Menu
Arjuna said:
1. Those who, having abandoned the scriptural injunctions, sacrifice full of faith, how are they situated, Krishna? In purity, passion, or darkness?
The Lord said:
2. The faith of the embodied is of three kinds: arising out of a person’s own nature it is pure, passionate, or dark. Listen to this.
3. In every case faith corresponds to one’s nature, Bharata. A person is constructed by faith: whatever his faith is, so is he.
4. The pure sacrifice to the gods, the passionate to spirits and demons; the others, men of darkness, sacrifice to disembodied spirits and the brood of malignant fiends.
5-6. You should know that men who undertake extreme ascetic practices unsanctioned by scripture, in thrall to exhibitionism and egotism, driven by the forces of passion and desire, mindlessly emaciating the aggregate of elements that make up the body and me within the body, are set on the demonic.
7. Again, everyone’s preferred food is also of three kids, as are sacrifice, asceticism, and gifts. Listen to how these are divided.
8. The foods preferred by the pure increase life-span, well-being, strength, health, ease and pleasure; they are flavoursome, milk, firm-textured, and easy to digest.
9. Foods desired by the passionate are pungent, bitter, salty, very hot, sharp, dry, and burning; they cause pain, anguish, and sickness.
10. People of darkness prefer food that is raw, tasteless, putrid, left to stand overnight, leavings, and food rejected as unfit for sacrifice.
11. The sacrificial offering is pure which is enjoined, which is made by those who have no desire for reward and whose minds are concentrated on the injunction: “This must be sacrificed.”
12. But you should know, Greatest of Bharatas, that a sacrifice offered to obtain a reward, and for show, is passionate.
13. Sacrifice devoid of proper injunctions, lacking distributed food, mantras, and sacrificial fees, and faithless, is governed by darkness.
14. Bodily asceticism is said to consist of reverencing the gods, brahmins, teachers, and the wise, and of purity, honesty, continence, and non-violence.
15. Vocal asceticism is said to consist of speech that does not cause distress, is truthful, pleasing, and beneficial, as well as the daily recitation of the sacred texts.
16. Mental asceticism is said to consist of clarity of mind, gentleness, silence, self-control, and purity of disposition.
17. That threefold asceticism, undertaken with utmost faith by disciplined men who have no desire for reward, is thought of as pure.
18. Asceticism undertaken for the sake of honour, respect, reverence, and merely for show, is here categorised as passionate, unsteady, and impermanent.
19. Asceticism practised with deluded notions, with self-torture, or with the object of destroying another person, is said to be dark in kind.
20. A gift given, not in return for benefits received, but because it is one’s duty to give to a worthy person at an appropriate time and place, is remembered as a pure donation.
21. But that gift given with the purpose of returning a service, or with the hope of a reward later, and reluctantly, is remembered as passionate.
22. That give given offensively and contemptuously, at the wrong place and time, and to the unworthy, is said to be dark in kind.
23. Om tat sat: this is committed to memory as the threefold designation of Brahman. Of old the brahmins, the Vedas, and the sacrifices were ordained by this.
24. Therefore, for the propounders of Brahman, acts of sacrifice, donation, and asceticism, as prescribed in injunction, always begin after “Om” has been recited.
25. Having pronounced “tat”, acts of sacrifice and asceticism, and various acts of donation are performed without expectation of any reward by those who desire liberation.
26. “Sat” is employed to designate “what is” and “the good”; the word “sat” is therefore used, Partha, for laudable action.
27. And “sat”, denoting “steadfastness”, is used for the sacrifice, asceticism, and donation; similarly, any action to those ends is also designated “sat’.
28. An oblation offered, a gift given, an ascetic exercise undergone without faith is called “asat”, Partha; it has no significance, either here or hereafter.