Krishna Declares the Gates of Hell: Lust, Anger, Greed

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On October 4, 2025

Krishna’s “three gates” in the Gītā

In the Bhagavad Gītā (chapter 16, verses often cited as 21–23), Krishna identifies three gateways that lead to naraka — a word commonly translated as “hell” but understood variously as a literal realm of punishment, a state of suffering, or the existential condition of continued bondage. The three gates are kāma — lust or excessive desire, krodha — anger, and lobha — greed. Krishna sketches how these passions act in sequence to cloud memory (smṛti), erode discrimination (buddhi), and finally destroy the person who yields to them.

What the three gates mean, simply

Kāma — desire/lust: the pull toward sense-pleasures, attachment to outcomes, and insatiable craving. In classical usage this covers sexual desire but also broader appetites for belongings, status and sensory gratification.
Krodha — anger: the violent reaction that can arise when desire is frustrated. In the Gītā’s psychological sketch, anger follows desire and can overwhelm reason.
Lobha — greed: avarice and grasping that aim to possess and hoard. Greed is portrayed as both a motive and a consequence of desire and anger.

Krishna’s point is causal and clinical rather than merely moralising: unchecked desire tends to generate anger; anger disturbs memory and reflection; damaged memory and failed discrimination lead to ruin. Different commentators read this chain in different registers — moral, metaphysical, soteriological or psychological — but the practical thrust is consistent: these impulses are dangerous because they undermine right action and freedom.

Scriptural language and interpretive range

Terms such as naraka, smṛti (memory), and buddhi (intellect, discriminating faculty) carry layered meanings across texts and schools. Some traditions — including many Purāṇic narratives — treat naraka as a literal posthumous destination with prescribed punishments and tithis. Vedānta and many Gītā commentators often stress metaphorical and ethical readings: “hell” can also be understood as the inner state of suffering and bondage that keeps one in the cycle of birth and death.

Major commentators differ in emphasis. Śaṅkara (Advaita) tends to read the Gītā psychologically and soteriologically, treating the passions as ignorance-based obstacles to knowledge of the Self. Vaiṣṇava exegetes (for example the lines of Rāmānuja and Madhva) accept the moral threat these tendencies pose to devotion and dharma, and underline bhakti and surrender as corrective. Modern interpreters often highlight the Gītā’s description as an early map of behavioural dynamics: desire → anger → loss of memory → loss of judgment → ruin.

Ethical and social implications

At the individual level, the three gates are warnings about how unchecked affect can dismantle moral and practical faculties: relationships break down, duties (dharma) are abandoned, and short-term gains create long-term harm.
At the social level, when leaders or institutions succumb to lust for power, anger at opposition, and greed for resources, the result is corruption, injustice and social suffering. Classical Indian literature recounts many historical and legendary examples where kings fall because of unchecked passion.
Interpretations across schools remind readers that the issue is not condemnation of human feeling per se but awareness of how attachment to those feelings leads to suffering and loss of freedom.

Remedies Krishna proposes

The Gītā does not merely diagnose; it offers practices and orientations to counter the three gates. These include:

Self-control of the senses (indriya-nigraha): training the faculties so they do not run after every object of desire.
Discriminative wisdom (viveka and strengthening of buddhi): cultivating clarity about transient pleasures versus lasting well-being.
Nishkāma karma — selfless action: performing duty without attachment to results, which reduces the fuel of desire.
Bhakti and surrender: in many Vaiṣṇava readings, turning attention to devotion dissolves egocentric craving and anger.
Cultivation of sattva: ethical disciplines, study, and spiritual practice that promote calmness and steadiness of mind.

Gītā passages elsewhere (for example the chapter on the field and the knower of the field, and the sections on discipline) elaborate methods such as restraint, study, meditation and selfless service. Different communities emphasise different mixes — japa and kīrtan in bhakti settings, jñāna and discrimination in Vedāntic settings, ethical vows and social duty in Smārta and Nīti traditions.

How living traditions translate the teaching into practice

Ritual and ethical disciplines: vrata (vows), yama-niyama (ethical restraints and observances) and temple practices that cultivate self-restraint and generosity.
Communal practices: satsang, katha and kīrtan that reorient attention away from self-serving desire and toward shared values.
Personal disciplines: meditation, breath-control, and study under a teacher. (If you are considering prolonged fasting or pranayama, consult a qualified practitioner or physician.)
Social action: seva (service) and ethical livelihoods that reduce attachment to hoarding and exploitation.

Conclusion — plurality and practical value

Krishna’s brief listing of the three gates in the Gītā is at once a metaphysical caution and a practical psychology: desire, anger and greed form a predictable chain that undermines memory, reason and well-being. Traditions within Hinduism read that caution through different lenses — literal, psychological, ethical and devotional — and each reading produces distinct strategies for prevention and cure. For an informed reader in India today, the teaching remains relevant whether one treats “hell” as an afterlife destination or as a description of the inner states that perpetuate suffering and social harm. The common thread is pragmatic: recognising the chain, learning to interrupt it, and cultivating practices that stabilize memory, clarify the intellect and protect the self from ruin.