“Threefold is this gate of hell, destroying the self: desire, anger and greed (kāma, krodha, lobha); therefore let one abandon these three.” The entire demonic estate is here distilled to three roots — and they are, note, the very same trio the Gītā has tracked from the start (the kāma-krodha of 3.37, the lobha of the guṇa-analysis). The mercy in this verse is its economy: one need not battle a hundred vices, only three, and behind them really one — the ego-desire that wears all three masks (3.37). Shut these three gates, and the road to the self’s ruin is closed. “Freed from these three gates of darkness,” K adds (16.22), “a man works out his own welfare and reaches the supreme goal.”