Hari Aum.
In this chapter, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna about how there are three types of faith, food, sacrifices, austerities and gifts based on which of the three gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas) predominates in people.
(As a reminder, sattva represents goodness, purity, truth, light and love. It represents good-heartedness towards others and devotion to God. Rajas represents cravings, agitation of the mind by desires, restlessness, passion, selfishness and pride. Tamas represents ignorance, foolishness, mistaking wrong for right, harming oneself and others).
Krishna tells Arjuna that faith plays a very important role in a person's character and entire life.
"As a man's faith is, so is he" says Krishna.
He describes the characteristics of sattvic, rajasic and tamasic people based on their type of faith, their worship/sacrifices, their preferences regarding food, the type of auterities they conduct, and the attitude with which they give gifts to others.
Krishna says that-
i) Sattvic people:
-worship God.
-like to eat food which nourishes the body and promotes health, strength, joy and long life.
-perform sacrifice in accordance with the scripture, with a sense of duty, without expectation of any reward.
-perform physical austerities including: worship of God and rishis (self-realised sages), being physically clean, practicing celibacy/control of the senses, practice of non-violent and straightforward behaviour (free of cunningness/crookedness).
-perform austerities of speech including: speaking in a way that is truthful, pleasing and beneficial to the listener, which causes no agitation in the mind of the listener, and study of the Vedas.
-perform mental austerities including: peacefulness of mind, control of the senses/self-control, purity, and goodheartedness (doing good to others)
-the above austerities are performed without a desire for reward
-give gifts at the right time, to the right person, with the right attitude i.e. as a duty, with no desire for reward
-Utter 'Om Tat Sat' when performing the above actions as this phrase represents God/Brahman and is the origin of the wise, the Vedas and sacrifices. (Thus sattvic people perform all actions of mind, speech and body as worship of God).
ii) Rajasic people:
-worship Yakshas and Rakshasas (demonic beings)
-like to eat food which is hot, sour, salty, dry, burning and pungent, and which produces disease, pain and suffering.
-perform sacrifice to get something in return and for the sake of impressing others.
-perform austerities to get praise from others, with hypocrisy; this is unstable and transitory according to Krishna.
-give gifts to get something in return, give these unwillingly
iii) Tamasic people:
-worship ghosts and nature spirits.
-like to eat food that is decaying, stale, tasteless and impure.
-perform sacrifice against the advice of the scriptures, without faith, without mantras or gifts or distribution of food.
-perform austerities with foolish ideas, to destroy themselves and others
-give gifts at the wrong time, at the wrong place, to wrong people (immoral people who would misuse the gifts), without respect, with insult
Krishna says that people who perform terrible austerities not advised by the scriptures that involve torture of themselves, also torture Him who is present in them. Such austerities are performed with pride and are motivated by strong material desires. He calls these demonic austerities. He concludes by saying that any act of sacrifice or austerity that is performed without faith in God, is termed 'asat' (false) and produces nothing of value either here while one is alive, or after death, in the afterlife.
Thus concludes the seventeeth chapter of the Gita.
To be continued.....
Om Namo Narayanaya.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
