A declaration · grounding in mood · builds on earlier teachings
“Repeated hatred drives a person into worse and worse forms of existence.”
I cast those hateful, cruel, and vile people again and again into demonic births.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Hover a word to focus on it.
Read literallythose · I · hateful · cruel · in the cycles of worldly existence · lowest among men · I cast · again and again · inauspicious, impure · into demonic · indeed · wombs, births
People who hate, act cruelly, and live in impurity fall into lower births again and again.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga" (The Divine and Demoniac Natures).
Verse 19 sits in Chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita — Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga, "The Divine and Demoniac Natures". The chapter has 24 verses in total.
A person keeps choosing contempt, manipulation, and violence, then wonders why life feels smaller each year. The habits do not stay private; they shape the kind of future being built.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts the mind from blaming fate to seeing how repeated cruelty hardens into a downward pattern.
What this verse means
People who hate, act cruelly, and live in impurity fall into lower births again and again.
Context & commentary
Krishna continues his warning to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. After describing the traits of destructive people, he says that those who hate, harm, and degrade themselves do not rise toward freedom; they sink into worse births and conditions.
Why this verse still matters
A person keeps choosing contempt, manipulation, and violence, then wonders why life feels smaller each year. The habits do not stay private; they shape the kind of future being built.
“Cruelty narrows the future. Repeated hostility keeps a person trapped in worse patterns.”