16.21 Three gates Krishna speaks
त्रिविधं नरकस्येदं द्वारं नाशनमात्मनः
कामः क्रोधस्तथा लोभस्तस्मादेतत्त्रयं त्यजेत्
tri-vidhaṁ narakasyedaṁ dvāraṁ nāśhanam ātmanaḥ
kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet
Desire, anger and greed — these are the three gates to what destroys the self. Give them up.
Explanation
Three gates, and calling them gates is the useful part.
Desire, anger, greed — dvāram, doors. A door can be seen on approach; a flaw can only be regretted afterwards.
And this is the third time the book has named desire and anger as a pair. Greed is the addition here, and the instruction is two words long: give them up.
Going further
Word by word
- tri-vidham
- three types of
- narakasya
- to the hell
- idam
- this
- dvāram
- gates
- nāśhanam
- destruction
- ātmanaḥ
- self
- kāmaḥ
- lust
- krodhaḥ
- anger
- tathā
- and
- lobhaḥ
- greed
- tasmāt
- therefore
- etat
- these
- trayam
- three
- tyajet
- should abandon
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Desire, anger and greed named as three gates.
Calling a thing a door rather than a flaw is more useful, because doors can be seen on approach. Note that this is the third time the chain from 2.62 has surfaced, and each time the framing shifts slightly — here they are exits from oneself, and the instruction is simply to give them up.