Vāṇi ← Gītā

Theme

What the Gītā says about faith

A person is made of their faith. As your faith is, so are you. The Gītā does not use faith to mean belief without evidence. It means the shape of what you turn toward when no one is watching — what you eat, what you offer, what you practise when nothing is at stake. Faith comes in three colours: clear, restless, and dark. The clear practise wanting nothing back. The restless practise for show. The dark practise without care. Krishna does not argue anyone into faith. He simply asks: what happened to the one who tried and failed? And answers: no one who does good ever comes to grief. That promise is the Gītā's wager. You do not need certainty before you begin. You need only to begin, and to trust that the effort carries forward — even across lives you will not remember.

Verses

Faith follows the shape of the heart. A person is made of their faith: as your faith is, so are you.

Faith follows the shape of the heart — as your faith is, so are you

Faith comes in three kinds, each born of a person's nature — clear, restless, or dark. Listen.

Faith comes in three kinds, each born of nature — clear, restless, dark

But the unknowing, unbelieving, doubting self is destroyed. For the doubter — no this world, no next, no happiness.

For the doubter — no this world, no next, no happiness

What of the one with faith whose effort slips — who falls from the path before reaching its end?

The honest question: what of the one with faith whose effort slips?

Fallen from both worlds, does he simply scatter like a torn cloud — lost, with nothing to stand on?

Does he scatter like a torn cloud — lost, with nothing to stand on?

Neither in this world nor beyond is such a one destroyed. No one who does good ever comes to grief.

Krishna's answer: no one who does good ever comes to grief

Or he is born into a family of the wise themselves — a birth harder to win than any other.

Born into a family of the wise — a birth harder to win than any other

Austerity of body, speech, and mind, practiced with deep faith, wanting nothing back — that the steady call clear.

Austerity practiced with deep faith, wanting nothing back — that the steady call clear

An offering made with an eye on the reward, or to be seen making it — know that offering as restless.

Offering made with an eye on reward, or to be seen — that is restless

Om Tat Sat — the threefold name of the eternal. By it, long ago, priests, scriptures, and offerings were ordained.

Om Tat Sat — the threefold name, by which priests and scriptures were ordained