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510 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gitā [CH. a lord, I enjoy myself, I am successful, powerful and happy, I am rich, I have a noble lineage, there is no one like me, I perform sacrifices, make gifts and enjoy." They get distracted by various kinds of ideas and desires and, surrounded by nets of ignorance and delusion and full of attachment for sense-gratifications, they naturally fall into hell. Proud, arrogant and filled with the vanity of wealth, they perform improperly the so-called sacrifices, as a demonstration of their pomp and pride. In their egoism, power, pride, desires and anger they always ignore God, both in themselves and in others. The main vices that one should try to get rid of are thus egoism, too many desires, greed, anger, pride and vanity, and of these desire and anger are again and again mentioned as being like the gates of hella.
Among the principal virtues called the divine equipment (dairī sampat) the Gītā counts fearlessness (abhaya), purity of heart (sattva-samsuddhi), knowledge of things and proper action in accordance with it, giving, control of mind, sacrifice, study, tapas, sincerity (ārjava), non-injury (ahimsā), truthfulness (satya), control of anger (akrodha), renunciation (tyāga), peacefulness of mind (śānti), not to backbite (apaisuna), kindness to the suffering (bhūtesu dayā), not to be greedy (alolupatva), tenderness (mārdava), a feeling of shame before people in general when a wrong action is done (hri), steadiness (acapala), energy (te as), a forgiving spirit (kṣānti), patience (dhrti), purity (sauca), not to think ill of others (adroha), and not to be vain. It is these virtues which liberate our spirits, whereas vanity, pride, conceit, anger, cruelty and ignorance are vices which bind and enslave us. The man who loves God should not hurt any living beings, should be friendly and sympathetic towards them, and should yet be unattached to all things, should have no egoism, be the same in sorrows and pleasures and full of forgivingness for all. He should be firm, self-controlled and always contented. He should be pure, unattached, the same to all, should not take to actions from any personal motives, and he has nothing to fear. He is the same to friends and enemies, in appreciation and denunciation; he is the same in heat and cold, pleasure and pain; he is the same in praise and blame, homeless and always satisfied with anything and everything; he is always unperturbed and absolutely unattached to all things. If one carefully goes through
i Gitá, xvi. 8-18. 3 Ibid. xvi. 1-5.
2 Ibid. xvi. 21. • Ibid. XII. 13-19; see also ibid. XIII. 8-11.