tasmācchāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te kāryākāryavyavasthitau | jñātvā śāstravidhānoktaṁ karma kartumihārhasi ||16.24||
Therefore, śāstra is the means of knowledge for you (Arjuna), in the determination of what is to be done and what is not to be done. Knowing what is said by the mandates of śāstra, you are obliged to perform action here (in this world).
pramāṇaṁ - means of knowledge, which is the instrument that gives rise to pramā - knowledge. Whatever I want to know, whether something is proper for me to do or not, what kind of prayers I have to do and when, how much wealth I can have and how much I should distribute, all of these are having karma-kanda as pramāṇaṁ. They are told in the injunctions of the śāstra - śāstravidhānoktaṁ. Knowing karma that śāstra has enjoined, you stand to do it - kartumihārhasi. Because if one is impelled by binding desires and casting away the injunction of śāstra, he is moving away from moksa.
Thus Lord Krsna concludes this chapter in which he talks about daivī-sampat and āsurī-sampat, and concludes by telling Arjuna that he should always go by the śāstra in deciding what is to be done and what is not to be done.
Om tat sat
At the end of the most chapters, Lord Krsna is sowing the seeds for the next chapter, in the same way at the end of fifteenth chapter he has laid down the topic of sixteenth chapter by saying that the teaching will remain secret when one doesn’t have enough qualifications. This was where the topic of daivāsura-sampat started. Now at the end of sixteenth chapter he says śāstra is the means of knowledge for you, this becomes the basis of doubt for Arjuna. Thus Arjuna raises the following question:
arjuna uvāca ye śāstravidhimutsṛjya yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ | teṣāṁ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa sattvamāho rajastamaḥ ||17.1||
Arjuna said:
Krsna! Those who perform a ritual giving up what is stipulated by the śāstra, but endowed with śraddhā, what is their basis? Is it sattva or rajas or tamas?
In Veda and the supporting smrti, they describe varieties of forms of worship, with rules about how they are to be done. Suppose there are some people who do a Vedic ritual like agnihotra, or a smārta-karma like puja, prayer, or any action where a deity is invoked, but they do not follow the stipulations of the śāstra, śāstravidhimutsṛjya yajante - giving up the stipulations of the śāstra they perform these ritual. Here the word utsṛjya means not only “giving up” but also “not following exactly or completely”. We can’t say they don’t follow śāstra, otherwise we wouldn’t call it worship. Why would anybody performing a ritual without following the rules? Few possibilities are there. One is they do not know, they just follow how people do without knowing further other stipulations. Another possibility is that one knows the stipulations but doesn’t follow them. It might be due to inconvenience or they do the ritual just for name and fame.
What Arjuna wants to know is the disposition of their mind in terms of the three guna? Is sattva the basis of their operation or is it rajas or tamas. Śangkara says, the question is whether the worship they offer is sāttvika, rājasika or tāmasika. Types of worship depending on whom is being worshiped, and the attitude and intention of the worshipper. Arjuna’s questions arise from his incomplete understanding of the nature of śraddha. There are three-fold śraddha based on guna, thus Lord Krsna answered.
śrībhagavān uvāca trividhā bhavati śraddhā dehināṁ sā svabhāvajā | sāttvikī rājasī caiva tāmasī ceti tāṁ śṛṇu ||17.2||
Śrībhagavān said:
The śraddhā of the embodied beings is born of the nature of the mind. It is three-fold as sāttvika, rājasika, and tāmasika. Listen to that (three-fold-śraddhā).
Śraddhā is not a belief system, but our whole attitude towards life. Our attitude towards our body, wealth, people, act of worship, food, and so on. It is not something outside, it is in our thinking, our understanding, our value structure, and our priorities. trividhā bhavati śraddhā - there are three-fold shades of śraddhā. For whom is the śraddhā? dehināṁ - for those who have a human body. The individual human being is the one who has this three-fold. What determines the type of śraddhā a person will have? It is born out of the nature of antah-karana - mind, and therefore it is svabhāvajā. The type of mind determines the type of śraddhā one has, but one always can bring about a change.
Before going into detail about the three types of śraddhā, Lord Krsna makes a general statement about śraddhā and the person.
sattvānurūpā sarvasya śhraddhā bhavati bhārata | śraddhāmayo‘yaṁ puruṣo yo yacchraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ ||17.3|| Bhārata (Arjuna)! Śraddhā of everyone is in keeping with his mind. This person is permeated by śraddhā. Whatever is his śraddhā, he confirms to that śraddhā.
A person’s śraddhā is sattvānurūpā - according to the disposition of the mind, its tendencies and value structure. Sattva here is not the guna but antah-karana - the mind. A person is permeated by his śraddhā - śhraddhāmayo‘yaṁ puruṣo, in the sense of being saturated by śraddhā. The person is nothing but an expression of his śraddhā.
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