SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
SrI bhagavAn uvAcha
thrividhA bhavathi SradhdhA dhEhinAm sA svabhAvajA |
sAthvikI rAjasI chaiva thAmasI chEthi thAm SruNu ||
word-by-word meaning
SrI bhagavAn spoke:
dhEhinAm – for those who have (materialistic) body
svabhAvajA sA SrAdhdhA – the faith they acquire due to their taste in various matters
sAthvikI rAjasI chaiva thAmasI chEthi – as sAthvika (in goodness), rAjasa (passionate) and thAmasa (ignorant)
thrividhA bhavathi – of three categories;
thAm – that nature of such faith
SruNu – you hear.
Simple Translation
SrI bhagavAn spoke – For those who have (materialistic) body, the faith they acquire due to their taste in various matters, is of three categories namely sAthvika (in goodness), rAjasa (passionate) and thAmasa (ignorant). You hear the nature of such faith.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘Threefold is the faith of the embodied, according as it is begotton of Satva, of Rajas or of Tamas disposition. Do you hear it.’
Three-fold is the faith of all the embodied (=mankind); and it conforms with the several dispositions or characteristics peculiar to themselves. The tendencies carried forward from past incarnations beget corresponding tastes (or likings). And for whatever is the taste, faith is born therefor. Faith is indicated where there is a display of enthusiasm shown for a work lovingly undertaken with the belief that the object for which it is undertaken will be successfully fulfilled. Tendency, taste and faith are powers or properties of ātma, but they are only evoked when ātma happens to come in contact with the Guṇas. The causes which provoke those ātma-affections, are the Satva, Rajas and Tamas qualities inhering in the body, the senses and the mind (antaḥ-karaṇa). That such is the case is deducible from the effects which those qualities manifest. These effects are the sensuous experiences one derives from the guṇa-imbued body. From this bodily experience comes the three-fold faith pertaining to Satvam, or Rajas or Tamas. Listen now to an exposition which will give you notions as to which of the three kinds it may belong.
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