142 - Daivi and Asuri Sampat | Swami Tattwamayananda

Bhagavad Gita | The Essence of Vedanta

The 16th chapter discusses human characteristics by dividing them into two groups. The first group is called Daivi Sampat – those who have divine spiritual characteristics and are naturally inclined to do good. The second group is called Asuri Sampat – those who have a natural instinct for the opposite qualities.
For example, there are some who live in the world, do their normal jobs, but follow the principle of modesty, honesty and self-restraint. They acquire these good qualities through good actions in their previous life. They follow the path of dharma, in their pursuit of artha and kama. Such people are endowed with daivi sampat.
Kama means desire. Artha refers to the means to acquire material comforts and fulfill desires. Both artha and kama are regulated by dharma, a self-regulating mechanism and a sense of self-restraint.
Those endowed with asuri sampat, follow the path of material comforts without self-restraint.
In this chapter, Lord Krishna talks about 26 characteristics of those endowed with daivi sampat and 6 characteristics of those endowed with asuri sampat.
Shankaracharya says in the second chapter that the qualities of a spiritually enlightened person are listed as they show the path to us to become spiritually enlightened. All these characteristics have two stages. In the first stage, one reads and practices. In the second stage, the person is naturally established in the higher quality.
The 1st verse lists the following characteristics of a person endowed with daivi sampat:
He is fearless. He is not afraid of anyone and no one is afraid of him.
He has purity of mind. His mind, thoughts, words and actions agree on the same thing. His mind is devoid of unspiritual tendencies.
He is established in Jnanam. He understands the impermanent nature of the world and that only the divine reality is permanent. He follows the teachings of ancient masters who recorded their spiritual experience.
He has a natural, instinct desire to engage in charitable activities (danam).
He has self-control (dama). The mind has a natural tendency to go towards sense objects. Such a person is able to divert his mind away from objects of enjoyment.
He performs yajna – spiritual rituals. Rituals, when performed with a sense of sanctity, create shraddha, and help elevate our mind to a higher level.
He listens to scriptures, practices austerities and is straightforward in his interaction.
The 2nd verse lists the following characteristics of a person endowed with daivi sampat:
He practices ahimsa (non-violence) in thoughts, words and deeds. Gita says that any conscious or deliberate thought/word/deed to cause harm to others should be avoided.
He is truthful.
There is an absence of anger in him. The difference between the anger of a spiritually evolved person and an ordinary person is this: The anger of a spiritually evolved person is for a higher cause and does not affect his mind. For example, the anger of a mother and teacher would be of this kind. An ordinary person gets identified with his anger, which comes from a desire to do harm to others - it inflicts pain on his mind.
He is established in Tyaga (a sense of renunciation). There is an absence of tendency in him to possess material things.
Per Sri Ramakrishna, householders do not need to have external renunciation. They should do their duties with an inner sense of renunciation, without an extreme sense of possessiveness.
He has Shanti (a sense of inner peace).
He has no crookedness.
He is compassionate towards all beings, including human beings, animals, and nature. It is an instinctive quality in him with a total incapacity to be cruel towards others.
He has an attitude of non-covetousness. He is gentle. He is modest.
There is an absence of fickleness in his mind. A strong, stable mind is needed to preserve and take care of one’s goodness.
Holy association is important, especially for a beginner. They help develop these qualities and reinforce them.
The doctrine of rebirth and karma is not pre-determinism. Per these doctrines, we can build our own future. We can begin a new life at any moment by beginning to do noble deeds, which increase the balance of good samskaras.
We need role models from history to demonstrate these good qualities, so that they can go deep into the human psyche. Otherwise, they are just ideas like floating clouds. Imagine what mindfulness would be without Buddha’s example from history.