Sanskrit
अहङ्कारं बलं दर्पं कामं क्रोधं च संश्रिताः । मामात्मपरदेहेषु प्रद्विषन्तोऽभ्यसूयकाः ॥
ahaṅkāraṃ balaṃ darpaṃ kāmaṃ krodhaṃ ca saṃśritāḥ mām ātmaparadeheṣu pradviṣanto 'bhyasūyakāḥ
Translation
Given over to egoism, power, insolence, lust and wrath, these malicious ones hate Me in the bodies of others and in their own.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This verse makes an unusually direct theological claim: these malicious people, given over to egoism and wrath, “hate me in the bodies of others and in their own.” The implication is that the divine is genuinely present in every body — not metaphorically — so that malice toward any being, including oneself, registers as hostility toward that immanent presence, a claim consistent with the universal-self teaching running through Chapters 13 and 15. It reframes cruelty and self-hatred alike as, in this text’s own terms, a kind of category error about who is actually being harmed. The sharpest line: they hate Me — the indwelling Self — “in their own and others’ bodies.” The demonic disposition is at war with the very presence BG 6.29 says the yogi sees equally everywhere. Its root is ahaṃkāra, and its target is the Self that ahaṃkāra obscures.
Study deeper
Word by word
- ahaṅkāraṃ balaṃ darpaṃअहङ्कारं बलं दर्पं
- egoism, force, insolence (ahaṅkāram + balam + darpam)
- kāmaṃ krodhaṃ ca saṃśritāḥकामं क्रोधं च संश्रिताः
- clinging to desire and anger (kāmam + krodham + ca + saṃśritāḥ)
- mām ātmaparadeheṣuमां आत्मपरदेहेषु
- Me, in their own and others' bodies (mām + ātma-para-deheṣu)
- pradviṣanto 'bhyasūyakāḥप्रद्विषन्तो ऽभ्यसूयकाः
- hating, carping (pradviṣantaḥ + abhyasūyakāḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Most ethical frameworks treat harm to oneself and harm to others as different categories — one self-regarding, one other-regarding, often carrying different moral weight. This verse collapses that distinction by naming both, in a single compound, as identical hatred: “in their own body and in others’.” Self-contempt and cruelty toward someone else are named here as the same act aimed at the same target, not two separate failings requiring two separate corrections.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice that the harsh internal voice you use on yourself and the impatience you show toward others may be the same underlying failure, not two separate problems — this verse names self-directed and other-directed hostility as identical. Working on how you treat yourself may do more for how you treat others than you'd expect.
Professional
- If a manager is unusually harsh with themselves — always the first to self-criticize, never satisfied — expect that same harshness to surface toward the team eventually. This verse treats self-directed and other-directed hostility as one pattern, a useful diagnostic before problems show up in performance reviews.
Family & Social
- If someone close to you is consistently cruel to themselves in how they talk about their own failures, don't be surprised when that same harshness eventually surfaces toward you or others — this verse names both as the identical act. Helping someone soften toward themselves may be the more direct route to softening how they treat everyone else.
Ask yourself
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