Devanagari
अर्जुन उवाच
ये शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विता: ।
तेषां निष्ठा तु का कृष्ण सत्त्वमाहो रजस्तम: ॥ १ ॥
Verse text
arjuna uvāca
ye śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya
yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ
teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa
sattvam āho rajas tamaḥ
Synonyms
arjunaḥ uvāca
—
Arjuna said
;
ye
—
those who
;
śāstra-vidhim
—
the regulations of scripture
;
utsṛjya
—
giving up
;
yajante
—
worship
;
śraddhayā
—
full faith
;
anvitāḥ
—
possessed of
;
teṣām
—
of them
;
niṣṭhā
—
the faith
;
tu
—
but
;
kā
—
what
;
kṛṣṇa
—
O Kṛṣṇa
;
sattvam
—
in goodness
;
āho
—
or else
;
rajaḥ
—
in passion
;
tamaḥ
—
in ignorance.
Translation
Arjuna inquired: O Kṛṣṇa, what is the situation of those who do not follow the principles of scripture but worship according to their own imagination? Are they in goodness, in passion or in ignorance?
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
1. Arjuna said: O Kṛṣṇa, what is the position of those who give up the rules of scripture but act without desire for sense enjoyment. Is this sattva, rajas or tamas?
Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
1. Arjuna said: O Kṛṣṇa, what is the position of those who give up the rules of scripture but worship with faith. Is this a sattva, or rajas and tamas condition?
Purport
In the Fourth Chapter, thirty-ninth verse, it is said that a person faithful to a particular type of worship gradually becomes elevated to the stage of knowledge and attains the highest perfectional stage of peace and prosperity. In the Sixteenth Chapter, it is concluded that one who does not follow the principles laid down in the scriptures is called an asura, demon, and one who follows the scriptural injunctions faithfully is called a deva, or demigod. Now, if one, with faith, follows some rules which are not mentioned in the scriptural injunctions, what is his position? This doubt of Arjuna’s is to be cleared by Kṛṣṇa. Are those who create some sort of God by selecting a human being and placing their faith in him worshiping in goodness, passion or ignorance? Do such persons attain the perfectional stage of life? Is it possible for them to be situated in real knowledge and elevate themselves to the highest perfectional stage? Do those who do not follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures but who have faith in something and worship gods and demigods and men attain success in their effort? Arjuna is putting these questions to Kṛṣṇa.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In the seventeenth chapter according to the questions of Arjuna, the Lord gives a description of the sattvic, rajasic and tamasic things.
“After describing the asuric persons, You concluded by saying that, giving up the injunctions of scripture, they do as they like and do not attain happiness in this life or the next. I have a question about this.” Thus Arjuna speaks this verse.
You have spoken of those who give up scriptural authority and act out of personal desire (kāma-kāritāḥ). But what is the foundation (niṣṭhā) of those who give up the rules of scripture, and according to their inclination perform worship, such as tapa-yajṣa, jṣāna-yajṣa or japa-yajṣa, but with faith, without desire to enjoy as they like (śraddhayānvitāḥ)? Is it sattva, rajas or tamas? Please tell me that. Āho is an interrogative particle.
Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
Responding to the questions of Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa explains various items in sattva, rajas and tamas in the seventeenth chapter.
Those who study the Vedas, and with faith in the scriptures, undertake activities according to its rules are called devas. Those who ignore the Vedas, and act as they please, without following Vedic rules, are called demons or asuras. You have said this in the previous chapter. Now this is my question. Those who, having read and understood the Vedas which are difficult to understand, give up the rules out of laziness or other reasons, and worship the devas and others with faith born of local custom, are in what position? Are they considered among the godly and demonic types previously defined, by ignoring scripture but having faith (and worship)? Have they taken shelter of sattva, rajas or tamas? The word aho is placed in the middle to indicate the two choices: is it sattva, or is it rajas and tamas?
Surrender Unto Me
The question is very interesting because often the hindu philosophy says that is not exactly what one does that is important, it is the faith that one has in what he is doing. This may seem like a very strange philosophy but faith in what one is doing it is considered very important in contemporary society ‑ faith in oneself. It is quite understood that by having faith in oneself one is going to achieve good results, but not exactly good by the standards of the Bhagavad‑gita. But to a certain extent one can get exactly what he wants. Arjuna is asking what happens if someone actually places his firm conviction, his firm faith in something but it is not as the scriptures dictate, which is the important thing mentioned by Krsna in the end of Chapter Sixteen? Krsna exortes Arjuna to follow the scriptures in order to elevate oneself to the mode of goodness and ultimately to surrender to the Supreme Person in the spiritual world and to avoid those qualities that will lead one into hell. The three gates to hell, lust, greed and anger, Krsna tells Arjuna to avoid.
If one doesn't have faith in the scriptures or doesn't follow them exactly, what is his fate? Is he progressing or going down as a demon because of rejecting the scriptures? This is Arjuna's question.
Krsna answers this question immediatly in Section A and then in Sections B, C, D and E, Krsna relates four basic qualities of a civilized man. In these sections, except for the last one, food, sacrifices, austerities and charity will be describe according to the different modes. If one has a predominant situation in the mode of goodness, he tends to perform his sacrifices, austerities, etc according to that mode and therefore he will tend to go up. And if one is situated in the lower mode of nature he is going to perform his activities in those modes and he will tend to go down.
This Chapter fills up the tree of the material world in relationship to the soul's entanglement within the material world, his entanglement within different material bodies and his transmigration. It fills up the picture and this Chapter completes the basic message of the Bhagavad‑gita by rounding up the different mixtures of the modes of material nature in the world.
Srila Prabhupada has described at different times the three modes of nature as corresponding to different colours. Goodness is compared to yellow, passion to red and ignorance compared to blue. When we take these colours and mix them in different proportions we can make different colour combinations. Three multiplied by three makes nine and nine multiplied by nine makes eighty‑one. It can go further and further in sublte combinations of the material modes that affect any particular soul trapped in this material world. Therefore at times we find someone whose modes basically agree with us but there will be always some differences due to different subtle combinations of shades of the material modes which cause different bodies, characters, situations etc, within the material world.