Sanskrit
त्रिविधं नरकस्येदं द्वारं नाशनमात्मनः । कामः क्रोधस्तथा लोभस्तस्मादेतत्त्रयं त्यजेत् ॥
trividhaṃ narakasyedaṃ dvāraṃ nāśanam ātmanaḥ kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṃ tyajet
Translation
Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, wrath, and greed; therefore let man renounce these three.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
After roughly fifteen verses of diagnosis, this verse delivers the chapter’s most quotable and actionable line: the triple gate of hell is kāma, krodha, and lobha — desire, anger, and greed — and the prescription is simply to renounce these three. It functions almost like an executive summary, compressing everything said since verse 7 into a three-item list a listener could actually carry away and apply, in sharp contrast to the diffuse, cumulative portrait that came before it. That compression is itself instructive: whatever the psychological complexity of the demonic mind described earlier, the text treats its origin as tractable, reducible to three named drives rather than an irreducible mystery.