Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Hence, a sastra is considered as a great pramana, an authority for us, in matters of doubt concerning what is proper and improper. Karyakarya-vyavasthitau jnatva sastra-vidanoktam (16.24): The authority is sastra. Karma kartumiharhasi: “Knowing that there is a great guide for you in the form of a scripture, a sastra, do what is proper, and engage yourself in right action.” This is the conclusion of the Sixteenth Chapter, called the daiva asura sampad vibhaga yoga.

This word ‘sastra’ went into the mind of Arjuna so strongly that it raised a doubt in his mind, which led to his question in the beginning of the next chapter, the Seventeenth Chapter. Arjuna asks, “O Lord! Those who do not follow the injunctions of the scriptures but work with faith – what do You say about them?” Ye sastra-vidhim utsrjya yajante sraddhayanvitah, tesham nishtha tu ka krshna sattvam aho rajas tamah (17.1): “Are they sattvic or rajasic or tamasic? Under what category do they come? Those with intense faith and honesty who do something without consulting scriptures – do You consider them as sattvic people? Are they good people or bad people? What is your opinion?”

It is a very moot question is raised by Arjuna, to which Sri Krishna really gives a very devious answer. We have to read the meaning between the lines to make out what exactly is intended in this answer, because a direct answer to the question is not given. The consequence of a direct answer seems to be there in the verses that follow, and we have to draw our own conclusions as to what would be the direct answer by reading the verses which Sri Bhagavan speaks – sri bhagavan uvacha – that follow in answer to Arjuna’s question.

Tri-vidha bhavati sraddha (17.2): “You said ‘faith’. You asked about people who have faith but don’t consult scriptures. Well, I shall tell you one thing. You said there are people with faith, but what kind of faith? There is sattvic faith, rajasic faith and tamasic faith. Therefore, we cannot unilaterally simply make a statement about those people who have faith. We have also to consider what kind of faith it is that they have.” Sattviki rajasi chaiva tamasi cheti tam srunu: “You now listen to me. I shall tell you what is sattvic faith, what is rajasic faith, and what is tamasic faith.”

“According to one’s own nature, so does the faith arise in that person.” Here a very direct answer is, to some extent, indicated. There is no use of saying, “I have a faith in this thing and, therefore, everything must be all right.” It need not be all right even if we have faith in it, because our faith may be tamasic faith or rajasic faith. It may not necessarily be the voice of what is sometimes called inner conscience, which many people resort to and say, “My conscience says that and, therefore, I shall do it.” The tiger also has a conscience, the snake has a conscience, the scorpion has a conscience, the cannibal has a conscience, and a saint has a conscience. Do we think all these consciences are the same? Hence, there is no use merely saying, “I have a conscience and I shall act according to it.” Our conscience will work according to the characteristic of our nature. According to what kind of person we are, from that we can know what kind of faith we may develop and how our conscience works. Therefore, we should not simply say, “My conscience says.” One may have a demoniacal conscience and, therefore, merely saying “my conscience works” is not enough. Thus, to say that faith is predominant and therefore scripture is not necessary is also not a proper way of looking at things, because it all depends upon what kind of faith we are referring to – whether sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. According to the character, the behaviour, the substance, and the very essence of a person, accordingly the sraddha, or the faith, is to be judged.

Sattvanurupa sarvasya sraddha bhavati bharata, sraddhamayo’yam purusho (17.3): A human being is nothing but a bundle of faiths. Reason does not operate always. Though we think we are reasoning people and highly intellectual, we are not actually working according to intellectuality and rationality in our daily life. If we carefully observe our behaviour, we will find that we act according to instinct only. We have certain instincts, predilections, whims and fancies, emotions, desires, and we try to justify all these instincts inside by a kind of round-about intellectual argument. Therefore, there is no point in saying that one is an intellectual philosopher, rational, etc. No one can be wholly rational, unconditioned by an instinct characteristic of the weakness of the human mind.

Sraddhamayo’yam purushah: So faith, of course, is embodied in a person. Whatever we do is according to our faith, not necessarily according to our considered reason. Yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah: As our faith is, so is our person. Whatever we do, whatever we speak, whatever we think, the manner in which we behave and the ideology that we hold aloft before us are some indication as to what kind of person we are, and are indications as to what kind of faith a person is entertaining – yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah.

Briefly, in only two verses, the answer to Arjuna comes like a bombshell. This set of two verses is very concentrated and one could write a monograph explaining the implications of every word that is used. Though the answer seems to be only in two verses, it is a complete answer, I should say, in this pregnant way of expression in these two verses.

Now the Lord goes into details of the manner in which sattvic, rajasic and tamasic faiths operate. Sattvic people adore the gods in heaven. Ganesha, Devi, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Lord Siva, Vishnu, Narayana, Siva, Skanda are the gods whom they worship if their mind is sattvic. Nara Narayana, Vyasa, Vasishtha – these are their adored beings. Yajante sattvikah devan (17.4): Lofty transcendent realities are the objects of people who are sattvic in their nature.

Yaksha rakshamsi rajasah: Rajasic people worship demoniacal, lower spirits which are likely to bless them with immediate results and then possess them and keep them under subjection. Yakshas, rakshasas and demigods are the objects of worship of people who are entirely rajasic, because they cannot wait for the blessings of a god in heaven. They want immediate results to follow, so they go to lesser divinities. But the people with tamasic qualities worship actual demons – bhutas, pretas and spirits who hang in the air, working through Ouija boards and planchets, and suffering dead people, and speaking through people who make it their profession. Tamasa janah pretan bhutaganamscha yajante: This is the tamasic way of living, where the lower spirits are considered as objects of adoration. Bhutas and pretas are their objects of worship.
 
Asastra-vihitam ghoram tapyante ye tapo janah, dambhahamkara-samyuktah kama-raga-balanvitah (17.5).
Karshayantah sarira-stham bhuta-gramam achetasah, mam chaivantah sarira-stham tan viddhy asura-nischayan (17.6).

There are people who appear to be very religious, and practice austerities of an intensely painful nature for the purpose of showing to people that they are highly evolved individuals. These tortures in the name of religious austerities are not prescribed by the sastras or scriptures. They are terrific in their nature. Those people who adopt this kind of behaviour in the name of religion but are motivated by their inner vanity, egoism, desire for approbation from people, with an eye to the fruit or result that may follow from this kind of tapasya, completely deluded, torturing the inner soul – such people are to be considered as asura nischayat. They behave like rakshasas on account of the preponderance of an intensely rajasic nature with a touch of tamas.

Even the food that we eat is of three kinds. It can be classified into sattva, rajas and tamas. Aharas tvapi sarvasya tri-vidho bhavati priyah, yajnas tapas tatha danam tesham bhedam imam srunu (17.7): “There are three kinds of food – sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. There are three kinds of sacrifice – sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. There are three kinds of tapas, or austerity – sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. There are three kinds of charity, or philanthropy, which are also classifiable into sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. I shall tell you what these classified forms are.”

That kind of food which energises the system, which contributes to the enhancement of life, which increases strength in the body, which ensures health, which is delighting to the taste and enjoyable at all times, which is full of delicacy and the heart opens up, as it were, when we eat such food – that food is sattvic. Ayuh sattva-balarogya-sukha-priti-vivardhanah, rasyah snigdhah sthira hrdya aharah sattvika-priyah (17.8): A sattvic diet is that which delights us by even thinking of it, delights us when we actually take it, and delights us even after we have taken it. An alcoholic drink may delight us in the beginning, but it will lead us to sorrow afterwards. But a sattvic diet will be delightful in the beginning, in the middle, as well as in the end.

A rajasic diet is irritating, biting, burning, and very harsh in its action on the system. It causes a burning sensation at the time of eating it, and it affects the tummy, and it may even create a stomach ulcer. These diets are very much desired by people who are rajasic in their nature. But tamasic people want another kind of food. They do not want freshly cooked food; they only want yesterday’s food. “Today you have brought today’s cooked food. No, I can’t take it. I want yesterday’s paledu.” They call it paledu. They would rather have leftovers from yesterday than freshly cooked food. Yatayamam refers not to food cooked yesterday but to food that has been cooked some three or four hours earlier. That also is considered as a tamasic diet. Gatarasam is food whose taste has gone because it has been kept too long. Puti is food that is not pleasant to the taste and almost stinking. Paryushitam is paledu, food which was cooked yesterday. Ucchishtham is the leftovers from somebody’s meal. That should not be eaten. Amedhyam is very impure food, kept in a dirty place, cooked by a dirty man in a dirty manner, with an impure mind, with emotions of unhappiness, tension, anger, and dislike. Food cooked by such persons should not be eaten. This is tamasic food.

Now, the Lord goes into details of sattvic sacrifices, rajasic sacrifices, tamasic sacrifices, and the threefold classification of every blessed item in this world – which we shall see later.