Bhagavtgita-chapter23-adhyaya17

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Chapter23-adhyaya17-Three kinds of faith, sacrifice and charity.

 

In the previous chapter Krishna said that sasthra must be the authority in all actions. Now Arjuna gets a doubt as to whether those who perform ritualistic actions with full faith but without recourse to sasthras will get results. Here the people that are meant are not those who neglect the injunctions of the sasthras but those who have full faith in scriptures but lack the capacity to learn them and understand them and do the rituals as taught by the elders without knowing their significance and with blind faith. Arjuna further wants to know whether such faith can be classified as Satthvik rajasik or thamasik.

 

Krishna starts classifying faith in this adhyaya and also the food, sacrifice, penance and acts of charity into three kinds, satthvik, rajasik and Thamasik.

 

Faith is the result of karma and varies according to the mental impressions due to three gunas, which ever among the three is predominant at the time.

 

Those predominantly satthvik in nature offer sacrifice to the devas, and the rajasik to the supernatural beings and monsters. The thamasic offer sacrifices to the ancestral spirits and ghosts.

 

Krishna further explains the reason why the vast majority of people are attracted towards rajasik and thamasik only.

 

Those who are moved by greed and desire and hungering for power resort to rajasik rituals to attain these. They torment their bodies and thus persecute the Lord also who is inside them. This kind of people include asuras such as Hirnayakasipu, Ravana etc. In modern days those who perform rituals for fame and power also come under this category. Those that perform abhichara homas propitiating the spirits come under thamasik kind.

 

Next Krishna classifies the food according to the three gunas. It is useful in modern days also to know which food is conducive to your spiritual progress.

 

AyussatthvabalArogya preethivivarDhanAh

rasyAsnigDhAsThirA hrdhyA AhArAh sAtthvikapriyAh (BG. 17.8)

 

The sAttvik kind of food promotes longevity, strength of mind, power, health, comfort and pleasure and the food that is delectable, oily, firm and appetizing are that which is enjoyed by people of satthvik temperament.

 

Katvamla lavaNA athyushNa rooksha vidhAhuinah

AhArA rajasasya ishtA duhkha Soka AmayapradhAh (BG.17.9)

 

The food which is excessively bitter, sour, saltish, hot, pungent, harsh, burning, which causes pain and suffering and ill-health is liked by the rajasik people.

 

yAthayAmam gatharasampoothi paryushitham cha yath

ucchishtamapi cha ameDhyambhojanam thAmasapriyam (BG.17-10)

 

The ill-cooked, tasteless, smelling, decayed, refuse and impure is the food that is eaten by thamasik people.

 

Similarly Krishna classifies yajna into three kinds.

 

The sAthvik yajna is the one which is done without expectation of fruit, aphalAkAnksha and as enjoined in the scriptures with the resolve that it has to be done, that is as a rite to be performed.

 

The rAjasik yajna is the one undertaken with the expectation of result or for ostentation.

 

The thAmasic is the one done without scriptural sanction, with no offering of food, without proper chanting of manthras and without gifts to the priests and without faith.

 

Austerity, thapah, is threefold, namely, physical, verbal and mental.

 

The worship of devas, Brahmins, elders and preceptors and the learned, cleanliness, guilelessness, celibacy and non-violence are the austerities of the body.

The speech that is inoffensive, truthful, pleasant and beneficial together with regular reading of scriptures constitute verbal austerities.

Mental calmness, gentleness, silence, self control, extreme emotional purity are the austerities of the mind.

 

When these threefold austerities are performed with supreme faith, by men whose mind is integrated it is sAthvik and that performed with hypocrisy to win respect honour or reverence is rAjasik, the fruit of which is uncertain and fickle. That which is done with obstinacy, with tormenting self or others is thAmasik.

 

A gift which is made at the right place and time to a deserving recipient with the attitude that it has to be done without expecting anything in return is sAthvik dhana while the one given with expectation of something in return and unwillingly is rAjasik. ThAmasic dhAna is the one offered improperly and insultingly at wrong place and time and that given to undeserving people.

 

So far the distinctions according to gunas of sacrifices, austerities and gifts have been explained. Now the definition of vedic rites according to their association with pranava is explained.

 

Om thath sath ithi nirdhesobrahmanh thriviDhah smrthah

brAhmanAsthena vedhascha yajnAscha vihithAh pura

(BG.17-23)

 

Brahman is denoted by the three syllables `Om, thath and sath'. Brahman also means the Vedas and associated with these Brahmanas, Vedas and the sacrifices are ordained in the past.

 

The veda enjoined acts of sacrifices, austerities, gifts etc. are begun with the syllable `om' by the knowers of Brahman

 

Those aspirants who perform these acts without expecting a reward, with the only aim of attaining release begin their actions with the syllable `thath.'

 

All the aorldly activities enjoined in the Vedas are begun with the syllable "sath,' denoting existence and goodness, and stands for auspiciousness and devotion. That which is not associated with faith is called `asath ' and will result only in bondage and not in salvation.