Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

So now Krishna will tell that it is no personal vendetta because of which He takes people down there are gates to hell. 

Bg 16.21

tri-vidhaṁ narakasyedaṁ
dvāraṁ nāśanam ātmanaḥ
kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas
tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet

Synonyms: 

tri–vidham — of three kinds; narakasya — of hell; idam — this; dvāram — gate; nāśanam — destructive; ātmanaḥ— of the self; kāmaḥ — lust; krodhaḥ — anger; tathā — as well as; lobhaḥ — greed; tasmāt — therefore; etat — these; trayam — three; tyajet — one must give up.

Translation: 

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.

tri-vidhaṁ, is three, narakasye, Naraka is hell, 

dvāraṁ nāśanam ātmanaḥ, they are door to the destruction of soul, nāśanam ātmanaḥ

What are these? kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas, so lust, anger and greed

tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet, therefore one should give this up

There are several significant point in this first of all there are dual metaphor in this, first metaphor is dvāraṁ, door, generally the door is the means by which we go somewhere, a door by which I can go from out of the room or can come in the room. 

When we are consumed by these things that consumption becomes the pathway by which we go to hell. 

All such kind of advertisements are injecting lust, anger and greed into us.  Each of these advertisement become gate to hell and it becomes so much that instead of people going to hell now hell is coming to people. Which means hellish conditions are created. 

The way to leave these things are something higher are needed to come out of these which are talked in scriptures, which Krishna will talk slightly later, but here Sri Krishna is telling one has to be careful, otherwise one will be trapped. 

So dvāra is a metaphor of mentality and lust, anger and greed and this acronym LAG, this cause the soul to lag behind and a soul cannot move forward and is held behind, lag behind in its journey towards Krishna. So these mentality takes one to hell.

Similarly nāśanam ātmanaḥ is also a metaphor.

Krishna has said in 2.17 Avinashi Tu Tad Viddhi, He has called Atam as Avinashi, non destructible, so if it is Avinashi  then how it is called nāśanam ātmanaḥ? So here nasa indicates destruction of spiritual inclination of the soul. 

tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet, therefore one should give up all three. 

Purport: It is called sane man…. which can kill the self to such an extent that there will be no possibility of liberation from this material entanglement.

No possible doesn’t meant permanently it is not possible it means till the time the soul succumb to lust, anger and greed it is not possible.

End of transcription.