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Re: Follow up on Bhakti,Anugraham and Dayaa...

From the Bhakti List Archives

R & L. Chilukuri • June 14, 1995 


Murali Karamchedu  writes:

>Continuing on this issue of faith can I recommend that we study the seventeenth
>chapter of the Gita - the shraddha traya vibhaga yoga.I request people who have
>an access to sri-bhashyam to consider posting the english translation of 
>Ramanujacharya's purport on this chapter.
>


Ramanuja's Gitabhasya as tramslated by M.R. Sampatkumaran:

It has been taught through the description of the division (of creation)
into (that of) the gods and (of) the demons that the knowledge of the
Reality to be attained and the knowledge of the means of the attaining it
have roots only in the Vedas. Now (in this Chapter) it is taught how
whatever is not ordained be the sastras is fruitless because of its being
demoniacal, how what is ordained in the sastras is of three kinds acording
to the gunas, and how that which is established in the sastras is to be defined.

In this matter, Arjuna does not understand the fruitlessness of what is not
enjoined in the sastras. So he questions with a wish to know the different
kinds of fruits arising from the sattwa and other gunas in respect of
sacrifices and other religious rites, which are not prescribed in the
sastras, but are (performed) with faith.

Arjuna said:
1. But what is that, O Krsna, in which they remain - those who disregarding
the commands of the scriptures - what is that in which they remain? Is it
sattwa? Or is it Rajas, or tamas? 'Nistha means sthithi. Sthiti is that in
which one remains. Sattwa and other qualities alone are mentioned here as
'nishta'. The meaning is: do they remain in sattwa or in rajas or in tamas?

Questions having been put to Him in this manner, the Lord, keeping in His
mind the fruitlessnesss of faith in what is not ordained in the sastras and
of worship and other rites actuated thereby, and with a view to show that
the triple division according to the gunas pertains only to sacrifices and
other rituals prescribed in the sastras, teaches here that faith in what is
ordained in the sastras is of three kinds.

2. The faith of (all) embodied beings is of three kinds. It arises from
their natural dispositions. It is characterized by sattwa, by rajas, and by
tamas. Hear about it.

The faith of all embodied beings is of three kinds. And it arises from their
natural dispositions. Svabhava (the natural disposition) is the condition
(or attribute) peculiar to one's own nature. It is the peculiar individual
taste (ruci) due to unconscious subtle impressions of the past (i.e. of
earlier births). Wherever there is taste, there faith is born. For faith is
ardour in respect of the means and the conviction that this (expedient) can
bring about one's desired object. Unconscious subtle impressions (vasana),
taste (ruci) and faith (sraddha) are the attributes of the self arising from
its association with the gunas. The sattwa and other gunas which are the
attributes of the body, the senses, the internal organ of perception and
sense-objects, generate these attributes of the self (namely), vasana and
others; (these gunas) can be known only through their results. The meaning
is that they (i.e. vasanas, ruci and sraddha) arise from experience with the
body and other organs united with sattwa and other gunas.

And therefore this faith is of three kinds as characterised by sattwa, by
rajas, abd by tamas. Hear about this faith. The meaning is, of whatever
nature is this faith, hear about that nature.

3. The faith of everyone, O Arjuna (Bharata)! is in consonance with his
internal organ of perception. Every (lit. this) person is made up of faith.
Of whatever faith he is, that indeed is he.

Sattva (here) means the internal organ of perception. The faith of every
person is in consonance with his internal organ of perception. The meaning
is that with whatever guna his internal organ of perception is associated,
faith arises having that for its object. The word, sattwa, is intended to
suggest the body, the senses and other things already mentioned. Every (lit.
this) person is made up of faith, that is a modification of faith. Of
whatever faith a man is, that is, with whatsoever faith a person is endowed,
that indeed is he: that is, he is a modification of faith of that kind. What
is said is that the attainment of the fruits is principally dependent on
faith, because if one is associated with faith about a virtuous action, he
becomes united with the fruits of (such) virtuous action.