In the Bhagavadgita sixteenth chapter, as Krishna concludes his description of the ungodly people’s destructive and self-destructive activities, his tone changes from neutral to angry. His anger is seen most evidently in the declaration (16.19-20), “I cast them deep into material existence, into demonic species. Transmigrating repeatedly in such species, they don’t attain me, but sink further to darker levels of material existence.” Krishna’s love and anger
This declaration raises a question: is Krishna a vengeful God who casts the faithless into the fires of hell? Not at all. He has already declared (05.29) that he is the well-wisher of everyone — and everyone includes ungodly beings. In fact, he cares for everyone so much that he personally accompanies them in their heart as their indwelling guide (13.23, 15.15, 18.61). When he himself goes with the ungodly wherever they go, how can he cast them away?
Krishna’s statement about the ungodly is not so much literal as rhetorical — it’s like a father’s statement to his son who is bent on doing something illegal and self-destructive, “If you do this, I will throw you out of my house forever.” The point of the father’s statement is not, “I will banish you forever from my house”; the point is, “Don’t do this.”
In his Bhagavadgita commentary, Prabhupada points to this parental corrective mood in Krishna’s statement by his resourceful translation of the Sanskrit word ‘kruran.’ Though the word’s standard meaning is ‘cruel’, Prabhupada renders it as ‘mischievous’. Though the ungodly may do cruel things, from Krishna’s benevolent parental perspective, they are just being mischievous — and he sternly warns them to protect them from doing bad karma and suffering its terrible consequences.
One-sentence summary:
Krishna’s statement about the fate of the ungodly is more rhetorical than literal — see beyond his evident anger at their ruinous actions to his latent love for them.
Think it over:
- Why might Krishna seem to be a vengeful God? Why is that perception wrong?
- How can we understand Krishna’s statement about casting away the ungodly?
- How does Prabhupada point to Krishna’s mood in his angry words?
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16.19: Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.
To know more about this verse, please click on the image
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