śrīmadbhagavadgītā mūlam - saptadaśo'dhyāyaḥ

Arjuna said: Those who, setting aside the ordinances of the scriptures, perform sacrifice with faith, what is their condition, O Krishna? Is it SATTWA, RAJAS or TAMAS?

The Blessed Lord said: Three-fold is the faith of the embodied, which is inherent in their nature --- the SATTVIC (pure), the RAJASIC (passionate) and the TAMASIC (dull, dark). Thus thou hear of it.

The faith of each is in accordance with his nature, O Bharata. Man consists of his faith; as a man's faith is, so is he.

The SATTVIC, or pure men worship the gods (DEVAS); the RAJASIC or the passionate the YAKSHAS and the RAKSHASAS; the others --- TAMASIC people, or the dark or dull folk worship the ghosts (PRETAS) and the hosts of BHUTAS or the nature/spirits.

Those men who practise terrific austerities, not enjoined by the scriptures, given to hypocrisy and egoism, impelled by the force of lust and attachment...

Senselessly torturing all the elements in the body, and Me also who dwells within the body --- you may know these to be of demoniacal resolves.

The food also which is dear to each is three-fold, as also sacrifice, austerity and alms-giving. You may now hear the distinction of these.

The foods which increase life, purity, strength, health, joy and cheerfulness (good appetite), which are savoury and oleaginous, substantial and agreeable, are dear to the SATTVIC (Pure).

The foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, pungent, dry and burning, are liked by the RAJASIC, and are productive of pain, grief and disease.

That which is stale, tasteless, putrid and rotten, refuse and impure, is the food liked by the TAMASIC.

That sacrifice which is offered by men without desire for fruit, and as enjoined by ordinance, with a firm faith that sacrifice is a duty, is SATTVIC or pure.

The sacrifice which is offered, O best of the Bharatas, seeking for fruit and for ostentation, you may know that to be a RAJASIC YAJNA.

They declare that sacrifice to be TAMASIC which is contrary to the ordinances, in which no food is distributed, which is devoid of MANTRAS and gifts, and which is devoid of faith.

Worship of the gods, the twice-born, the teachers and the wise; purity, straight-forwardness, celibacy, and non-injury; these are called the austerity of the body.

Speech which causes no excitement, and is truthful, pleasant and beneficial, and the practice of the study of the VEDAS, these constitute the austerity of speech.

Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, silence, self-control, purity of nature --- these together are called the mental austerity.

This three-fold austerity, practised by steadfast men, with the utmost faith, desiring no fruit, they call SATTVIC.

The austerity which is practised with the object of gaining good reception, honour and worship, and with hypocrisy, is here said to be RAJASIC, unstable, and transitory.

That austerity which is practised with self-torture, out of some foolish notion, for the purpose of destroying another, is declared to be TAMASIC.

That gift which is given, knowing it to be a duty, in a fit time and place, to a worthy person, from whom we expect nothing in return, is held to be SATTVIC.

And that gift which is given with a view to receiving in return, or looking for fruit again, or reluctantly, is held to be RAJASIC.

The gift that is given at a wrong place and time, to unworthy persons, without respect, or with insult, is declared to be TAMASIC.

Therefore, with the utterance of OM are begun the acts of sacrifice, gifts and austerity as enjoined in the scriptures, always by the students of BRAHMAN.

Uttering TAT without aiming at the fruits are the acts of sacrifice and austerity and the various acts of gift performed by the seekers of liberation.

The word SAT is used in the sense of Reality and of Goodness; and also O Partha the word SAT is used in the sense of an auspicious act.

Steadfastness in sacrifice, austerity and gift is also called SAT and also, action in connection with these (for the sake of the Supreme) is called SAT.

Whatever is sacrificed, given or performed, and whatever austerity is practised without faith, it is called A-SAT, O Partha; it is not for here or hereafter (after death). Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the seventeenth discourse entitled "The Yoga of the Threefold Faith."