performs superexcellent divine pastimes, and He alone is to be searched out and known in all the scriptures. The materialistic, fruitive workers make the mistake of thinking that this supreme transcendental personality is mundane, and thus they become degraded into pseudodevotees. And the dry speculators, having been repulsed by the material phenomena in their search for knowledge of the Absolute, think that the transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also repulsive, thus clearly proving that their ascending process of acquiring knowledge is insufficient and inferior. Both these groups are in a pathetic spiritual state. Therefore, to shower His causeless mercy upon them, the Supreme Lord has revealed the truth about Himself and His transcendental potencies in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 16.5 -- Calcutta, February 23, 1972:

The viṣṇu bhaktaḥ bhaved daivaḥ, those who are devotees of Lord Viṣṇu, they are deva, devatā, or demigods, and asuras tad-viparyayaḥ. What is the difference between devatā and asura? The, that is explained by Kṛṣṇa, that daivī sampad vimokṣāya (BG 16.5). If you develop your divine qualities, as they're described, ahiṁsā, sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ... Sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ, sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ means existentional purification. Our..., we, as spirit soul, we are pure, original, because Kṛṣṇa is pure. Arjuna accepts Kṛṣṇa, after understanding Bhagavad-gītā, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitram-paramaṁ bhavān: (BG 10.12) "You are paraṁ pavitra." And God is paraṁ pavitra is admitted in the Īśopaniṣad. Apāpa-viddham, asnāviram. Asnāviram means in the body of God there are no veins, and therefore apāpa-viddham. Veins, as soon as you have got this veins, that is material body. The body is maintained under certain material condition. You eat, and this eating substance transformed into secretion, then through the veins this comes to the heart, and heart it becomes red, corpuscle, the blood, the blood is diffused. Therefore there are so many channels, veins.

Lecture on BG 16.5 -- Calcutta, February 23, 1972:

Everyone, you can do that. There is no difficulty. Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā. Any..., somebody can dedicate his life, somebody can dedicate his money, somebody can dedicate his intelligence, somebody can dedicate his words. So it is not at all difficulty. In this way, simply by accepting the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one develops the daivī sampat, divine quality. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇair tatra samāsate surāḥ. As soon as one becomes devotee, with all the divinely, godly qualities one becomes developed.

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā

sarvair guṇair tatra samāsate surāḥ

harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā

mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ

(SB 5.18.12)

Because people are not devotees of God, therefore despite all education, all advancement of scientific knowledge, still they are dealing like cats and dogs. They are not peaceful. The peace cannot be attained without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca.

Lecture on BG 16.5 -- Hawaii, January 31, 1975:

Devotee: The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities make for bondage. Do not worry, O son of Pāṇḍu, for you are born with the divine qualities.

Prabhupāda:

daivī sampad vimokṣāya

nibandhāyāsurī matā

mā śucaḥ sampadaṁ daivīm

abhijāto 'si pāṇḍava

(BG 16.5)

This is very important verse. Daivi sampad the qualities, divine qualities. That is described abhayam sattva samsuddhir, That is elaborately stated in the fisrt verse (indistinct)

abhayaṁ sattva-saṁśuddhir

jñāna-yoga-vyavasthitiḥ

dānaṁ damaś ca yajñaś ca

svādhyāyas tapa ārjavam

ahiṁsā satyam akrodhas

tyāgaḥ śāntir apaiśunam

dayā bhūteṣv aloluptvaṁ

mārdavaṁ hrīr acāpalam

tejaḥ kṣamā dhṛtiḥ śaucam

adroho nātimānitā

bhavanti sampadaṁ daivīm...

These are the daivī sampad. So last night we have discussed. That daivī sampad is described. There is nothing secret. Everything is open. So if you develop these qualities, abhayaṁ sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ, etc., then you become qualified with divine possession, Sampatti. Sampatti means what you possess, under your control. So sampatti, two kinds of sampatti, divine sampatti and demonic sampatti.

Lecture on BG 16.6 -- Hawaii, February 2, 1975:

Nitāi: "O son of Pṛthā, in this world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called the divine and the other is the demoniac. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities. Now hear from Me of the demoniac."

Prabhupāda:

dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin

daiva āsura eva ca

daivo vistaraśaḥ prokta

āsuraṁ pārtha me śṛṇu

(BG 16.6)

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa is addressing Arjuna as... Sometimes He addresses him as Bhārata, "the descendant of the Bharata dynasty," and sometimes He addresses him as Pārtha, and sometimes He addresses him, Dhanañjaya, His friend. This time He addresses him as Pārtha. Pārtha means his mother's name was Pṛthā. From Pṛthā, the word Pārtha comes. His mother happened to be Kṛṣṇa's father's sister. So very intimately and friendly, He addresses him as Pārtha, "My dear son of My aunt." That means "We have got very intimate relationship. Not only we are friends, but we have got family relationship. So therefore I am speaking you about the truth that there are two classes of living beings." Two classes of living beings, dvau. Dvau means two. One class is called daiva, or divine, divine nature, and the other class is called demonic nature, āsura.

Lecture on BG 16.6 -- Hawaii, February 2, 1975:

Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for educating everyone to become divine. That is the program. So what is the gain by becoming divine? That is described in the previous verse. Daivī sampad vimokṣāya (BG 16.5). If you become divine and acquire the divine qualities, abhayaṁ sattva-saṁśuddhiḥ jñāna-yoga-vyavasthitiḥ... That is... We have discussed already. So if you become divine... There is no impediment to become divine. Simply you have to practice for the post. Just like everyone can become a high-court judge. Everyone can become the president of United States. There is no bar. But you have to be qualified. If you qualify yourself, you can become any..., fitted in any position. Similarly, as it is said, to divine, to become daivī, you have to qualify yourself to become divine. How to become divine? That is already described. We have already...

So if you qualify yourself by the divine qualities, then what is the benefit? Daivī sampad vimokṣāya. Mokṣa. Mokṣa mean liberation. So if you cultivate divine qualities, then you are fit for being liberated. What is liberation? Liberation from repeating birth and death. That is our real suffering. The modern, rascal civilization, they do not know actually what is the end of suffering. They do not know. There is no education. There is no science. They are thinking that "Here this small span of life, say, fifty years, sixty years, hundred years, utmost, if we get a nice wife, a nice apartment and nice motor car, running with seventy miles speed, and a nice whiskey bottle..." That is his perfection.

Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Hawaii, February 4, 1975:

That is, therefore, asuras, demons. They are simply thinking that they are perfect, they can do everything. That is not possible. That is not possible.

Therefore a devotee knows how to do things. He knows not automatically, but he learns from the spiritual master, the representative of God. Then he becomes perfect. Otherwise asura. Na śaucaṁ nāpi cācāraḥ (BG 16.7). The asuras, they do not know what is cleanliness, what is proper behavior. That is asuric quality. So we have explained. By asuric quality we remain conditioned with this material world. But daivī qual..., by divine quality, we can become free from this material bondage and go back to home, back to Godhead. So these things are very elaborately explained in this chapter, Sixteenth Chapter. So let us know who is demon and who is divine.