Chapter 16 · Verse 10 · Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga
Bhagavad Gita 16.10
Sanskrit
काममाश्रित्य दुष्पूरं दम्भमानमदान्विताः।मोहाद्गृहीत्वासद्ग्राहान्प्रवर्तन्तेऽशुचिव्रताः।।16.10।।
Transliteration
kāmam āśhritya duṣhpūraṁ dambha-māna-madānvitāḥ mohād gṛihītvāsad-grāhān pravartante ’śhuchi-vratāḥ
In plain words
You know the feeling: when you're caught in what you want so badly that you can't see straight anymore, when pride whispers that you deserve it, when you're grasping at things that keep slipping away. Krishna says this cycle—endless craving wrapped in self-justification, delusion mistaking the temporary for the real—this is the trap you set for yourself, and you're the only one who can see it clearly enough to step out. The spiral breaks when you stop performing the person you think you should be and get honest about what's actually happening inside.
Word by Word
This verse reveals the anatomy of spiritual descent—when the individual surrenders to insatiable desire, they become enslaved by a trinity of illusions: hypocrisy masquerading as virtue, arrogance disguising emptiness, and delusion clinging to the impermanent as real. The Vedantic insight is that such beings lock themselves in a prison of their own making, their resolve corrupted at its root.
For us today, this is the invitation to examine where we perform virtue rather than embody it, where we chase endless upgrades and validations, where we mistake the fleeting for the eternal—and to recognize that liberation begins with honest self-seeing.
Listen
Bhagavad Gita 16.10 — BG 16.10
Your Mantra Prescription
This mantra is prescribed for clarity and purpose. Is that what you're going through?
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