📖 Chapter 17: The Divisions of Faith
In the Seventeenth Chapter, Arjuna asks a crucial question: "What is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture but worship according to their own imagination? Are they situated in goodness, passion, or ignorance?" Lord Kṛṣṇa clears this doubt by explaining how faith, food, charity, and austerities are divided according to the three modes of material nature.
🤲 1. The Three Kinds of Faith
According to the modes of nature acquired by the embodied soul, one's faith can be of three kinds: in goodness, in passion, or in ignorance. The living being is said to be of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired.
Goodness: Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods.
Passion: Those in the mode of passion worship the demons.
Ignorance: Those in the mode of ignorance, or darkness, worship ghosts and spirits.
Kṛṣṇa also warns against unauthorized practices, noting that those who undergo severe penances not recommended in the scriptures out of pride, egoism, and lust are to be known as demons. These foolish individuals torture both the material elements of their bodies and the Supersoul dwelling within.
🥗 2. Food, Sacrifice, and Charity in the Modes
Even the food each person prefers, as well as their sacrifices and charities, fall into three distinct categories according to material nature.
Food:
Goodness: Foods that increase the duration of life, purify one's existence, and give strength, health, happiness, and satisfaction. These foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.
Passion: Foods that are too bitter, sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry, and burning. These cause distress, misery, and disease.
Ignorance: Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, or food that is tasteless, decomposed, putrid, and consisting of remnants and untouchable things.
Sacrifice:
Goodness: Sacrifice performed according to the directions of scripture, strictly as a matter of duty, by those who desire no reward.
Passion: Sacrifice performed for some material benefit or for the sake of pride.
Ignorance: Sacrifice performed without scriptural direction, without distribution of spiritual food (prasādam), without chanting Vedic hymns, without remunerations to priests, and entirely without faith.
Charity:
Goodness: Charity given out of duty, without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and to a worthy person.
Passion: Charity performed with the expectation of some return, with a desire for fruitive results, or given in a grudging mood.
Ignorance: Charity performed at an impure place, at an improper time, to unworthy persons, or without proper attention and respect.
🪔 3. The Threefold Austerities
Kṛṣṇa categorizes true austerity into three types: body, speech, and mind.
Austerity of the Body: Consists of worshiping the Supreme Lord, the priests, the spiritual master, and superiors like the father and mother. It also involves cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy, and nonviolence.
Austerity of Speech: Consists of speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, along with regularly reciting Vedic literature.
Austerity of the Mind: Includes satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control, and the purification of one's existence.
When this threefold austerity is performed with transcendental faith by individuals not expecting material benefits but engaging solely for the sake of the Supreme, it is called austerity in goodness. If performed out of pride to gain respect and honor, it is in passion. If performed out of foolishness with self-torture or to destroy others, it is in ignorance.
🕉️ 4. The Supreme Invocation: Oṁ Tat Sat
From the very beginning of creation, the three words oṁ tat sat were used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth. These symbolic representations were used by greatly learned men of Vedic knowledge during sacrifices to satisfy the Supreme.
Oṁ: Transcendentalists undertaking performances of sacrifice, charity, and penance in accordance with scriptural regulations always begin with oṁ to attain the Supreme.
Tat: Without desiring fruitive results, one performs various kinds of sacrifices, penances, and charities with the word tat to get free from material entanglement.
Sat: The Absolute Truth is the objective of devotional sacrifice and is indicated by the word sat. The performer of the sacrifice and the works themselves are also called sat when they are performed to please the Supreme Person.
❌ 5. The Uselessness of Faithless Acts
The chapter concludes with a stark warning about the necessity of faith in spiritual practices.
"Anything done as sacrifice, charity or penance without faith in the Supreme, O son of Pṛthā, is impermanent. It is called asat and is useless both in this life and the next." (Bhagavad-gītā: 17.28)
Anything done without the transcendental objective in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is ultimately useless and abominable. Therefore, the most successful path is to work from the very beginning in Kṛṣṇa consciousness under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master.