ACCORDING TO ONE’S OWN NATURE (SATTWAANUROOPA) — The type of faith that feeds and nourishes each bosom is, we notice, vastly different from that of another. The more we observe the differences the more we are led to inquire why it should be so. The Lord, in the Geeta, explains that the ‘faith’ in each heart is ordered by its own nature. It is very difficult to say whether ‘FAITH’ prescribes the nature or the nature prescribes the ‘FAITH’; each is intimately wedded to the other, each obeys the other most faithfully, indeed.

However, the Geeta declares that it is the nature in an individual that rules his ‘FAITH;’ although, if FAITH can be broken and remoulded, as it can be, sometimes, at the irresistible compulsion of painful experiences, the nature of that one does faithfully obey the new Shraddhaa. But, generally speaking, the ‘FAITH’ in each man takes the hue and quality from the stuff of his being — the predominant temperament in him. The essence of ‘FAITH’ lies in the secret energy of the ego with which it holds on to its convictions, to reach a definite, chosen end, by well-thought-out and entirely self-planned means.

Man’s potentiality determines his ‘FAITH’ to a given end, and this ‘FAITH’ then reacts upon his potentiality, determining his future course, and moulds the being in the man. Both act and react upon each other. That the nature of man is determined by the preponderance of any one of the gunas over the others, has been already discussed (XIV-10). As a result of previous conservation of a particular tendency, one of the ‘qualities’ gains a preponderance over the other two, even from one’s childhood. This is indicated here by the term Sattwa, according to which (Anuroopa) is the ‘FAITH’ entertained by the individual.

SHRADDHAA IS THE INDIVIDUAL — Man is constituted of and exists in his Shraddhaa. Each devotee ultimately reaches the seat of his devotion, if he consistently, and with sufficient intensity, devotes himself to its attainment (VII-20 to 23).

AS A MAN’S FAITH SO IS HE (Yo yat Shraddhaah sa eva sah) — Man is verily what his FAITH is. The type of personality and its effectiveness or otherwise are all determined by the ‘FAITH’ under which it functions. That the achievement of life, is ever coloured by the type of ‘FAITH’ with which the individual pursues his activities, is very well known and realised by all men of action. In the very language of the Geeta this idea is already explained in an earlier chapter (IX-23).

Sa, that; sraddha, faith, the state about which you ask; dehinam, of the embodied beings; svabhavaja, born of their own nature-by svabhava (nature) is meant that latent impression of virtuous acts etc. acquired in the past lives, which becomes manifest at the time of death; what arises out of that is svabhavaja-; is trividha, threefold, of three kinds; sattviki, born of sattva, and related to worship of gods, etc.; rajasi, born of rajas, concerning worship of Yaksas (a class of demi-gods, Kubera and others), Raksas (ogres, Nairrti and others); and tamasi, born of tamas, concerning worship of ghosts, goblins and others. Thus it is of three kinds. Srnu, hear; tam, about it, that faith, as it is being stated. That (faith) is threefold as follows: