The ignorant, but faithful.
अर्जुन उवाच—
ये शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य यजन्ते श्रद्धयाऽन्विता ।
तेषां निष्ठा तु का कृष्ण सत्त्वमाहो रजस्तमः ॥ १ ॥
arjuna uvāca—
ye śāstravidhimutsṛjya yajante śraddhayā’nvitā .
teṣāṃ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa sattvamāho rajastamaḥ .. 1 ..
Arjuna said :
Whoso worship, setting aside the ordinance of the scripture, endued with faith,—what faith is theirs? Is it Sattva, or Rajas, or Tamas?
Read the commentary
Whoso : not exactly specified. It must refer to those who, endued with faith, i.e., thinking that there is something beyond,—on observing the conduct of the learned,—worship the Gods and the like, unaware of the procedure laid down in the scriptures, the sruti and the smriti. Those, on the other hand, who while knowing the injunctions of the scripture, set them aside and worship the Gods, etc., contrary to those injunctions,—they cannot indeed be meant here, because of the qualification that they are ‘endued with faith.’ We cannot suppose that those men are endued with faith who, while knowing the scriptural injunctions about the worship of the Gods, etc., set them aside, without caring for them,* and engage in the worship of the Gods which is not in accordance with the injunctions. Therefore it is only the persons of the other class described above that are here referred to. Arjuna’s question may be thus stated : Is the worship offered by them to the Gods, etc., based in Sattva, or Rajas, or Tamas?
And who are therefore to be classed among demons (asuras), as shewn in the preceding discourse.—A.
The three kinds of Faith.
Seeing that such a general question cannot be answered without reference to the several particular aspects of it, the Blessed Lord said :
- * The Lord has described the future lots of astikas and nastikas, o believers and unbelievers, of persons who, seeing with the eye of the scriptures, do or do not believe in their teachings. Now Arjuna proceeds to ask as to the fate of the believers who do not know the scriptures.—A.