Gita Chapter 17

Gita Chapter 17

Lord discusses the concept of  The Good ( Saatvic ),  The Bad ( Rajasic )  and The Ungly ( Tamasic)

If we do not understand these concepts and how they apply to what  ever action we do, material or spiritual, than the results of those acttons could be very good or could be very dangerous.  Even actions that appear t to be good such as Charity, Penance and Pooja etc, if done with  a certain mindset, can have good or bad outcomes. 

any given human being behaves according to his Swabhava, innate nature or tendancies.  These inturn depend on Sanskaras which in turn depend on the past Karmas.  Based on these Swabhavas, human beings can be classified in three main groups:

Saatvic  ( The good )
Rajasic  ( The Bad )
Taamasic ( The Ugly or really Bad )

Each category of individual will have certain way of acting and doing things.  This is what the main teaching is of chapter 17 of Bhagwadgita. 

Saatvic Person:   Will like food which  promotes longevity, happiness, cheerfulness, easy to digest  and promotes a calm mind.  He will follow the scriptures and will not engage in poojas which are done with a motive to hurt others.  He performs pooja as a matter of his duty.  He gives charity to the well qualified  recipient  at the right time and at the right place.  He honors the learned, and practices control on his senses, body and mind.  He performs charity and yajna without any expectations of any returns.

Raajasic person:  Will like food which is bitter, sour, salty,  hard to digest and food which promotes ill health.  He engages in severe penance causing pain and suffering to the body and the ONE residing inside him ( The Paramatma ).  He performs poojas and yajnas with a desire for recognition and fame.  His religious actions are prompted by desire for fruits.  He practices charity unwillingly and  with the hope of gaining fame and popularity. 

Taamasic Person:  He likes food which smells, poorly cooked, impure and polluted.  He engages in poojas and yajnas without following the proper methods and his religious actions are driven with the desire to harm others.  when he gives charity, it is to those who do not deserve it and he does it insultingly to the wrongful recipient in wrong place and time.

On a separate note Lord refers to OM TAT SAT.  He explains what these are and how these are applied.

OM represents the LORD as the  primordial sound, the very first manifestation of The Lord, in the form of sound.  Because OM was the firs manifestation of The Lord, whenevr the learned start anything auspicious they chant OM to recognize that OM came before the rest of the craetion did.  and also the sound of OM is the closes one can come to the Lord

TAT represents the LORD as 'that'  without specifying what is 'That', because one can not define what 'That' is.  Encompasses everything there is. " I am offering all my actions to That" is the feeling when one chants 'That'.  In this way one offers everything to The Lord. 

SAT represents the LORD as the Truth, Praiseworthy, auspicious and underlying all spiritual actions. So to denote something as pure or praiseworthy we place SAT before that. For example we say Satnaam, denoting purity or Godliness in the name.  or we say Satkaarya, meaning purity or  Godliness in actions.  or we say Satsanga denoting purity or Godliness in the company and so on and so forth.

 Lord is the Absolute Truth (SAT) , not  subject to time or place.  Everything else is a relative truth, being subject to and defined by time and place.  Everything we can sense with our sense organs and mind is true now and here but it was not true in the distant past and will not be true in the distant future.  What we sense is only true at a certain place only for a short time.  On the contrary Lord always was , is and will be and He is everywhere at the same time.  Therfore He is the Absolute Truth or SAT in the true sense.

ओम् तत् सत्