Then what is the food which considered rājasika? That is mentioned in the next verse.
kaṭvamlalavaṇātyuṣṇatīkṣṇarūkṣavidāhinaḥ |
āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā duḥkhaśokāmayapradāḥ ||17.9||
Foods that are bitter, sour, salty, excessively hot, pungent, astringent, and causing inflammation, that give pain, sorrow and ill-health are highly desired by rājasika people.
The prefix ati, which intensifies the meaning of the word to which it is added, should be applied to all the words in the compound here. This has to be said because all these things are necessary for good health, and they are even prescribed in Āyurveda, but they have to be used in moderation. But a rājasika person goes to the extreme with these. What is said here is that they are to be avoided in the extreme. Ati-kaṭu - highly bitter, ati-amla - very sour, ati-lavaṇa - excessively salty and ati-uṣṇa - extremely hot. Food that is ati-tīkṣṇa is excessively pungent and ati-rūkṣa is very astringent. Any burning food that causes inflammation is vidāhī. These are foods which are highly desired by rājasika people - āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā. And these give pain, sorrow and ill health - duḥkhaśokāmayapradāḥ.
Then there is the third type of food which is desired by tāmasika people.
yātayāmaṁ gatarasaṁ pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat | ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ bhojanaṁ tāmasapriyam ||17.10||
Food which is stale or inadequately cooked, from which the essence has gone, which is putrid, overnight, refuse, and also unfit as an offering, is beloved to tāmasika person.
yātayāmaṁ - food which is stale and inadequately cooked. gatarasaṁ - food which has lost the taste and essence therefore has lost its nutritive value. pūti - foul smelling, and paryuṣitaṁ - cooked food that has been kept overnight like yesterday leftovers. ucchiṣṭam means what is left over after somebody else has eaten. amedhyaṁ means food that has not been or cannot be offered to the Lord. Food - bhojana, of this sort is beloved to a tāmasika person - tāmasapriyam.
These foods are mentioned here so that we can avoid them.
After mentioning three types of food, three types of worship are going to be told now.
aphalākāṅkṣibhiryajño vidhidṛṣṭo ya ijyate |
yaṣṭavyameveti manaḥ samādhāya sa sāttvikaḥ ||17.11||
That ritual, which is known through the śāstra, which is performed by those who do not expect a result (other than antaḥ-karaṇa-śuddhi), by making up the mind, ‘This ritual is just to be performed,’ is sāttvika.
The word yajña is used in the sense of worship of a God, generally referring to a Vedic ritual. Some are to be done daily - nityakarma, and some on specific occasions - naimittikakarma. By whom are they performed? These rituals are performed by people who have no result in view - aphalākāṅkṣibhiryajño. How can anybody perform karma without expecting a result? We have to understand the word “no result” means no material gain, it is done only for purity of the mind, or even if the purpose is to neutralise pāpa, it is only for removing obstacles in moksa pursuit.
This person is not interested in artha, kāma or dharma, he is seeking only the knowledge that will free him from all of them. The attitude of this person with which it is done is given here in the statement, yaṣṭavyameveti - ritual has to be performed.
abhisandhāya tu phalaṁ dambhārthamapi caiva yat |
ijyate bharataśreṣṭha taṁ yajñaṁ viddhi rājasam ||17.12||
On the other hand, may you know that ritual which is performed keeping a result in view, and also just to proclaim one’s own religiosity, is rājasika, Arjuna, the greatest among the descendants of Bharata!
Here the yajña is performed also is enjoined by śāstra, tu - but the attitude with reference to the result is just opposite to that of the person doing sāttvika ritual. It is done expecting a definite result - abhisandhāya phalaṁ, such as wealth, some pleasures, or accumulation of punya, to be enjoyed in either this world or in some other world. The ritual we are talking about here is performed keeping certain result in views. When it is performed with that intention, the ritual is born of rajoguna. And even some is done for the purpose of proclaiming one’s own religiosity - dambhārthamapi. Unlike the sāttvika ritual, which is done just because it is to be done.
vidhihīnam asṛṣṭānnaṁ mantrahīnam adakṣiṇam |
śraddhāvirahitaṁ yajñaṁ tāmasaṁ paricakṣate ||17.13||
They say that a ritual, which is bereft of the stipulations of śāstra, without distribution of food, without proper recitation of mantras, without distribution of wealth and without śraddhā, is tāmasika.
A ritual is supposed to be performed according to vidhi - injunction of śāstra, means it is fulfilled without exceeding or falling short of what is prescribed. But tāmasika yajña doesn’t follow the rules. And as part of the ritual, food is to be given to brāhmana, priest and guests. A ritual which doesn’t have this mandatory distribution of food is asṛṣṭānnaṁ. Moreover, either one doesn’t recite all the mantras, or one recites them improperly, is considered mantrahīnam.
Then, as a part of the yajña, certain dakṣiṇā is to be given. It can be in the form of money, cattle, land, or any form of wealth which has to be distributed to the officiating priests and deserving others. Without it, the ritual is called adakṣiṇam, and it is considered incomplete.
The central problem with this type of ritual is no śraddhā - śraddhāvirahitaṁ. If something is missed in the performance of ritual, śraddhā will make up for it.