Sanskrit
द्वौ भूतसर्गौ लोकेऽस्मिन्दैव आसुर एव च । दैवो विस्तरशः प्रोक्त आसुरं पार्थ मे शृणु ॥
dvau bhūtasargau loke 'smin daiva āsura eva ca daivo vistaraśaḥ prokta āsuraṃ pārtha me śṛṇu
Translation
Twofold is the animal creation in this world, the divine and the demoniacal: the divine hath been described at length: hear from Me, O Pârtha, the demoniacal.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This verse is the chapter’s structural pivot: Krishna names the twofold “bhūta sarga” (creation of beings) in this world — divine and demonic — and explicitly signals that he has just finished the divine description and is about to turn to the demonic. That kind of self-aware roadmapping is unusual in the Gita’s more oracular chapters and gives Chapter 16 an almost textbook-like organization compared to, say, Chapter 15’s tree imagery. The binary framing itself is worth noting: unlike Chapter 14’s three guṇas, which mix and shift, this chapter sorts beings into exactly two camps, which is part of why its harsher verses later on read more like moral typology than a description of shifting psychological states. “Divine at length” is generous — three verses. The rest of the chapter (7–20) is āsuraṃ me śṛṇu, the demonic portrait, and it is far longer: the Gita spends more time on the failure mode than the model, because it is more instructive to see the machinery of one’s own worst tendencies.
Study deeper
Word by word
- dvau bhūtasargau loke 'sminद्वौ भूतसर्गौ लोके ऽस्मिन्
- two kinds of created beings in this world (dvau + bhūta-sargau + loke + asmin)
- daiva āsura eva caदैव आसुर एव च
- the divine and the demonic (daivaḥ + āsuraḥ + eva + ca)
- daivo vistaraśaḥ proktaदैवो विस्तरशः प्रोक्त
- the divine has been told at length (daivaḥ + vistaraśaḥ + proktaḥ)
- āsuraṃ pārtha me śṛṇuआसुरं पार्थ मे शृणु
- hear from Me of the demonic, O Pārtha (āsuram + pārtha + me + śṛṇu)
Commentary
Site Commentary
“Hear from me” arrives right at the hinge between the two halves — the flattering description is finished, and Krishna explicitly asks for attention just before turning to the less comfortable material. That small procedural request is doing real communicative work: it signals a shift in stakes, priming the listener that what follows deserves more attention than what preceded it, precisely because it will be harder to hear.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Before delivering hard truths to yourself in a moment of self-reflection, mark the shift explicitly — 'now the harder part' — rather than letting it blur into everything that came before. A clear signal helps you actually absorb what follows instead of skimming past it.
Professional
- Before delivering difficult feedback after a run of positive updates, explicitly flag the shift — 'now for the harder part' — the way this verse does before pivoting from the divine to the demonic list. An explicit signal gets the listener to lean in rather than coast on built-up goodwill.
Family & Social
- Before raising a harder topic with someone close to you, explicitly say 'there's something harder I want to talk about now,' rather than sliding into it after easier conversation. That small verbal hinge, the same move this verse makes, helps the other person actually shift into listening mode.
Ask yourself
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