SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
tri-vidhā bhavati śraddhā
dehināṁ sā svabhāva-jā
sāttvikī rājasī caiva
tāmasī ceti tāṁ śṛṇu
‘Threefold is the faith of the embodied, according as it is begotton of Satva, of Rajas or of Tamas disposition. Do thou 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 thee notions as to which of the three kinds it may belong.
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