Bhagavad Gita 16.21

tri-vidhaṁ narakasyedaṁ

dvāraṁ nāśanam ātmanaḥ

kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas

tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet

 

Three gates lead the soul to destruction,

Desire, anger, greed—each fuels corruption;

They draw and drag one down to hell,

Renounce them now—break their spell.

 

My dear Lord, help me understand that hell is not just a place that you send me to for my wrongdoings. Rather, it is also an inner place to which I send myself by my wrongdoings.

O all-knowing Lord, I beg you to grant me the vision to see the inner forces of lust, anger, and greed for what they are—not as benefactors who promise pleasure and power, but as traitors who deliver the opposite of what they promise. They sentence me to a life that is joyless and powerless. The pleasure they promise never truly comes, at least nowhere near the measure they promise. Moreover, as I become addicted to the paltry pleasures they provide, I become increasingly enticed, entrapped, and entangled.

O merciful Lord, help me see that a state in which I am constantly tormented by the insatiable prompts and prods of these forces—where my inner world becomes a stormy chaos of desires, fears, addictions, and frustrations—is nothing short of hell. This inner hell, into which I cast myself by listening to these dark forces, eventually propels me toward a hell outside me.

You and you alone, O infinitely benevolent Lord, can release me from the spell of these dark forces and free me for a life of service to you—the only life that can provide me contentment, fulfillment, and enrichment.

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16.21 There are three gates leading to this hell – lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul.