Sanskrit
काममाश्रित्य दुष्पूरं दम्भमानमदान्विताः । मोहाद्गृहीत्वाऽसद्ग्राहान्प्रवर्तन्तेऽशुचिव्रताः ॥
kāmam āśritya duṣpūraṃ dambhamānamadānvitāḥ mohād gṛhītvā'sadgrāhān pravartante 'śucivratāḥ
Translation
Surrendering themselves to insatiable desires, possessed with vanity, conceit and arrogance, holding evil ideas through delusion, they engage in action with impure resolves.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Desire here is explicitly called “duṣpūra” — insatiable, impossible to fill — which is doing real philosophical work: the problem isn’t wanting things but wanting in a structurally bottomless way. Hypocrisy, pride, and intoxication with status feed a delusion (moha) that leads them to grasp at “asad-grāhān,” false or corrupt notions, and to act under “aśuci-vratāḥ” — impure vows. That last phrase is close to a contradiction in terms, since vrata ordinarily names a sacred, disciplined commitment; applying it to impurity suggests these people bring the same intensity of resolve to their vices that a practitioner would bring to austerity. Kāmaṃ duṣpūram — “desire that cannot be filled” — is BG 3.39’s “insatiable fire” again. The demonic life is organised around a want that grows by feeding, which is why no amount of getting (BG 16.13) ever settles it.
Study deeper
Word by word
- kāmam āśritya duṣpūraṃकामं आश्रित्य दुष्पूरं
- clinging to insatiable desire (kāmam + āśritya + duṣpūram)
- dambhamānamadānvitāḥदंभमानमदान्विताः
- full of hypocrisy, pride, and intoxication (dambha-māna-mada-anvitāḥ)
- mohād gṛhītvā'sadgrāhānमोहाद् गृहीत्वाऽसद्ग्राहान्
- through delusion, having seized false notions (mohāt + gṛhītvā + asat-grāhān)
- pravartante 'śucivratāḥप्रवर्तन्ते ऽशुचिव्रताः
- they act, of impure vows (pravartante + aśuci-vratāḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The word choice here is precise in a way easy to skate past: duṣpūra doesn’t mean desire is condemned outright, only desire of a particular structure — the kind built to never reach completion. That’s a narrower claim than “wanting things is wrong,” and it quietly leaves room for a desire that can actually be satisfied and released, a distinction the text needs if it isn’t going to contradict its own later acknowledgment that desire has a legitimate place in embodied life.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Before condemning a want in yourself as simply excessive, ask whether it's a desire that could actually be satisfied and let go, or one built by nature to never reach completion — the mechanism this verse actually targets is the second kind, not wanting as such.
Professional
- When a team's ambition starts to look unhealthy, distinguish between a goal with an actual finish line and one structured to never feel like enough regardless of what's achieved — this verse's critique targets specifically the second, bottomless kind, not ambition itself.
Family & Social
- If someone close to you seems to want more no matter how much they get, name that pattern specifically — a desire built to never complete itself — rather than just labeling them as greedy. This verse's precise target is the structure of the want, not the wanting itself.
Ask yourself
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