Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-17
Three Kinds of Faith
The blessed Lord said: 2. Three-fold is the inborn faith of embodied beings. It is pure, passionate and dark, hear about it. The Lord said, O Partha, I know what is in your mind. You find the study of scriptures difficult, and wish to attain liberation only with faith, but that too, O wise one, is not so easy (46-50). O Arjuna, it is not proper to place your confidence in any kind of faith. Does not a Brahmin become a Shudra in the company of a low-caste person? One should not drink anything from a liquor pot, even if it is the holy water of the Ganga. It is true that sandalwood is cool, but if it is set on fire and held in hand, will it not burn the fingers? If an alloy is added to pure gold while melting it, will not the gold become impure and cause a loss? So even if faith by itself is pure, it does not remain so, when it becomes a part of a being (51-55). For beings are, by nature, constituted by the three gunas under the sway of beginningless Maya. When two of them become feeble and the third becomes strong, then the mental tendencies of a person follow the dominant guna. The mind follows the tendencies, actions follow the mind, and then beings take birth, according to their past actions. The seed disintegrates and grows into a tree, and then the tree becomes stored in a seed after destruction. In this way even after a lapse of numerous epochs, the species of the tree does not become extinct. So even if beings undergo innumerable births, there is no change of the gunas in their constitution (56-60). So whatever faith falls to the lot of beings, is formed according to these three gunas. When the sattva becomes dominant, it gives rise to knowledge, with the other two gunas opposing it. The sattvic faith leads to liberation, but how could rajas and tamas remain quiet? When the rajas quality becomes dominant overcoming sattva, then this faith makes one clear the rubbish of actions. When the tamas quality becomes inflamed, it transforms this faith in such a way, that it involves beings in undesirable sensuous enjoyments (61-65).
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