Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-17
Three Kinds of Faith
13. They call that sacrifice of tamas quality which is empty of faith and contrary to scriptural injunctions, and which is offered without distributing food, without chanting mantras and giving gift. As in the mating of animals and birds, only lust is required and not a priest, so in a tamas dominated person, his pertinacity becomes the cause. If ever the wind will have to find where to blow or death will wait for an auspicious moment or the fire will be afraid to burn forbidden things (186-190), then alone the tamasic sacrifice would come under the regulation of scriptures. O archer, the conduct of the tamas-type person is whimsical. He does not care for the precepts laid down by the scripture, not does he feel the necessity of incantation of the mantras. Even the housefly does not find food there. When the Brahmins are treated with hostility, what scope is there for the distribution of gifts (dakshina) to them? Just as the fire flares up and becomes a conflagration when aided by the wind or the property of a person without an issue is plundered after his death, money is squandered on the sacrifice with little faith in it. This semblance of a sacrifice, is known as tamasic sacrifice: so said Lord Krishna, the Lord of goddess Lakshmi (191-195) . Just as the Ganga water, while flowing through different courses, is unclean at some places and pure in others, so the austerities are of three kinds, according to the three gunas. One kind yields sin, the other leads to deliverance. If you desire to know how the austerities become three-fold, then try to understand them. Now I shall explain to you the nature of austerities and then tell you how they become three-fold according to the three gunas. There are three kinds of austerities of body, speech and mind (196-00). Now hear about the austerities of the body - whether Lord Shankara or Lord Vishnu is his favourite God.
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