[Advaita-l] Shraddha

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Fri, 3 Apr 2009, sriram wrote:

> Dear Members In the Gita17th Chapter Sri Krishna tells Sri Arjuna about 
> three types of Shraddha .He says that for the embodied Shraddha is based 
> on his three gunas-sathvikam,rajasam and thamasam.

Yes!  This is a very important point to consider.  In every culture there 
are certain divinities who are worshipped out of fear of bad luck.  In 
India they are called Yakshas, Naginis, Bhairavas etc.  Even in 
"Christian" England when I was growing up there were people who believed 
that if a saucer of milk wasn't left for "Hobgoblin" tools would break or 
children would get sick or food would spoil -- minor troubles like that. 
They had full "faith" that these things would occur but that is tamasic 
shraddha.

Then there are the many people who do worship with diligence but only 
because they have faith that it will result in some benefit to themselves. 
Their prayers are flattery (as if the Lord of the universe had any need of 
that!) and really meant as more of a form of self-congratulation.  This is 
rajasic shraddha.

It is the person whose faith in Bhagavan and shastras are total and not 
dependent on any personal or local circumstances who has sattvic shraddha. 
This is the only kind a Vedantin should be interested in.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>