Verse 17.2

त्रिविधा भवति श्रद्धा देहिनां सा स्वभावजा ।

सात्त्विकी राजसी चैव तामसी चेति तां श‍ृणु ॥

17.2

Transliteration

trividhā bhavati śraddhā dehināṃ sā svabhāvajā |

sāttvikī rājasī caiva tāmasī ceti tāṃ śa‍ṛṇu ||

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3

Translation

The Blessed Lord said Threefold is the faith of the embodied, which is inherent in their nature the Sattvic (pure), the Rajasic (passionate) and the Tamasic (dark). Do thou hear of it.

From the owner's sheet · +1 more

Word by word

of three kinds
is
faith
of embodied beings
that
born of their own nature

sattvic
rajasic
and
also
tamasic
and
thus
about it
hear

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08

Explanation

Krishna answers by turning the question from scripture to the person. Faith itself is threefold, and it is born of each being's own nature (svabhāva). It may be sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. Rather than judging people simply by whether they follow rules, he will show how the quality of their faith shapes their worship and conduct. The approach is generous: it assumes that everyone has faith of some kind and that the question is what kind.