Chapter 16 · Verse 22·Spoken by Krishna
एतैर्विमुक्तः कौन्तेय तमोद्वारैस्त्रिभिर्नरः।आचरत्यात्मनः श्रेयस्ततो याति परां गतिम्
etair vimuktaḥ kaunteya tamo-dvārais tribhir naraḥ ācharaty ātmanaḥ śhreyas tato yāti parāṁ gatim
Freed from these three gates of darkness, Arjuna, a person works for the good of the Self and so reaches the highest goal.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
his verse names the positive payoff of the warning that came just before. Krishna has called desire (kama), anger (krodha), and greed (lobha) the three gates of hell. Here he calls the same three the gates of darkness (tamo-dvara), the openings through which a person falls into the hell of pain and delusion. The single move the verse asks for is to be released from these three. Many commentators stress that this is one continuous teaching: the previous verse said what to drop, and this verse says what becomes possible once you drop it.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Rāmānujācārya · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
Freedom from these three is not the goal in itself but the thing that clears the way. While desire, anger, and greed are active, a person is held back and cannot take up what is genuinely good for the self (atmanah shreyas). Several commentators describe exactly this reversal: before, obstructed by these forces, the person did not do the good and instead did the not-good that drags one down; now, free of the obstruction, he stops doing the not-good and takes up the good. The verse is read as a bridge from the negative work of setting aside to the positive work of undertaking. Letting go of the triple gate is what makes the practice of one's own welfare possible.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Vedānta Deśika · Śaṅkarācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas
Once that practice of the good is taken up, it carries the person all the way to the supreme goal (param gatim). The commentators are agreed that this supreme goal means liberation, the highest attainment. So the verse lays out a clear chain: release from the three gates, then the practice of what is good for the self, then arrival at the supreme destination. The trajectory is the exact opposite of the asura's downward fall described earlier in the chapter; here the movement is upward.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Ramsukhdas
Several commentators add that scripture is decisive in this whole turn. The good that one takes up is the good taught by the Veda, and disregard of scripture is named as the chief cause of the hell one is escaping. By the authority of scripture both halves can be done: the asuric tendencies avoided and the genuine good carried out. On this reading the person walking out of darkness is precisely the one who lets scriptural guidance, and the company of the righteous, light the road to liberation.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the good one practices as the scripturally enjoined means of welfare and the supreme goal as liberation reached through right understanding. The good is the human goal that the Veda makes possible; once the obstruction of desire and the rest is gone, one no longer does the not-good and does the good, and through right knowledge one reaches liberation. One of these voices makes a striking added point: the word for man (nara) marks the freed person alone as truly human, while others remain as beasts. Another notes that the small word 'also' (api) signals that such a person gains not only liberation but worldly happiness along the way, so the fruit is read as twofold: this-worldly joy first, and the supreme goal beyond it.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Ānandagiri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Here the three gates are read as the causes of knowledge that is contrary to the Lord, so freedom from them is freedom to gain knowledge whose very object is the Lord. The good one then practices is engaging in conformity to the Lord, and the supreme goal is the Lord himself: one goes to Him alone. The whole verse is taken as fastening the positive outcome, the candidate's upward trajectory that is the mirror image of the asura's downward one.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Bhakti
These commentators keep the chain of practice explicit: giving up the triple gate makes the practice of one's own welfare possible, and that practice in turn makes liberation possible. The good is filled out as concrete discipline, the sadhana of one's own welfare such as austerity and yoga, or the duties of one's own stage of life. One devotional voice opens the verse into a vivid picture: clinging to passion, wrath, and greed while expecting success is like swimming with a stone tied to the body or eating poison to save one's life, so even the least trace must be wiped out; once the chain is snapped, the freed person gains the company of the righteous, crosses the rocky forest of births and deaths, and through the grace of the teacher reaches the abode of eternal bliss where he meets the Self as the highest limit of love.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators tie the freedom of this verse back to the company one keeps. Abandoning the wrong company is what makes one free of the triad; possessed instead of the qualities of holy company (sat-sanga), the person does the good of the self, named as devotional worship (bhajana) and the rest, and is thereby taken to the supreme goal. On this reading the good is not a generic ethical good but the devotee's own welfare, by which one turns away from demonic company and is carried to the supreme destination; the naming of Arjuna by his lineage in the very verse that promises that destination is heard as marking him as one born into the devotee's family.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Modern
One modern voice presses a practical warning that the others do not draw out: 'freed from these three' does not mean waiting until one is wholly free of faults before beginning practice. The seeker must hold God-attainment as the main aim and the removal of these faults as a standing target at the same time; whoever drags desire, anger, and greed along while practicing is not really a seeker, and this is exactly why people practice for years yet see no real change in themselves. When the faults are removed, purity rises of itself, because the living being is by nature pure; and if after one's utmost effort the disturbances still will not leave, one should cry out to the Lord and lay it before Him. Another modern voice fills in the freed person's path concretely: he gains the company of sages, receives and practices spiritual instruction, hears the scriptures, reflects, meditates, and attains Self-realization.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
A Seeker Asks
If desire, anger, and greed are still stirring in me, does this verse mean I am barred from the practice that leads to the supreme goal until I am free of them?
No. The verse is best read not as a precondition to be fully met before you may start, but as a chain in which letting go and practicing support each other. Giving up the triple gate is what makes the practice of your own welfare possible, and that practice in turn carries you to liberation; the two are meant to move together, not in strict sequence.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
One commentator makes this explicit: 'freed from these three' does not mean waiting until you are wholly free of faults before beginning. Hold God-attainment as your main aim and the removal of these faults as a standing target at the same time. In fact, dragging desire, anger, and greed along while practicing is exactly why many practice for years and see no real change, so the watching of the faults is part of the practice, not a gate locked before it.
Swami Ramsukhdas
Take heart from where the chain ends: once the obstruction is loosened you stop doing the not-good and take up the good, and through right understanding you reach the supreme goal. The same teachers point you to real help along the way, the guidance of scripture and the company of the righteous, which light the road; and when your own effort falls short, you can simply cry out and lay it before the Lord.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śaṅkarācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas
Contemplation
Do not wait to be flawless before you begin. Hold God as your main aim and the removal of desire, anger, and greed as a standing target right alongside it, watched with special care. The quiet danger is to pour attention into your practice, your japa, meditation, kirtan, holy company, study, while paying little attention to the faults that travel alongside and keep doing their quiet harm; under that neglect good conduct and bad conduct go on together, and years pass with no real inward change. So from waking to sleeping, fill the time with remembrance of God, whether with form or without, and give these faults not the smallest opening. When they are cleared, purity rises on its own, for you are by nature pure. And if, after your honest utmost, the disturbances still will not leave, do not despair: cry out, 'O Lord, O Lord, O Lord,' and lay the whole thing before Him, as Tulsidas prays that his heart is the Lord's own dwelling into which thieves have come who refuse to listen to his pleading.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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